University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-South Carolina Postgame Quotes
March 09, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl: "How many times have I came in here and said, 'what a great night for Tennessee basketball?' Chris Lofton, JaJuan Smith, and Jordan Howell?? our seniors -- played very well and helped make this a great night.
"We have got a lot of work to do to get better. The prizes are getting larger and the opportunities are opening up. I thought in the second half our defense was terrific. We should be able to go into the SEC Tournament fresh. Everything is now designed to get us to San Antonio, Texas, for the Final Four. The thing that we can do to help make it happen is to win the SEC Tournament.
"South Carolina got nine points behind, and battled back. That undoubtedly took a lot out of them. We got our fast break going well in the second half.
"We have been celebrating and feeling good about ourselves ever since the Florida game. Now we have got to take care of business in the classroom. We are going to take the day off Monday, and work on our classwork. We will practice Tuesday and get a shoot-around Wednesday down in Atlanta.
"JaJuan Smith has established himself as one of the best defensive players in the country. He took it on himself today to stop Devan Downey and did an outstanding job. We must rebound better and score around the basket in the tournaments. We missed a lot of shots from in close, and we will be playing teams who are bigger than South Carolina."
South Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom: "We came out colder than the frigid Smoky Mountains to start the second half. We could not make a shot, and they came out on fire. We have to be able to match them, bucket for bucket, until we get our defensive feet under us. We did not do that. We really got fatigued, and flamed out.
"We did everything we wanted to do in the first half except having too many turnovers. We took some ill-advised shots to start the second half. They got those two (Chris Lofton and JaJaun Smith) out of the barn to start the second half, and we could not corral them. We pushed their 3-point shooters out, and then Tyler Smith took over in the lane.
"Devan Downey only scored two points and Zam Frederick could not get on track. That is a difficult hurdle for us to overcome.
"Bruce Pearl deserves an enormous amount of credit. He has captured the imagination of the Tennessee people with his basketball style and his personality. The Tennessee people were very gracious to me and I appreciate that. Mike Hamilton and I were together when I was at Wake Forest, and I appreciate the recognition."
POSTGAME NOTES
* The Vols recorded their 28th victory, the most in school history.
* Chris Lofton moved into 5th place on UT's career scoring lists with 2,067 points, passing Dale Ellis (2,065 points, 1979 - 1983)
* Vols' home-court winning streak reached 32 games, the second-longest streak in school history (33, Jan. 2, 1966 - Feb. 24, 1968). Tennessee is 16-0 at home for the second straight season. The 16 home wins in a single season ties for most in Thompson-Boling Arena history.
* Tennessee has now won 10 of the last 11 games played upon its annual Senior Day at the conclusion of each season.
* The Vols out-rebounded South Carolina 31-18 during the second half.
