University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Ohio State
January 19, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl: ???Again, we held serve. Tuesday will be a big opportunity for us. Kentucky will not lose many games at Rupp Arena, but we need that kind of win on the road.
???Ohio State played very very well. The Buckeyes are very talented, maybe short one more body. Their zone was effective. We got the ball where we wanted it, but we did not get the baskets. Ohio State has the size players and the quality players that you see when you play the good teams.
???Two things we tried to do is to get the ball to Ramar Smith, so he could drive, and also to get the ball to Tyler Smith. Ramar Smith was very excited about playing against Ohio State. Chris Lofton had four 3-pointers, some really good shots, and he is playing very strong defense.
???Fatigue was a factor. We were the more tired team, but having 9 or 10 guys who can play certainly helps us. Ohio State had three players who were in the game for 30 minutes or more. The difference was nine against seven. The crowd helped us fight through the fatigue. But fatigue will not be a factor against Kentucky on Tuesday because we have an extra day of rest compared to today???s game.
???If we are pressing up on you, it is more difficult for opponents to score. Jamar Butler is an excellent player, but we pressed up on him. We have players who can do that. We allowed Ohio State to post up on us too well. We did not double on Kosta Koufos the way we should.
???We need to do better on free-throw shooting. We have had bad free-throw nights before, but it has not cost us a game. Tomorrow when we practice at the Pratt Pavilion, we will spend a lot of time at the free-throw line.
???I am impressed by JaJuan Smith???s patience. He is not trying to do too much, and is really a good leader. We will bring Duke Crews back into the lineup when we can have him ready to be successful. We are not going to rush it.???
Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta: ???The biggest thing is we have got to find consistency for 40 minutes. Make no mistake about it, Tennessee is a team of runs. They are a lot like we were last year when we could put a run on you at the drop of a hat. They and North Carolina are probably the two best teams we have played this year.
???You want to say you are proud of the guys, which I am, but we did not get what we came for. These guys have to understand that to come on the road and play a good second half is not OK. The three games we have played have been hard. Two top-10 teams and at Purdue ??? it has been a relentless stretch quite honestly. I would not wish this upon anybody, what we have just gone through. I have not seen too many teams go through what we have gone through in our first 18 games.
???We were just trying to get Jamar Butler free to penetrate or shoot it himself down the stretch. Kosta Koufos obviously was an option for the throw-back. With 22.6 left, I was fine with the looks we got. I thought we got a couple of decent looks in that situation. Having no timeouts was tough ??? we were calling it on the fly. And here is the thing, they were not going to give us the 3-pointer. When they got the big rebound with one second on the shot clock with just over a minute to go ??? that one got us a little bit.
POSTGAME NOTES
* JaJuan Smith led the team in scoring, with 15 points this afternoon, the seventh time this season he led the team.
* The Vols??? home-court winning streak stretched to 26 games, tied for the third-longest streak in school history.
* Chris Lofton recorded four 3-pointers today, giving him 362 for his career.??Lofton is now tied for 15th place in NCAA career record books for 3-pointers made. ??Lofton needs just four 3-pointers to tie the SEC record for most 3-pointers made in a career (Pat Bradley).
* Ohio State shot 2-of-20 from 3-point range, continuing the Vols??? streak of opponents??? low percentages. ??Tennessee???s last three opponents shot a combined 10-of-62 (16.1%) from behind the arc.
* The Vols sport a 16-1 record for the first time since the 2000-2001 team began 16-1.
