University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE BASKETBALL HOSTS MEDIA DAY
October 11, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 11, 2005
| |
Coach Pearl with Bob Kesling
Comments of Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl:
"I don't have a speech with me or anything like that, but I just came from five hours of being with Coach Summit and her staff, so my mind is just out there with all of this great basketball information. Our staff's got together and we shared some thoughts on how to coach this game. It was great; a lot of good give and take. "
"I'm very pleased to get this opportunity to visit with you at this time, prior to the start of our practice. I think the players have had a good fall. I say that based on my standards. According to my standards, we've had a good fall. "
"I think what we.ve done in the weight room and with our individual workouts, particularly time spent in the evening getting shots. Troy Wills and our strength and conditioning staff have done a great job. They've done a fine job with some of the plyometric training and some of the field work and the results that I've seen have been very positive. We are stronger and we are bigger. You are going to notice these guys when you go out there. They will look a little different to you. We aren't any taller, but we are cut and we are strong. We are going in the right direction."
"I've had great support from my assistant coaches and the strength training people to get us where we are ready to start practice. The NCAA altered some rules and gave us a little more time with our players. I was able to spend two hours a week on the court with them. It's a step in the right direction but it's not enough. However, for me as a first-year coach, that was two hours that I wasn't getting before. I was able to introduce some concepts to them and I think it's going to give us a bit of a jump start on this weekend when we start practice."
"We are pretty healthy as a team right now, but we have very little margin for error. Our numbers are down for a couple of reasons. We had the one scholarship that we did not use. Philosophically, its quality not quantity. If we can.t sign the players that we need in a particular year to win in the SEC, we aren't going to use the scholarship. The second reason is one of the players we were anticipating would be eligible this season did not get his eligibility and that's Anthony Passley. I had originally signed him with Wisconsin-Milwaukee and he went to one summer school class on one day and we were hoping to appeal his status, so that one day would not get his four year clock started. We did not win that appeal, which was both very disappointing and very surprising for me, based on a lot of the circumstances and case precedent. So, that leaves us two guys short. We've obviously had a dismissal with Jemere Hendrix being removed from this basketball team, and that puts us down three. With Andre Patterson being suspended right now, that puts us down four. You've got 13 scholarships; we are down to nine so you can see why our numbers are somewhat thin. We are going to start practice, and within a couple of weeks you will be seeing our first exhibition game and we are excited to get started."
On Tennessee's difficult non-conference schedule this year:
"I just think that before you can be the best you have to beat the best. From my standpoint, before you can be the best you have to act like it, and we are just trying to get the program to a different level. I think you certainly have to look at Texas, Oklahoma State and Memphis as challenging but then they are going to come here next year."
"I want our fans to see the best basketball in the country and so we are going to try to schedule a couple of people at the high end every year. Another thing is you have to send a message to the NCAA tournament committee. Only one team gets an automatic bid and that is the conference tournament champion. The rest of us are coming in at-large, so you have to give the committee a look at your non-conference schedule and have them say, 'This team wants to be in our tournament to compete for a national championship based on their schedule.'"
"You can't set up your schedule just to win, because that's not the only objective. If we had only scheduled teams we knew we could beat, our schedule wouldn.t look anything like it does. It's about preparing for the tournament and getting ready for the SEC. There's got to be a balance between winning enough games to get in the tournament and winning enough games to keep my kids confident, and being challenged."
On freshmen Ryan Childress and Damion Harris:
"I'm very pleased with both of them and the progress that they have made. I think we are fortunate to have them. It is way too early to talk about what role they might play on this team, but I certainly think one of them will be thrown into the fire in a big, big way. They both have promise and they both have a good upside, so I'm very pleased to have them."
On what he has been able to accomplish with the team:
"I think they.ve enjoyed coming to practice everyday. We have been limited in what we've been able to introduce. The defense is always ahead of the offense early in the year, but this is going to be a good pressing group at times. Stanley Asumnu and C.J. Watson in particular are very, very good at full-court pressure, very good at anticipating plays, making things happen and playing fast. I think they like the fact we are going to be aggressive defensively and not sit back on our heels."
