University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-SC Postgame Quotes
March 14, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Postgame Quotes
THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Pearl if he'll give some overall thoughts of the game, then we'll take your questions just for the three student athletes and excuse me and then finish up with Coach Pearl.
COACH PEARL: One of the things I talked to my team about was if we ever found ourselves in a situation that we had not been able to win a championship the regular season and maybe struggled through the regular season, a little bit like South Carolina did, would we have had what it takes to come out and play that kind of game. As student athletes these guys could tell you it's a lot easier to do it when things are going well. You've got to give South Carolina tremendous credit for the passion and the intensity with which they played. They've focused on coming to tournaments before and winning tournaments when they did not necessarily have the regular season wrapped up. They're not the most talented team. They're a little thin on the inside, but could they come together and win three games or four games? Well, they about did it a couple years ago, and they certainly gave us everything we wanted tonight.
Don't be too hard on the Vols. We shot 57 percent. We had 35 field goals of which we had 27 assists and we played awfully unselfishly. We were unable to guard their guards off the bounce, and obviously we're pounding it inside, and I think the difference was the difference that Zam Frederick went 8 for 10 from the foul line and down I got there eight times and Holmes got there nine times and they shot a boat load of free throws and kept stopping the clock which gave them an opportunity to rest so we fouled them too much and didn't get fouled enough ourselves. From an offensive efficiency standpoint, you can't ask for much more.
Q. Chris, could you kind of go over that last shot you hit, who set what screens, because obviously the screens were important, too, as well as your shot.
CHRIS LOFTON: It was just a simple back screen for JaJuan coming off a screen from Wayne and a simple dribble hand-off. Wayne got me a good screen and I got open and knocked it down.
Q. Chris, you're 1 for 9 when you're in the huddle. What's your confidence level and what are you thinking mentally right there?
CHRIS LOFTON: As a shooter you always think the next one is going in. It didn't look up at the beginning up to that point. But I knew Coach called my number, and I just had confidence it was going to go in, and it did.
Q. For Wayne, first half, Chris struggling, you pretty much carried the offense for the Vols. What was going through your mind as far as at halftime, and do you feel like that Chris picked up in the second half or the rest of the team picked up or did you feel you would have to keep this going for the Vols to win the game?
WAYNE CHISM: No, I didn't have to keep it going. I knew Chris was going to come in and JaJuan was going to come in and Tyler Smith stepped up big time in the second half and made 11 points straight, then Chris came down and hit the last-minute shot and JaJuan with a three-pointer was making a run, so JaJuan was a big deal in it, too.
Q. For JaJuan, I guess when [] Donnie was in Knoxville you held them to 1 and 9 from the floor. What did he do differently today or what were they doing differently to free him up?
JAJUAN SMITH: He's a great player. You've got to take your hat off to him. Once he gets going he's probably the best point guard in the conference. Just tonight he came out and showed it.
Q. For Chris and JaJuan, Coach said you had trouble stopping their guards off the bounce. How big a concern, is that is that an aberration for as quick as they are, or is it a concern as you go forward in this tournament and the next one?
CHRIS LOFTON: I think them two guards came in and they played great basketball. They played flawless. Like we said, we give them all the credit. We've just got to put this game behind us and try to play better defense the next game.
JAJUAN SMITH: Yes, they're two great guards when they're both on together. They look for each other, they make things happen, and we just try to attack them as a team.
Q. For Chris and the other guys to talk about him. The Florida players said they played you and the South Carolina guys mentioned it a little bit today, they feel like you have the green light or at least feel like you can shoot from -- they make jokes about 50 feet out. When you talk about that confidence, do you feel like when you're hitting that you can pretty much hit -- obviously not from 50 feet but as far out as you can and do you guys also have that confidence in your shot?
CHRIS LOFTON: When you hit a couple -- it's for anybody. When you hit a couple you feel like you can hit from anywhere. Your teammates always feed you the ball when you're hot. That's always a code on our team that we feed the hot hand. That's what we do.
Q. Do you guys also sense that when he's hot, that you can give it to him anywhere?
WAYNE CHISM: It depends on where Chris is shooting from (laughter), but anywhere he goes, if Chris hits two or three in a row, I know it's somewhere in the game there's going to be a call for Chris to come off like two or three screens. Same thing for JaJuan, if JaJuan hits two or three it's not going to be coming off two or three screens, he's going to give it to JaJuan and JaJuan's going to make it happen from wherever he's at.
JAJUAN SMITH: With Chris when he gets that look in his eye we know to get him the ball, and he had it when Coach drew this play up so we got him the ball. You see what type of player he is. We wouldn't be sitting here smiling if it wasn't for him making big shots time after time.
Q. For Chris and Wayne, did you think South Carolina was going to give you this much today after the way you played them earlier in the season?
CHRIS LOFTON: Yeah, we knew. Coach said it best coming into this game. This is going to be the hardest game of the tournament. This is the first game in this building, South Carolina is already used to the environment, and we knew coming into this game that South Carolina was going to be ready for us.
WAYNE CHISM: I knew South Carolina was going to come out and play very hard after the two losses they gave to us in the season. We knew they was going to play hard in the first half, but coming into the second half down I went to work and Frederick did, too, so we knew it was going to be a close game in the second half after we seen those guys make big shots after big shots.
THE MODERATOR: We'll continue on with Coach Pearl.
Q. What is the psychology of the last play, because Chris is 1 for 9, but if a guy's a shooter, a guy is a shooter, you've just got to let him shoot?
COACH PEARL: There was two options on the play. Chris is an excellent screener and he set an excellent back screen for JaJuan Smith which created a little confusion, and it almost knocked Chris to the floor. But I don't think our guys were looking for anything but the second option, which was a down screen by Chism and a dribble handoff by Tyler Smith. He makes that shot over and over again.
I called time-out because I wanted to set peace. I wanted to make sure we got the ball in the right hands and get a productive look. It really didn't have anything to do with how he was shooting going into that shot. Maybe if he was really super-duper fatigued because of defense, I don't think any of our guards were terribly tired after their defensive efforts, so I thought he was still fresh to make that shot.
Q. Do you think with this team's bad history in the tournament, the way you won the game -- if you go back to Tennessee's tradition in tournament, this is a tournament your team loses, but your team didn't lose. Does that give you even more confidence about this team?
COACH PEARL: It allows me to sleep a little bit at night is what it really does. For those of you who haven't followed us this year, this is the season we've had. It has just been -- we miss a free throw, Tyler Smith gets a rebound. Wayne Chism makes a three, Chris makes a play, JaJuan Smith steals the ball and gets a lay-up. It's just been that kind of a year. I do, I sleep at night knowing we're going to find a way.
You know, it was difficult -- first half everything was fast and flowing, and boy, we made some bad decisions in transition. Gosh, we got great numbers, and it would be a fast break, it would be 3 on 1 and I don't like our chances. I'd be sitting there going, I don't like our chances right here. We've got to get better numbers and better spacing. Who knows what's going to happen? But when we got where we got our floor balanced, we got great looks. I mean, 27 assists, 35 baskets, shooting 73 percent in the second half. We got ourselves organized. That's the hard thing. I want to play fast. I want to give them freedom. But when we turn it over too much, it can be a challenge.
So often ball control, ball control, ball control. It's easy to do ball control. You do the same thing every time, you know what's going to happen, you're not going to turn it over, you're not going to make mistakes. When you play like we do, you don't have that same control.
Q. Can you just talk about how pivotal Wayne Chism was? For the first 30 minutes he seemed to be the only thing you had inside?
COACH PEARL: People in this league will tell you he's a terrific player. He's one of the more improved players in our league. I can't tell you how proud I am for Wayne and the way he's matured and grown. I appreciate his closeness. Wayne does a great job with me because he's able to kind of -- he senses my moods and is able to keep me on balance. He's a wonderful, wonderful child.
Q. What do you think about the crowd support that your team got?
COACH PEARL: Here's what I think about the crowd support. If you think it was good today, it's going to be unbelievable tomorrow. I'll tell you what: I want to ask the state troopers in the state of Tennessee to please stay off 75 south, but I want to alert our fans that once we cross the border, heads up, I'm not responsible when they get on the other side of the border there. I'll tell you what, our fans are going to come down the road in huge numbers.
You know, I'm really glad that our fans get to stay today and enjoy this great city. We're used to packing our bags and going home right now. I'm really happy for our fans that we're still in this tournament, and they get to celebrate a little bit. We'll work, they can celebrate.
Q. Do you think it's better to be challenged like you were today in the first game of the tournament, or what does it mean in terms of a close game like this?
A. I think that -- we sort of trained for three games in the sense that I didn't condition them terrifically this week, and I think our conditioning will be better tomorrow. I thought we were a little winded. I think a close game will help us. I mean, we've got however many games left in the season, and every single one of them is now for a championship. It's sink or swim, it's all do or die. So the guys are going to put it out there every single night. We play best when everybody contributes.
I would also like to say Brian Williams' play was terrific. What a lift he gave us with his rebounding, his scoring around the basket. Josh Tabb, three assists, no turnovers and played great defense out there. Little things like that are things that -- everybody is going to remember Chris' shot or Tyler scoring 11 in a row. Don't forget about Wayne and what happened in the first half, and don't forget about Brian or Josh and their performances, as well.
Q. We've been debating all season about who is the guy for you guys, and obviously on that play you had to make a choice. It sounded like you went with a JaJuan as the first option, and I'm wondering why not Chris?
COACH PEARL: There's several options on every play. Chris was going to get the ball. I mean, JaJuan was the first option. I think he could have -- and he was probably pretty open. Chris was going to get that touch.
Q. Your team has struggled somewhat at point guard. Looking at that, how much do you appreciate the way Devan Downey played today for South Carolina?
COACH PEARL: He is terrific. Our guys just shake their heads. He's first-team all-conference. I agree with JaJuan. He is the best point guard in the league. We've got good points guards. Ramel Bradley is good, also. Those are probably the two best point guards in the league. He's a tough cover. I just feel like in any given game when you've got a player like that or any given two or three games, he can put that game together. Can he do it -- could he do it for 30-something? No, he probably couldn't do it every night. But that's why -- that's why South Carolina is a dangerous team. Four guys that can get out there and shoot the ball. Tre Kelly? I mean, Tre Kelly put on a Devan Downey performance against us two years ago and beat us. The difference is my team didn't score 89 points and have 27 assists and do some of the other things that we were able to do because we could not stop him. Couldn't stop him.
Q. I just wanted to ask one other thing about the crowd. Is it more of a boost for you guys or is it more an intimidating or demoralizing thing for the other team?
COACH PEARL: There's no comparison to a road conference game in the way of an intimidation factor and the noise level in here. You know, the noise level on the road is intimidating. I think the support, you can feel the support. But if it goes against you, the support goes against you, they're too far away to intimidate anybody. Devan Downey was intimidating. So was Frederick and so was Dave Odom down at the other end. What a terrific job he's done.
Q. You've had some games this year where you haven't played well defensively even though your defense has improved and you've been able to out score teams. I guess it's a luxury but is it also a concern?
COACH PEARL: Sure, defense and rebounding win championships. We have better defensively and rebounding than in my first two years. I think that will serve us well in the long haul. I think they got -- that's enough. I'm sorry, I don't want to say any more.
Q. The point guard play for your team, it appeared Jordan never really got a shot going and Ramar still seems to hesitate on some of his drives, looks like he was right at the rim and dished it off. What can you do to get that straightened out in such a short time?
COACH PEARL: Just ask them to go to their strikes, and they'll continue to go to their strikes. When Tyler has a high assist turnover ratio that takes a lot of pressure off of our guards, when Tyler is out there making plays. Tyler will make more plays against traditional size. Tyler had a match-up against Archie was very, very similar to him, so Tyler wasn't our primary play-maker tonight. When he has a match-up like that, he can take a lot of pressure off the point guards.
Q. You said you trained for three days. Did you pack for three days, and do you have the orange jacket?
COACH PEARL: You know it, come on. One bag, but I had to pack for three days. I'm a little light on the underwear, but I'm okay on the suits (laughter).
South Carolina Postgame Quotes??
THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and begin with the two students athletes. We'll have questions just for them first.
Q. Zam, you guys did a great job on Chris Lofton throughout the game. Could you tell exactly what happened when he got that last shot and was able to get a clear look at it?
ZAM FREDRICK: On that possession, we were switching everything because they kept hitting us with the back screen for lay-ups. So we switched it twice across the top end and they hit us with a strong pick. I don't know who was supposed to step up or whose man that was, but he got a clean look and he made the shot.
Q. Could each of you describe how disappointing this was considering what type of game it was and how close you game?
ZAM FREDRICK: Of course I'm disappointed that we lost, but the effort and the courage that we showed out there today, you know, that's something for us to grow on. But there was a lot of games this year that we lost by four or less in the last minute or so of the game. So hopefully next year we'll grow and we'll be that team that's on the other end instead of losing all the games by four or less?
DEVAN DOWNEY: You know, I'm very disappointed, but like Zam said, I'm so proud of my team because the effort we showed, we're talking about a team who embarrassed us twice. I mean, that's a simple way to put it. They embarrassed us at home and they embarrassed us in Tennessee. To come out and fight like we did, man, I'm disappointed we lost, but I'm just so proud of my team because, I mean, they came with the knockout during the second half. They came with it, and when we stood strong we showed we had grown as a team.
Like he said, I'm disappointed we lost, but I have no complaints about the effort. It was 13 of 14 guys out there giving it everything they had. Nobody left anything on the floor. I'm just proud that we was able to be in the game and be in a position to win it due to the fact that they had embarrassed us twice.
Q. Devan, on your last shot that you took from three, you fell a little short. Do you think fatigue might have had anything to do with that shot?
DEVAN DOWNEY: The shot felt good. I understood we was in a double bonus, and I could have tried to get a foul, but I wanted to go for the kill. I wanted to beat them. I mean, the shot fell a little short, but it felt good, and if I had to do it again, I would take the same shot.
Q. What was the strategy coming out of the timeout with 1.1 seconds left? What were you trying to do?
DEVAN DOWNEY: They were switching everything on the inbounds so we was just trying to set two -- I was to set a screen in the reciever screen, but they switched it so good where I was not able to get outside. So we just -- Dominique was the open man, so you've got to hit the open man. We had no time outs so you've got to hit the open man. I don't know if it was a foul or a tie-up, but we was unable to get a shot up.
Q. This question is for both of you. I know you said you have no complaints about the effort, but I'm sure there were a couple things you wish you would have done different. What was the reason that Tennessee won this game?
ZAM FREDRICK: In the second half they started owning the paint, the rebounds and the back screen that led to the lay-ups, the fouls, and-ones. I felt that stretch where they kept scoring in the paint kept them in the game and gave them a lead that we had to fight back to get the lead again, so that stretch where they scored a lot of points in the paint.
DEVAN DOWNEY: I think it was probably the free-throw shooting. I'm going to say free-throw shooting. I don't know if it was fatigue, but it seemed like we could never hit two out of two. That was the only thing, one out of two or we would miss both. So I don't know if it was fatigue, but at this level right here and to beat Tennessee as good a team as they are you've got to make free throws. But yet still at the end we was in a position to win the ballgame.
Q. Having seen Tennessee three times now, can you both assess Chris Lofton, particularly you've seen him in his good and his bad, just the kind of player he is?
ZAM FREDRICK: We all know that Chris Lofton can shoot the ball from anywhere on the cross half court. Bruce would probably let him shoot it before he gets there (laughter) he's a good player, they're going to run him off of a lot of screens, and if he gets in space it's going up, and there's a 47 percent chance it's going in. You just can't give no space, and that just sets up his drive and ability to create his jump shots. I wish him luck the rest of the season and at the next level.
DEVAN DOWNEY: Like you said, Chris is a great player. He's a shooter. But I think that as a defender you'd rather have him driving. I think he can beat you in driving but he can hurt you penetrating and trying to find an open man, but he can beat you. He can beat you when you let him set his feet and get an open look. When I say set his feet, Coach Odom tells us just because you're on a man doesn't mean you're guarding him. Chris Lofton can be there and if he doesn't feel you it's just like he's in the game shooting by himself. Chris is a great player, and I wish him and his team the best.
THE MODERATOR: We're going to excuse the players at this time and we'll continue on with Coach Odom momentarily.
We'll ask Coach for some overall thoughts on the game and then go to questions.
COACH ODOM: Well, when you look at the basketball game as a whole, you had two teams that were determined to win the basketball game. I think both teams evenly felt like they could win it, and I know our team did, and I'm most certain that the UT team felt like they could win.
You know, I could be happier if we had won, but I couldn't be prouder. It was a very proud moment for me, for our staff, for our University, for our team. I think for this conference, for the Southeastern Conference, I think it was a proud moment. And again, I don't make light of the fact that we did not win.
As I said, I could be happier had we won, but I don't know that I could be any prouder.
You know, the game offered whatever you wanted. I mean, there were spectacular plays, there were answers by each team, on occasion there was decent defense. I don't know that it was the greatest defensive game I've ever been in. But I think defensively both teams played well at times. Both teams played unafraid. Surprisingly, both teams got to the other's basket almost at will.
I think really when you look at it, that was probably the difference in the game. As I said yesterday when we were talking about Tennessee, they tease you from three and they beat you from five. Well, today they beat us from two. I mean, the number of lay-ups that they got off their back screens, we just never negotiated that. And I would really say the one day of non-preparation hurt us in that. I think we would have done better had we had one day of practice to -- because that's a different technique than we saw yesterday with LSU. It's decidedly different. They do it with different people, different sizes, causes different -- a different approach, and we didn't have enough time to really get that done.
I wished I had not been so prophetic in terms of tease us from three and beat us from two. I know people are going to say they beat you from three, Lofton hit the three to beat you. Maybe they did, I'll give you that one, but the game wasn't won there. The game was won with Tyler Smith getting to the basket, Chism getting to the basket, with Brian Williams' four for four getting to the basket. That's where the game was won.
And then I heard Bob Knight, by the way, who I think is very good on his deal there as a surrogate media person, I heard him say the other day that he felt that some games were won and others were lost. I think Tennessee won the game today, and I think we lost it, and not just the way -- 89-87 or whatever it was. We lost it at the free-throw line, and they won it from two. You give them credit, a lot of credit.
But had we been able to shoot better from the free-throw line, we might have won it instead of lost it. I think that's a good way to put it. So with that, I'll open it up to questions.
Q. On the basket that Lofton made, the three, what was your defensive plan on that play going into it?
COACH ODOM: Well, you know, we toyed with two defenses. I chose just to stay straight man-to-man because I felt that there would be more responsibility, more accountability on a play like that. And to be quite honest with you, they set a road-block screen. Legal, legal, nothing illegal about it, don't want anybody to feel that. I mean, that was the kind of -- as important as the shot was, the screen made it happen, and it put it in the best three-point shooter in the history of this league's hands, and he delivered like he has so many times.
You know, what we wanted to do, obviously the plan was to switch all screens. Our big guys didn't see that one coming. They should have switched out on it. They didn't see it. There was no way -- I think Zam Frederick was guarding Lofton at the time, and there was absolutely no way he could get through that. But our big guys didn't see it because it came from behind -- he came from behind, and they should have switched out there and hopefully kept the ball out of his hands. They didn't do it, and again, he had a stone-cold open look at it. That brings misery to the Gamecocks as he's done so many times.
Q. You said you felt you lost -- you lost the game with free throws, but earlier you mentioned it wasn't the greatest defense. What do you think was the biggest detriment to your team today, poor inside defense or faulty free throws?
COACH ODOM: The inside defense I think was horrendous at times, but the other thing that hurt us badly, I think, was transition defense in the first half. That really hurt us. There were a couple of times that we penetrated to the basket, took a shot, missed it, and then they came back on us on the other end. If you're going to be an attacking team, you've got to cover yourself on your flank, your backside, and we didn't do that. So I think those two things really hurt us.
Q. One other thing about that last play, we've been talking all season about which Tennessee guy is the first guy in line to try to contain. I'm wondering on that last play how you try to prioritize, let's try to take this away or that away.
COACH ODOM: Well, obviously we talked about Lofton. One of the defenses that we were going to use or that I was thinking we'd use -- considering, not thinking, we had been messing the last two days with a box and one. I thought about that, but then I looked out there, JaJuan Smith scared the heck out of me, and they had been getting to the basket with that thing on the cuts. It wasn't like they were pinched for time. I mean, they had 16 seconds on the clock, and that's plenty of time to get the ball in and move people around.
I didn't like the odds of that, and so I stayed with the man there because I really felt that the shot would come quickly and that we would have enough time to get a shot off if they made something of their possession, which they did. So thus I made the decision to stay with the man there.
You know, when you look at it, to me the priorities are Lofton and Tyler Smith. With JaJuan Smith as an offset shooter who can certainly do damage. I mean, there's no question about that. I talked to our team about offensive rebounds and everything else, too, if they would miss that shot we have to go get the board because they are easily the best offensive rebounding team in the league.
Q. You've seen the SEC conference teams two or three times. What are your favorites to come out of this tournament alive, so to speak?
COACH ODOM: I said it yesterday. You weren't here, were you? Tennessee is the odds-on favorite. They're close to a double digit favorite over anybody they play. Today will help them. They were scared today -- not scared. I mean, they were not scared, please scratch that. They were close to losing today, and that will get their attention, and they will be more difficult to beat tomorrow no matter who they play, believe me. They're the odds-on favorite to win. That does not mean they'll win the tournament. That doesn't mean somebody else can't win the tournament, but clearly they are the favorite. They've proven that now over 17 games for them. They're 15 and 2 in this league counting that one game today. They've got great personnel, they're expertly coached, they've got great backing out there. The UT orange today pulled a UK blue. I mean, they were in the eyesight of everybody today. They bought tickets and they got in there, and again, commend the Tennessee people for that. I was thinking we'd have a little more of an advantage today. I didn't see too many schools pulling for -- I didn't think that they would be pulling for Tennessee because they don't want to play them. I thought we would have had a little more support today. But I under estimated the wallets of the Tennessee people. They went out and bought tickets, much like Wildcats usually do. Wildcats had better get in line if they're able to buy tickets. You may want to put that in your paper because the biggest competition is who can get the biggest ticket bought between UT and UK if they end up playing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We wish you the very best.
