	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: PROVIDENCE

March 20, 2010

J.P. Prince

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

Tennessee Â– 83
Ohio - 68

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by Tennessee, winners over Ohio, 83-68. We have student-athletes Bobby Maze, J.P. Prince, Scotty Hopson, Brian Williams and Wayne Chism. Also we have head coach Bruce Pearl. Coach Pearl would you like to make an opening statement?
COACH PEARL: Sure. I want to congratulate Ohio for getting here, representing the MAC conference so well and playing such great basketball down the stretch. There were some numbers that stand out, particularly defensively when Ohio out shoots their opponent they win at a high percentage. When they score 70 or less their chances of winning go way, way down. I thought the fact that we just didn't let the game get too fast in transition was a key.
We had the advantage inside. We got the ball inside with points in the paint. And it's -- part of the reason why you develop a bench is so that you can have this kind of balance and you can put your team in position for different guys to be able to step up on different nights, one guy doesn't have to carry this team. You look at the balance and the shots that were taken and the minutes that were played and I thought that's part of the reason why we were able to wear them down.

Q. Bobby, you guys play against a lot of good guards in the SEC, Devan Downey from South Carolina comes to mind. Did that experience help you today against those good guards of Ohio?
BOBBY MAZE: Yes, I think it did, playing against some of the toughest guards in the country, playing against a couple of guys last year that made it to the NBA. So I think the experience helped us. But these guards for this team was terrific and they were terrific basketball players. We did all we could do as a team, it was a defensive effort, to help us win this basketball game.

Q. You guys had 18 and 17 points tonight along with the team shooting 56 percent. What led you guys to converting possessions to so many baskets?
J.P. PRINCE: Bobby Maze, basically simple as it was. Advance passes and just getting us on the break. That was -- we had an easy job, just lay the ball up really. 9 assists, just did a great job getting the ball in transition, and that's what we practiced on all week, was getting the ball out, so all the credit goes to him. I didn't have a hard job, just laying the ball up. Just breaking the press and I give all the credit to Bobby.
BOBBY MAZE: I think also our defense created a lot of our offense. We got steals, deflections, and made plays, I think that's just where it was.

Q. Scotty, you're probably known more for your offense but your defense on Bassett was key.
SCOTTY HOPSON: I made sure that before he caught the ball a made it tough. Contested whatever he did, tried to force him, keep him out of a rhythm, whatever he did. I was just working hard to make everything difficult for him.

Q. Wayne, you guys are going to be going to the Sweet 16? St. Louis. As a senior and this being your last year, how big is that for you?
WAYNE CHISM: It's pretty big. I've been there twice already and came up short twice. I'm happy to be back on that stage again, and I just can't wait to get there and be prepared to play the next team.

Q. Can you just talk about the decision to play Josh B? I asked you about that yesterday, and you said you probably wouldn't. But just Josh, keeping his head in the game, he's only played one minute in the last 10 or 11 games?
COACH PEARL: Just defensively, I talked prior to the game the fact that a lot of teams had one guy that could cover Cooper or Bassett. But I didn't think a lot of teams had two guys that could do it. I was concerned about the become up two. I just didn't think Cameron or J.P. were going to be able to get through the screens and do the things they needed to do.
And in thinking about it I just went with what has been getting us -- getting the job done all year long and that is having confidence in our bench and I just felt like -- I trusted Josh. Josh has stayed ready. He's practiced well. I continue to use Josh in different teaching examples in practice, it's the Josh Bone rebound, that's a Josh Bone loose ball, that's a Josh Bone play. And maybe I'm the bonehead for not playing him anymore. But he hasn't played in about ten games. But I just felt like -- I felt like I needed a tough guy out there. I needed a tough guy.
I needed a defender. And the only thing it did is Cameron Tatum has been playing well, but he's been playing the two positions behind Scotty and J.P. and in a day and a half to prepare, that's hard to play two positions. Wayne Chism plays two positions. That's hard to do, especially when you've got a scout and different match ups, and we press under the OB. So I just thought Cameron was thinking too much. So he played all the minutes behind J.P., and then he got a few minutes at the two, as well. But Josh Bone did a terrific job.

Q. Even though they got the lead down to around 6 points a couple of times in the second half, did you ever feel that you lost control of the game?
COACH PEARL: No, I didn't feel we lost control. We got emotional sometimes over there at the bench but I felt like because of the heavy minutes that Bassett and Cooper and Freeman and Washington were playing that as long as we continued to make them cover and be patient ourselves, and so we were not rushing in our half court offense. And at the same time we were continuing to attack, anytime they extended. And they were down just enough to have to extend.
Yeah, they turned us over a couple of times but we also got a lot of balls at the rim. So I wasn't -- didn't get to the point where I was too terribly concerned that we were going to blow it.

Q. It looked like you had a cast of thousands out there guarding Bassett and Cooper at times. Could you tell what was involved in team defense and holding those guys down?
COACH PEARL: Again, this is reminiscent, this is the same story of coaches taking time to, continuing to learn and grow. The way we guarded ball screens and the way they ball screens in the NBA. We had to go learn how to go do that. And in this particular case we just didn't let their guards get to the ball screen because once they got to the ball screens, turned corners, it was anything they wanted. Their whole offense was predicated on turning corners. We didn't let them turn corners.
Early in the game we did, but after the first three or four minutes. And then we put the ball in the hands of their forwards. And in the case of Washington or Van Kempen, they were used to -- Keely, those guys were used to the other guys having to make plays. And we didn't want those guards making plays, we had seen them make plays against Georgetown, couldn't have that. So we wanted them to make plays. They got a few shots but I didn't think they could beat us by trying not to let those guys get to the ball screen.

Q. How much did it mean even Final Fours briefly to get some of these guys who kind of filled in for you earlier in the year when you needed them into the game, even if it was late in the game? How much did some of these guys really help you out when you needed them, like the Kansas game, specifically?
COACH PEARL: There's no question, Josh Bone and Renaldo Woolridge, Skylar McBee, those guys all played a lot in a stretch of games where we had wins over Charlotte, Kansas, Auburn and Ole Miss. And two of those teams were national ranked and Charlotte was really right there. We're a team, we're a family, and those guys got us through. And then when the guys came back little by little, they didn't lose their spots right away. They had opportunity to hold on to them. And I think that was part of the way we dealt with that was, when those guys first came back, they didn't start playing right away. They had to earn their spots. And I think the guys that were there new it and appreciated it and understood it. You could see how valuable Brian Williams is. We don't get here to this game in Melvin Goins doesn't step up to San Diego State, and Cameron Tatum, I thought, played well and so it's a team.

Q. For the uninitiated who don't see you all the time, what are we to make of you? Who are you guys?
COACH PEARL: Who are we, Tennessee?

Q. Yes.
COACH PEARL: We are a proud state that is honored to be very competitive in basketball. We've got the finest women's program in the country and the greatest coach in America in Pat Summitt. We are a university that supports its athletic programs. We're fourth in the nation in attendance. We average over 20,000 people a game. And we're desperately trying to get our men's basketball program up to the level of excellence that the rest of the university enjoys. The only way you can do that is to get into this tournament and stick around for an while.

Q. What about you as a team? I'm trying to get a handle on what your team is about?
COACH PEARL: The sum of our parts are what's greatest. It's not five guys. Our top five guys aren't necessarily going to win in this tournament, but our ten can. And so we are a team with -- that has got many dimensions. A team that plays hard defensively. When we defend a rebound we've got a chance to win. And obviously we have great balance.

Q. You out-scored them I believe 58-12 in the paint. What were you able to do that third seeded Georgetown couldn't to get the ball in the paint effectively?
COACH PEARL: You know, our offense is designed to try to go there. Wayne Chism, I can't believe he only got 7 shots, but Brian got his and I thought J.P. Prince played as well as any player in this tournament this weekend. I thought that his ability to get the ball to the rim, score around the basket, his toughness and there are guys that the closer you get to the basket the better they look.

Q. You talked a little bit about the development of your bench and your increasing trust in it. You played a team today that was heavily reliant on their starters. If seeds hold you will get another team that's thin in its bench. Talk about how you can utilize your depth in the tournament setting in the context of your increasing trust of the lineup you're looking at now?
COACH PEARL: Well, I think a lot of times teams will shorten their bench come tournament time. I understand that because you just want to put your best players out there and you don't want to -- you lose and it's over. But the system that we employ that I learned from Dr. Tom Davis is one that doesn't go in that direction.
It takes unselfish players to play this way. In other words, Wayne Chism only got seven shots? If he gets 12 or 13 shots he has a double double. But I think that it's a long season and you've got injuries, you've got fatigue and I think that on a given night you're not always -- if you've got to play great every night -- if you have I an off night someone else has to pick you up. Melvin was amazing the other night. Tonight Bobby was more effective defensively. Nobody talks about Bobby Maze and Melvin Goins, they talk about the other great guards in your league, John Wall, and you name -- my mind is not working right now. But together they're pretty good point guard. And I think that's the direction we go in as we come to tournament time. And the depth has a chance to help us at the end of games and at the end of the season.

Q. This is now your fourth Sweet 16 in five years. How is it you are able to create this sort of program at Tennessee where others have failed and what do you have to do to go to the next step and get to the Elite 8?
COACH PEARL: You've got to win a game. You've just got to win another game. We'd like to -- one more would get us to some place we've not been, and that's to the Elite 8. So certainly the team has got great motivation to try to accomplish that. We're also mindful of where we come from, that's the SEC. And we'd like to -- we really want to represent our conference in this tournament and continue to move -- obviously continue to move forward.
We'll stay hungry and humble. We'll see what our next match up is. I thought the guys had a facial measured response, but the quality of the next opponent is going to be a step up. There are going to be several NBA players on those rosters. And those rosters are going to look a lot more like Kentucky, a team that we were 1-2 against. Or Florida, a team that we were 1-1 against. Physically. We were a better team than Ohio and we played better, that's why we won. Are we better than our next two opponents? I don't know. The seeding would say maybe not.
So we've got to continue to defend and rebound, continue to make enough shots on the perimeter to keep folks honest and see if we can get to the next round.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297