Everything Mark Byington Told Vanderbilt Radio Network After Losing to Florida

The Vanderbilt Commodores went on the road Tuesday to take on the Florida Gators and unfortunately came up just a bit short, dropping their second game in a row. The Commodores held a slight lead at the break but, like the weekend matchup against Oklahoma, were outshot in the second half leading to defeat.

Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington spent time with Kevin Ingram and Tim Thompson of 102.5 The Game to discuss what went wrong against the Gators.

"The effort was good, the focus was good, we came in a tough environment against a top 10 team in the country and we battled. Sometimes you're looking at it and it's some things that we're just leaving some things out there. So, it's like we miss the front end of a one-and-one, or we miss a layup, I think we missed a couple layups in the second half. You know what? We've got to finish them. This league's too good. Guy's will make tough plays on the other side and then I felt like some breaks just kind of went against us. They had some guys make some shots that just don't make those shots and give them credit. We had to game plan to try to stop some things on the inside, some guys made some perimeter threes. In the first half a guy makes a three, the shot clock's going down and it was like a Hail Mary shot and second half there was another one, three, that was like that. They're making those and we're missing layups, or missing things there. The big thing that sticks out is we've got to figure out a better way to get stops in the second half. We've done it. I think we ended Kentucky with three straight stops at the end of the game and right now these situations we've got to figure something how to get stops at the end of the game. Our guys are playing hard, I love their effort, I thought they were together, they were ready to play and sometimes you just give credit where credit's due. I thought Florida made some good plays today."

How do you think Jaylen Carey played against some bigger players?

"Yeah and it hurt when he wasn't out there. He got into foul trouble and a lot of them came in the second half, towards the end. But on the offensive end things were better when he was on the court. Not having him, Devin [McGlockton] fouls out at the end. We're lacking bigs already, but when two of them are over there with foul trouble, we're out of them."

How did Florida take advantage of the lack of depth on the interior?

"Yeah, they're so physical. We knew that coming in, that wasn't a surprise. If you watch it, we're battling. We're fighting, we're battling and I've got to do better and come up with a scheme or something. The guy's effort is good. We're undersized and we know it. We're battling down there on the rebounds around the glass. We've got to come up with something, we do."

What did you think of MJ Collins performance?

"Yeah, he's versatile. He let the game come to him. I thought our bench was good tonight. Our thing is our strength in numbers. I think some of these teams can put out a starting five that's incredible, the way they're recruiting and things like that. Sometimes we've got to wear guys down. I thought after the first half, I thought we'd get there. We even started the second half like it was going that way. Like I said, I've got to go back and watch all of it. I can just imagine the missed layups and kind of the threes they would make, the tough threes. They're making tough ones and we're missing easy ones and some free throws there. If our effort's like this and our togetherness is like this, we'll win games. Good team, good environment, wasn't good enough tonight, but they'll come."