MSU Men's Basketball Press Conference
Enjoy full video and audio versions of all of Coach Stansbury's
press conferences on Maroon to the Max.
(On the team meeting):
“I didn’t get a chance after the game yesterday to talk about the things I wanted to talk about. We covered yesterday’s game a little bit. I talked a little bit about the opponent. I talked a little bit about travel and the practice schedule. That’s it today. We will not practice to give them a little rest. We’ll practice tomorrow. We just have to .gure out what time for sure based on the .ight time. We’re at the mercy of what the NCAA says. We will practice, and we won’t go long. We’ll go hard for the amount of time we’re out there and probably even start the process with Washington from a scouting standpoint.”
(On Washington):
“I didn’t sit there and study them. I know a little bit about their players. Brockman kid, I think, entered the draft and came back. He’s 6’7” or 6’8” and 260 pounds. I think he made .rst team all-Pac 10, and that tells you he’s pretty good. They have a freshman point guard. He’s a prep kid, Isiah Thomas. He’s probably their big surprise this year. I think he led them in scoring at 15 per game. The wing guys, Poindexter and Dentmon, they’ve got some experience in those spots. They’re quick and athletic, not real big in the standpoint of those guards, but they put three point guards on the .oor a lot. They spread you out and shoot threes. They play fast and have an ability to defend. They want to get up and down the . oor for sure.”
(On Jarvis Varnado handling Washington’s Jon Brockamn):
“Sometimes those big bodied guys have an effect on him. If you ask me who he’d rather play against, I’d say he’d rather play against a guy built like him, so when they step in on him they don’t break him in two or knock the wind out of him like they did yesterday. But he’s gotten better at defending those big-bodied guys. He’s seen plenty big-bodied guys in this league now. You can start with Georgia’s [Albert] Jackson. There aren’t many bigger bodies than Jackson. He’s just a big guy. South Carolina’s [Mike] Holmes is pretty big. LSU doesn’t have one of those guys. They’ve got [Chris] Johnson. But then yesterday, you got two of them with [Wayne] Chism and [Brian] Williams. Not to say any one of them is as good as Brockman, because he’s a stud from 15 feet in. That’s a match-up that you don’t sit back and lose sleep over. We have a decent match-up there.”
(On having the energy to play by Thursday):
“We just played four games in a row. If we can’t have more energy by Thursday than we had yesterday and we’re playing in the NCAA Tournament, we’re not going to win that game. If I have to worry about coaching effort or energy playing Washington, we’re going to be in trouble. You have natural motivation playing in the NCAA Tournament. We’ll . nd a way to recover mentally and physically. I have no issues with that. Would I have rather played Friday? Absolutely, I’d rather play Friday. Like you guys know, I don’t waste time and energy worrying about things I can’t control. We’re happy to be a part of it. Wherever we’re going we’ll play, and our guys will be ready.”
(On getting a 13-seed in the tournament):
“When you get in the tournament, there’s so much parity and balance. Those numbers they put beside your name, if you’re a one-seed or a two-seed, the upsets are not as much. We just came out of a tournament playing good teams back-to-back-to-back. We know Washington’s good. Florida beat Washington earlier in the year. Both teams are a lot better since then. That’s the only common opponent we’ve both had. We played good people. I’ve been on the other side of the coin. Your .rst-round game, you get one of those games, but your second-round game you’re always fed into Memphis as a one-seed, Duke as a one-seed or Texas in Texas. At least if you can get by the .rst one, you’re not fed into that into your second one because you’re such a low seed. You have to win the .rst one. You can’t get into the second one until you get past the first one.”
(On playing a new team for the first time):
“There’s nothing we haven’t seen at this time of year. We’ve seen pressing teams. We’ve seen zone teams. We’ve seen man-to-man teams. We’ve seen smaller, quicker teams. We have some teams in this league that play like Washington. Florida plays that way. Auburn plays that way. We’ve seen all different kinds of styles at this point. LSU is a control team that really controls the half-court. It’s just gathering everything and getting real familiar with the personnel and .guring out a gameplan. There’s no magic this time of year.”
(On Phil Turner):
“We always want positive energy. If it’s not something that makes your teammates better, don’t say it. Sometimes, it not always the best, but he means well. Just make him understand it’s not the right message to send sometimes. Phil’s been good. I haven’t had many problems with Phil in that area at all. He’s our emotional guy. He is that one guy in practice. He have a drill we do, and you have to be ready to go or you’re not going to do it very well. He’s the guy that gets the team’s energy going. I can always push a button with him and get him going. Jarvis [Varnado] and Barry [Stewart] are quiet leaders and lead by example. They’re not rah-rah guys as much as Phil is. Phil is a rah-rah guy. Late in the game yesterday, the last seven minutes, it wasn’t as much about X’s and O’s as it was rah-rahing, trying to plead and get every ounce of energy out of us we could. Tennessee wasn’t doing anything special we hadn’t seen. We weren’t doing anything special they hadn’t seen. It’s that team that can dig deep and have the passion and willpower and make those extra-effort plays you have to make. Our team found a way to make those extra-effort plays down the stretch. The last nine seconds, three plays in two seconds, was unbelievable. Phil’s not your best ball-handler. He’s not your best passer. His strength is just using his athleticism and playing with loose abundance mentally, just playing hard. Sometimes he’ll jump up and shoot a shot not knowing how far he is behind the line. That’s the .ne line as a coach. You can’t make him think too much, but sometimes he doesn’t have that awareness where he is. He just plays loose, and he plays hard. You have to let him play to his strengths.”
(On Jarvis Varnado):
“Jarvis is important to our team because he is what he is. Connecticut has a big one like that. Could we continue to win at the level we’re winning without Jarvis? It’d be tough. We’ve played a lot of stretches without him some games. Brian [Johnson] has done a good job for us, and Elgin [Bailey] has done a good job for us. The one thing he does that’s different from everybody else is his ability to defend that basket. That makes him special around the hole. You’ve seen him offensively. Last year, I told you he’ll be better offensively than he showed, but we had to see it. He’s gotten better, but he still needs more strength and weight. The big strong guys get between and hurt him some. Even yesterday, [Brian] Williams bumped him off the block, and he didn’t have his best offensive game. In the .rst half, he was just spent, but he dug deep in the second half.”
(On playing loose):
You play loose when you’re focused. When the only thing that matters is winning, that’s when you’re loose. When you’re thinking about things other than winning and playing hard, that’s when you play up-tight. You think about a missed shot, not getting shots, a bad turnover. When the only thing that matters is winning, it’s easier as team to stay focused and play loose. That’s how we’ve been. We’ve been locked in.”
Phil Turner
(On playing Washington):
“We take it one game at a time. They haven’t said too much about Washington, but we know they have some good guards and a good post player. For them to be in the NCAA Tournament, they have to be a good team. I feel like we can beat anybody if we stay together and play as a team..”
(On being a 13-seed):
“That’s what a lot of people are saying, but we’re just fortunate to be in the tournament. We’re glad for our opportunity. If they had us as the last [16] seed, it doesn’t matter. I feel like we can go anywhere and beat anybody if we play as a team.”
Barry Stewart
(On his rest level):
“Through the four games, I was okay. My legs were fine. I kept telling Coach [Stansbury] I was fine. After the game and celebrating, I was done.”
(On Jarvis Varnado’s fatigue):
“I think he’s really sore. I think he’s trying to get us out of practice. He’s a big guy. I think it’s tough to play four games in four days like that. He’ll be alright. He’ll recover.”
(On what he did to celebrate the victory):
“I think I did enough celebrating on the court and after the game before ?Selection Sunday.’ When we got back we had a great group of fans waiting on us.”
(On the key to the victory over Tennessee):
“I give credit to our bench. Twany Beckham, Riley Benock, Romero Osby, Kodi [Augustus] and Big B [Brian Johnson,] coming in and giving us good minutes helped us.”
(On making a run after losing Jamont Gordon and Charles Rhodes):
“I think it was possible because I knew the leadership Jarvis and me had. Leading by example is always better than talking.”
(On playing Washington):
“I know they have a couple of good guards that can score and a good player inside. That’s all I know about them.”
(On winning the SEC Tournament Championship):
“I thought it was a dream. No one expected us to win coming in, and we did it. It was a dream come true.”
(On the play he suffered his injury):
“I just got the wind knocked out of me. It was no big deal.”
(On his block against Scotty Hopson):
“That block was a game changer. It pumped me and the rest of the team up to go out and win.”
(On everything falling into place late in the season):
“Coming off that Auburn loss, we just sat down and had a heart-to-heart. We said we can win this thing. Look at Georgia last year. They won two games in one day. We said we can be like them, and that’s what we did.”
(On seeing Mississippi State receive additional TV exposure):
“It’s a huge accomplishment. I know everybody has been downing the SEC, but just to see us on TV is really good.
(On getting Rick Stansbury back to the Sweet 16):
“We don’t look to go up there and lose. We want to win. It’s going to be huge for him to get him back to the Sweet 16.”
(On following in Charles Rhodes’ foot steps):
“Charles stepped up big time last year scoring and rebounding. I’ll just try to do that. I might not be able to score that much, but we have these four guards that’s shooting the ball well and penetrating to the hole. My mission is rebounding and blocking shots, just trying to give my team energy to win.”
Romero Osby
(On winning the SEC Tournamant Championship):
“I went crazy. I jumped off the bench and found the first person I could hug. It happened to be Dee Bost, my roommate. I was just so excited. It was my first time being a part of something this special.”
(On the last nine seconds of the championship game):
It was the longest nine seconds of my life. I can’t explain it. It felt like it lasted forever. Everytime you looked up, it was something new. It was our ball. It was their ball. It was chaos. I’m glad it came out the way it did.”