Post-Game Quotes
11/13/2007 5:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Stan Joplin
“Vanderbilt is a pretty good basketball team and looking at them in warmups they looked like a bunch of tall buildings. They're just huge and they can shoot the ball from outside. I thought we were kind of shell-shocked at the start of the game. They took it to us and they played really well. It seemed like we didn't even scout them. Our guys have to understand that the only way we're going to be competitive is to play hard, smart and aggressive. We can't come out and play calm, cool and collected and with no energy. I have to give our guys credit for coming back but then we got a little tired and gave up too many easy baskets.”
(on whether this can be looked at as a moral victory)
“I don't think so. I told the players I'm not going to lower my standards. When we don't make the right adjustments and don't play like we're supposed to I'm going to let them know about it. I told them no one's going to feel sorry for you and that we need to go out and compete and do the best job you can possibly can.
(on any explanation about the players being apathetic at the start of the game)
“I think Vanderbilt is a pretty good basketball team and is very talented. I think our players realize now if you're going to play against a type of team like this you're going to have to play hard all the time. I don't think we matched their intensity until we got behind. You just can't come out and do just enough to get by. We came out well against
Senior forward Jerrah Young
(on having more of a leadership role this season compared to last year)
“I talked to coach at the beginning of the season and he told me I would need to be more aggressive. He told me I was one of the keys for us having a good season. I try to come out with that mentality every day.”
(on his overall thoughts about the game)
“I wish we would have started off better in the first half, because then we wouldn't have had to use so much energy to battle back. We'll learn from it and hopefully the next time we'll start out the game better.”
(on what happened at the start of the game and falling behind 18-0)
“I think we came out too relaxed. We didn't come out with a lot of energy at the beginning and it took a 20-point deficit to wake us up.”
Junior guard Jonathan Amos
(on thoughts after falling behind 18-0)
“We just huddled up and talked about what we were doing wrong. We had to dig down deep and start playing defense. We had to spend too much energy trying to battle back and then we probably didn't have enough gas in the tank to finish it off. I did like how we finished the game off and I think we can learn from it.”
(on trying to be more of a leader this season)
“I'm trying to make an effort to show leadership on both offense and defense. I try to keep be our energizer on defense and hope that carries over to our offense.”
(on having to play shorthanded this season)
“We're just going out every night and playing with the hand we're dealt with. We might be short a guy but we're just going out and playing hard.”
