Jerry Stackhouse talks Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard and more after loss at Kentucky

For the second time this season, Vanderbilt men’s basketball was defeated by Kentucky.

The Commodores (8-22 overall, 3-14 in SEC play) dropped a 93-77 decision to the Wildcats on UK’s Senior Night. The game was far more competitive than Kentucky’s 109-77 demolition of Vandy last month in Nashville, but the outcome was the same.

Vanderbilt led by as many as six points in the first half as Kentucky got out of the gate slow. But a late-first half scoring flurry from UK freshman guard Rob Dillingham set the Wildcats on course for victory in their home finale.

Head coach Jerry Stackhouse’s team — locked into 13th place in the SEC standings — was led in scoring by senior guard Tyrin Lawrence, who had 23 points. Kentucky outrebounded Vanderbilt by 12 and the visitors shot just 5-for-23 (21.7%) from 3-point range.

Afterward, Stackhouse met with media members at Rupp Arena to recap the game, and his comments featured plenty of praise for Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament prospects, as well as the two star freshmen guards that John Calipari has coming off the bench.

Here’s everything Stackhouse said after the game.

Opening statement:

I thought that was a really highly contested game. Obviously, Kentucky is really, really good. Talented offensive team. The best that I’ve seen, I think, since I’ve been here.

Just down the line, multiple guys that step behind the 3. I think they had seven guys tonight with at least three made field goals. They’re a tough cover. I thought our guys competed, ran out of gas a little bit in the second half, when we had to run our guys a little bit longer.

Ezra (Manjon) and Tyrin (Lawrence), I thought they both played well. Our young guys, JQ Roberts and Malik Presley, came in and did some nice things for us, as well. Ven-Allen Lubin competed as well.

We just, again, (Kentucky is) a tough team that I think is prime for a big run this year.

Question about Rob Dillingham’s isolation scoring.

Well, I just think he’s so shifty. I think that’s the word that I would describe him, and I saw him in high school. I mean, I knew him when he was at Combine Academy (North Carolina) when he played for Jeff McInnis, my teammate at North Carolina.

And when I saw him, I just, I didn’t know if he was big enough, right, at the time when I first saw him as a ninth grader, but he continued to grow, and he got better.

I mean, that kid has really gotten better, and he’s a tough cover for anybody. He’s the guy that’s literally capable of exploding and going for 25 or 30 on any given night. I think that’s why you’re seeing him projected on the draft boards that he’s on because he has that type of ability.

Being able to play one-on-one, create off the dribble, kind of Kyrie Irving-like and I think once he continues to grow as a defender, right, I mean, he’s going to be a guy that you try to pick on him, but I think he has that same shiftiness that he has on offense, he can apply that and become a good on-ball defender as well.

Question about what was different about Kentucky compared to the earlier meeting between the teams this season.

Well, they really kind of blitzed us. I thought we took care of the ball a lot better tonight. That was something, they really tee off on everybody. When you don’t take, if you don’t have good offense, you don’t take good shots and you turn the ball over.

I think probably Reed Shepard is one of the best that I’ve seen at those outlet (passes). You make a mistake in transition, or you’re not closing out there, he’s, along with being a knockdown shooter, his ability to hit up the floor. He got us a couple of times tonight just, we were trying to press them or we didn’t turn around to see the ball, and it’s on a zip line to where it needs to go.

They’re a talented team again, I know they’re talking about trying to get better defense, and I think they’re doing that. That’ll be a challenge for them in the tournament, but offensively they’ll been able to score with anybody.

Question about Vanderbilt’s good start and what changed.

I think it was some of our own doing. We talk about a ‘stick hand’ whenever we’re closing out, and on a couple of those we didn’t have our ‘stick hands.’ Maybe guys thought that (Kentucky) players were a little bit too far out, but 4, 5 feet behind the line for those guys isn’t too far out. And they made us pay for it.

I think they had four consecutive 3s and they had an opportunity to really have some momentum going into the half. But, we went down five just because of their ability to step up and make big shots, not from just one guy, but multiple guys made those shots.

I thought Tyrin, (Kentucky) was trying to get downhill, (Adou) Thiero, I thought Tyrin stepped over and on that last play, (Antonio) Reeves was just covering. Again, four feet behind the line, and he knocked it down.

So again, great offensive team that made us pay from our mistakes and not closing out to them with the lengthy ‘stick hands.’

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