‘Beating the king at his house’: Jerry Stackhouse discusses Vandy’s big win at Kentucky

Jerry Stackhouse beat “the king at his house” on Wednesday night.

That’s how Vanderbilt’s head men’s basketball coach described the emotions of toppling No. 23 Kentucky inside Rupp Arena in what could soon be viewed as a program-defining win for the Commodores.

Vanderbilt senior Jordan Wright hit a free-throw line jumper with two seconds left to give the Commodores their first win over UK since February 2016 (14 straight losses) and their first win at Rupp Arena since January 2007.

Afterward, both Stackhouse and Wright met with the media in Lexington to discuss the dramatic victory and Vanderbilt’s recent resurgence: The Commodores will enter the final game of the SEC season having won seven of eight games and in fifth place in the league standings.

Here’s everything that Stackhouse and Wright said after Wednesday’s win.

Jerry Stackhouse

Question about the status of Liam Robbins following his first-half injury:

No, not yet. I mean, tomorrow he’ll get reevaluated. He had a lower leg injury. But, right now, we’ll just kind of hold off and get back and get more results tomorrow.

Question about Vanderbilt’s resilience following the Robbins injury:

We’ve played without Liam before. I mean, obviously we’re a better team when he’s a part of it, but you know — QMB [Quentin Millora-Brown]. I mean, it speaks to our team and other guys stepping up and being ready. I mean, I think we preached that.

That’s kind of been our moniker, you know, since my time here. Again, stay ready so you don’t have to get ready, and I thought Q [Millora-Brown] kept himself in shape. He hadn’t played as many minutes, you know, since Liam’s kind of been on a tear here lately, but he stepped in and filled in admirably.

I thought Malik [Dia] came in and gave us some big minutes as well. Miles and Jordan were down there, you know, fighting [Oscar] Tshiebwe. You know — he’s a load down there but our guys just continued to battle him, man. I think, we still got a lot of basketball ahead of us. But we’re just happy about tonight, coming in and having something to play for at this time of the year.

You know, beating the king at his house, it is pretty special. I mean, I’ve got so much respect for [John] Calipari, and what he’s built and what he’s done. His program, I mean, everybody had him buried at the beginning of the year, and then he got his team playing as well as anybody in the country right now. So this is a big feat for us, not just to come here and beat them, but (Kentucky) being a team that’s been probably playing as good of basketball as anybody.

We know that we’ve still got work to do. We have a big game at home which should be crazy on Saturday against Mississippi State to close out our season, and hopefully finish on a strong note heading into the SEC tournament, where we could possibly see this team again.

Question about the game-winning play:

No, no, no. I wanted him to go... I thought (Kentucky) was assuming that we were going to call a timeout and then I saw a lane. I felt like it was a lane that I could have drove through there, so I felt like he could have got there as well with his speed.

But I think once (Kentucky) saw that they kind of balanced out a little bit and then I just felt like... They don’t get a chance to set their defense and now we get a chance to attack. Jordan got the ball and made a great play.

We’ve got a lot of guys that can attack one-on-one and get in the paint and I kind of give (Wright) a hard time about spinning in the lane sometimes, but I’m not going to give him a hard time about that one. I’ll take that one tonight.

Question about about the fight from Vanderbilt players during the game and staying in the game despite foul trouble:

Our guys just battled. I mean, I’m proud of how we battled. Like I said, we didn’t play our best game, but we played a tough game.

I mean, I thought that a key — one of those key plays was in the first half when Tyrin [Lawrence] — when he dove on the floor and got that loose ball and we were able to get something out, you know, in transition and get us a little bit of separation. I mean, I think that was a key play for us.

But those guys, I mean, these are, you know, veteran guys. That’s what we talked about, what we worked for, to continue to build our program, to have these guys to understand the system and understand what’s needed of them. You know, even though we had a great win, last game, I was a little disappointed, because this knucklehead right here (Wright) wasn’t a part of it the way he was supposed to be. You know what I’m saying?

So I challenged him to get back and be who he needed to be for us, because we started in this thing together. This is my very first recruit, this first guy that I signed at Vanderbilt. So I get a little bit emotional with this one right here. Cause he’s, you know, that’s what it’s about. That’s what it’s about. It’s what, you know, this is a great moment for us, great moment for our program, and I’m glad that he was able to help us do it tonight.

Question about the final play of the first half being designed for Quentin Millora-Brown to take a three-pointer:

Absolutely not. But it’s an option, you know, it’s an option. It was supposed to be a lob play, but they dropped back on him and Q stepped up. Him and Liam, you know, they spend more time working on threes than I would like for my five men to do. But it’s paying off, he knocked it down tonight.

Jordan Wright

Opening Statement:

Since me and coach Stackhouse have been here, this is our first time beating Kentucky. We set the goal last year after we lost in the SEC Tournament, we said we were going to beat all the teams we haven’t beat yet and this was a team we hadn’t beat. We came out tonight and our big fella went down so we got it done for him.

Question about the game-winning shot he made with two seconds left:

We kind of faked a timeout — we wanted to get Ezra downhill to catch them off guard, but they were ready for it, so after that I just told Ezra to give me the ball. Coach trusted me in that moment and I just got into my spot and made the shot.

Question about what beating Kentucky means to him:

It feels great. It was a game we knew we had to win to keep our hopes alive in March Madness. We kind of let one get away at LSU, so we had to come down here and get this one. It was definitely a huge game for us and a win that we needed.

Question about his play tonight compared to recent weeks:

Just staying ready. Coach challenged me after the last game. He told me I need to pick it up. That’s what I did tonight: Came out, stayed focused, stayed locked in, kept getting my work in, kept doing my routine and it showed tonight.

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