KNOXVILLE — We’ve got double-barrel sports action tonight in the UT blog zone.

Here are some transcripts from Tuesday afternoon, post-practice interviews with University of Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and Volunteers junior forward Tyler Smith.

Smith was named SEC player of the week after recording the first triple-double in UT history against UNC-Asheville.

The eighth-ranked Vols (6-1) travel to Philadelphia this weekend for a noon Saturday game at Temple (4-3).

BRUCE PEARL

Q: It looked like the guys were fighting hard out there, and they look exhausted. What were your impressions of today’s scrimmage?

PEARL: “This was the hardest practice of the year. Practice is over, and I count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bodies on the floor. I’d say that was a successful practice.

“We need this, because we’re going to be facing a lot more adversity now — on the road, in a hostile environment, and so forth.”

Q: What did you tell the team before today’s work?

PEARL: “They knew we were going to have officials today, and they knew that it would be the hardest day of the year. I told them, ‘Let’s learn; let’s compete.’ We’ve got some competition going on out here.

“As tough as Saturday is going to be, this is way physically tougher. We did succumb to fatigue. We did, at times. But then there were times we played through it. I thought they learned a lot.”

Q: Were you particularly impressed with one or two players today?

“I think J.P. (Prince) is separating himself. He finds himself on the winning team a lot. Tyler (Smith) is consistently our best player. He’s our best game player and our best practice player.”

Q: How did all the guys competing for starting positions respond to today’s scrimmage?

PEARL: “There were some things, there was some language, there were some things discussed out there that need to stay in here. Yeah, it was competitive, but when it’s over, it’s over. I don’t think there’s any hard feelings.”

Q: Do you think that kind of competition will bring the best out of your guys?

PEARL: “Oh, yeah. I think it does. The last two days, we took the top 11 players and we played against each other. We rarely played against the scout team, and I think that’s the best way. The only way Brian (Williams) is going to get better is to play against Wayne (Chism). The only way Tyler is going to play better is to play against Emanuel (Negedu). The only way Bobby (Maze) is going to get better is to play against Josh (Tabb). That’s the deal.”

Q: Were you trying to create some adversity today to plan them for what’s ahead?

PEARL: “Yeah.”

Q: Are you trying to teach them more than challenge them?

PEARL: “We keep talking about progression. Temple’s going to do some weave and ball-screen and high-low and some dribble-drive action that we’ve got to build a wall on. So we took our top guys and ran Temple’s stuff as best as we could versus the scout team, because we had time to do that this week.”

TYLER SMITH

Q: Was today as tough as it looked?

SMITH: “Oh, man, it was rough. Like Coach said, guys are going for their starting positions, and guys took it to heart. Guys wanted to go out there and play their hardest, and we came out with a couple of nicks and bruises.”

Q: Obviously your starting position isn’t in doubt, but can you see fight from guys who are battling for their positions?

SMITH: “Oh, yeah. But I want to look at is as mine, too. Wayne is right behind me, and he’s doing well for himself. Everybody was taking it as personal, that their jobs were up for grabs. But I don’t think there were any players getting mad at each other. I think it was just a great, competitive (environment), as it was in the beginning of October.”

Q: This looked like a basketball equivalent of two-a-day football practices, with few people on campus but you guys busting each other’s heads out here. Does that sound about right?

SMITH: “Oh, yeah. That’s exactly what it feels like. We’re in here practicing, and some guys have so much time on their hands that they can come back again (today). But Coach Pearl is trying to (spread) it out, where we have time to do our schoolwork and time to practice.”

Q: Do you mentally break the season down into three or four pieces — like Coach Pearl does — to prepare yourself?

SMITH: “Kind of, but that’s Coach’s own thing. I just want to take it one game at a time. We listen to Coach and go with his philosophy on how he wants it, though. That’s the way it’s going to be when it comes to March, so that’s a great way to look at it.”

Q: What do you know about Temple?

SMITH: “All I know is that they were my first official game (as a Vol) last year. I know they’ve got a great player in Dionte Christmas. That’s pretty much all I know, but we’re going to get some film to watch today and go from there.”

Q: Obviously this is a business trip, but Coach Pearl said you guys would visit some of Philadelphia’s historic sites. Are you looking forward to that?

SMITH: “It’s going to be great. A lot of guys haven’t been up there, including myself. I haven’t been able to see the historic stuff up there like the Liberty Bell, so going up there to see those will be great.”

Read Wednesday’s Times Free Press for more UT coverage.

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