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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2010Bobby MazeBruce PearlBrian WilliamsNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Tennessee - 59 THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach to make opening comments, and then we'll have questions just for the student-athletes. Coach, would you begin. COACH PEARL: The SEC Tournament is supposed to be a celebration of our basketball. Basketball takes place all season long. You know, tonight, the way we played and how effective LSU was, there wasn't a great celebration. However, if you'd seen us through the season, you've seen us grind some games out like that. You know, we've been doing it with defense and rebounding. We held them down to 36%, and we out rebounded them not by as big a margin as I would have liked. So it wasn't a thing of beauty, but it is called survive and advance. I'd certainly single out Brian Williams and his 14 rebounds was really, really solid for us inside there, and obviously Bobby has a point guard, you put the ball in his hands late, and you let him get fouled and make those plays. So we closed it out. THE MODERATOR: Questions for either of the two student-athletes. Q. Brian, even when your team was struggling early, you seemed really inspired today from the get-go, is there any particular reason you came out playing that way? BRIAN WILLIAMS: It's one and done. So I think I should be -- the team should be on the same page and ready to play. If you lose, we're going back to Knoxville, and that's something nobody wants to do. Q. Bobby, can you just talk about the slow start and really not a lot of assists today. What was the reason for that? BOBBY MAZE: Well, I think we got some great looks. LSU played zone. Just wasn't able to knock down shots. I think a couple guys -- I think we struggled as a team from three. I think we did a good job of playing defense, and that's why we won the game. So I look at Brian having all those rebounds, 14 rebounds. You know, when we get that type of production out of him, I think it gives us a great chance to win the game. Q. Bobby, also for you, can you just talk about the start of the second half. You guys shoot 50% after shooting 26% in the first, and you kind of got things rolling with that first lead of the game and the three-point. What was the difference in the mindset after halftime? BOBBY MAZE: The difference was the type of shots we took. We drove the ball inside and then kicked it out. Got some plays inside to Wayne and attacked the basket. And was able to get to the free-throw line. That was the difference between the first half and second half. In the first half, we just settled. As a shooter, you see how open you was, you want to take this shot. Shot clock was at 23, 24. We should have ran it down a little bit more and gotten an even better look. I think we just took the first open shot instead of waiting. Q. Brian, Trent Johnson said he felt like you were playing with something to prove to your teammates at school because of what happened earlier in the year. Do you feel that way? BRIAN WILLIAMS: I mean, not many people is granted a second opportunity, and that's what you got to do is take advantage of that. And Coach and the University gave me something that I'm blessed with, and I'm trying to take advantage of that so far. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse Bobby and Brian. We'll continue on with Coach Pearl. Q. Coach, if you could just talk about the difference in Wayne Chism today and what we'd seen the couple few games leading up to this. COACH PEARL: Wayne played well against LSU at LSU. And I thought he did a really good job inside and out offensively. LSU played zone on us the whole game, and it really slowed the tempo of the game down. And like Bobby said, we got some pretty good shots, but, you know, there's a reason -- we are the last in the league in three-point percentage. And I think LSU's been playing more zone coming down the stretch. Ole Miss plays a lot of zone. And I would anticipate that we'll see zone against them as well. Maybe not as much. You know, I think that this was -- you know, it -- we weren't quite as excited about playing early, and I think one of the things that I did differently in the second half that, if I had to do it over again, I would have done differently in the first half, was we should have come out more aggressively man-to-man defense. We should have ball pressured more. We should have extended more. We should have tried to turn them over more. I should have anticipated that naturally our guys would not be as excited about playing LSU as they would be perhaps about playing a higher seeded team. That's not a knock on LSU. That's just -- and I didn't -- I could have turned it up a bit early, and we didn't. That said, we beat LSU at LSU by five points. Bobby Maze was on the foul line with a minute or so to go, and we had a one-point lead. And if you look historically at our games against LSU over the last several years, they've all been really close. I might even throw this one out there and say that the margin of victory might be as tight against them as anybody in the SEC. We lost to them in overtime in Atlanta a couple years ago. Be interesting to look at. Q. Bruce, other than a bad shooting game, was there anything wrong with Scotty Hopson? He almost seemed to be pouting in that first half? COACH PEARL: I think he -- he was -- he obviously was struggling with his shot. And this is as close to home as he gets. I mean, Hoptown is right down the road, and I think Scotty really wanted to play well. Here's the deal. He's been playing great the last six ball games. He's really played well. So I was surprised that he struggled tonight because he's been playing really well. And he's good against zone, he's really good in space and so I was kind of surprised by that a little bit. But I'll find out. He's not been in the training room or anything like that, but I think it was he just wanted to do -- wanted to do well, and against zone, I can't play call to get him the ball quite like you can against man to man. So therefore he struggled. Look, if he'd made a couple of shots -- he had four assists, and I think many of those assists came in the second half. So I thought he did a pretty good job there. Q. Bruce, how much of an emphasis did you put on stopping Tasmin, or containing him? How important is he to what they do? COACH PEARL: When Tasmin Mitchell and Bo Spencer combined account for about 45% of their offense, it makes sense to have those two guys be the focal point of your scouting report. Bo Spencer is 1 for 10. Tasmin is 4 for 12. And so I thought as a team we did a really good job defensively on those two guys because those two guys can absolutely run away and hide and win games. Bo Spencer's had 11 20-point games this year, and obviously Tasmin is a double digit guy. And so the fact that we were able to contain those two and make the other team -- make the other guys beat us. Warren got a few too many open looks, got a few too many things tied into the post, but other than that, that was what the game plan was. Q. Coach, value in possessions is something that you've talked about a lot this year. Can you address the 17 turnovers. COACH PEARL: I think what happened is against the zone we held the ball, and we tried to make the pass instead of making easy pass and have the next guy make the pass. J.P. would be a good example of that. He had no assists and five turnovers because he was always trying to get the ball and make the pass. Now, he had a couple of layups that were handed to different guys. And, look, just because you get it to the rim doesn't mean it's an easy finish. You know, LSU's got a pretty big front line, and they put some big bodies out there with Tasmin and green and Storm Warren and then Harris' length. We got the ball off the rim a few times and couldn't finish, didn't finish, bobbled the ball. It's because of the threat of the bigs coming over. So I wasn't thinking like we -- we rushed a little bit, but I just don't think that we made easy passes. We're always trying to make the tough pass to get the assist. Q. Coach, if you could just talk in detail a little bit more about LSU. I know you said you watched them on film one night, hadn't really prepared for them but you did see some film. What's the difference between -- I'm sorry. Ole Miss now and when you played them earlier this season. COACH PEARL: Ole Miss probably comes into the tournament playing as well as anybody. They won, I believe after they lost to Vanderbilt and Florida, they've won every game coming down the stretch. And they've got great guards. And Warren and Terrico are great players. We beat them at home in overtime, and it was all we could do. I would say that our win against Ole Miss at home is absolutely right there with any of our wins, including Kentucky, Kansas, Ole Miss. Those would be our three biggest wins of the year. That's how -- they come in ranked 21st in the country, and they got good depth. And they're playing for their tournament lives. You know, they're supposedly one of the -- a team that's probably one win -- one quality win away from getting in. And given our ranking and our RPI, not the way we played tonight, but given our ranking and our RPI, we would be a quality win. So we know that they're going to come out -- and then, obviously, I prepared my basketball team for LSU. You have to understand, when there's a chance you're going to play Tasmin Mitchell in his last game -- and that guy's a competitor. And a team as well-coached as Trent Johnson, you'd better prepare your team to play LSU. I promise you we did. It may not have looked like it, but we did. And I did look at Ole Miss on Sunday and Monday myself, Sunday and Monday morning, just because I had to, because I've got to be ready for them now. We play them now in 20-something hours. Q. Bruce, in a best case scenario, you could play four games in four days. Did that factor in at all in your decision maybe not to play as aggressively defensively? COACH PEARL: Yeah, it did. And I don't know that it should have. If we'd have lost the game, I would have put that one on myself. I'm already putting on myself the fact that we didn't come out as aggressively as we should. And, yes, there was a thought in my mind that I didn't want to have to extend too terribly much. And part of it too is because LSU doesn't mind when you extend. They're good against pressure. And also, you must game plan to stop Spencer and Tasmin. So we offered lots of help on those guys, and we made their looks tough. Tasmin was 4 for 12, and 2 of those came late. You know, so I'm not saying the way we guarded wasn't the way to guard LSU. They scored 49 points and shot 36%. But I could have picked up the pace a little bit and maybe not allowed them to -- you know, stay with us as long. And my thought was -- not so much four games in four days, John. Ole Miss in 20 hours. Q. Bruce, I just -- I know you just heard Brian on the podium now. How do you think he's taken advantage of the second opportunity and second chance? COACH PEARL: Brian is a great kid from a wonderful family. And suffered a terrific penalty and certainly is happy to be back, is taking advantage of the opportunity, and wants very much to do -- continue to do positive things. Brian's about a 3.0 student. Brian will graduate in four years from Tennessee. Brian's done a lot of really -- and Brian's playing well right now, and he had a very, very public, visible mistake, and it's not -- it's a very small piece of who he is. However, he understands that there's no margin for error for him, and we'll do everything we can to try to protect him, support him, and I'm very -- I'm obviously very, very happy for him. And he was a big difference in our team. Q. Can this team continue to win and advance throughout the Tournament playing the way that you did today? COACH PEARL: No. If we play like that tomorrow, we won't advance. We'll get beat. We have to play better to beat Ole Miss. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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