KNOXVILLE — Bruce Pearl, like most people with a vested interest in University of Tennessee athletics, had a tough time Monday.
Moments after his UT men’s basketball team defeated Indianapolis 87-73 in an exhibition game at Thompson-Boling Arena, Pearl opened his news conference by expressing support for Volunteers coach Phillip Fulmer, who won’t be retained next season.
“Today was a very difficult day for the Tennessee family,” Pearl said. “It was not a good day for Tennessee. I feel really badly. Coach Fulmer, I don’t know if there’s a better definition of a guy giving it all for Tennessee.
“It would be my goal to be able to do as well as he has for as long as he has. He has tremendous class. He’s an unbelievable warrior, an unbelievable competitor, and I think everybody handled a really bad situation very well.”
As for his team’s performance, Pearl called it “about what I expected.
“I’m not pleased, but about what I suspected it would look like,” Pearl added.
The Vols fell behind 6-0 early and didn’t lead until senior forward Tyler Smith’s slam dunk with 11 minutes, 6 seconds left in the first half.
Indianapolis promptly retook the advantage, and the teams went back and forth until freshman forward Emmanuel Negedu’s put the Vols in front for good with 8:56 left in the half.
UT led 46-31 at the break and held on after that despite a limited roster that didn’t feature junior guard J.P. Prince (shoulder injury), freshman guard Daniel West (academic eligibility issue) or junior guard Josh Tabb (academic, but not eligibility-threatening).
“That’s not necessarily the team that we’re going to put on the floor in a few weeks,” Pearl said. “But there’s still some cause for concern.”
UT’s point guard position is so thin that sophomore walk-on Michael Hubert — who failed to make the UT-Chattanooga roster as a walk-on two years ago, according to Pearl — played 10 minutes.
Hubert, who was sixth on Pearl’s depth chart after the tryout, made the team as walk-on player two weeks ago.
“I just learned his last name today, and I’ve been calling him ‘Mark’ for about a week,” Pearl said. “Someone told me, ‘Coach, you’ve got stop calling him ‘Mark.’ He’s ‘Mike.’
“He wasn’t good enough to walk on at Chattanooga, but he’s good enough to be my backup point guard.”
Smith and freshman guard Scotty Hopson led the Vols with 14 points each.
Junior forward Wayne Chism had 12 points, and Negedu and junior college point guard transfer Bobby Maze added 11 and 10.
Maze, the only healthy scholarship point guard on UT’s roster, also had a game-high seven assists.
“This team has a lot of work to do, but that’s why we work and work and work every day,” Maze said. “This is just the beginning ... but that’s why you have these exhibition games.”
Vols sophomore center Brian Williams scored just six points but pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
UT will host D-II Tusculum in a Friday night exhibition before opening the regular season Nov. 15 against UTC.
