KNOXVILLE - Listed below is a full transcript from University of Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl's weekly Monday afternoon meeting with the media.
The Volunteers (18-6, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) tumbled eight spots to No. 20 in this week's Associated Press poll, and their hopes of defending their SEC Eastern Division championship have probably expired. But Pearl correctly insists that his team still has plenty to play for, starting with a Wednesday night home game against sneaky-good Georgia (11-12, 3-7).
Pearl discussed several topics from last week's losses at Vanderbilt and second-ranked Kentucky, as well as games this week against Georgia and at South Carolina (14-10, 5-5).
Here is the transcript:
BRUCE PEARL
OPENING STATEMENT
PEARL: "This week we've got two games, starting with Georgia, which was a team that dominated us early on in the SEC season both on the backboards as well as getting to us in transition. And in their post-up game, they had way too many dunks and balls at the rim, so we'll have to guard them better and differently. And then we go to South Carolina, where they're 11-2 this year, including the win over Kentucky. They play really, really well at home. The challenge there is we probably played as well as we did all year against South Carolina on both ends of the floor, and they probably didn't play very well that day. You add those two things together, and there's your margin.
"But we play two teams that we are ahead of in the division, and we have success against those teams to stand on."
Q: Do you have a more specific timetable for Cameron Tatum's return from that ankle sprain?
PEARL: "I'll know at practice today. As of yesterday, it was doubtful still. But we'll see today. I know he and Wayne (Chism) were the guys that got the most treatment Sunday - Wayne again for his ankle and also he has a good (hip) contusion from the fall he took at the end of the first half when (John) Wall slid under him."
Q: Speaking of that play, have you spoken with the SEC about that call? It seemed questionable.
PEARL: "Are you really going to try to get me to go there?
Q: Are you going to send the league film from some of those charging calls?
PEARL: Oh, no. No. Stuff like that is stuff that we handle privately. I thought Wayne made a nice play going to the basket. It was a big collision, and Wayne obviously, if you look where the bodies fell, landed right on his hip. Wayne was not the same in the second half. Wayne played really well in the first half. He played really well. Then the second half, he just could not get it going. I think the combination of both of those injuries was more than he could bear."
Q: Do you have an update on Chism's health status?
PEARL: "I think he's going to be OK. I don't know if he'll practice today from the standpoint of how he's feeling physically. This week, we'll (practice) harder today than we will tomorrow. We lifted this morning early, so we'll see. We'll have to see what his status is."
Q: If Chism is slowed, will you rely more on Brian Williams in the main rotation?
PEARL: "I think we will give Brian a real good look today, whether Wayne can practice or not. I think as you can see from watching Cameron in particular, and, Brian to a certain extent - Brian's not gotten a lot of time in there, and it takes a little while to get him back. He'd been off for over a month. I think that we'll look hard at Brian today in practice, give him more repetitions and see how close he is to being able to help us. I think he certainly could help us against the imposing size that Georgia presents, and so it will be a good opportunity for Brian."
Q: Will you look into the possibility of playing point guards Bobby Maze and Melvin Goins at the same time?
PEARL: "I don't know whether I said it before the Vanderbilt game - I think it might have been before the Vanderbilt game, maybe it was right afterwards - that we needed more productivity at the 2. And we still do. Bobby and Melvin both played well again (at Kentucky). Melvin's played well since he came back with great consistency, so I do think there is a possibility of getting Bobby a rotation at the 2. It won't come from Skylar McBee's minutes. It won't, because Skylar's still earned his spot. In the first half against Kentucky on the plus/minus chart, I think Skylar led us with plus-9. He had four rebounds at half, six rebounds for the game, and he did a lot of little things in there that don't show up on the stat sheet.
"I think there's a chance, because here's the deal: Yes would I like more production at the 2. If Bobby and Melvin are both going to play well and compete and step up and play tough on the road, then 40 minutes is not enough for them, so the minutes are going to have to come at the 2. And I'm not taking Skylar out of the regular rotation, so therefore Scotty Hopson's minutes could drop some.
"With Cameron not being back, J.P. has had to play as many minutes as he can possibly play. We can carve out a rotation, and that's where the minutes would come from."
Q: What does this team need to do to rebound from loss at Kentucky?
PEARL: "They've just got to take them one at a time. Last year after we left Lexington, I was embarrassed with how we played. I wasn't embarrassed with how we played on Saturday, just disappointed with how we finished. We were playing for an SEC championship last year, and we played every game like it could be our last. That's what you have to do this time of year. The seniors begin to count them down and realize how many games we have left.
"One of the things that I did ask the team at Kentucky - and I will continue to do this for a while - will be let's all treat this season like the seniors are treating it, and that is, this is it. That was the last chance for J.P. and Bobby and Wayne to play at Rupp Arena. I asked the rest of the players to make sure that it matters as much to them now here in February as it does to the seniors, and I think that's the key to trying to get to playing your best basketball at the end of the season."
Q: Do you like the way team has adjusted to this slower, half-court style of play?
PEARL: "Yeah. I think overall the team has bought into where we're at. Some of our players - and our system in general - plays better when going fast. But in the case of certain opponents, they play so much better when playing fast the percentages just don't encourage you to play that way. You would (play fast) anyways if we had greater depth or if you had a little more quickness, then we would do that. But we don't. And I think the other thing, as it relates to our depth, is we've got three or four players that at their positions - let's say maybe three players at their positions - where there's a drop off when you go to the bench. So therefore, tempo, foul trouble and those things are more of an issue for us, because the quality of our depth isn't what it needs to be.
"We need better play from the 4. The combination of when Wayne's there, Renaldo (Woolridge), Steven Pearl, we're not getting enough productivity there. Again, with that said, it's awfully tough to ask that when you're playing against Patrick Patterson or you're playing against Trey Thompkins. But still, that's going to be a factor for us. Somebody else has got to come forward, step forward.
"I thought Melvin had a good week. I thought Melvin played well at Vanderbilt and Kentucky, and so we'd like to try to build on that."
Q: Can Goins be a consistent scorer for this team?
PEARL: "Melvin and Bobby are both scoring point guards. They really are, so they're not play-making point guards as their primary. I think what they're able to do in the way of scoring, I think they both can continue to score. That's where J.P. is so important because he's more of a playmaker. You still need those guards to make plays for others because there aren't that many guys that are capable of doing it.
"Scotty's not been a playmaker. He's got one assist a game in the SEC. He can make plays for himself some, and you need him to do that."
Q: Earlier this season, some thought the SEC would get as many as six or seven teams in the NCAA tournament. But at this point, the SEC only has four teams with the top 55 RPI ranking. How do you assess the situation?
PEARL: "It's going to have to play itself out, I think because there's so many good teams. Look at Georgia, for example. Georgia has got three top 25 wins is. How many teams in any conference that are in last place can say that? Is there any conference that has got a team like that in it, that's sitting at 3-7 in conference play? They beat us, they beat Vanderbilt, they beat Illinois, and they beat Georgia Tech. Illinois is making a run in the Big Ten, Georgia Tech is making a run in the ACC, and obviously Tennessee and Vanderbilt are two teams that are at the top of the SEC. I think we tend to kind of beat each other up a little bit, but you're right, the math is beginning to play some tricks, and we've talked about maybe more than six (NCAA bids).
"I've been in the league for four years. It's been six for three years, and then last year we only had three. Obviously, it's going to have to be something that plays itself out. But in order for there to be six, the teams that are at the top right now have to keep winning."
Q: Without getting too specific, will you have to game plan for Georgia a little differently than you did before the game in Athens? Obviously, your team struggled quite a bit down there.
PEARL: "There are some things that we might do differently - and we'll certainly look to do differently. There may be some things that we do differently at home. Trent Johnson and Mark Fox coached together, so there are some similarities in their systems. While we did a great job of guarding LSU, we did a really poor job of guarding Georgia. We're going to have to find a way to blend those two scouts in order to come up with a more effective way of guarding Georgia than we did in Athens.
"And then offensively, they played a lot of zone against us, and we could not shoot them out of that zone. I would anticipate that they are going to stay with a lot of zone unless we're able to handle it better. We struggled against their zone. I didn't anticipate that we would struggle as much as we did, but they did a good job, and they've got great size on the inside with enough length, and they play it well. That will probably be their primary defense against us coming in unless we do a better job with it than we did down there. Auburn was able to shoot them out of it, and Trey Thompkins got in foul trouble."
Q: This seems like the first time in a while that Scott Hopson has regressed. Up to this point, his career has seemed the like a steady climb in terms of minutes played and his role with the team. Is this a seriously challenging time for him? And if so, how interested are you in seeing how he responds?
PEARL: "There's no question that we're all challenged right now. What you're looking for is step-up. For example, the question was asked before about what happened (the loss at) Kentucky last year. Well, we stepped up. Our backs were against the wall, and we stepped up. You can make an argument that our backs are against the wall right now, too. The best teams in the league have got to keep winning in order to make the NCAA tournament. We've got to keep winning in order to make the tournament. And in order to keep winning, we've got to step up. That's just where it's at.
"We're in a good position, but we've got to close it out. Can we get better? I think there have been some challenges to getting better over the last few weeks with the number of guys we've had at practice. We've got to try to get better in practice today. It's hard to go to Vanderbilt and Kentucky and get better. It was hard to get better last week."
Q: Did you see enough out of your zone defense at Kentucky to feel more comfortable about using it down the stretch this season? How much of your success on defense at Kentucky was because of the way you guys played, and how much of it was simply based on the fact that you surprised them?
PEARL: "Most of it was just Kentucky not being as good against the zone as they are against a man. Most of it was that. It's a defense that we've used. We used it very effectively against Ole Miss. There have been times where we've played it. We haven't played it a lot, but it's in the arsenal. It's something that we go to based on the opponent more than anything else."
Q: Did that zone hurt your team's ability to rebound with Kentucky?
PEARL: "I think it was just Kentucky's size more than the zone. I was concerned about was rebounding with the zone, but I think on most possessions where we got beat on the zone is, it was just a Cousins or a Patterson just plowing their way in there and making good one-on-one plays - great plays. The thing that concerned me against the zone was communicating as well in the second half as it relates to pushing off on the baseline, and that it would allow them to do some driving from the top and getting into the lane.
"We got a little stationary ourselves at times, and a lot of that is just because we hadn't played a lot of zone. But it was certainly very effective."
Q: How much did you recruit Vanderbilt freshman guard John Jenkins? He would seem to fit in very well in this system, and he would probably help with your teams shooting problems.
PEARL: "We recruited John Jenkins, but with Scotty Hopson on the roster, that was it. He looked at Scotty when you're in front of him and said, 'Thanks but no thanks.' It was over pretty early. I mean, it got started, and he visited here unofficially as a younger player. But once we had Scotty, that was the end of our recruitment of John Jenkins."
Q: Obviously, a vast majority of your immediate focus is on finishing the season. With that said, have recent events in the past few months caused you to keep an eye out for a post player to add to your current signing class?
PEARL: "Yep. I think there is still an opportunity for us to maybe bring in one more. Now you're going to search and try to figure out who that is, aren't you?"
Q: You've talked about the recent offenses improvements of Maze and Goins. What are your thoughts on the recent defensive performances?
PEARL: "I think that most of the scoring by Kentucky's guards were not necessarily because of our point guards, because we were not in a man-to-man. They really came against the zone is, so you couldn't necessarily blame the guards for the fact that Kentucky's guards scored. I'd say they both could do better defensively -- Bobby from just a consistent effort standpoint. When Bobby is really focused and concentrating, he can play. And then Melvin from a standpoint of being productive and being smart about his ball pressure. Sometimes he pressures the ball too much, and then that creates driving opportunities for the opponent. We have to stay within the framework of what we do.
"I think they can both improve, but I like the way they're both competing, and I like the way they both have courage. I don't think either one of them is ever afraid."
Q: What would be the biggest possible downside of playing Maze and Goins at the same time?
PEARL: "I think the only downside would be, 'Where do the minutes come from?' That's why I answered the question with, 'If Bobby gets a rotation each half at the 2.' If he does, then the minutes will come from Scotty and J.P. They've been playing 32 or 33 minutes, and maybe then they'd play 29. But those minutes won't come from Skylar."
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