University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-American Postgame Quotes
March 21, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Quotes
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??THE MODERATOR:?? We'll start with an opening statement by Coach Pearl and then take questions for the student athletes.
??COACH PEARL:?? Just congratulations to American University.?? They represented themselves and the patriot league extremely well.
??They made shots, particularly Carr was just spectacular.?? They played with great energy.?? Particularly on the offensive boards where we knew they really run to the boards and they bothered us early.?? With their offensive rebounding.
??But, I thought we were able to turn them over.?? And I think our press was particularly effective and without pressure defense, we would have been in perhaps more of a similar situation to what Duke was in last night.?? Going up against a great team, very well coached, very well spaced, but it was nine assists and 22 turnovers, I think, I think that was probably a big difference, as well as these three guys sitting to my left.
??THE MODERATOR:?? Okay.?? Questions for the student athletes.
??Q.?? JaJuan, why did the offense appear to be so out of sync most of the game?
??JAJUAN SMITH:?? There was a great defensive team out there.?? We just weren't playing our ball, we were a little sloppy with you but we turned it on in the second half and made plays.
??Q.?? Tyler and Wayne, guys, talk about that sequence there at the end.?? I thought it was a big one when Tyler came up with the block and then down at the other end Wayne the 3 point to put you guys back up about 10.?? Maybe both of you could talk about that.
??TYLER SMITH:?? We were trying to make a play and force our team.?? Our last outing we got kind of frustrated because of the bigs and as far as rebounding, but we were trying to come in and show that we were trying to make a defensive effort and Wayne came down and made a big shot for us.
??WAYNE CHISM:?? Well, we wanted to run anyway, but Tyler came in with a good block so you transitioned off, and it was pretty good, so once Tyler cut to the basket, they left a trail wide open and I let one go and it went in.
??Q.?? Defense, guys, has not been real good the last few games, much better today.?? Is that something that you really concentrated on?
??TYLER SMITH:?? Of course.?? They had two great players that we were trying to slow down as far as Carr and Mercer.?? And we put one of our best defenders and Carr and had JaJuan on the other guard.
??Q.?? For Wayne, can you just talk about hitting those threes and just the difference in your confidence now versus maybe a year ago playing in the tournament as a freshman?
??WAYNE CHISM:?? When I came in as a freshman I think I played pretty good as a freshman.?? When I entered the tournament?????? I mean I did good things in the tournament as a freshman.?? But coming into this tournament I had two fouls in the first half and two points.?? So I had to come out in the second half and play better.?? And coach came out with a quick play for me and I hit that one and then it came down to another one and I kept going on and Tyler went for a lay up and missed, so I picked my team up on offense big time because I changed on defense in the first half.
??Q.?? I'm sure you all were well prepared by your coach for this team, but did you really believe how good they could be and did you have to make up a little bit during the game early in the game?
??JAJUAN SMITH:?? Coach prepared us for a close game.?? He's been telling us all week long how close this game was going to be.?? We were well prepared, been getting up early in the morning for this early game.?? So we were real focused for this.
??TYLER SMITH:?? Having a player like Carr, as far as you got?????? another Chris out there so we had to watch him shoot and he could get a shot any time and one player can beat you if he gets that shot.?? But they were a great team and they came out with a lot of effort.?? But coach had us as far as defense, ready to play them.
??THE MODERATOR:?? No further questions for the student athletes we'll let you guys get back to the locker room and take questions for coach.
??Q.?? Could you, as the second half progressed, could you see American's confidence building??? Could you see them believing more as the game wore on?
??COACH PEARL:?? I thought they came in confident.?? I thought they came in knowing that they could play with us.
??I actually felt like our confidence was building as the second half?????? as the second half wore on.
??I thought American came here to win the game and knew that they, if they played well, I think watching Belmont last night had to be encouraging for them.?? We were in a 2 15 game against Winthrop and Chris Lofton had to make a shot to win.?? This is the NCAA tournament.?? And no matter how we try and prepare you guys to understand that this is what it is, you get?????? you just think that we're supposed to roll out there and knock these guys off and in a huge way.?? And we shot 49 percent from two, we were the more patient team with only 45 shots.?? As opposed to American's 58 shots.?? Now part of that was they did a good job on the offensive boards but we made 1 percent of our free throws, those are really good offensive statistics that good teams have to do.
??Q.?? Can you comment on Brian and Ramar sitting out the first half and also rebounding and their advantage on the boards.
??COACH PEARL:?? We're trying to get better point guard play and so J.P. Prince played a lot of point guard tonight.
??When Jordan Howell, I thought, struggled some in the first half I just I went with Ramar.?? And then Brian had no points and five fouls in his last game.?? And just wasn't pleased with his performance, against Arkansas, and so went with Ryan Childress in the first half.?? And then at half time some of it worked and some of it didn't.
??Q.?? It looked like you guarded your team guarded a lot harder in the last 15 minutes than they did the first 25 minutes.?? That's what it looked like?
??COACH PEARL:?? Yeah.?? Well, American shot 31 percent in the first half, they lead their league in field goal percentage at about 44.?? And they only made two 3 points in the first half, both by Carr.
??I think maybe in the last ten minutes or so American got a little tired.?? They may have fatigued.?? And so I don't know that we played any more effectively lately, but they had just, you know, being pressed and guarding the way we guard, we didn't sit back, there wasn't any zone, Carr plays 40 minutes and Mercer plays 39.?? I think that fatigue may have been a bit of a factor and we played a lot more guys than they did.
??Q.?? They out rebounded you by 39 27.?? They get 18 offensive rebounds, a lot of the balls were bouncing their way, but how disturbing is that?
??COACH PEARL:?? They had great energy on the offensive boards.?? And they do that all year long.?? They have got a pretty good idea?????? couple things:?? They got a pretty good idea when Carr's going to shoot the ball.?? And because you have to have your bigs out there hedging him and doubling him some, when shots are taking place your inside guys aren't inside their guys.
??So, it's really not a checkout situation, it's a race to the boards.?? In the next game, watch Butler.?? And watch Butler's ball screen, and spread out.?? And watch Butler's guys run to the boards and there's no one there to check them out.?? Because you're out there doubling Garrison, doubling Mercer, doubling Graves or Green, and that's what can happen with spread and good ball screen offense.?? And that's why they're a very, very effective offensive rebounding team.
??THE MODERATOR:?? Okay, thank you, coach.
??COACH PEARL:?? Thank you.
Tennessee Locker Room Quotes
Head Coach Bruce Pearl:
???We tried to speed them up a little bit but their half-court offense with those shooters was very difficult to guard.???
???Well, we advanced. There are only 32 teams left, and these aren???t automatic games. Look at what Belmont did last night to Duke.???
Chris Lofton #5
On his shooting performance???
???I give them all the credit for their great defensive pressure. My shot wasn???t going down so I had to rely on my teammates to produce points for us. Thankfully they made some shots and we were able to win.???
On the performance by Garrison Carr #5???
???We knew what he was going to do. Coach told us that he was going to continuously come off screens until he got free for his shot. We tried to stop him but he is a great player and ended up having a great game.???
Duke Crews #32
On American???s Garrison Carr #5
???That guy is a little Lofton, he is the second best shooter I have seen all year behind Chris (Lofton). I thought that was Chris in his jersey.???
On being up only 1 point with 6 minutes to go???
???Coach always tells us to keep our poise, so we didn???t get worried. We just did what we had to do to go on a run and win the game.???
JaJuan Smith #2
???Coach told us all along we???re only playing one game at a time. He told us how well American was going to come out and play and we just kept playing with them.???
???We know they (American) take care of the ball. We knew we weren???t going to get a lot of turnovers. We were just going to have to come out and play our game.???
???We learned a lot. They???re going to play hard. It???s going to be a tough road all the way through the tournament.???
American University Quotes
THE MODERATOR:?? We'll go ahead and get started.?? We'll take an opening statement from the coach and then take questions for the student athletes.
??COACH JONES:?? Well, we're disappointed with the outcome, but I certainly couldn't be any more proud of the team, of a group of young men than I am of our guys.
??As they have all year long, they battled.?? It wasn't pretty, but we scraped and I think we pushed Tennessee pretty hard, therefore, the most part of the game.?? Tennessee proved why they're such an outstanding team, that was over on the side there and I heard a couple of Bruce's comments, and I think he's right, I think ultimately they wore us down.?? And so certainly they're a great basketball team, it was a great challenge for our team.?? I thought our guys stepped up to the challenge, but unfortunately, we weren't quite up to it.
??THE MODERATOR:?? We'll now take questions for the student athletes.
??Q.?? Garrison, take us down about six minutes left and you make another comeback, you're down by one.?? You're a 15 seed, you're going against a number two seed.?? What's the feeling, what's the mood, what's it like for you guys at that point?
??GARRISON CARR:?? Well, at that moment, when we were making our run, I really felt like the crowd was behind us, because when we made a basket, to cut the lead, it really exploded in the gym.
??At that moment, we had the opportunity to control the game, but we made a big play and Tennessee came right back down and knocked a three down, I think it was, and took the lead.?? And while we were making our run, just played like the number two seed and like a number one team in the nation and they made their runs right back and they didn't let us get a solid lead.
??Q.?? Coach Jones and any players that would like to address this, defending Chris Lofton today, what was your game plan and how did it execute as the game played out?
??GARRISON CARR:?? Well, we were obviously no help off Chris Lofton, because he's an excellent player and he deserves all the accolades that he gets.?? And all week we were simply continuing to use no help off him, we went through all the play that they have for him to get his shots.?? And basically, all we were just practicing getting through screens, anticipating when the screens would come and my teammates did a great job of helping me when he was off, when he came open on screens and hedging out, but for the most part it wasn't just an individual effort, it was a team effort to stop him.
??DERRICK MERCER:?? Just like Garrison said, we tried to focus more on Lofton and we were using no help, if he set a back screen we were telling our bigs to get through the back screen and stay with him and because we know he's dangerous and he also can take it to the basket.?? So we put our attention on Lofton and we worked hard, we did breakdown drills, dribble handoffs, coming off screens and just trying to defend the best we can.
??Q.?? I don't know if you heard Coach Jones just now talking about last night's game Duke and Belmont.?? Did you watch the game and did you take anything out of it??? Obviously, you're here to win anyway, though.
??BRIAN GILMORE:?? Sure, we watched it.?? We watched, got to see a little bit of the end of it when we got back from dinner last night.?? And that just reinforced our belief that a 15 seed beating a 2 seed is definitely possible.?? Coach mentioned it going into our meeting last night, just reinforced the fact that he believed in us as a team to come out here and play against Tennessee today and if we did the things that we knew we were capable of doing and controlled what we could control, that we would give ourselves an opportunity to be right there with them just as Belmont was.
??GARRISON CARR:?? We watched the game and basically just reinforced what can happen when the ball's thrown in the air.?? Because the seedings are just numbers next to a name.?? But when the ball is thrown in the air, those go away and you still have to play and Belmont put it all on the line, which they were supposed to do, but Duke was able to pull away with the win.?? And it was just another example of many in the past of 15s playing 2s tough.
??Q.?? Did you guys did you lose your legs there in the last five minutes??? Was it a pretty grueling way to go?
??GARRISON CARR:?? Towards the end of the game I did get a little bit tired.?? But when it's crunch time and adrenaline kicks in you forget about that, and you're just out there playing basketball.?? Because the atmosphere out there and how close the game was, I didn't have time to think about being tired and I was just out there playing.
??Q.?? Did you guys get the sense that you were close to breaking Tennessee's sort of if you would have gotten through frequently getting the ball back that they would have panicked.?? Did you ever feel like you ever got sort of close to that breaking point with them?
??BRIAN GILMORE:?? I think we did.?? We knew that even if we did get up, get a lead that they were leading in the second half that Tennessee was a great team and they would be able to sustain any efforts that we made to attempt to continue to get a lead.?? But we had our opportunities, we missed a couple layups, missed some open shots and Tennessee's a great team and they capitalized on the other end and hit a few threes in transition and broke us down off the dribble a couple times.?? But we had our chances and we just didn't capitalize on them.
??Q.?? Garrison, did Tennessee defend you the way most people do??? Anything different or unique that you saw today??? Or was it just pretty much the same way most teams defend you?
??GARRISON CARR:?? For the most part I would say it was just basically like everybody else.?? My teammates and coach did a great job of giving me opportunities to get open and shoot the ball.?? So it really wasn't Tennessee doing anything different, it was the team helping me get shots and the coaches drawing up great plays and that basically opened everything up for myself and the team.
??Q.?? Garrison, you talk about making them play the whole 35 seconds of the clock, you guys made them play defense, and stay with you and then you would break them down a little bit.
??GARRISON CARR:?? That's just basically how American plays basketball.?? If we have a good shot early in the shot clock we're obviously going to take it, but for the most part we're going to come down and run the offense we practice every day and get the best shot we can possible get.?? And whether that comes with 10 seconds on the shot clock or 35, we're going to seize the opportunity when it's there.
??Q.?? Brian, can you talk a little bit about the offensive boards.?? You guys really controlled the offensive boards a lot and coach definitely mentioned you guys really were just going at it in the first half and they really couldn't do anything about it.?? Could you talk about that?
??BRIAN GILMORE:?? Sure.?? I think coach mentioned before that we know when Garrison is going to get open shots.?? And especially knowing our offense we know with when Garrison is going to it get a shot off, so it creates an opportunity for us to get to the offensive boards and that's something that I know a couple of the guys on the team have really tried to do all year, Jordan and Cornelio and Travis and myself is really get us some offensive boards and get us some more possessions and if we don't have an opportunity to shoot, get it back out and make the defense work for 35 more seconds.?? I think it happened a couple times today where it was a scramble situation and we were able to get the ball to Garrison and he got a little bit more different looks.
??THE MODERATOR:?? All right.?? We'll excuse the student athletes and take questions for coach.
??Q.?? Can you just reflect on the last couple weeks and what this has meant to the program and the university.
??COACH JONES:?? I think it's been a great time.?? As I reflect back it's not just the last couple weeks though.?? I think that's when maybe folks started noticing and maybe some of the, we started reaping some of the rewards of the fruits of the players' labor.?? But as I told them in the locker room after the game, I'm disappointed that we lost the game, but I'm more disappointed that the journey for this particular team is ending.
??They have been a joy to coach.?? They have worked so hard.?? And to see them as well as American University and the entire university community kind of get the our moment in the sun, is, really it's been a great time and a special time.
??Q.?? I was asking your guys about your game plan on Lofton going in and you got to feel pretty good looking at his box score and he's 1 7?
??COACH JONES:?? The fact that he only got seven shots up is pretty remarkable.?? I thought that Garrison did a good job of chasing him, but as he also mentioned, any of the down screens, we wanted to show very strongly on the screens, guard him with a man and a half, any ball screen or dribble hand off we wanted to show very, very, be very aggressive.?? Similar to the way Tennessee played Garrison.?? And try to take the ball out of his hands.?? We played him differently in those situations than we played any of their other players.
??You saw the draw back, the down side of that, there were two or three times where?????? and they utilize him very, very well?????? but where he set back screens and Garrison was under instructions, he was supposed to call the screen out, but under no circumstances was he supposed to help.?? And their first two baskets of the game I think Cornelio got back screened by Lofton and they ended up with layups.
??So we had to tighten that up, do a little bit better job of recognizing those situations, but that really was a byproduct of the fact that we just did not want to give Lofton any opening.?? And in preparing for Lofton, but preparing for Tennessee, obviously we talked to a lot of people, we watched a ton of film, and the thing that we kept hearing over and over from people that know them really, really well, is that they tease you with the three.?? And as well as they shoot the three and people remember those and maybe the biggest baskets of the game were the two threes that Chris hit, but they kill you five feet and in.?? And we kind of felt like coming in that we weren't going to be able to guard both, just from a physical standpoint.
??So we wanted to take Lofton out as best we could and then try to guard the rest of them and keep them from getting layups and dunks.
??THE MODERATOR:?? All right.?? Thank you, coach.
??COACH JONES:?? Thank you.
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American University Locker Room Quotes
#33, Simon Bryce
On the season???
???It was disappointing to see it come to an end. It has been a great season and we are like a family here. It is a shock and very sad to have the season come to an end.???
On playing in the tournament???
???We came here and wanted to do more than just compete. We wanted to come here and win. I feel like we played and played together to the very last second as a team. There is a lot of pride in what we did this year.???
#44, Jordan Nichols
On how they played in the game???
???I am very proud of the way we were able to come out and play against one of the best teams in the country. I don???t want to get ahead of myself but I feel like we played very tough and hard. It hurts to see it come to an end but we gave it our best out on the court.???
On staying in the game???
???I think we truly believed in ourselves. A lot of teams go out there and they run on just emotion and enthusiasm. When we got a little lead early on we were not surprised when Tennessee came back and tried to punch back. I think Tennessee thought they could just turn it on and blow us out but we were able to punch back and catch them on their heels a little.???
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