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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: PROVIDENCEMarch 17, 2010Wayne ChismScotty HopsonBobby MazeBruce PearlJ.P. PrinceBrian WilliamsPROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Tennessee student-athletes, Bobby Maze, Wayne Chism, J.P. Prince, Scottie Hopson and Brian Williams. Q. It's been kind of an emotional season and a lot of things that went on in terms of personnel starting with Emmanuel in the beginning. Can you talk about the road it's been to get here this year, being a little different? WAYNE CHISM: It hasn't been different. We kept our minds straight on what we wanted to do this season, even though we had them on our mind of what things were happening this season, but we kept our heads straight and we stayed focused and competed. BOBBY MAZE: Well, everything -- we believe everything happened for a reason. Emmanuel Negedu and the situation was difficult for all of us because he was like our brother. But he's still with us now. And he's one of the reasons why we are inspired to win this thing. Q. Wayne, big factor going into this game, the maybe trouble at times you guys have had with the rebounding end of things and that's what San Diego State does best is gets their misses. Is that something you guys have addressed in the couple of days leading up to this match up and what you looked at on tape? WAYNE CHISM: They are a good rebounding team and so are we. We come out and are prepared for any team. Rebounding wins championships, that's why this team has been focused on defending and rebounding, so that's our thing to rebound and defend. Q. J.P., you look like you'd be the natural match up for Leonard, he seems to be their best player. You've gone up against a lot of great players, what do you see out of him when you look at him on tape? J.P. PRINCE: He's a tough physical guy, he rebounds off the glass real well. He's better from 2 than 3. It's a match up I'm looking forward to. He's a tough guy. He's All-Conference in their league. It's something I'm looking forward to. And I can't wait. Q. It doesn't seem like it's a shock for anybody anymore, you've gone up against a lot of great freshmen and here's another one. Is it tough to believe at times that he's playing so well as a freshman? J.P. PRINCE: No, coming to college as a freshman they're well prepared, summer workouts and stuff, and AAU basketball has advanced now. I'm not surprised that a freshman is successful. We've had freshmen that are successful, so it doesn't really shock me. Q. Just from the outside Bruce seems like such a colorful personality, would you talk about what it's like playing for him? SCOTTY HOPSON: Well, Coach Pearl is more than a coach to us, he's like a father figure to all of us. He's always enthusiastic. He's a great guy to play for. I love the interaction with him. He's always giving advice, teaching us and helping us in any type of way, so it's great to play for coach. BRIAN WILLIAMS: What Scottie said, his enthusiasm goes off on his players, and it gets us hyper, because he's a hyper coach. He gets us rowdy and he's a great motivator. Q. Would you ever take him clothes shopping with you? BOBBY MAZE: What exactly do you mean by clothes shopping? The jacket that he wears on the big games or just overall? Q. Either, just general fashion sense. BOBBY MAZE: No, I can't take him clothes shopping with me, I think that would be a violation (laughter.) Q. The 3-point shooting difficulties have been pretty well documented over the last five or ten games. Did you guys come in and pay immediate attention to this arena do you have any idea or feel for how things might go in Providence as compared to Nashville? BOBBY MAZE: One thing I learned as a shooter is not to worry about your last miss, worry about your next make. Right now it doesn't matter what happened in the past shooting-wise because, it's 0-0. One game and you go home. You better be prepared to knock down the 3's and knock down the shots that you take. SCOTTY HOPSON: I'm looking for an opportunity to get another chance to play basketball like I know how to play. I'm looking forward to making shots for my teammates and helping win this game for us. Q. Before you saw San Diego State's name on the bracket, had any of you guys seen them play at all? WAYNE CHISM: Actually we haven't seen those guys play. We heard a lot about them. When we seen our name pop up and their name pop up, it's going to be a good game, because that's a great team we're going to be going up against. BOBBY MAZE: Most of the time we've never been on the West Coast schedule. Sometimes their games come on at 10, 11 o'clock at night. And by that time, night night (laughter.) Q. San Diego State has sort of been the popular upset pick when you look at the brackets, a lot of experts are saying this is the 11 that's going to win. What do you guys think when you hear something like that? J.P. PRINCE: Well, us as players, I don't think we pay much attention to that, because there's no real thing as an expert. We've seen them make right picks and we've seen them make wrong picks. You can't take much of it. If everybody picked, the higher seeds would just advance, and there wouldn't be no point in having this tournament. I don't think it matters what an analyst says. We as players come out, we know if we do what we're supposed to do we have a good chance to win this game. THE MODERATOR: Now joining us, Coach Bruce Pearl. Any opening comments, Coach Pearl. COACH PEARL: We're very excited about being in Providence and competing in the NCAA Tournament. I've got so many unbelievable memories of being in the NCAA Tournament. Boston College as a student assistant. And then being at the University of Iowa and having the great fortune of advancing at Iowa in our early years deep into the tournament and getting a game from the Final Four. And I think sometimes when you're young you just don't appreciate how special it is, or how close you actually got. And I mentioned BC, because obviously this is close to home for me, this is where I grew up. And I'm still a huge Red Sox fan and Patriots fan and Celtics fan and Bruins fan. I've got great respect of the early days of ECAC and Boston College and UCONN and I remember being in this building when it first opened up with Marvin Barnes and Ernie DiGregorio and growing in right down the road and having this as a huge basketball, a place where college basketball was respected in New England when that really wasn't the case. There wasn't much perception of college basketball. So just excited to be here. I want to try to have my team feel the exact same way. This is special. And it doesn't take many wins to become incredibly special because you win a game and have to half the field is gone. You win a game, half the other field is gone, the next thing you know you're there. Our team has worked hard, been resilient this year, and dealt with a lot of adversity to be able to find ourselves in this position. Q. Since you were an assistant coach at Iowa at the time, I wonder if you have memories of Michigan's run with Steve Fisher. As an assistant, were your pulling for him because he had gone from assistant to head coach? COACH PEARL: Yeah, because assistants, we have sort of a bond among ourselves when we go recruit in different gymnasiums, we sit together and the head coaches usually sit together sometimes. Steve was an assistant at Michigan, and he was a guy that, back then, had been around a little bit longer than me. So he was one of the assistant coaches that I always kind of looked up to and hung around a little bit to find out what gyms he was going into, especially when I was recruiting in the Michigan area. And a really, really good guy. And so you were happy that he got that opportunity because he was such a good person. And then I didn't know what kind of coach he was. I don't think anybody really could know. But you found out in a hurry how good a coach he was. Not only with that team but with the teams subsequent to those years. I think as Michigan would look back at Bill Frieder and Steve, those are some pretty good days at Michigan. I think days that they would like to have back. And I could tell you from watching the San Diego State teams, there's a reason why -- he's been at San Diego State for 11 years and he's been there longer than anybody in that league. There's been a lot of turnover in his league over the years, and I can see why, because he wins. And they do really, really good stuff. I've enjoyed watching his team play. Q. You talked about the resilience of this team. Have you ever had a season where you have been forced to be this resilient or perhaps to coach and adjust on the fly as much as you have this year? COACH PEARL: No. When you get down to six scholarship players and three walk-ons and you're playing Charlotte and Ole Miss and you really don't know what you have, it's January 2nd and all that you've done in the preseason, all that you've done in the offseason, the whole way that you've built your team is now maybe going to change course, but one of the things that we do in coaching is we try to prepare our players to handle adversity. We also try to remind our young people that when it's not going your way and you're not getting the playing time you want to get, and I'm talking about the 10th and 11th and 12th man, don't think about transferring some place else and go some place else and find yourself in the same situation, but do something about it and stay ready, because I promise you your opportunity is going to come. Will you be ready? And I think guys like Renaldo Woolridge and Kenny Hall were two of those guys that responded immediately. And then the walk-ons, Josh Bone, Skylar McBee and Steven Pearl went from -- and Josh and Steven's case, not playing hardly at all to be in the regular rotation and making plays. I'm proud of those kids because they've got something they've accomplished at a very high level that we wouldn't be here without them. And they know it and the rest of our guys know it. And then when guys came back, as they came back, I thought our fans -- I think our athletic administration did a wonderful job dealing with the situation and supporting the student-athletes on both sides of the equation, the guys that got in some trouble and the guys that remained. And being able to do the best we could with both of them. And that helped when the guys came back. And we welcomed them back, and then they ultimately made us a better basketball team. Q. You said you really enjoyed watching San Diego State on film. What about their style of play do you like watching and also who could you compare them to, have you seen another team this season that you could kind of compare how they are? COACH PEARL: They're one of the more athletic teams in the country. The Mountain West Conference has got as many teams in the dance as the SEC. They come in really prepared. When you go to BYU and you go to Vegas and go to some of the places, UNLV that they've got to be, it's like us going to Lexington or Florida. They're prepared. And they're not going to be so much intimidated by the SEC athlete size. They see it on a regular basis in that league. They're athletic, but yet they're very under control. They understand their roles. The coach puts them in positions they understand. Like every individual we know what they can do. We know what they can't do. And you don't see their players oftentimes doing things they can't do. So from that standpoint I enjoy it. I enjoyed the offensive spacing. And then defensively -- and their tenacity rebounding the ball. They make 40 percent of their shots, and they rebound 46 percent of their misses. It's a nice combination. And they can't make it, they go get it. And they go get it, they're ferocious about us about it. We've got to do a great job of checking it out. If we don't physically check them out they will physically fly around us and over us and through us and rebound the offensive glass. Their first shot offense is good. Their second shot offense is outstanding. Q. The U.S. Education Secretary came out today and says he does not believe that basketball programs that do not graduate 40 percent of their players should be allowed to play in the postseason. On the list they put out was Tennessee. Can I get your reaction to that? COACH PEARL: We are very disappointed and apologetic in many, many ways to be on that list. I've been at Tennessee for five years. We've made progress every year. Our numbers are much better than they were. They're not where I want them to be. I want to graduate them all. Every player that has stayed with me for four years, and I've only been there five years, okay, graduated. And I'm going to continue -- all I can do is control what I have. That percentage was, as it was a historical study. And we do a much better job in other sports. We do an amazing job with our women. We will improve on that number and we have. I have three seniors this year, two are graduating on time. And one will graduate after another semester. I get concerned about a flat number, 40 percent, 39 percent, 41 percent. There are lots and lots of rules in place now where scholarships are being taken, the APR, where there is a tremendous benefit for schools to graduate their players. I also don't mind reminding the Secretary that one of the greatest disservices that take place in our country is the difference in secondary education. I'll take you to any state. I'll show you a college-campus looking high school with computers and laptops and state-of-the-art technology. I'll take you to the rural areas and inner city areas, they don't have half the resources, because the way schools are funded through property taxes. If he wants to fix it, fix it at the high school level, at the middle school level, at the elementary school level. I share. I'm an educator, I'm a teacher, I share the pain in not having student-athletes graduate. But I don't want to deny the opportunity to students that aren't prepared. And I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to fight for the student-athletes that come in and aren't as prepared. We want to do the very best job we can to graduate him. His problems in this country, in our educational system, lie elsewhere. Q. Talking to some of your players, they say how personally invested you are in their lives. With that in mind, how difficult was the episode in early January to deal with all of that? COACH PEARL: Are you a dad? Q. No. COACH PEARL: When you will be, you'll enjoy most of it. One of the things you'll find difficult will be when you have to discipline your children and have to do the things that are required. I e-mailed Tyler the other day, he's over in Turkey, he's played two games, averaged 17 points in each game. And maybe he was surprised to hear from me, but, no, he's not, not really. When we get him back and we'll graduate him in a few years, when he gets done. It was tough. But at the same time, we are in a very public situation. And so therefore when we don't graduate them at the right percentage we've got to be accountable, we don't have the right numbers, we've got to be embarrassed by it. And when we step out of line, the opportunity to play is a privilege. Tyler understood that. He made a mistake. The crime didn't fit the punishment. The punishment was pretty severe. He wasn't on his way to commit a crime, he made a bad decision. But it's a statement to the next guy that's thinking it's okay. It's not acceptable to have weapons on your possession. Kids on college campuses have said, as they've had their own self discipline, we don't want it. And therefore it's something that we had to do. And then the other guys, the other guys appreciate also the patience that the University accepted with them and their mistakes and working really, really hard to do more positive things and bring some success to the University. Okay, we've dealt with this adversity. What's the best thing we can do? Let's play great basketball. Let's take care of our business off the floor. Let's do great things, like we've been doing. So at some point they'll be saying positive things about Tennessee and our athletics program. Q. Let me preface this statement by saying President Obama picked you guys to win. San Diego State has sort of been adopted by the national prognosticators that they're the upset special. Is that motivation for you guys? On the flip side, you've been here five years straight, is that the kiss of death, when everybody says you're the upset special? COACH PEARL: No, they've advanced in the postseason. They advanced in the NIT last year. They've watched us on tape. We've seen some good things. We've watched them on tape. We've seen some good things. We respect the players. I don't think that would be the issue. I think President Obama -- overwhelmingly carried the State of California. He doesn't need to be concerned there. He didn't carry Tennessee. It's all political, you know. He's a smart man. He's a really smart man. I don't know whether he's smart in his pick, but politically smart. I think it's really neat that he's willing to do the brackets and piss half the people off. I think it's great. The game's going to be played out there on the floor. My anticipation, it's going to be a close game, because of the quality of the teams. And the seeding -- if you look at the midwest, and if you look at the 6-11 or 7-10 or 8-9, they're close games, they really are. And we're going to have to play well to win. If we play well we'll win. If we don't play well or very well, we won't win, they're that good. Q. What's been your focus as far as your team coming into this, all the different facets you've covered throughout the growth of this team, what's been the focus in these last few days leading up to this? COACH PEARL: We try to do the same things. We try to keep a continuity about the way we travel, about our routines, about our practices. The media and the meetings, you've got to be here and there and the dress code, that stuff is a little different, but we've been here before so we've been through that. But we try to keep things as normal. Film sessions normal. Now, the late tip is not something -- we're not used to a 10:00 tip or 9:45 tip. But part of it is we understand what San Diego State is going to do because what they do is what they do, and it's not complicated. It's excellent. But for me, I think if you're asking about anything different, we've got to focus on what we do. We've got to get doing it. And our guys have to have a clear understanding of where we might have an advantage and where we have disadvantages and to go to our advantages and stay away from where we don't have advantages. And it would really, really help if we could make a few shots. That would really help our chances to win. End of FastScripts |
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