University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-Cal Post Game Quotes
November 02, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl: "It is tough to gauge where we are when the margin is so great. Our kids played hard, not affected by the opponent or the score. We wanted to work on a few things tonight?? improving our defense and our free-throw shooting. We accomplished that.
"We will watch the tape as a team tomorrow to see where we are. I still like the change the NCAA made in allowing us to play Division II opponents in our exhibition games.
"Brian Williams is a force. He can score better than he did tonight, but when he gets his hands on the ball, they cannot take it away. Cameron Tatum was patient and productive. I am not big on the early-season hoopla. I told our team we just have to roll up our sleeves and go to work.
"The Arena is spectacular by any standards. I am so proud of the way we did it. I do not understand all of the negatives there were about Thompson-Boling Arena. There was some updating that had to be done, but this far exceeds my expectations.
"It was amazing to see how Chris Lofton has evolved as a player, including the things he does on defense. Wayne Chism could have gone if we had needed him."
California (Pa.) Head Coach Bill Brown: "We started off bad. We were inpatient offensively. Defensively we did not guard the door, and it does not even move. I have never been in a situation where we reacted like we did today, part of that is inexperience, but we did not compete. And that was the disappointing thing.
"Last year we lost to Maryland by 1, and had the last shot to win. At Arkansas, with three minutes left, we were only down 3 and had the ball. But that was an extremely experienced team. I think we get much more out of this than if we were scrimmaging somebody we were going to beat by 30 points.
"I have been doing this 33 years, and I have never been beaten by 60. So it is a new experience, but it is early and we are going to take this licking and try to make some adjustments.
"I think Bruce Pearl has it going, and he has some quality players. They are going to have a great year. I am just disappointed we could not give them a more competitive game."
