How much when you recruit a five-star guy—if you’re got a high-end guy, a four-star guy or a five-star guy—how much does that affect getting a second guy? Do they talk? Do they know each other? Does one help the other?
You know, we don’t know all the conversations that go on out there. Obviously, we read a lot on Twitter, you read a lot in the media, and a lot of times, we’ll be sitting in the room as coaches and we’ll be like, ‘Wow, that’s news to us.” It’s like, “We never knew this was going on.” So it’s amazing of how even coaches find out a lot through social media.
When (Kentucky coach John Calipari) brings in a new lineup every year, they’re new to us. You guys watch a lot of AAU and all that, do you already know the guys that Kentucky brings in before you see them in a game?
We’re getting to now. You know obviously this last year, we weren’t recruiting at this level before I was at Vanderbilt. So now, we’re starting to see a lot of these players, and you know, it’s great for the league that all these great players are coming into the league, but it’s also bad because you have to coach against them on a nightly basis. You know again, you’ve got to credit him, he does a great job every year.
Do certain teams match up well with other teams? How do you explain your team’s ability to match up with Florida?
You know, those games could have gone either way. We were very thankful that we won. Those were one-possession games three times. We made a couple shots at the end, they missed a couple shots, if it goes the other way, you’re asking why we can’t beat Florida right now! Sometimes, it just bounces your way.
How do you like having them first on the schedule this year?
You go right to the O’Connell Center. Do you think they’ll kind of be gunning or having a revenge factor? It’s always exciting to start conference play. Both teams will be excited, regardless of who we’re playing. Obviously with us playing each other three times last year and having such emotional games, both teams will be a little extra fired up for that game.
Speaking to the overall strength of the conference, I think you guys might have beaten A&M three times last year. They were picked as high as third. Does that make you kind of raise your eyebrows a little bit?
No. I think A&M’s really good. They’ve got a lot of players back. They had some injuries last year. When we played against them, they didn’t play against us. We look for them to be one of the top teams in the league.
When you’re picked right in the middle of the pack, based on the team you’ve got coming back, do you use that as motivation that hey, people don’t believe in what we did last year? How do you use that? Do you use it at all?
You know, there’s a lot of different motivational factors. You’ve got internal stuff, external stuff. We’ll talk about it. Everyone will know where we’re picked. We’ve been picked anywhere from six to 11 in the publications. Obviously we want to finish higher. At the end of the day, it’ll be great motivation, but it won’t be a primary focus of our preseason training.
Do you envision the first month of games as almost working these guys out, or trying them out in the fire, or do you think you’ll have a pretty good idea of when you get out there for Game 1?
You know, last year was easy in a way, because we only had nine available players, and all nine knew that they were going to play. This year, we have a much deeper roster and a lot of guys that we feel confident we can put on the court to do good things. So winding that down to 8-9 guys is going to be a process, and that’s where those first few weeks, we’re going to see who earns those minutes.
Does a super-small lineup with a (Jeff) Roberson at the five have any sort of possibility of showing up this year?
(Laughs) You know, we really don’t want to do it, because it’s really small, but unfortunately at some point, we’ll probably go with that lineup for a few minutes and try to get a burst. He’ll be very difficult to defend at the five, and down the line, we’ll be very hard to defend.
Are you going to have to play a little different? Are you going to have to play quicker? Are you going to have to, I guess, shoot it a little more from the outside?
We’ll definitely look different from last year, when you see us play. I think offensively, obviously, Luke was just a very different player. We might not ever have another Luke Kornet that can space the floor at seven feet, but also be a tremendous shot-blocker.
It’ll be different for our coaching, but it’ll be different for our players. Luke created a lot of mis-matches for our guys, and this year, we won’t have that ability to create that mis-match like Luke did last year.
Speak on the coaching on this league now. Good year for the SEC, last year—Arkansas, you guys, of course, South Carolina—it was fun to watch last year. Can it repeat?
Before I got to Vanderbilt, I saw a lot of these coaches on TV, whether they were in the SEC or whether they were winning conference championships in other power conferences, and so I have a great deal of respect for all the coaches in our league. It’s a great opportunity for me to go against them on a weekly basis and improve my crowd.
And it helped the conference tremendously the last couple of years.
Yeah, definitely. I know you see a lot of the talent coming into the league. You have to have good players to be a good coach, and they’re doing a great job bringing talent in and then coaching them.
That’s the key to success, isn’t it?
No doubt.
What does a big have to do—D’jery (Baptiste), Clevon (Brown), Ejike (Obinna)—have to do to say, Okay, this is the guy, this guy deserves a starting spot or minutes. What are you looking for specifically?
You know, a lot’s not going to be just their scoring or rebounding. A lot’s going to be the flow of the offense and are they helping create opportunities for other guys? Are other guys able to get shots? Are they able to play with them and have a good rhythm out there? A lot will be feel on the offensive end and then defensively, how much are they impacting the game? Are we giving up layups in the game, or not giving up layups? Are they communicating well with our perimeter guys? And so some things like that could separate them. And so at the end of the day, we want production.
(Question regarding interest level in the SEC)
I was coaching up north a few years ago. The message that I’m hearing now and seeing across the country, I feel, is different. I was in Big Ten country and SEC was never really talked about. Now, SEC is getting talked about nationally at a higher level, and a lot of that has been because of the success we’ve had.
You saw the coaches before facing them. What was it like before facing Frank Martin, getting a feel for the character of that team? Obviously they lost a lot. Did they feel like a team—they were picked 11th—does it feel like a team that despite the turnover, after facing him that first year?
You know, I look across the board and I think all the teams in our league are going to be pretty good this year. I think it’s wide open. I think teams that are picked low could very easily make the NCAA Tournament. I think all the teams are that good.
What did you learn about facing (Martin’s) kind of style last year?
I had seen it for years on TV and things. Obviously, it’s a tough style. They play so hard. They take you out of what you want to do, and you kind of have to throw a lot out the window and just say hey, we’ve got to play basketball, we’ve got to be tough tonight. You know a lot of those factors when you play them.
What did you get out of your Virgin Islands trip?
A have a lot of improvement. We have a great group of guys. The chemistry’s really good, but we have to grow a lot, especially on the offensive end, without having Luke in there, having a different type center that’s not as skilled and doesn’t shoot 3s. It’s a whole different offense.
The timing of your trip was good. How do you feel about the guys there now (with what they went through with the hurricane)?
You know, we’ve talked about that and we met so many great people down there. Obviously we were devastated when we saw the damage, and some people made a comment that you saw it the last time it’s going to be how it was basically for a long time, which is really sad, because it’s such a beautiful place.
