Vanderbilt men's basketball coach Kevin Stallings addressed some members of the Nashville media Thursday afternoon before practice, discussing the team's offensive balance against the Wildcats, Jeff Taylor's defense on Kentucky star Jodie Meeks and the importance of preparation for the Florida Gators on Saturday.
Question: Obviously is defense a point of emphasis relative to your last meeting with Florida?
Coach Kevin Stallings: Oh, I think transition defense...we just didn't do anything well that day. You could take any facet of the game. They beat us every way you could be beaten, so it will take an entirely different kind of effort for us to have any kind of chance this Saturday.
Q: Talk about the effect of having the kind of balance you had offensively Tuesday night.
CKS: If you can get that on a consistent basis, it makes you a lot more difficult to defend. The way the season is shaking out for us, we don't have the one dominant scorer. So we need a lot of different guys to come through and to come through at a lot of different angles. As it pertains to Saturday, we'll see 40 minutes of match-up zone, and we'll have to be effective getting the ball inside. We'll have to be effective breaking their press, we'll have to be effective shooting it from the perimeter, taking care of the ball. We'll have to do all things well offensively on Saturday.
Q: Was it a lesson Tuesday night that even a team that beat you, that if you do what you need to do you can (change the result)?
CKS: I think that if you get better and your attitudes stay in the right place and you continue to progress, I think that it can be a good lesson that it doesn't matter what happened two weeks ago or three weeks ago. What matters is what happens today.
Q: Tuesday, you saw height really being a big factor. What can you say about the inside guys?
CKS: I think for us to play well, our inside guys need to play well. A.J. (Ogilvy) certainly played well the other day. Festus (Ezeli) had some moments when he did some good things. We hoped going into the season that would be a strength of ours, and hopefully as we go down the stretch it will be a strength.
Q: Brad Tinsley was limping a little after the game, is he ok?
CKS: I'm assuming so, I haven't heard anything. I know he came in, he got treatment. He twisted his ankle a couple times in a game, I think, but I'm pretty sure he'll be ok.
Q: Is there a concern that freshmen aren't taking their defense as seriously as their offense? CKS: It looked like Jeff (Taylor) really shut down Meeks the other night.
We haven't had a problem with any of our freshmen taking it seriously enough. Some are more talented than others, but Jeff (Taylor) has the ability from an athletic standpoint to run and change directions and cover guys that can cut like Jodie Meeks can. That made for a good match-up for us in that particular game. And he did do a terrific job of guarding Meeks the other night. I think, again, our guys have not been resistant, our freshmen haven't been resistant at all to trying to play better defense, but, again, some of them can play it better than others.
Q: Can Jeff be that lockdown perimeter defensive player?
CKS: I think he could become that guy. I don't think he's that guy right now, but I think he could become that guy.
Q: Last time you went into a hostile environment, you said you were disappointed with how the team prepared that week. Is there any concern about that this week going into Florida?
CKS: I don't know. Today's our first day, we were off yesterday. I won't know until I'm out here for a little while before I see kind of what their temperament is today. But I did not think that we prepared well the week that we went to Tennessee. I would think that we'll prepare better. Sometimes, they get that view of a long week in front of them, especially when they're young, and it's like ‘Oh wow, we don't have another game. We've got five or six days we've got to practice before we play again.' They don't look forward to that. They want to play the game, so this is a deal where you have to prepare to play. Preparing to play is more important than anything else, and I hope the next two days we prepare to play.
