What Bruce Pearl said after Auburn beat Vanderbilt

Here's what coach Bruce Pearl said after his Tigers beat Vanderbilt.

Opening Statement

“Vanderbilt is a good team. They had four road wins coming in and a great neutral-site win over BYU. We have seven road wins, Kentucky has five, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have four. Road wins have been tough. They (Vanderbilt) are an experienced club with a preseason Player of the Year in Scottie Pippen Jr. He had a big night tonight and got to the line 16 times. I thought our bench was terrific. I want to give a shout-out to Wendell (Green Jr.), Devan (Cambridge), Dylan (Cardwell) and Jaylin (Williams) in particular. Everyone off the bench did a terrific job. Obviously, Jabari (Smith) was spectacular. You can see what an amazing jump shooter he is. Vanderbilt was very big in the front line, so Jabari was able to take advantage of that. Walker (Kessler) was also very productive with a couple of rebounds and a couple of blocked shots short of a triple-double. Wendell also had nine assists and two turnovers. He really did a nice job getting our guys shots. It was really nice seeing our guys make shots.”

On the turnaround from the first half to the second half 

“Well, I thought the bench did a great job coming in. It was the fact that they (Vanderbilt) didn’t score for a decent amount of time and our bench did a great job defensively. I felt bad for Zep (Jasper). He got into foul trouble which was unfortunate. We did a great job setting screens and being physical. At halftime, I felt like our guys respected Vanderbilt coming in. They knew what a great start they got off to in the first half, so we were pretty determined not to let that happen again.”

On Wendell Green Jr.’s play after Zep Jasper got into foul trouble “Well, we put the ball in his hands. We ask him to do a lot. It was great to see him knock down a couple of three balls. It was also great to see Devan and K.D. (Johnson) hit one. Obviously, Jabari was just able to take advantage of playing against guys his size that just could not keep up with him. We got really good point guard play out of Wendell.”

On the team’s improved 3-point shooting 

“It was great. It is going to make everything we do better if we can keep it going. Vanderbilt is first in the league in 3-point percentage defense, so the fact that we were 11-for-22 was good. Now, Jabari did make seven of them, but he got them in transition and in rhythm. He was open, so that was really good. We had 20 assists tonight on 31 baskets, I think we could’ve had even more.”

On how much he liked his team’s offense against Vanderbilt 

“We have plenty of stuff in our game plan for Jabari, but it was good to see him get some ball movement. Vanderbilt makes it a little of a zone – and that put Jabari out on the wing for some open looks – and he shoots right over the top of it. If you shoot better, it makes everything you run better.”

Next, the Tigers will hit the road to play the Florida Gators in Gainesville on Saturday.