Vanderbilt flies out on Tuesday evening for San Jose, Calif. to take on 13th-seeded Murray State on Thursday afternoon. VandySports.com's Chris Lee caught up with Kevin Stallings, Jermaine Beal and Festus Ezeli before the 'Dores left campus to fly out. Here's the very latest on Stallings' thoughts on the Racers, the health of Lance Goulbourne and Brad Tinsley, how Stallings feels about MSU and its performance against zone defenses, and much more!


Size matters
Much has been made of Vanderbilt's significant size advantage against Murray State. In fact, if you take Vandy's top 10 players and match them against MSU's, the Commodores, on average, are 3.1 inches taller and out-weigh their counterparts by 27 pounds.

Coach Kevin Stallings didn't address the size comparison directly when asked, but instead spoke if it in terms of what the Commodores already like to do.

"We feel like our team is such that our inside game is critical to our success," Stallings said. "We need to get the ball in there, and get baskets and fouls, and it doesn't just mean going to guys that are big inside, it means getting it there with the guys that can get it there by penetration or pass, and doing something productive with it."


Officiating and the tournament
After his team fell to Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals, Stallings mentioned that the Commodores' formula for success all year-getting to the foul line-had fallen flat. The 'Dores went to the foul line just 17.8 times, on average, in their last four games, two of which were losses.

On Saturday, Stallings said that his team needed to do more to get to the foul line. On Tuesday, he hinted that there was more to it than what he and his team can control.

"I think [games] tend to be called differently in tournament play. I think more things are allowed, so I think it has more to do with how the games are called. It probably has something to do with the fact of how the games are called, and some of it to do with the fact that we haven't executed offensively," Stallings said.



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