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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS & FINALS: ST. LOUISMarch 25, 2010Wayne ChismScotty HopsonBobby MazeBruce PearlBrian WilliamsST. LOUIS, MISSOURI MODERATOR: Bruce Pearl from Tennessee is our first guest. We're going to ask Coach Pearl to start off with a statement about his team and about being here in St. Louis, and then we'll go to questions. COACH PEARL: We're very excited about being here and still working, still playing. I'm proud of my basketball team for being so resilient throughout the season and continuing to find ways to play good basketball and improve. We won a lot of close games, and we've had a lot of different lineups out there. The task in front of us is as challenging as any we've faced so far this season, having played Kentucky twice and having played Kansas. And now looking at Ohio State, they certainly are right there as a team. They present many, many challenges as far as the quality of their personnel, and also how Coach Matta puts them in positions to be very, very successful. If you do this, they do that. If you do that, they do this. And so it's a challenging preparation. But one that we are very excited about the opportunity for. MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Bruce, this Ohio State team compared to the team you saw in the Sweet 16 with Greg Oden and Mike Conley, how much do you see Thad trying to play a similar way, do the same kinds of things, or how much are they different because they don't have a seven-foot guy like Oden, they don't have a true point guard like Conley; they have more of those wing kind of players? How much are they the same or different from what you saw then? COACH PEARL: They're a different team playing within the same system. I think they're a more difficult team to game plan for, because what they did is what they did. They weren't as multiple. You know, we would bring Oden out in ball screen defense, and we felt that was a weakness. And so we went to that hard. I don't see that defensive necessarily weakness. Even though Greg was a great defensive player, that was something that we took advantage of. And offensively, I think Turner is a better point guard than Michael Conley. Michael Conley was a great player as a freshman, but Turner, as a junior, playing the same position, I think he's harder to match up with. That said, Conley hurt us, Conley hurt us turning corners and getting to the basket and getting to the foul line. Those are things that Evan Turner does very well. So some of the same challenges we had guarding Ohio State in their ball screen spread stuff will be some of the same challenges that we have tomorrow night. Q. Bruce, the critique on Ohio State seems to be that they don't go to their bench as much as a lot of teams. And that lack of depth. I just wonder, is there a way that you try and incorporate that into what you do to draw fouls, or to wear them down? How do you try and attack that? COACH PEARL: If we were the Tennessee team of a couple of years ago, then the style of play perhaps would match up better against a shorter bench. But that's not how we're playing. We're not running and pressing like we were. So fatigue won't be a factor. Whether or not foul trouble is affected is determined on whether or not we do a good job getting the ball inside and how the game is called. And I don't think that fatigue will be a factor too much when Ohio State plays three games in three days in the Big Ten tournament or they play Georgia Tech after a day and a half rest, and they're still playing six guys, they're okay. Could it be a factor on Sunday if they advance, it could be. It would be after a day and a half, an evening Friday game and a Sunday game. But I don't know that it's going to make that much -- these kids have been playing 38, 39 minutes all season long. Whether or not we can wear them out and get them in foul trouble are certainly two things that we'd like to try to get accomplished. Q. Following up on the 2007 Ohio State team. This one obviously has a much better 3-point shooter in Diebler. How do you account for him or how much more dangerous does that make them than what you saw three years ago? COACH PEARL: Well, was it Ron Lewis, was he -- Ron Lewis? He was an unsung hero for them and a real important glue guy. And Diebler is a guy that you have to respect. You have to fear. If he can see it, he can make it. And so you gotta know where he is on the floor. They don't do a lot in transition, but they score in transition with a very high rate of efficiency, because Turner, Lighty, Buford can all get to the basket. Lauderdale can finish around the basket, and you've always got Diebler around on the corner that you have to start guarding as soon as they get possession of the basketball, not allow them to advance, pass the ball to him. If he gets open shots, he's going to make open shots. And certainly a big part of any team's scouting preparation would be to not let him beat you from 3. Because when he does, that makes them even more dangerous. Q. Ohio State, the guys on their team have played one game in a dome. I'm not sure about how much experience your players have. But how do you prepare them both mentally and from a shooting standpoint to play with that kind of a background? COACH PEARL: Well, we just got done with a 50-minute practice, and we spent the majority of the time shooting. Whether it be free throws or individual offense or, you know, some of our things. We're going to leave now and go get our scout done someplace else. I won't -- I'm not going to mention one word to the kids about shooting backgrounds, the size of the building, or depth perception or -- they're 15 feet away from the basket at the foul line. And I don't even want them to think about whatever the differences are. I thought we shot the ball really well just now without Ohio State on the floor. I think my biggest concern is Ohio State guarding us, not the visual aspects of the dome. In all sincerity. And we didn't miss many shots out there unguarded. Q. Two quick questions for you. You've talked in your five years at Tennessee about leaving a mark at Tennessee, player-wise. Tomorrow night with a win, you guys advance to someplace Tennessee basketball program has never been. Have you talked about that? And the second question is we've seen orange already drifting into St. Louis. How important is that in a big dome like this, to have the backing of the big Orange Nation? COACH PEARL: Well, I think it's huge. I think there's a lot of Tennessee folks traveling west into Memphis for the Lady Vols and here into St. Louis for us. And we want to be proud. We're very proud of our university, very proud of the support we receive. We're fourth in the nation in attendance at Thompson-Boling Arena. It's become one of the greatest home-court advantages and one of the best venues in all of college basketball. The next step of development in our program is to do two things: One is to get to the Elite Eight. We've never been there. And, secondly, to continue to have -- develop that following. When Tennessee goes to a bowl game, nobody does it any better. When Lady Vols get into the Big Dance, they have twice -- they have ten times more fans than anybody else. So I think we're going to have great support here. And I think our fans have really supported this basketball team through a season full of trials and tribulations. Our kids are very aware where they are. Like Bob asked the question about the background. I wouldn't say a word about that. But, believe me, we've talked a great deal. We've talked all season long about trying to make history, about trying to do something no Tennessee team has ever done. Q. Just wanted to ask you, the events of a couple of months ago for those who were looking at it from a distance, now when you've had a chance to look back at those suspensions and what you had to do, you had to kind of quantify the effect it had on your team and maybe some things maybe you learned about your team. How would you describe that with a couple months' hindsight? COACH PEARL: Just a reminder, there were four kids that just made a bad decision. And they weren't on their way to do anything wrong at 11:30 in the morning on a Monday. But the incident had to be dealt with. And there are all kinds of cultures that exist that we have to deal with. And one that involved weapons was something that was new and something that we had to say, "You really can't do that if you want to play basketball." In life, when you don't get an opportunity or somebody gets one in front of you, you tend to sometimes give up or quit. You don't stay ready for your opportunity. We had several players that weren't playing, that were the 10th, 11th, 12th guys, nonscholarship guys some of them. They stayed playing they stayed ready for their opportunity to come. I promised them their opportunity was going to come. Renaldo Woolridge and Kenny Hall, Steven Pearl, Josh Bone, Skylar McBee, guys that weren't playing a lot were all of a sudden playing. And they were ready to accept that challenge. They weren't overcome by it. And then the guys that were playing, their roles got expanded and so there was a certain excitement in the standpoint they got to do a little bit more. And take a few more shots and have the ball in their hands a little bit. So it brought out the best in some other guys. And that's what a team's all about. You're going to have injuries. You're going to have situations that happen. And whatever we do, we're a family, we've got to stay together. And I just thought it was -- we did two things: One, we really paid close attention to those four guys for the period of time that they were out and whether it be suspended or dismissed or whatever. And we stayed with them and we are still with them. And the other thing we did was when I was with my team, the guys that I had remaining, they knew I was making sure that those guys were okay. But we didn't talk about them at all. They had nothing to do with our basketball team at that point. It's here's who we are, here's what we got, and here's our next opponent. Q. What has Wayne Chism meant to this team particularly after the suspensions and how different is he from the player that Ohio State saw from the tournament three years ago? COACH PEARL: He's more mature. He's a guy we definitely want to go to in inside/outside situations. His ability to guard is going to be challenged tomorrow. Ohio State is the biggest mismatch and they present you with the biggest match of any team in the tournament. Who guards Turner, who guards Lighty, if you put two guys on him, who has Diebler. It's pretty easy to say your center might guard Lauderdale, but where you go from there is really the great challenge. And so Wayne Chism is an important guy. He's a big man that can do things both inside and outside, offensively and defensively. And I think that our ability to take advantage of him in both areas will be important as far as the outcome tomorrow. Q. Coach, you've used your bench quite a bit this year. Will you use it in the same fashion given Ohio State's short bench, or will you do something different with the rotation? COACH PEARL: We're going to stay with the same rotations pretty much. A lot is going to depend on defensively who is able to be effective out there. But we've played nine or ten guys all season long. We'll continue to play that way. And it allows us to be in a position where one guy doesn't necessarily have to carry you. And maybe it does take some pressure off of, you know, your top player on a given night. And so we'll stay with it. It's been -- a lot of people shorten their bench at this time of year or things. I just never have. Tom Davis, who was my mentor, didn't do it when he got into the tournament. And I've just tried to stay away from it myself. I want the kids -- I have ten guys that will be playing tomorrow. And I've got ten guys that are excited about playing tomorrow. Maybe even 11. Q. You're one of the many coaches in this tournament who have had the experience of taking both the mid-major, the happy-to-be-here types, and the power-conference types. But I'm asking the question: Because of this discussion about Tennessee has never been to the Eight and despite all of the long history, do you feel exactly the same or in any way different with this group as you did when you were in Milwaukee five years ago? COACH PEARL: I think when you get to the first weekend and you're a mid-major, you are more excited about being in the NCAA tournament than a team that's a high-major program that just got done with a high-major conference tournament the weekend before. And there is a different level of passion and intensity that first weekend that you play with. I think when you get to the regional that teams realize at this point we're each two wins away from the Final Four. I don't think it's any more special for Northern Iowa to be here than Tennessee or Ohio State or Michigan State. Each one of these teams says -- Tennessee has got to beat Ohio State, Northern Iowa, Michigan State. We've got to win two games to go to the Final Four. Ohio State is looking at it going, We're a win over Tennessee and a win over Northern Iowa, Michigan State to get to the Final Four. I think the excitement level is the same at this point. But it is different in the first round. I had to make sure that my guys at Tennessee, coming off of, you know, getting beat by Kentucky in the SEC tournament was excited about playing San Diego State, because I know San Diego State was excited about playing us. But this weekend, forget about it. We are all here. We all know what the prize is. And there's not going to be anybody that's going to be any more either ready to play or excited about playing at this point. MODERATOR: Thank you, Bruce. Tennessee Volunteers student-athletes are with us. And we'll go right to questions. Q. Bobby, we've heard about January 1st ad nauseam, are you guys tired of hearing about January 1st, and how much do you think this win might give you guys your own identity instead of the team that had to deal with January 1st? BOBBY MAZE: I think this win means a lot to us because of all we've been through the last couple of weeks. When the seeding came out, people were saying that we would be the first team to get upset. When we played Ohio people said that Georgetown gave us the easy route out. So I think this win alone will say for us that we are a great team, and January 1st don't mean anything. Q. J.P. and Wayne, what does it mean to you guys just being two games away from the Final Four? WAYNE CHISM: It means a lot, but we still have to go through Ohio State first, just to get to the Final Four. Basically to the Elite Eight. So we focus on Ohio State before we can move on to the Elite Eight or the Final Four. J.P. PRINCE: Exactly what Wayne said. We don't try to look ahead because you haven't accomplished that yet. So you really can't worry about that at all. You lose tomorrow, your season's over with and all those questions are irrelevant. So we just focus on Ohio State and trying to get past them first. Q. Wayne, what stands out about the NCAA game three years ago for you against them and how different a player are you now? WAYNE CHISM: We lost a game. So I'm a different player. I'm a senior this year. I'm with a whole new team. So we've got a new identity on this team, because everybody's new. So I'm going to focus on beating these guys tomorrow instead of worrying about three years ago. Q. Wayne, it appears you'll have a far different matchup than the last time. Could you talk about the difference between guarding a conventional post like Greg Oden versus one of the multiple medium-sized guards that Ohio State has, the challenge that you have on the perimeter? WAYNE CHISM: Guarding the guard is no problem for me because during the season I done guarded plenty of guards. So it's just another game that I gotta slide my feet and stay out of foul trouble. Because it is different. Q. Wayne, this is a follow-up to that. Watching Ohio State on film, what is most different about this team now than the one you guys saw in '07 and is there one thing in particular that makes this one more dangerous? WAYNE CHISM: What makes this team different is they're playing four guards and one center. Three years ago, they had the best center in the nation, another best point guard. So I'm playing four guards and a center. Q. Scotty, a lot of the talk this season has been about your offense, but the last game you had a tough defensive matchup. It appears this will be a tough defensive matchup. Could you talk about how far you've come with your defense and how different your defensive mentality is than maybe at the start of the season? SCOTTY HOPSON: Definitely grown throughout the season defensively. As far as my mindset and focus is concerned, I've grown a lot as a player and as a person, and I'm just happy to be in the Sweet 16, and definitely defensive rebounding has to be a focus. That's going to help us win this game. That's going to be the main focus. We're going to execute that and stick to the game plan and do it. Q. Brian, haven't heard from you yet. Tennessee's been to the Sweet 16 a number of times, never made that step beyond. What would it mean, do you think, to the program, to you guys as a team, to take that next step beyond, and has it been talked about much? BRIAN WILLIAMS: It's a mindset going into this game. That's the focus. If we win this game we'll be the best team in Tennessee basketball history. That's a great accomplishment for anybody. There's been great players here throughout the history, and we got a chance to be in the record books. Q. For anybody that wants to answer it, or everybody, what are your impressions of the dome? I guess you've only been in there for an hour, but what are your thoughts of the dome, first impressions? SCOTTY HOPSON: I like the dome. It's a different atmosphere. The balls are soft and the rim seems soft. Shooting I felt confident and I knocked down some shots. And I'm ready to go out and play tomorrow and knock some down. BRIAN WILLIAMS: I mean, it's different. The air is different. As soon as you get your first wind out, it's going to be like any other gym. MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. End of FastScripts |
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