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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: SAN ANTONIO

March 21, 2007

Bruce Pearl

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

COACH PEARL: We're really excited about being here and being one of the three teams representing the SEC that are still alive in this championship.
When you get ready to play an opponent watching tape and looking over statistics and things and trying to develop a game plan, the easier the opponent the more you've definitely got some things that, hey, if we do this, we will be all right with this. If we can take away that, this is going to be fine and it's easy to develop a game plan.
The tougher the opponent the more you go, well, if we do this, then they're going to do that. Ohio State is a very complete basketball team. They've got really -- you've really got to do a lot of things defensively to stop -- try to stop them on the inside, and obviously Greg Oden. I understand that when they make 3s, they're even more dangerous. They spread it. They ball screen it and they put a lot of pressure on you defensively. And they've not broken out yet. They've not had that break out game that we all know they're capable of.
Defensively Greg just changes everything with his size and his ability to block shots and the quickness they put in the perimeter. So as we sit here I don't know how many hours before game time, I don't know that Tennessee has a real feel of what we need to do, what makes Ohio State play well and not play well. We don't know yet. We were competitive with them the last time we played them.

Q. But the stakes -- there weren't nearly as much at stake as there is tomorrow night. It's been fun watching your team develop the chemistry it has all year long?
COACH PEARL: Yeah, it is. From start to finish I think we're a basketball team that has gotten better. It had to. You had so many new parts with four freshmen in our top eight. Guys playing different roles.
I think one of the more satisfying things about our personnel, we play best when everybody contributes. If you look at our stat sheets, 9 guys have double digit minutes, and nine guys taking shots, we've got nine guys that play and I think have a real good understanding of what their roles are. You put it all together and it's been effective.

Q. You touched on this a second ago, but would you talk a bit about how Ohio State is a different team when Oden is in the game versus when he's not in the game. Also, have you in your time come across anybody quite like him?
COACH PEARL: He's unlike anybody I've ever gone up against because he just changes the game. He blocks every shot, and he's so quick to get there and changing shots. Every time he blocks one it's a transition fast break for Ohio State. Offensively you have to do what you can to keep it out of there and he shoots such a good percentage, makes his free throws and is willing to share the ball. But because they're so talented on the perimeter, they're difficult to double. And you show him too much attention and I think it's the other guys, when Lewis plays great and when Butler shoots the ball and Lighty and those other guys go off, that's when they really get good. Coach has done an amazing job with this team in this sense, early in the season with Greg Oden, they were a team that looked like Tennessee, they spread it, they shot it, they ran it. He took the personnel and given what that personnel was all about, did a great job with that personnel. Now Greg comes into the picture and you've got to find a way to blend him in. When we played Ohio State early in the season, they weren't as comfortable with Greg out there, as they are now after having gone through the entire Big Ten season. What's a good shot, what isn't a good shot. Do you give him the ball or not? Do you give it to him every time or not.
But what Greg Oden does for them is allows them to beat any team on their schedule now. They lost to North Carolina without Greg Oden. They lost at Florida when Greg first got back. North Carolina and Florida still playing for it, they're both No. 1 seeds. They can't beat those teams without Greg Oden. They can beat anybody with him.

Q. When you said that Ohio State hadn't really broken out yet. That sounds like something Thad Matta would say. Have you seen on tape or something that makes you think that?
COACH PEARL: This is the curious thing. I say that. They beat us whenever it was, and they won 19 straight, is that what they're on right now? In the beginning we gave them the confidence to go on this 19 game winning streak (laughter) but it's because Thad knows exactly what they're capable of. He knows what they're capable of. They've had -- but they found a way to win, which is beautiful. Against Tennessee, Lewis makes a huge shot and they find a way to win. So I think what I'm saying is that there's more to the eye. There's more than what you see. And if they want to grind out a national championship, I think Thad would take that. Let them grind out four more wins. But they're capable of really putting it together.

Q. You mentioned how Ohio State as a team has changed as Greg has developed. What have you seen from him? What are some things he's doing now that he didn't do, that he was limited from earlier in the year?
COACH PEARL: Obviously he's playing with both hands, he's got a right hand and left hand. And blocking shots with either hand, he's not quite so limited. In fact if he had to play with just his left hand, it actually helped that part of his game. His conditioning is better. But I think more than anything they're more comfortable playing with him. It's not so much how much Greg has changed. He had 25-15 with three blocks against us. He had a dominant performance against Tennessee. I think the rest of his team is more comfortable playing with him than Greg is more comfortable playing with his team.

Q. How will you and how important is it to even up the free flow disparity from the first meeting?
COACH PEARL: You're not always going to be able to even up the free throw situation. Because if they have a center that they try to post up, he's going to get fouls trying to get open and then he's going to get fouls when he gets the ball sometimes. Sometimes there can be a disparity in free throws because of that factor.
For Tennessee we don't get to the line that way, because we don't have as dominant post game. We can get to the foul line, drive the ball to the basket, we can get to the foul line with you covering us and maybe sometimes in our pressure defense. So our challenge is shooting a better percentage. We've lost some games this year because we've not shot great free throw percentages. And part of it is who is getting to the line. If Chris Lofton can get there a lot, we'll shoot a great percentage.

Q. Going into Columbus, and almost sneaking out with a win prepare you for this season and make you confident coming into the game tomorrow night?
COACH PEARL: Well, I think what it did was probably just gave us -- we represented the SEC well and being competitive in Columbus. I don't know that coming out of their with a loss gave us any confidence. We were disappointed that we put ourselves in position to really steal one. Ohio State out played us. And we were able to turn them over. They turned the ball over 20 times. One big difference in this ballgame, full court pressure defense bothered them the first time. It was the first time they'd seen that kind of pressure. They'll handle it better this time. So we may not have the edge in turnovers like we did in that particular game. So if you would have asked me it this question I would have said to you, I wish we didn't play them in Columbus if we're playing them right now. We played our cards. We showed our hand. And we're a tough match-up, the first time. So I don't know that our game in Columbus is really necessarily going to help us much here.

Q. Calipari said he might wear an orange T-shirt tomorrow night. Any chance you would wear a Memphis warm up jacket to try to get those fans on your side?
COACH PEARL: If Calipari would wear an orange T-shirt, I'd wear a Memphis jacket, absolutely. Hey, we're sister schools. We're in the same system. Absolutely.
Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M, Steve Forbes is an assistant of mine, so I don't know that I'd be rooting for -- I don't know that I can root for anybody. He's going to root for us because of our fan base. He thinks our fans are going to root for Memphis?

Q. What do you think?
COACH PEARL: What do I think?

Q. The odds of this coming together, the peace coming together thing?
COACH PEARL: I think it would be hard for Memphis's fans to root for Tennessee, although it would be great. It would be great.

Q. When you got to campus a couple of years ago we talked about the mentality of a traditionally football school. Being on a national stage, how do you think that's changing things back in big orange country?
COACH PEARL: I think Pat changed things years and years ago with the success with the lady Vols. It's always been a great football school. Lady Vols have been No. 1. They love their basketball in Tennessee. Vanderbilt -- we have three teams playing from the State of Tennessee. I don't think any state had more women teams. Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Chattanooga, Middle Tennessee, did I miss anybody? We had four. So I think people love their basketball in the State of Tennessee. It's just now getting, I guess, a little more visibility because we're holding up our end. That's what we're doing now is holding up our end in Tennessee.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about how difficult or was it more difficult to get your team ready for this phase after the SEC tournament where you had struggled? Was that seen as another opportunity to continue or how did you turn it around so quickly?
COACH PEARL: We love to work. We love to play. We enjoy -- we are enjoying the process. We don't want to stop. We don't want to go home. We don't want the season to end. I don't want to be -- the last time I get to coach Dane Bradshaw. We want to keep working. This has been a tougher turn around than the SEC, the first round, because we lost on a Thursday and didn't play again until Friday. This time we played Sunday against an opponent that played Saturday afternoon. And we play Thursday, and a pretty short turnaround time. So we feel like we're a little -- we had a lot of time to prepare for Long Beach and Virginia and Albany, there hasn't been as much time to prepare for these three teams Calipari didn't say about painting his chest? He said he's going to wear an orange T-shirt?

Q. Your thoughts on Oden and the variability, you watch film religiously, what have you seen out of him that I can pinpoint?
COACH PEARL: He's a dangerous player. He shoots the free throw well. He's got great confidence in his abilities, and I think it -- Greg Oden and Mike Conley really played great against us last time, both of them. And the other guys, some of them didn't play as well as they normally do. I think they're anxious to probably turn that around and he's the guy that certainly would be amongst them. That's the thing, we talked about that break out, when they're going to break out. It's when four or five of them step up and play great. That's when there really -- they could be a really, really dangerous team. As is the case sometimes at tournament time. You know, for us in the second half Ryan Childress has ten points, knocks down two free throws, and he's the guy that averaged five points a game. And that was a key, key factor in the second half against Virginia. Who is it going to be on our team and who is it going to be for Ohio State other than the normal cast of characters, and Cook is certainly one of those guys that's capable of it.

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