University of Tennessee Athletics
Auburn-Tennessee Postgame Quotes
January 14, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2010
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TENNESSEE HEAD COACH Bruce Pearl: "Tonight was a good rebound from a poor start. I thought Auburn brought great energy, great effort and intensity at the start of the game. We didn't start well. We didn't have the same energy. I told the team that if that was the case - and human nature said it could be the case - let's not make it worse. Let's hang in there and find a way to get it started. At one point we were being outrebounded by 11, and we came back and won the boards 35-33. To only give up six two-point field goals in the SEC shows pretty darn good defense. We knew that Auburn made eight 3s per game - third in the conference. We didn't think they could keep it up. We really were concerned with DeWayne Reed getting to the rim and we obviously did a better job of contesting shots and preventing them from getting in the lane. We led points in the paint 48-12. That's a really dominating statistic. And our bench outscored Auburn 22-5.
"You have got to play tough guys against Auburn. In conference play that's the biggest thing you are going to have to do is understand the level of physicality and intensity. Obviously, we exerted a lot of energy. We had to give a lot of energy because that's how Auburn plays. I'd say our guys are more tired than they were even against Kansas.
"Tonight was a very meaningful performance for Steven Pearl because he can guard. He can move his feet. See, that is a smaller lineup. Auburn forward Lucas Hargrove was killing us off the bounce. I started senior post Wayne Chism on Hargrove. I think it caught them off guard because I put my better defender on him. I thought Steven did a good job in there. He is tough enough and physical enough to bang inside, but quick enough to move his feet on the perimeter. Again, it's very gratifying to me to see my son so well received by the crowd and to have them appreciative of his effort.
"Maze is comfortable with the ball in his hands. He's comfortable with the clock winding down. He's comfortable off the bounce - nine assists, one turnover. This is back-to-back great games - against a second-team preseason All-SEC point guard in DeWayne Reed.
"I anticipated that our energy would not be where it was for Kansas and there's no excuse for that so I had to get after them and make sure that some of my starters understood that if they did not step up physically they wouldn't be playing."
AUBURN HEAD COACH JEFF LEBO: (regarding the fast start): "I thought we were patient, we moved the ball, we were getting good looks and obviously making those shots. When you make them, it is contagious; when you miss them it is contagious. We did everything defensively we were supposed to do, probably until the 4-minute timeout, when fouls became an issue for us, and we put them on the foul-line too much.
"And then in the second half, they got on a roll offensively and we could not score. That is a recipe on the road for what happened.
"We got nothing from our inside game; I mean zero. We were kind of forced at that point to go out on the perimeter and we shot the ball so poorly the second half.
Post-Game Notes Vols vs. Auburn (Jan. 14, 2010)
- The Vols improved to 5-0 in SEC openers under Bruce Pearl.
- The Vols also improved to 9-0 at home this season.
- Tennessee made 31-of-51 field goals, good for a 60.8 percent. It was the first time all season the Vols have shot better than 60 percent.
- Wayne Chism scored 12 points and had a season-high 12 rebounds. The Vols are 11-2 when Chism records a double-double, including 2-0 this season. He also had a career-high six steals.
- Chism moved into 22nd place on the Vols career scoring list with 1,310 points, passing Isiah Victor (1998-2001). He also moved up to spots to No. 9 on the career rebounds list with 755. His one block puts him in a tie for eighth with 188.
- Bobby Maze and J.P. Prince led the Vols with 14 points each.
- Maze had 9 assists to just 1 turnover to improve his assist-to-turnover ratio to 3.24. He entered the game as the SEC leader in that category.
- The Vols had four players record at least 10 points. Scotty Hopson rounded out the list with 11 points.
- Auburn scored 30 of its 37 points off 3-pointers in the first half, going 10-of-24 from beyond the arc. The Tigers shot just 13 field goals that were not 3-point attempts.
- In the second half, Auburn was 1-of-11 (9.1 percent) from the 3-point arc, while Tennessee was 4-of-9 (44.4 percent).
- The Vols outscored Auburn 43-18 in the second half.
- UT also outscored Auburn 48-12 in points scored in the lane.
