University of Tennessee Athletics
Donnie Tyndall Media Luncheon: March 2
March 02, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Head coach Donnie Tyndall previewed the Vols' final week of the regular-season at his Monday press conference.
(Opening Statement
"I'll start by recapping last week and the tough loss to Vanderbilt where I thought our team played pretty well for about 30 minutes. We just didn't finish the game. Vanderbilt shot it better than any team I think I have ever played against as an assistant or a head coach. We have to give them a lot of credit for that.
Then we went on the road to Florida in a short turnaround and caught them at a tough time from our stand point with Dorian Finney-Smith coming back from a suspension. He dominated the game, had a double-double and was the best player on the floor by far. The first half they shot it extremely well. The second half it balanced out a little bit but we just dug too big of a hole for ourselves.
This week we go to LSU. A team than handled us here at home and a team that is playing probably as well as anyone in the league outside of Kentucky right now. They have two very talented first-round draft picks on their front line. A guard in Tim Quarterman who has surprised me by the fact he is probably one of the best defenders in our league which was a big key in the first game, the way he played Josh Richardson on the defensive end.
Then we will close it up here at home for the regular season with South Carolina, a team we beat at their place in a hard fought contest. It is probably the most physical team we have played thus far just from toughness and a grit. They will hit you from every block out standpoint. So it is a big week ahead and we certainly need to play better this week than we did last week."
(On using the first half of the home LSU game as a teaching tool to prepare this week)
"I would certainly hope so. The biggest thing is that we were really reluctant in the first half offensively to drive the ball and make plays against those big guys because of that we took some bad long, contested shots. That led to transition opportunities for LSU. When we did drive the ball we were kind of looking for the shot blockers. They ended up blocking nine shots, but they probably changed or challenged an additional nine. When you drive the ball they are going to get one or two (blocks). You have to understand that on the front end, but if you go in trying to throw up what we call hope shots, where you throw it up and kind of hope it goes in, then again it is going to lead to transition opportunities at the other end. That is where there team is really good. I hope that we have learned from that and are better for it."
(On team losing intensity during the losing steak)
"I went back and watched the first South Carolina game where we won on the road and I don't think our team has lost any intensity. I think the biggest thing is that we have lost some detail and a large part of that is that in the last month we probably have only been able to have two really grinding practices because of our limited depth, guys have been banged up and guys have been playing such heavy minutes. So when you don't have your grinding, tough practices and you aren't going your three-on-three rebounding and your four-on-four shelling those drills where you are really really grinding them through the practice session then you lose some of it. I think that is the case with our team. It is a balancing act because if you have those tough, grinding practices two or three times a week now maybe their legs are shot and now maybe they don't have energy to play game night. That has been the biggest thing with our lack of depth isn't necessary on game night but the way we have had to practice our team the last four or five weeks."
(On making more mistakes in the zone defense than earlier this season)
"I don't think it is in our zone. It is totally about guarding the dribble. There is a certain way you have to close out that we teach, top foot on top foot, high hands, chop your steps and those are demanding, intense drills you work on those everyday. We haven't really worked on those a ton just because they are so physical. They are our hardest drills. We don't let our guys out of the drill until they get a stop. Sometimes a drill like that is scheduled for 15 minutes but it goes 24 or 28 or 32 minutes. We don't let them out until they get the stops but we just haven't been able to do that the last 4 or 5 weeks because all of a sudden if you go two hours and 15 minutes of a grinding practice, are they going to be ready on game night?"
(On changing the practice schedule)
"Well we are going to go the drills we just talked about today and that is it. We are going to do our three core drills of being physical and on paper it is scheduled to last 45 or 50 minutes. It may end up being longer. We won't do any scrimmaging or anything outside those three core drills, but we have to get some detail in guarding the dribble back in our team. Those three drills will help. They are mostly all defending and rebounding stuff in particular off the bounce."
(On the takeaway from the second half against LSU when they played here at home)
"I think the biggest thing is even in the second half they blocked or changed a shot or two but our team was simply just more aggressive. We drove the ball. We were in attack mode instead of playing on our heels. We certainly still weren't perfect the second half but we were much more aggressive. We will show clips of that as well and hope it will carry over to Wednesday."
(On seeing a difference between ways a team is trying to attack Tennessee defensively)
"The last two games the second half against Vanderbilt and then against Florida, teams have tried to go four out or five out against us. Most teams aren't built that way. Most teams can't go four or five out. Florida plays with a lot of perimeter guys even there big guys are skilled and Vanderbilt was able to do the same thing. A team like LSU for example unless they don't play one of their two best players they can't do that. It just depends on what a team's roster is or the make up of their personal. The last game and a half you have had teams try to space the floor to spread us out and drive it. They have been successful at that."
(On past challenges with the matchup zone)
"Any team that can go five out, it's hard to play against them when your center is having to cover the corner or go down the floor. We mix it up the last two games, really the last three or four games, we've played some man-to-man and tried to switch everything. The biggest thing what some people don't understand is that if you can't guard the dribble up in a zone, you're probably not going to guard the dribble in man-to-man, and that's certainly a deficiency in our team."
(On putting quicker guys out front)
"Even when they go four out or five out, you have your forwards like Armani or Derek, if he's playing the four, have to go out and guard the dribble at 22 or 24 feet. When they get beat, then the guard has to help over then bang three. If the back guard helps over then one more, bang three. It all starts with guarding the dribble and keeping the ball in front, and we haven't done a good job of that out top, out front, or in the wing spot."
(On playing man-to-man in recent games)
"I would say about 20 to 25 percent."
(On how far from the norm that percentage is)
"I would guess usually in a sixty possession game, we play about eight to twelve possessions man-to-man, so a little bit more than usual."
(On LSU guard Tim Quarterman's recent play)
"Well he's the third guy, that arguably gives you another pro in the lineup. You have the two big guys and then a guy like Quarterman, when he gets it going and playing with confidence, he's probably about as talented as any guard in our league. He's 6'5", he's athletic, he has great feet, he can shoot it, he gets to the rim, he's a good passer, so those three guys are special dudes and young; they're all sophomores."
(On losing streak wearing down team)
"You know, I don't know. I think losing period can wear on your team a little bit. I don't care who you are, how strong you are, losing is not fun and it can wear on you a little bit. I had a reporter from Florida tell me after the game, Billy Donovan's two years at Florida, he had losing seasons. It's frustrating for the coaches, the players and the fans. It's frustrating for my wife but at the end of the day, in building a program, Billy Donovan had two years of losses his first two years, our first two seasons at LSU, we won nine the first and twelve the second, and in the third we won the SEC and won 28 games. It's a process and at any point in time, as the coach, if I forget that or I do not understand to that, then that's when you can lose vision of what's important, and that's getting your players better every day. Our players are improving. You look at a guy like Tariq, he's gotten better. Look at a guy like Derek Reese, who barely played last year is now getting seven and seven in conference games, he's improved. Armani Moore has gone from a role player to SEC Player of the Week, so they are getting better but the teams we are playing are pretty darn good."
(On struggles on the perimeter defensively)
"Well, when teams go four-out, usually they are playing two, maybe three guys that can really make plays off the dribble. When they go four or five-out like Florida did at times, now you're having to guard five guys out on the perimeter, again with a forward that really may not be a great perimeter defender. Or, if they're getting X5, meaning our center in a closeout situation on the perimeter, that's tough for those guys. And then, when you get beat from the top of the zone and the forward has to help over, now they kick it out and the forward's having to close out and guard a playmaker. It just stretches your defense.[The] hardest thing to do in basketball is guard the bounce. I think all teams are challenged with that. Our team this year certainly is very challenged with that."
(On season being a reminder of Tyndall's first year at Morehead State)
"I think the biggest thing is the way we coach our team and the way that we condition our team. Our team always has started off pretty well, and in most cases ended pretty well, too. I think we're maybe ahead of the rest of the competition from a toughness standpoint, a conditioning standpoint early. But at some point in time, that catches up with you. When I took over at Morehead [State], very similar situation, team that was picked dead last in the league, and we were kind of in mid-season form early. We started league play 6-2. I think we lost nine or ten in a row. It happens because eventually that talent level carries over or is just too much to overcome, I guess you should say. Our second year we were .500. Our third year we went to the NCAA Tournament and won a game. By our fifth year, we went back to the NCAA Tournament and beat Louisville. So, it's a progression; it's a thing that takes time. It's about recruiting and building your team. It's about developing the players you have, and we're going to do the same thing here. It can be frustrating. I know when we lost nine in a row or whatever it was at Morehead, no-one was more miserable than me. Our kids were playing hard, and we are doing the same thing here. They're competing."
(On the importance of obtaining a good recruiting class for year two at Morehead State)
"It's huge. In that first recruiting class, well really our second - we got the job that spring and added a few guys like we did here- we added probably five or six guys. One was Kenneth Faried who was a pro. One was Demonte Harper who ended up being First Team All-League as a senior. One was a junior college guy, Leon Buchanan, who was First Team All-Conference for two years. So obviously, you've got to have talent, you've got to have players. It's just as important though to continue to develop the guys you have in your program which is what we did there and we're going to do here."
(On avoiding the First Round of the SEC Tournament)
"You certainly would hope to [avoid the first round]. That's a goal. Certainly, we'd prefer not to play the first night. But if you do, I want our team to just be excited to play regardless of the opponent, the situation, Wednesday, Thursday. I just want to be excited to play and I think we've done that really every game except the first half against LSU. We haven't always played well. We haven't always played good. But, we have been excited to play and I think that will be the case regardless."
​
(On difficulty of a Thursday-Saturday turnaround)
"It's tough, but we are not going to make excuses. Other teams have been put in that situation. You have to respond, and you have to be ready to play. I thought our team tried to play. Florida just played really, really well and, unfortunately, blitzed us a little bit that first half. In the other two leagues I've played in, it was Thursday-Saturday all year. It is just part of it. You have to make the adjustment and get ready to play."
(On senior Josh Richardson's impact on Tyndall)
"Well, Josh has been fantastic since the first day I took the job. I remember my first meeting with him like it was a day ago. He's an upbeat kid. He has a great smile. He's a worker. He has been coachable. He embraced the position as a senior that he has never really played before and welcomed it with open arms. A reason our team has had the success we have had is in large part because of him accepting that role and embracing that role. I wish he wasn't a senior, I know that. Have him another year or two, but he has been fantastic. I have enjoyed coaching him. His family is great. They are at every game and so supportive. He is my daughter Gracie's favorite player too, so that is pretty important to me."
(On being able to coach a senior leader in a new transition)
"It's very, very important because any time you can coach your best player hard and he accepts it, the rest of the guys fall in to line. In the locker room, when he is echoing what the coaches are saying and being a leader and not letting guys be critical or be negative or not buy in, it just helps you to get that turnaround in your program. [It] makes it that much faster. I think that is the case because Josh's leadership this year. These guys that will be returning next year will be more apt to be coachable. They'll be more apt to tell the newcomers, `Hey, this is how Coach Tyndall wants things done. This is what he expects.' It is just a trickle down effect through your team and your players, and it starts with him, which has been fantastic."
(On the defensive strategies used against Josh Richardson)
"A lot of teams have tried [to double-team him], and we have put him in different situations where we slipped ball screens. We changed the angle of the ball screen at the last second so it makes it harder to double team. A lot of people tried switching screens with him earlier, and we really isolated him and had a big guarding a small where he was able to drive it and get fouled or create an advantage for someone else. So, I don't think there is too much he hasn't seen or we haven't seen in regard to how people play him. It will just depend on the opponent's personnel what they can get away with. Florida plays a little bit smaller, so they could trap ball screens. When Vandy went small, they could trap ball screens a little bit more effectively. I don't know if LSU with those two big guys will try that, although they very well may."
(On returning to LSU where he was an assistant from 1997 to 2001)
"A lot of close friends I still have there will be at the game. I was there four years. I have a lot of great memories. As I said, our third season there we won the SEC, went to the Sweet Sixteen. One of our former players, Ronald Dupree, is on their staff now. It will be a lot of fun. Hopefully, we will play well because we will have a lot of buddies there."
(On a shortened 30-second shot clock in the NIT and CBI postseason tournaments)
"I didn't see that at all, but that is probably a good opportunity for college basketball to take a look if that is the right answer to help basketball offensively. I think I've said this before to you guys, but I don't think that is the right answer. I think you will see even more bad shots and even worse offenses as opposed to giving teams a chance to run offense the way it is now."
(On potential impact of a shortened shot clock)
"In my opinion, the more talented teams, with a shorter shot clock, will become even more dominant. I think the [longer] shot clock gives teams with a little less talent or a little less depth to keep the game close by playing a certain style of play. I'm not in favor of necessarily playing slow, but I think, if you play a 30-second shot clock, what most teams will do will be token pressure, take 10,12,14 seconds off the shot clock. You will have time to get one ball reversal, and you will get into a ball-screen action like the NBA does, and that is all about players. So, the teams with the best players are going to win even more than if you are playing a team that gets to run some offense and try to trick the opponent, for lack of a better term, through running offense with some back cuts and different things." ​
