|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2010Wayne ChismBruce PearlCameron TatumNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Tennessee – 76 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue on with Tennessee. We'll ask Coach Pearl for some general thoughts on the game, and then we'll take your questions just for the two student-athletes. Coach, would you begin. COACH PEARL: That was a good win because Ole Miss is a really good basketball team. They've got great guards. They're extremely well-coached. They were playing very well coming down the stretch. I think you could see from the beginning they were extremely prepared. They came out and made some tough shots. And they really got some dangerous guards. Obviously, from three they made nine of them. But I thought that there were some differences for us, and they're probably sitting right up here, a couple of them anyway. I thought our seniors -- Bobby, J.P., and Wayne -- continue to lead us on the floor and by example. And then Cameron little by little has just put himself right into the personality of this basketball team. He's always been a big face on our team this year, but because of some injuries and missing a few games, he just hasn't been able to shine as consistently. So it's a great time to have him back, and he's a terrific weapon. THE MODERATOR: We'll take your questions for either of the two student-athletes. Q. Hey, Wayne, when we had you at the Florida game about ten days ago or so, you took a hard fall. You were in a the lot of pain at the end of that game. And I noticed today at the end of this game you looked like you were in a little bit of pain. Can you tell us how your hip feels, what hurts, how much. Just assess your condition right now. WAYNE CHISM: I can say my condition is very, very good right now. The way I got treatment after that game, even though it still hurt in some of the games I played after that, but I fought through it, and that's what I do. I fight through all the injuries that I have and keep playing and get treatment at the same time. Q. Are you 100%? WAYNE CHISM: I could say I'm 100%. I'm moving a lot faster now, not with a limp either. Q. Wayne, playing games in back to back days, you seem to have more energy at the end of that game today than anybody on the floor. Did you not feel at all tired today? WAYNE CHISM: No, I didn't. I actually looked at the paper, and I played 36 minutes, and I was like, that's the most. Obviously, I played 41 against them last time. But down the stretch in these types of games, you've really got to have a lot of energy. You've got to really make plays down the stretch because a lot of teams going to give up at the end because they know what's at stake. So you try to take a team lightly down the stretch, it's going to be a bad thing. I really made good things down the stretch to help us come out with a good win today. Q. Just for Cam, if you could talk about your performance, getting that many shots up and how in the flow you felt, I guess, early on. CAMERON TATUM: You know, my teammates did a great job in finding me today. Wayne Chism and the rest of the senior leaders, they were telling me, keep shooting the ball. Obviously, last night kind of struggled from the field and struggled from shooting on the outside. In the hotel room and after the game and even before today's game, they were just telling me, be ready to shoot. You're a good shooter. Just stay ready. And coaches and staff and all of them did a great job keeping us prepared and giving us good looks at outside shots. Q. For Wayne, any feelings about getting Kentucky for a third time? Just how that rivalry has evolved in your four years here. WAYNE CHISM: That rivalry get big every year because they get better players coming in, and every time you play in Tennessee, it's always going to be a big rival because it's going to be a big crowd. When we play Kentucky tomorrow, we've really got to be focused because they're going to have the whole arena. You seen that today when they played. They had the whole arena. So we've really got to come out and be very patient against these guys because they're going to have the crowd on their side. Q. For both the players, you guys know, maybe better than anybody in the country, what it takes to beat Kentucky. What is that? WAYNE CHISM: The way to beat Kentucky is just play basketball. I mean, a lot of teams probably get scared to play these guys, but obviously when you go out and play somebody bigger and better on your schedule, you just come out and play basketball because that's one thing you know how to do. You come out and play different than what you all usually do, it's going to be a big mistake. So our team's just going to get prepared and get ready for Kentucky tomorrow. CAMERON TATUM: I think he said it best. You know, just go out there and play your game. Play what's got you to this point. Don't try to do anything out of the ordinary. Play a great team ball. Play hard great team ball. You know, let everything fall in its place. Everybody knows they're a great team and that if you try to get out of your element and try to do things you're not accustomed to doing, then everything's going to fall apart, and they're going to attack that and take advantage of that. Best thing you can do for that is continue to play hard. Pay attention to the scout, whatever your coaches have prepared for you, and like I said, just play basketball. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the two student-athletes. We'll continue on with Coach Pearl. Q. Bruce, I realize Wayne's had a great career, but it just seems like these two games back to back here, he's just been so focused and so immersed in the game from start to finish. Could you kind of comment on that. COACH PEARL: He's played well here in Nashville. We've been in this building several times. He won the game for us against Marquette a couple years ago in that big east-SEC challenge. And I think there's a comfort level, obviously, for him. Our guys don't want this to end, and they're playing hard so that it can continue. And, yes, they want a championship, but they just want to keep playing, and nobody wants that more than the seniors. I think, if you look at the stat sheet and you look at Wayne and J.P. and Bobby, it bears that out. Q. Congratulations, Bruce. Can you just talk about how you've had to adjust your style of play at all since you lost Tyler and since you lost the other guys for several games. What adjustments have you had to make, and how would you describe the style of play you have right now? COACH PEARL: I think two things: One, you've got to prepare your team for adversity at all times, and so that when it comes up, they're not shocked or surprised by it. To be able to find a way and have other guys step up. Other guys that aren't playing a lot to be able to come in and assume a role. And that's one of the things that we will never forget about this season is when we were shorthand. We were able to beat Charlotte and Kansas and Auburn and Ole Miss with six scholarship players. And little by little, getting guys back gave us energy, and we were able to improve as a team as the season progressed. The biggest thing as far as the style of play changes, as we put a team on the floor, like for example, Ole Miss is terrifically athletic, but we are bigger than they are. The closer we get to the basket, the better we look. The farther away we get from the basket, the better they look. So we brought things a little tighter offensively and defensively, tried to make people score over us and not extend quite as much. We still turn people over, but not like we used to. And so just go to your strengths and stay away from your weaknesses. Q. Bruce, you've played two, they played one. They like to get up and down the floor as you know. Any concern about the fatigue? COACH PEARL: Trainers told me that really we wouldn't have a problem the second night at all, that the kids would actually feel better today because we tried not to overtrain them this week. We took Sunday off. We went light Monday. Tuesday was a good go. We went light Wednesday. And so if anything, they were a little underconditioned yesterday. Today they felt good, and they needed to feel good because I'm telling you that Ole Miss team was a good basketball team. But tomorrow will be tougher. The third game in three days. And so the thing that I remind them of is things that we do in the off-season and the preseason like gate 10 over at the football stadium. We've been running that thing since I got here, and we run it early in the morning, and we run it for games like tomorrow. Q. Coach, can you just -- obviously, Cam stepped up on the wing and hit some threes. What do you say to Scotty? I know he missed a few more threes. He did get to the basket a couple of times, and what's the approach to get him going? COACH PEARL: I think Cam did a terrific job. Obviously, Ole Miss plays some zone and saw how much the zone bothered us against LSU, really slowed us down. And we did not shoot the ball as well yesterday as we did today. So Cameron coming in and making those shots, most of them, I believe, were against the zone, really opened things up for us on the inside. I thought Scotty -- it's tough for him because, again, he's very close to home here. He's -- once you get to where you're not playing as well, then it becomes a mindset. Going to try to get him to focus on other aspects of the game, like his defense, his rebounding, you know, making those kinds of plays, trying to take the pressure off of him from scoring. Because he clearly doesn't have confidence shooting the ball in this building, and that's something he's going to have another opportunity tomorrow to overcome. Q. Just to follow up. Chris Warren today, I think, nine turnovers. First game, Josh Bone was in. Today it was Melvin Goins and Bobby Maze. Can you just talk about the importance of the guard play today on Warren. COACH PEARL: Chris Warren is better from the three than he is from the two. When we didn't press up on him, he knocked down tough shots. When we did press up on him and made him get into the lane, our guys were able to strip and rip. The physicality of the paint was not as much to his liking, and so therefore we were able to make some plays with our length and with our physicality as he got into the lane. You've got to stay pressed up on him because he's a tremendous, tremendous play -- scorer and shooter. Q. Bruce, you said earlier in the week it was going to be a tough draw. Just your thoughts about getting Kentucky for a third time and the crowd factor. COACH PEARL: I thought the draw was tough because of LSU and Ole Miss and then leading onto Kentucky and then whatever the other bracket brings out because I knew that LSU could stay in the game. They have all year long. I was really concerned about Ole Miss from the standpoint of great guard play. I had won four in a row coming down the stretch. And then knowing that Kentucky was going to play a game, and I got a chance to see some of that game. Obviously, they didn't come out with the same energy that they will tomorrow. And akin to, I guess, the way we sort of came out against LSU, and you could see how much more energized we were. But, look, if you want to be a champion, you've got to beat the best, and Kentucky is the best. They are the best team here. They're one of the best teams in the country. And, obviously, an opportunity to play them and win a championship is something that you relish that opportunity. And we'll prepare, and we'll get after it. Q. Bruce, I saw you working the crowd a little bit early in the game. They responded well to your program and your style and all. But that kind of surprised me, A, and, B, are you concerned about that tomorrow given the fact it won't necessarily be neutral in here tomorrow? COACH PEARL: Well, we are in Nashville, Tennessee, and we're going to try to defend our territory. And I understand that we've got some wonderful visitors from the north that are probably -- they rival Tennessee as the greatest basketball fans in the country. No, I've got obviously tremendous respect for their program and great admiration. I was at Southern Indiana for nine years, and my greatest rivals were Northern Kentucky and Kentucky Wesleyan. And now I'm so blessed to be in Tennessee, and we'd like for Tennessee to be one of Kentucky's rivals. You've got to beat them every now and then to be a rivalry. So tomorrow will be a great opportunity, and we know it will be a tough task. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|