University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes
February 08, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2003
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Georgia vs. Tennessee
February 8, 2003
TENNESSEE HEAD COACH BUZZ PETERSON
"I'm really proud of this team because of the effort, and the number of minutes some of them had to play. I credit our performance to great senior leadership - Ron Slay, Jon Higgins, and also Thaydeus Holden coming through with some big shots for us. We were down six points; Ron Slay goes out and hits a 3-pointer. Sometimes I feel like we have two point guards out there in C.J. Watson and Jon Higgins; they break the defenses down. Our defensive effort on Jarvis Hayes and Ezra Williams was vital to our victory.
"Brandon Crump played a long time with four fouls. He played smart those last 10 minutes. He stayed aggressive, but he didn't try to do too much. Georgia was terrific on the boards. They were big and strong, while we were struggling. The crowd was behind us when we needed it the most, especially at the time late in the game when we needed a defensive stop.
Is it surprising that we won the game? When you have a stouthearted team like this, you can't say it is a surprise. This team will not get complacent; they will improve, including this coming week. In a way, we got over a big hump today, in that we beat a ranked team. That is very satisfying. It gets back to guts and heart. The best teams always have good senior leadership. Ron Slay showed his focus when he came back to school this year; he brings a business-like approach to the game.
I told the team in the huddle, with three minutes to go, that this was the opportunity they had worked hard for Thursday, Friday, and this morning, that we'd worked hard to get in this position in the game, and that we needed to go out and have a perfect possession."
GEORGIA HEAD COACH JIM HARRICK
"It was too much Ron Slay and Brandon Crump. They controlled us.
"Ron Slay had two shots from 28 feet. I really didn't expect Slay to be 4-for-5 from the three-point arc. He was incredible today. I thought Ron Slay was fabulous, and he shot the daylights out of the ball. We cut off his transition game, but he scored anyway.
"They shoot 23 foul shots, we shoot 6, and I get a technical foul. We never got a call today. We out-rebounded them 38-to-25, and shot it well, but they beat us from the foul line. We haven't had a 5-for-6 night from the free-throw line all year. That's a joke."
