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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2014Marshall HendersonAndy KennedyJarvis SummersATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH KENNEDY: Thank you. We're excited to be here and have the opportunity to start tournament play. This is always an exciting time in college basketball. I know my guys are excited about having an opportunity to play in this event. THE MODERATOR: We'll take your questions for the student‑athletes. Q. What do you guys need to get out of Anthony this week? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Probably the same as everyone else, we need to get the best out of everybody. But he's been key for us. When he plays well, we do well. But it's like that with everyone, Snoop, A.J., Sebastian. When people step up, that's how it is really with every team. JARVIS SUMMERS: Basically just got to be more aggressive. Like Marshall said, everybody got to step up and just play their part. We just got to play together as a team. Q. Marshall, last year everyone wants to talk about defending the title from last year. What made last year's run so special? How did that team come together over that four‑day span and was able to pull it off? MARSHALL HENDERSON: I think it's just the fact that everyone gave up on us, that really made us come together. We realized that we were all that we have. And so the seniors, we wanted to enjoy the last few games playing with us and just kind of play it out, see what happens. No real pressure. So I don't want to say it made it easier, but it kind of took our minds off and we played with not as much pressure. The sense of urgency was easier to play with. Q. Marshall, you haven't had some of your best percentage shooting games down the stretch. Is there something consistent in your game that you have identified, something you need to change for the tournament? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Just shot a lot of shots. I got in there last couple days and have put up about 400, 500 a day. Makes. Not counting the misses. So just trying to get it to where the ball is just going right on in. Q. Jarvis, you really had to up your scoring this season. Have you ever really considered yourself a true scorer? How do you feel like you've embraced that role this year? JARVIS SUMMERS: I don't really just feel like I'm a true scorer, but at the first of the season coach wanted me to be more aggressive offensively. When Marshall was out, I just had to be the guy. So I just take every day and just work hard. When my team needs me to score, I score. If I got to get somebody involved, that's what I do. Just be the point guard out there. Q. For Marshall and Jarvis, with the run last year and what you had to do to put it together, how does this team translate? Is it similar in any way? Do you have not so much pressure like you said earlier? MARSHALL HENDERSON: Yeah, I would say it's similar in that. And we won our last game going into it, and there's not that much pressure and looking at the road that we have, we're excited about it. The same position, really. Same path. Just got to win one more game. JARVIS SUMMERS: Basically like he said, we just got to win. We're not the team we were from last year, but we got Marshall, we got me, A.J. We got some returning players from last year's team. So we just got to step up to the challenge and just get it done. THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll excuse you, you can return to the locker room. Thank you. We'll take questions for coach. Q. Kind of same thing, similarities with this team compared to last year. I know that last year was a special run, but do you sense with this group that there's some similarities there where you can make a similar run? I know you don't want to make a prediction on the future. COACH KENNEDY: Obviously everything is possible. But this team is vastly different. We lost three guys that were very, very instrumental in last year's success. Two guys in Murph, the all time leading rebounder, two time all league player. Reg, the all time leading shot blocker. I think he finished maybe third in the history of the SEC. So those guys were difference‑makers for our program. Then I've always said that I thought Nick was probably our most valuable player last year, not for his production on the floor but for what he gave us off the floor. He also was a fifth year senior, much more mature, and truly took ownership, which is what I constantly try to preach to guys, but he truly embodied that. So this group's different. We're still searching. Front court, I'm still thinking about who is starting tomorrow night on our front court. And that's never a very good sign when you're embarking on your conference tournament. But it's just who we are. These two guys have to play well. I saw that they were both acknowledged as second team all league players which is attribute to them and they have got to carry us. And if they play well and we get some contributions as you asked from the guys that have shown capable, then we have a chance to stay around a few days. Q. Jarvis has had to step up and he's scoring like at a 50 percent clip. How impressive have you been with how he's handled that new role? COACH KENNEDY: He's been our MVP, no question about that. And I think when you talk about most valuable players in the league, I know Scottie Wilbekin won the award, and deservedly so. He's had a remarkable season. But there's a number of guys, Trevor Releford for what he's done for his team at Alabama, and I think Jarvis is that guy for us. He's been very, very consistent from the first game for us. He's tried to lead. We have rode him really hard. I have to be very conscious of how many minutes I'm playing him, especially in a tournament like this. If we have the opportunity to advance, you got to be very careful. We went through a three‑game stretch where we didn't have our backup point guard, so I was playing him heavy, heavy minutes. He's responded. He's a soldier, and I know he'll be focused. My challenge to him is to try to help get the rest of that locker room as focused as I know he'll be. Q. Anthony's been your third leading scorer. Through SEC play, how much do you need him this week and what kind of production do you need from him? COACH KENNEDY: We need him to be a double‑figure scorer. We need him to rebound his position. Between he, Snoop, now that Derrick is back with us, those three guys are getting the majority of the minutes, along with Newby now on the perimeter. Of those four, we need two of them to bring their A game, not all four. If all four bring their A game, then we can play until Sunday. But we need two of those four to really be productive for us. When we get that, whether it be Anthony one game, Snoop the next, Jarvis and Marshall are playing well. Marshall can get back to shooting it with a little bit more efficiency, Jarvis has been there really all season when you look at his numbers, and then we can just at least hold our own up front. This team's shown capable. Q. As a team that's relying on the jump shot and having struggled down the last 10 games or so, is there anything you can do to help them get more open looks and get hot? COACH KENNEDY: I've tried to be as creative as humanly possible in getting Marshall open. It's easier said than done when everybody in the country realizes what we're trying to do and they realize just as you do. They can read stats and when they see that you're not very productive at least to a percentage up front, they're going to really, really load his side. Jarvis has alleviated some of that pressure with his ability to make plays off the dribble, and we have tried to be creative in putting those two together. Very similar to what we tried to do last year when we had Murphy and Marshall on the same side, simply because people won't help off Marshall. We have tried to use him in screening actions. We'll continue to mix and match and find what is our best option. At the end of the day, Marshall's got to make hard shots. Jarvis has got to continue to do hopefully for the next, you know, week, two weeks, three weeks, as long as we can play what he's really done throughout the course of the season, and that's be steady. And then we have got to get some contributions from others. Q. Marshall talked about going in the gym putting up shots, lots of shots. Is there something you've seen lately though that's led to a little bit of his, I guess, inefficiency? We have seen for two years, him have a couple of bad games and then come back around with something really big. COACH KENNEDY: Well, that is the great thing about him. He really epitomizes what you want in a volume guy. He doesn't sit around thinking that he missed his last four or five, or he made his last four or five. If it feels like leather, he's probably going to shoot it. And if you look at it statistically, he's not far off of what he's always been. He's in a rough stretch right now, but he's a volume guy that's going to take a bunch of shots. He's never been in the dome before, so maybe he'll throw a few in. I know he's going to shoot them, maybe he'll throw a few in. Q. Do you think the fresh start in the tournament will help guys like Derrick and Snoop like it did for them last year? COACH KENNEDY: I don't know how every other coach does it, but I try break the season down into four quarters. Your preseason, you have to prepare yourself to be successful, and this team graded out really high. Our strength people, our conditioning people all raved about their work ethic. We didn't get into non‑conference play and we had a couple of stumbles, and we won a couple of close games, but we had a couple of stumbles, mainly by losing home games which I've always preached you just can't do. It put us behind the 8‑ball. Then we got into league play and had ups and downs, but it ended up finishing in the six seed, which as Marshall said, it's really the same road, same time slot we had last year, except we have one more game. Now we're into the post season. My hope we talked about today is we got an earlier practice, because we'll just shoot around here in few minutes. But one missed assignment, one guy not doing his job on a set, one guy not making the proper rotation, one careless turnover, one missed free throw, and the season's over. So I want them to understand, and my hope is that it won't increase pressure. Pressure doesn't exist until you allow it to exist. I want them to be on edge, I want them to be locked in and laser focused, and then let's just see how good we can be. Q. What's the biggest difference you see between State and Vanderbilt, just in terms of what they do? Does it help that you're going to get a team that you've played twice and are familiar with? COACH KENNEDY: It's odd. We had this in this dome, as a matter of fact, and it didn't work out so well now that I think back. But we had a similar situation where we played Georgia on senior night in Georgia my second year in the league. The tornado time. Were you here during that? Where were you? THE MODERATOR: I was here. COACH KENNEDY: One good thing about being in the bowels of the arena, right? (Laughter.) But we beat Georgia on senior night and then they came back and beat us in overtime. And playing a team, like we just played Vanderbilt obviously, and then to turn around and play them again would be odd. I've got great respect for Kevin and the job that he's done. They obviously have issues that relates to bodies, as does Mississippi State. They're on, what is it, 13 straight or something. They're on a little bit of a snied. Obviously, if State wins tonight and we have the opportunity to play them, then, you know, it would be their Super Bowl in that they could go ahead and put us out of our misery, so, you know... (Laughter.) I think that whoever we play, simply because we have played them both twice and we are very familiar with them, we know what we have got to do. We just got to go out and perform. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. COACH KENNEDY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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