University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-Butler Postgame Quotes
March 23, 2008 | Men's Basketball
TENNESSEE QUOTES??
THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started. Take an opening statement from Coach Pearl and then go to questions.
COACH PEARL: We're very pleased to have survived and advance. We're about to head to a place we have been before and we've not been able to go past and that is to get to the Elite 8.
Once again, what more can you say about Butler and the way those kids played, how they honor the game with the way they play and I thought Graves and Green were both terrific.
I think we did a good job on Howard in the inside and that was a big factor for him. Our inside guys did a terrific job. And to be able to win the battle of the boards and be the more physical club, which we should be coming out of the SEC, I thought that was very, very significant for us.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions now, please.
Q. Tyler, could you talk about that block? Did you think that you caught it on its way up?
TYLER SMITH: They gave it to me, so I was happy they gave it to me. I don't know if I caught it on the way up or down. But I was just happy to get to the ball.
Q. What makes Butler so difficult and unique to play?
WAYNE CHISM: They got two guards that can play. And then they got a shooter that can shoot the ball. And they do a lot of screening. And we already went against that in the first round. And they kept screening the whole game and getting open looks and penetration. But we sat back and played a good defense in the first half and we played a good defense in the second half, but we had a couple of fouls and then they went to the line, but we still made it hard for them to get off a 3 point shot.
We contested most of them and half of them went in, but we still played good defense at the end.
Q. Ramar, talk about the break away where you scored 26 seconds to go, was that something that just developed?
RAMAR SMITH: No, Chris got the ball and I just tried to run the wing. He got it to me and my main focus with to get the ball up on the rim and score.
Q. Tyler and Wayne, could you talk about the attention you paid number 34, Pete Campbell in the second half, because I can't even remember him getting and hitting a three in that half.
TYLER SMITH: We saw him shooting the ball with the lights out two days ago. And our main focus was to make sure to run him off the deep line. Because he's a great shooter and sometimes he will run the three and the four, but coach got us defensively where we were switching everything and also the guards helped us out on that a lot.
WAYNE CHISM: We came, when he played the four, we even ran a couple of different guys at him and I went on him a couple times, Tyler went on him a couple times, we had everybody rotating on him, don't matter who it was. Just staying in his passing lane in the second half. I think he hit like one, I believe, but other than that, he was missing because he was taking contested jump shots.
In the first half, he was coming off drive, draw, dish and he was hitting them. But we came in the second half and contested all his jumpers and then after that he couldn't touch the ball any more.
Q. I know you ran in to some foul trouble and had to sit a long time, could you talk about coming in to overtime and how comfortable were you running the offense again, despite all the recent struggles back there?
RAMAR SMITH: It felt good just to the team stepped up for me. I came in and backed my teammates up. I tried to make play, defensive plays and on the offensive end and I came out there and played my heart out for my teammates.
Q. For Wayne, again, foul trouble in the first half, you only got in nine minutes, I think in the second half. Can you just talk about your mindset? It looked like you were really demanding the ball in there.
WAYNE CHISM: That's what we needed and coach gave me the calls, but in the first half with the two quick fouls, the same thing happened to me two days ago. But I kept my head. Like coach said, you got to keep it in the tournament, if you don't, you'll lose all your focus.
I kept my focus in the first half, and in the second half, I came out and played good and hit inside shots so coach started going inside because their big man was in foul trouble, but even though, he was still in the game and we still went inside. I hit a couple of shots then and we had a bunch of inside shots and inside rebounds, that's why we won the boards.
Q. Did you guys get the sense that Mike Green was maybe getting a little bit tired or that he was trying to draw contact so hard that maybe he was taking the focus off his, off the shot?
TYLER SMITH: Our main focus was to make him make tough twos. He was getting to the rack a lot, but he really wasn't trying to pull up, he was trying to commit fouls. So we were just trying to make him make tough twos and keep our hands straight up.
THE MODERATOR: No more final questions for the student athletes? You can go back to the locker room, guys. Thank you. We'll now take questions for the Coach Pearl.
Q. You saw plenty of Butler during your days in the Horizon League, as I asked those guys, what makes them so unique and difficult to play?
COACH PEARL: It seems like they have got five seniors every year. Their system is built to beat the best teams in their schedule.
With their ball screening and their flare screening and the fact that they will put four or five guys on the floor that can shoot the three ball.
With Howard on the inside, it's made them a more balanced team. Now, when he got in foul trouble and we did a good job guarding in the post, they lost that element, they lost that dimension and that's why they part of the reason why they shot 36 percent. They played great defense. They're fifth in the nation in scoring defense, because they have five guys helping one another. They actually defended like we defended tonight. A lot of switching, and just very physical. They're a very physical team.
Todd Lickliter's teams were very physical. And that's been a terrific carry over to Brad's teams.
Q. It was obvious their strategy may have been in the last ten minutes to drive to the basket, either score or draw a foul. What were you telling your team to counteract that?
COACH PEARL: I want to give you one more: The Horizon League, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, there are tough kids in that league. And that league has always had tough, physical, hard nosed players.
It's almost like Big 10 basketball but even tougher. I'm sorry, I apologize, what was the question?
Q. They were driving to the basket the last ten minutes and trying to draw fouls. What were you telling your team to counteract that?
COACH PEARL: Like Tyler said, we were trying to show our hands and trying not to draw fouls and they did a good job of jumping in and drawing contact. We tried to make them make tough twos, and the fact that they only made three threes in the second half and overtime combined was key. That's the first game Butler's lost when they have made eight are more threes this season. They normally make more.
I think fatigue was a factor at the foul line at some point for them because the way I thought the way we guarded, I thought Tennessee really played a great defense tonight and we did what we needed to do on the boards.
Coach Summitt called me this morning and she reminded me about the physical players in the tournament. And she said, because she saw the game early against American and she said just, "Tell those guys to rebound the basketball." I thought the way we started the game was extremely important. We sent a message right off the bat that we were going to represent the SEC, and I thought we showed a tremendous determination to advance.
Q. Could you talk about just the point guard play and then also winning without Chris or JaJuan and really getting it going from the perimeter.
COACH PEARL: I thought J.P. Prince played well. I thought he did a lot of good things whether it be offensive rebounds or taking charges or making plays. Our execution down the stretch was challenged because he's not, I mean how about never being in that situation and finding yourself in that situation for the first time as a point guard in the NCAA tournament.
I thought he handled it well. I told the team, I said, "J.P. and I did not close out regulation well." We didn't. I didn't play call well, and no fault of his, he's never been in that situation. So I said, "Bail me out." That's what I told him. I said bail me out. And I went with Ramar just because I knew we were going to be in a close game out situation and even though we hadn't been getting great plays from Ramar, he's been in that situation before and he obviously delivered.
Q. You mentioned yesterday it's a bad time to mess with the point guard position, how do you use these five or six days to get that back up to speed?
COACH PEARL: The deal is this: I just thought that the point guard play we were getting wasn't going to win a national championship. So, if we make the decision and it doesn't pay off and I'm sitting here in front of you and explaining why I made that choice and we lost the game, I could go to bed going, it's okay. I don't think this is going to help us advance. Watching tonight gives us a better chance to win Thursday.
It's not a panacea, but we got five guys out there with J.P. in that position. I was able to do some different things offensively. I was able to do some things that Butler hadn't seen. And that was fun. Actually, it was fun.
Q. You juggled your point guard position, Lofton doesn't score in double figures in either game, and you still are going to the Sweet 16. It looked like you guys didn't play your best, but you got out of here with two wins. Is that how you look at it?
COACH PEARL: Boy, I thought we played pretty well today. I really do. Butler, they have held 13 out of the last 14 opponents to 55 points or less, or something like that.
We scored 76 points. I thought we played awfully well. Turned it over a little bit too much. We had some unforced rushing, but I thought we made a lot of progress today.
And yeah, we're thrilled to survive and advance, that's what it's all about.
Q. You don't think great guard play's necessary to advance? You're going to see if you can prove to do it without a true point guard?
COACH PEARL: Well, you know, let's see, J.P. was four for five, he had seven rebounds and five assists. He did have six turnovers. Okay. So that's nine and seven. Ramar had eight and three. So we got 17 points and ten rebounds and he had an assist, six assists, I thought we got pretty good point guard play.
Q. I'm going to ask Brad Stevens the same question, about you did you feel it was unfair or unfortunate that you have two 30 win teams facing each other in the second round the earliest that's ever happened?
COACH PEARL: Yes. A little unfair. And a little unfortunate for whoever's going to lose this game. This is usually a Regional Final number. Butler was ranked 10 or 11 in the country all season long. But you know what, Brad will tell you, listen, you you're going to play great teams to advance. He'll tell you that.
This is the best Butler team that I have seen and how many times was Butler in the 5 12 game? And they were seven. I mean you know it's interesting. And see why we talk about it is, we as coaches try and schedule and figure it out so that we can put our teams in the best position to advance. That's what we do. So it's really not about, nobody's complaining, we're trying to learn, we're trying to figure it out. I'm sure Butler's trying to figure, what do we got to do, they were 30 3 or whatever they were, you know.
Q. When Pete Campbell hit that unguarded three right at the end of the first half, did that give you a teaching point for half time?
COACH PEARL: We had him, we had that identified. We had that taught. That would have been a breakdown.
But Wayne I think made an excellent point. That when you switch like we were switching, it's not always going to be the same guy on 34. And so there were times that if one guy misses, doesn't stay in his passing lane once and one another guy misses once next thing you know he's got three of them. So that was a breakdown. He was a no leave guy, he never should have been able to catch that, been in that passing lane. We were to let somebody drive the ball to the basket and make a two versus leaving that passing lane, and yet we left it.
Q. You said that you told them that it was your fault and J.P.'s at the end of regulation, to pick you up in OT, how did he do it? Just poise?
COACH PEARL: You know what, sometimes you tell them that, because they're looking, it he they didn't want to be in overtime. And they're looking for somebody to blame. So go ahead and blame me. And let them band together. And if they love me, they will bail me out. And Ramar has been I love Ramar. I'm on him pretty hard. And his teammates have got confidence in him to go make plays. And you know, I thought, defensively, I mean, we did okay. And we held them again they shot, they didn't shoot a good percentage in overtime, we did. So it's just away to get them to band together.
Q. Now you get to go to Charlotte next week and another level. Playing a tough game at this level, could it be now that you won it, an advantage, because you got one of these under your belts, they always talk about you have to struggle to get to that next level.
COACH PEARL: We struggled plenty. We struggled last year against Virginia, to advance to San Antonio in that game. So there's no question I think that winning these games does give a team confidence. The one thing about this basketball team, I coached a lot of teams, this has been my most resilient team. They do find ways to win and I think it's because this is a close team, there's terrific chemistry, we have too many weapons, and they count on one another. And you take the play of Ramar Smith and J.P. Prince at the point guard and that says it all.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
BUTLER QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with an opening statement from Coach Stevens and then take questions for the student athletes.
COACH STEVENS: It was a great college basketball game between two pretty darn good teams. And we came out on the short end, but due to no, certainly both teams played valiantly and played with terrific effort. And I think it was just a game of inches on a lot of occasions.
We didn't get a couple bounces that we probably needed to go our way to finish it off. But I have great respect for the way that Tennessee plays, I think they play extremely hard. I think they put you in touch positions and they get a chance to move on.
But certainly I am proud as I could be of our guys effort. I told them in the locker room that it's more than a game when you have five teammates like these seniors have been. And that's what we talked about.
THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student athletes.
Q. For A.J., you maybe have not had a lot of time to reflect, but even in defeat do you think you've, Butler's made it pretty clear that you're one of the top teens in the country, this team was ranked number one just about three weeks ago and you took them into overtime.
A.J. GRAVES: Well, yeah, I would hope so. That's something that we're trying to do here is trying to create, add to what tradition that has been established over the years. This isn't the only time Butler's been to the tournament, they have been here before and won some games.
To get paired up with Tennessee in the second round, to play a very challenging team and to put them into overtime, that's tough to do. And a lot of teams didn't get to do that.
Q. Mike, Tennessee obviously has really good shot blockers, athletic guys inside that can jump. Did those guys get you thinking, have you second guessing your shot when you drove to the basket?
MIKE GREEN: Sure, it happened a couple of times. The other times it was just me and the rim and I failed to finish. Those shots that I've been making all year long and for one reason or another they didn't go. All of them didn't go today.
Q. There were a lot of point characteristic numbers, 18 of 28 from the free throw line, guys missed a couple of easy ones. How much of that was Tennessee's size and athleticism and how much of it was you guys just had one of those games?
MIKE GREEN: I think you got to give credit to both. Tennessee has some athletic guys that contested a lot of shots and at the same time sometimes it just don't work your way. And I think it was both today.
Q. A.J. in that last minute of overtime it looked like you had a pretty good path to the basket and then did it seem like Smith just came out of nowhere to block that? Because it looked like that was going to be a tying field goal.
A.J. GRAVES: Yeah, I thought I had a clear way, we ran a high on ball and hesitated and I thought there was an opening and I took it. And I did see someone out of the corner of my eye and that's why I tried to, I didn't go all the way to the rim, I tried to, I lofted it in the air to see what would happen. And he got it. So that just happens.
Q. All you guys, what are some of the things that you guys have shared with each other as seniors, in the few minutes after the game, after a very emotional game?
DREW STREICHER: I would say the consensus was just thankfulness. How much fun we have had going to work every day with each other. Just going to battle with each other. How we have all come together. We have got three transfers and they came from all different backgrounds and just how we were able to come together and really just be like a family. And how much fun we had and playing off each other, it's just been quite a ride.
MIKE GREEN: Drew pretty much summed it all up. We just gave out hugs and a bunch of thanks and pretty much talked about the season in short.
Q. A.J., most of the game if you guys are aggressive with the ball, drove to the hoop, you could maybe get a free throw. The last two minutes if you were aggressive going to the hoop, you got fouled the official said you got to put the ball in the basket, they weren't going to let you go to the free throw line.
A.J. GRAVES: I think that's the nature of the NCAA tournament. You got to go, if you're going to go to the basket you need to put it in there. You can't expect calls. And I don't think we were expecting calls. We were just out there just trying to play. And that was kind of our strategy towards the end was to try and go to the hoop and if we got fouled, we got fouled. If we didn't, we were going to try and get the layup. And we had shooters spot up on the perimeter and Tennessee decided to stay tight a few times and that's why we kept driving it in there. But those just didn't go down and like Mike said, sometimes that happens and sometimes that's because of the other team as well.
Q. For any of the players, you guys have been always been very humble, very respectful and really don't make very many statements about what you think you might do. But can you say now, can you, it seemed like there was that sort of a you know stated belief that you all had that you really, you thought you could go to the Final Four and win a national championship. Is that, did you have that feeling deep down that you could do that?
MIKE GREEN: Definitely. Why wouldn't we? We played our hearts out. We play our style of basketball and it's been very effective.
We came up short a couple times. Four times out of a possible 34 times. So there's no reason for us not to think that we're good enough to play against any team in this tournament. And we dropped one.
DREW STREICHER: I think that we can play with anybody. I think we showed that all year. That's definitely our ultimate goal. We're all pretty disappointed we didn't reach that. That's been our ultimate goal for the whole season. So we had the mindset that we could do that and obviously we're disappointed.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. You guys can head back to your locker room. Thank you, guys. Take questions for coach.
Q. Bruce Pearl said that he thought it was both unfair and an unfortunate thing that two 30 win teams were facing each other in the second round. What were your feelings along those lines?
COACH STEVENS: You know what, last week we just decided this is what's been given to us and we got to go out and play and compete. And we just heard the question about, did these guys believe that they could play with anybody or beat anybody in the country and the answer was yes. So we said whatever the bracket may be, we're going to go compete.
And it just so happened that Tennessee was our second round opponent. I think Tennessee is an obviously, if they were ranked number one in the country in the RPI and number one in the country three weeks ago, that I think they're a Final Four caliber team. So I was proud of the way our guys competed and I don't really have any thoughts on the draw per se.
Q. Could you talk about what Tennessee did differently against Pete Campbell as opposed to what South Alabama did in the first round?
COACH STEVENS: I think that I was in here towards the end of Bruce's press conference and obviously they were switching ball screens to avoid rotating, so to avoid losing him more often. And I thought Mike did a great job on more than one occasion of just breaking the guy down off the top, a little action where we isolate Pete in the corner and Mike's got a decision to either take it to the rim or kick it out. And Mike made the right decision a lot tonight.
That was without a ball screen too. So that was how Pete got some of his looks and then obviously you take some things away when you switch and as you get to playing the best teams in the country, they do a formidable job of being able to contain your guards, even with their bigs. It's very few, very select few that can do that. And Tennessee is one of them.
Q. You talked yesterday about how important it would be to maintain your poise throughout the game. When you fell behind 13 2 how did you guys sort of hold it together?
COACH STEVENS: We talked about it last year it was 22 9 at Madison Square Garden. You know, they are a tremendous team of runs. And you just have to weather some of that and then you have to just keep playing the game. This is a long, a long game. And I'll tell you this about this team, we haven't been out of a game in a long time. In fact, I don't know, I would have to think back to last year, maybe one was double figures. But this team's had a shot to win it at the end almost all the time. And all four times this year. You know, you think about what this group's accomplished in two years, it's absolutely incredible. And I'm proud to just be a small part of it.
Q. It seemed in the first half that possible you weren't taking shots deep in the clock. It seemed like you were shooting earlier than we had seen you at least Friday anyway. And making a comeback do you think fatigue played a factor in the free throws at the end?
COACH STEVENS: I think we were I'm not sure, but I think we were perfect from the line in the last six or eight attempts. I'm not sure about that. I think we were 8 14 at half time and then 10 14 in the second half. So I don't know that it played a factor in that, but it probably, I'm sure it played a small factor in the game as a whole and that's the way Tennessee plays and they do a great job forcing tempo and it makes it difficult.
Q. You mentioned how Mike went to the goal so frequently and trying to draw the defense and so forth. Was he perhaps late in the game and during the overtime perhaps trying to take too much of the game upon his own shoulders and not passing off to people as he was going to the goal?
COACH STEVENS: You know, you take what the game gives you. And they're not going to leave our shooters. Obviously Coach Pearl is familiar with our system and as Pete hits a couple in the first half they become even more consumed with him. And you got to get it in there and make plays. Mike did a great job of doing that. He missed a couple that he usually makes, but that's the way the game goes sometimes.
Q. Did you see the replay? I know you're upset when on A.J.'s shot that was blocked
COACH STEVENS: I was upset but I didn't see the replay.
Q. You didn't see it?
COACH STEVENS: No, I didn't see the replay.
Q. You said you felt Tennessee was a Final Four caliber team. Did you feel like your team was a Final Four caliber team too?
COACH STEVENS: You know what, I've never really gotten into I feel like we can play with anybody on any given night. I think the group last year proved that when they got beat by the national champion. I just think Tennessee, like a bunch of other teams, has a great shot to make it there. There's a lot of parity in college basketball and we're not really focused on and we have said this before, we haven't been focused on the end result all year. We have just been focused on the next game and, you know, we thought we could compete with Tennessee and I'm so proud of our effort. You think about the fact that we went to overtime with probably the number one or number five or whatever they are, one of the top eight teams in the country, easily top three or four teams in the country easily. And we shot 36 percent.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, coach.
COACH STEVENS: Thank you.
