Jan. 3, 2009

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Vanderbilt 78 • UMass 48
January 3, 2008 • Mullins Center - Amherst, Mass.
Attendance: 5,698

Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt Head Coach

General comments:
We pride ourselves on being pretty good defensively. We have been okay defensively so far this season and when we rebound along with our rebounding, we usually have some success. I do not know if our defense is frustrating people or not, I really couldn't tell you. Hopefully, we do a good job of challenging shots and keeping the ball out of the lane. That is the way our defense is designed.

On the game plan:
We were not surprised. We were a little disappointed in the way that we fouled too much. We thought we fouled a couple of times necessarily on their penetration and we didn't get our support on defense where it needed to be. I was not surprised at all. I hope we had something to do with taking away from those threes. We certainly didn't want Harris, Bonner, or Gurley to get open threes against us. Hopefully, the lack of threes had something to do with our defense. I thought the zone was effective in the second half and I thought our man was good in the first half. We were pleased with how we played defensively.

On A.J. Ogilvy:
He is a great kid. He will get frustrated every once and a while, but when our team is having success, he is not worried about his stats. Throughout his career, he has been a second half player. If I was a better coach, I could get him to play in the first half, as he does in the second half.


Derek Kellogg, Massachusetts Head Coach

General comments:
We came out in the second half and executed early, and did a few good things. Then, it all unraveled pretty quickly, and I burned a couple of our timeouts in a timely fashion. We took terrible, quick shots early in the possession. We didn't sprint back on defense. We really didn't execute the game plan at all in the second half. They did a nice job of going to a 3-2 zone. Teams that have previously done that, we got great shots and knocked down threes. The last two games, I don't think our threes have dropped in there at a good rate. Some of that is we are playing better teams, but some of that is that you have to be tough and make a shot. If you are giving up a couple inches at each position, and a little bit of size, how do you overcome that? With toughness, with grit, with passion, with speed and quickness. While we did that in the first half, and a little in the second half, I thought that got away from us.

On the game plan:
Our game plan was to run the dribble-drive and get some plays in the paint. If not, look for the open three. I'm not a big fan of passing the ball around the perimeter and then shoot a three. I like to get the ball into the paint, and then kick out for threes or look into the post, which is something we need to work on. At some point, we just passed the ball around and guys shot threes, which I am confident will not happen again.

On the seniors:
I like the fact that their good kids and they are trying to keep their heads up. I want them to do even more and take over even more. Chris Lowe played great at times this evening, and not as good as he's capable at some points. I think as he continues to improve, our team will follow him. Tony Gaffney was not totally on his game tonight, but he said his knees were bothering him a little bit. Luke Bonner is trying to be a leader on this team. He is trying to get all the guys to follow him and continue to play better.