University of Tennessee Athletics
Mark Pancratz: Virgin Islands Diary Day 3
November 21, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 21, 2009
Pancratz: Virgin Islands Diary Day 2
Pancratz: Virgin Islands Diary Day 1
Friday began at 6 a.m. for me because it was game day so there was a lot of work to be done. It seems that every morning we wake up to wet ground outside, but the beautiful thing about this place is that we never actually see the rain. Dear God, could you make Knoxville weather like this?
Breakfast again was at 9 a.m., and I definitely could sense a difference in the way the guys carried themselves, as they knew that at 4:30 p.m. it was time to honor the game, our fans and our university with how we played. As the guys sat around breakfast there was some hilarious chatter about "the infamous pillow fights" the guys had in their hotel rooms and with members of our staff--athletic trainer Chad Newman and our sports information director Tom Satkowiak. Apparently the competitive juices were still flowing this morning as Kenny Hall, Bobby Maze, and J.P. Prince were still talking about who won and who lost. This was my only thought--you can pillow fight all you want for fun, but hopefully you show some great rebounding toughness tonight at our game. I say that because to me it seemed like when it came to rebounding the basketball on Tuesday night, we got treated like Manny Pacquiao treated Miguel Cotto in last Saturday's boxing bout.
After breakfast our guys had a great study hall session with Kelly Brock, our academic advisor. Before we left Knoxville we gave our guys a list of readings, books and notes they would need to finish during our time here. After all the guys efficiently worked through their study hall session, Kelly communicated with me and other members of our staff that Wayne Chism, Melvin Goins, Cameron Tatum, and Tyler Smith had all finished and submitted assignments to their professors back in Knoxville. In addition, as though we were still back on campus, Kelly let us know that Kenny was her "Academic All-Star" of the day based on his efficiency and attitude while working with her.
Once the guys completed their No. 1 priority as STUDENT-athletes at the University of Tennessee, it was time to focus all of our attention on East Carolina. Tyler and Cameron actually came down 30 minutes early to our team room to watch some extra tape with one of our assistant coaches before the rest of the team was scheduled to meet at 11:45 a.m. Since it was game day and our guys had a little more time to spare, this film session was a little longer than usual. Coach Pearl showed the team some ball screen plays that ECU runs with their point guard and some final press-breaking sets that Coach Pearl thought we could take advantage of with our length and quickness. After the film session, we decided to do our shootaround in the hotel (as we often do) since we were scheduled to practice at a local high school--the actual arena was being prepared for the tournament games. These hotel shootarounds are pretty unique. On every road trip, our managers tape down a baseline and lane lines (picture the free throw lane) with tape on the team meeting room carpet, grab a garbage can to use as a basket, and grab an orange, a rolled up shirt, a shoe, or whatever creative idea they can come up with to use as a basketball. With these things in order we are able to walk through the sets the opposing team will run against us and refresh our players' memories of our offensive sets. Our guys learn in many different ways, so Coach Pearl teaches them differently--video, walk through, talk through and diagram.
For our team meal the guys had their choice of salad, rolls, broccoli and cheese, mashed potatoes and chicken and rice. Most of the guys eat fast so they can get up to their rooms and begin their pre-game routines. Meanwhile, four members of our staff went over to watch the opening game of the tournament, DePaul vs. Northern Iowa. Depending on our outcome against ECU, we knew would play the winner or loser of this game.
After seeing DePaul move on to the semifinals with a win, it was finally time for our game... the reason we all came here! In the locker room Coach Pearl's message to the team was all about continuing to get better by playing unselfishly and with great energy. Unlike a few times last year, the latter of the two seemed to be more difficult tonight. We're accustomed to outstanding crowds of 20,000 people at Thompson-Boling Arena, so it was tough for our guys to get their motors running to start out the game in front of just a few hundred people. Unfortunately for East Carolina, our energy picked up as soon as the Tennessee faithful started singing to Rocky Top as it blared out of the PA system.
We were prepared well and the game went according to plan. Their point guard hurt us early by penetrating our defense and finding his teammates for easy baskets until our help defense adjusted. More importantly, our pressure defense seems to be back (we forced their point guard into 12 turnovers tonight)! I think this has a lot to do with our guys' improvement at making multiple efforts. It's tough to get into the right pressure spots if a player is too busy celebrating a made basket or putting his head down after a miss. This year the coaches have put an even greater focus into moving on to the next play with greater urgency, making multiple efforts. I believe you will see the results of that training. One reason that our staff loves pressure defense is because we believe that our entire team can match up with any team in the country. Coach Pearl has always said, "We may not have the best starting five in the country, but we pride ourselves in having the best 10, 11, or 12 guys." We want to wear teams down with our deep bench. Coach expressed that feeling after the game as he proclaimed, "Too many weapons!"
After a quick recap of the game, Coach Pearl moved on to the necessary steps our guys need to take in order to prepare for our next opponent, DePaul. One was to make sure our guys got a lot of fluids and a good meal in them right after the game. We did so by having a very nice dinner back at the hotel for the players, coaches, support staff, all of our families and everyone else who is a part of our travel party. For many of us, this was such a nice opportunity to take a break from our crazy schedules to sit, talk and give thanks to so many people that made huge sacrifices to come support our basketball team. We don't say it enough, but we truly do appreciate everything the university and our fans do for our basketball program. We try to make you guys proud with everything we do. Although the dinner and socialization went on for a couple hours, the staff had to step out before it was over to get to work on DePaul and our possible opponents for Monday--St. Joseph's and Purdue. However, Sunday's matchup vs. DePaul is very intriguing for me since my father played for the Blue Demons.
Coach Pearl watched the DVD of DePaul's win tonight vs. Northern Iowa with incredible detail. Three things he realized--DePaul is very good in ball screen offense. They have a BEAST on the inside in Mac Koshwal (12 pts and 19 rbs). And they play really really hard! We will definitely have our hands full. After two hours of film watching and game planning (the last 10 minutes were accompanied by Coach Pearl's dad, Bernie snoring fast asleep on the couch) it was time for all of us to head to bed. We need to get rejuvenated for a long day of preparation, catamaran ride and snorkeling tour the tournament set up for us on Saturday. Basketball, beaches, snorkeling and winning... it doesn't get much better than this!
CONGRATULATIONS TO COACH PATRICK THE LADY VOLS VOLLEYBALL TEAM FOR THEIR BIG WIN OVER FLORIDA, AND GOOD LUCK TO THE FOOTBALL VOLS!! We'll be watching!!
Mark
