Spoke with Kevin on the phone on Friday about this year’s team. This year looks promising and the future very bright. Here’s what Coach Stallings had to say about his 2014-15 team and how things are looking for the future.
DW: What happened with Dai-Jon and Kedren which led to your decision to release them from their scholarships?
KS: “That’s not something I’m going to go into, I’ve said what I’ve had to see in the release, so like I said in the release there are standards that we expect from our student-athletes here and being a basketball player at Vanderbilt is a privilege and there are standards that have to be met and unfortunately they weren’t met to my satisfaction.”
DW: Well Coach, talk about the two new coaches you hired, Adam Cohen and Derrick Jones?
KS: “I’ve been very, very pleased with both of those guys, they have great work ethics, they are team guys, and they’ve really picked up the energy in our recruiting efforts. I’m very, very impressed with the work they’ve done in the months we’ve had them. We feel like we’ve made two really good hires and gotten guys in here that fit, so we’re really excited about both of ’em, and we feel like we’re off to a great start in the 2014-15 recruiting class and have really high hopes to finish this up in a very strong way. These guys are excellent additions to our program.”
DW: Are you in the market for some big men?
KS: “Yes, we have a couple of scholarships available and the guys we would sign are some big guys. We feel like we’re in with some really good kids that fit Vanderbilt, and fit what we like, and I think that’s important for our program. Once the official visits start here pretty soon we can get some guys on campus to close some deals and get the guys that we need.”
DW: Talk about your new freshmen class, these new guys who are in here. I know you’re excited about them?
KS: “Well they’re all very talented. It’s rare that you get five guys in the freshmen class, especially, that are all pretty much perimeter guys, so they’re very talented guys and they’re going to play a lot. So they’re going to be very important to the success of our team not only this year, but in the coming years. There is a lot of versatility of guys of different sizes, and some very athletic guys, some very skilled guys, so we’re very optimistic of what impact these guys are going to have on our program beginning this year because all five of them are going to play a great deal.”
***Note: The five freshman are: four-star shooting guard Wade Baldwin out of Metuchen, New Jersey (6’3″, 180), four-star point guard Shelton Mitchell out of Mouth of Wilson, Virginia (6’3″, 185), high three-star by Rivals, and four-star by 247 sports, shooting guard Matthew Fisher-Davis out of Matthews, North Carolina (6’5″, 175), three-star point guard Riley LeChance out of Brookfield, Wisconsin (6’2″, 170) and three-star small forward Jeff Roberson out of Houston (6’6″, 210).
All are good shooters and can rebound. They look like they like to get physical and play defense also, which is crucial. Baldwin is a slasher who is highly athletic and can shoot from the perimeter. Mitchell can do it all at the point. MFD can shoot and really rebound. LeChance is a very good marksman and skilled perimeter player who can handle it well and pass. And Roberson is an athlete who can take it to the rack and score and shoot it pretty well from distance and give us good board work.
We have two commits for 2015, four-star small forward Joseph Toye out of La Porte, Indiana (6’7″, 200), and three-star shooing guard Camron Justice out of Hindman, Kentucky (6’2″, 175). Both Toye and Justice can stroke it and Toye can get it done inside, playing defense and rebounding. Justice will be an excellent shooter for us.
Also, Nolan Cressler will be on the team next year. The shooting guard transfer from Cornell sank 41% of his trifectas in 2013-14 for Cornell. He’ll be an excellent addition to the backcourt in 2015-16. He’ll sit out this year per transfer rules.
Big man D’jery Baptiste out of Plano, Texas (three-star by Rivals, four-star by 247) is a guy to look for as a possible commit-signee for the 2015 class. These are not Kevin’s words, just what I’ve been hearing and reading. He’s 6’11”, 245. He’s an enforcer in the middle from the film I’ve watched. Power forward Juwan Morgan, a four-star (6’8″, 210), is another player who will visit officially this week. He’ll be at the game Thursday night. Three-star forward Samir Sehic (6’7″, 255) will visit September 12th. Samir is from Houston. Dean Wade, a three-star power forward out of Saint John, Kansas (6’8″, 215), is another guy who is very interested in the program.
DW: What are your expectations for this group you have this year?
KS: “In terms of expectations, I don’t always know if that ever changes. We always expect our teams to be very competitive and have a chance to make the tournament, and hopefully have a chance to succeed in the tournament. So we don’t change our expectations here because we feel like we’ve put those expectations in place here for a long period of time. But obviously we’re starting over in some respects because we had a group of guys that we recruited who we thought would be veteran players this year and next year in our program, and for one reason or another, those guys fell by the wayside and didn’t make it. So we’re still kind of new with these freshmen; but again, we like our talent level and I’m OK with inexperience as long as it’s talented inexperience and these guys are very talented.”
DW: What about the group you have coming back, Damian Jones, Luke Kornet, James Siakam, Shelby Moats, Josh Henderson and the walk-ons, Carter Josephs and Nathan Watkins?
KS: “Primarily the guys that are coming back are all big guys. Josh Henderson (6″11, 255) will be coming back off his injury, so that will add to the options that we have in the front court. That’s where our experience is; in the front court. We have three seniors who’ve been around a little bit (Henderson, Moats, 6″8″, 240, and Siakam, 6″7″, 230, skywalker), and we’ve got two sophomores (Jones, 6″10″, 240 and Kornet, 7″0″, 220) who played a lot last year in Damian and Luke. So we feel like we have talent and experience up in that part of our team. Those guys will need to be very productive, and they’ll need to be consistent for our team to be as good as we want to be, because again what you hope to get from your veterans is consistent productivity. Our walk-ons had an impact last year in some games. We’ll see if that situation plays out again, but nevertheless, hopefully our front court guys with their experience and talent level will be able to lead our team in ways that we need to be led.”
DW: Have you seen some improvement in the guys, the returning veterans, in the offseason?
KS: “I have. I think that by and large every guy on our team has made anywhere from good strides to very significant strides in their games, in their conditioning and in their physicality in the summer. And again, I think that’s very important that we do well in the offseason because we feel like that’s a big part of the game for us; what happens in the offseason. Luke’s gained some weight and strength and looks a lot better. And James Siakam has had a terrific summer. Shelby had a very good summer. Damian is, of course, probably our most talented player. We have high hopes for him. And Josh is coming off the injury and hasn’t played a lot yet, but he’s going to back in the swing of things here soon and that will be a welcome sight because we need him to be the best that he can be.”
DW: Is there a learning curve for these freshmen? Do you expect them to come along pretty quickly?
KS: “I think they’ll come along quickly because I like their talent level, and I like their coachability so far. If they buy in, which I think they will and they have, I think that the learning curve will be quick. And I think one thing that is a little different than it used to be is freshmen are a lot more prepared to play in college basketball now than they’ve ever been because of all the national exposure they get from AAU tournaments and things like that. Twenty years ago, guys hardly played out of their area, out of their state, and now you have guys who’ll play all over the country; just about every one of them. And so I think these guys will be ready quickly and they’re going to have to be ready quickly because again they’re going to be the guys who are playing. So we’re not going to act like they’re freshmen and we’re not going to even call’em freshmen. They’re just our guys, they’re our players, and they’re going to have to protect the ball for us, and get us into offense and set our defense for us and do those things, and hopefully our front court guys provide us with some consistent productivity, and that’ll be something we can count on and that’ll give the perimeter guys something they’ll be confident in.”
DW: How does the out of conference schedule look and how does the SEC look?
KS: “Well the schedule we think looks pretty tough. We’ve got some significant non-conference games with Purdue and Baylor, we go to Georgia Tech and St. Louis, and then we’ll be up in New York City with Virginia, Rutgers and LaSalle. From the non-conference aspect of it, it looks very, very competitive. And the league, I think the league will be better than it was last year. Certainly, Kentucky on paper looks like they’re going to be terrific. Florida, I would expect to be really good again. And there are some other teams that have a lot of guys returning. Arkansas has a lot of guys back, LSU’s got a lot of guys back. There are some teams with potential that have guys back. We’ve got some new coaches in the league so that’ll bring energy to some programs. I think it’ll be very exciting.”