Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings' Quotes from Friday's SEC Men's Basketball Teleconference 7/18/03

Opening Statement:
"The key for our season is getting more offensive support for Matt Freije. Mario Moore, Corey Smith and Julian Terrell can take some of that offensive burden off Matt."

"The team had a good spring and summer and developed at a good rate."

On what he took from last season's performance:
"I think that anytime you have success, you look to try to duplicate that success and figure out how to maintain or get better. When you don't have success, you look to try to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it. This has been an offseason for me of analyzing and evaluating."

On the impact of Brian Thornton transferring:
"He had been beaten out by the end of last season. We're confident that Julian Terrell can take his place because he is a good player."

On Matt Freije:
"Matt Freije is an awfully good player. He has a chance to be one of the best if not the best players in the conference."

On playing at Belmont to open the season:
"Obviously Rick Byrd is a good friend. Anytime we can help Rick and his program we are inclined to do it. You try to do good things for good people and he's one of the good ones."

"It's always tough to play road games. It's also tough to open someone's new gym. Plus they are a good team."