University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Vols 78, LSU 63
March 04, 2015 | Men's Basketball
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Tennessee Head Coach Donnie Tyndall
Opening statement ...
"First of all I want to give credit to the LSU team. That is an outstanding team and when they came to our place they dominated that game. I gave them the credit and they deserved the credit but that first half was probably our worst half of the year and probably the only half all year where I do not feel like we competed and played like ourselves. We have obviously been struggling but I think there are components of our team that are showing progress and I thought tonight in particular our young big guys, Tariq [Owens] and Willie [Carmichael III], did some nice things although it may not show up huge in the stat line. We did not give up second shots to a really big and athletic front-line team. I thought we did a great job, maybe our best job all year, sharing the basketball and making extra passes. A couple times late in the clock it was huge."
On Tennessee attacking the basket...
"We really talked about it the last couple of days. We talked about playing in attack mode and not settling for jump shots. Driving it and even though we did not get to the foul line, we did get in the paint a bunch which lead to some draw-and-kick opportunities and in some cases we converted at the rim."
On the free-throw discrepancy...
"I think the biggest thing is [LSU] is not a super deep team. Coach [Johnny] Jones probably tells them to be really cautious in regard to following on the dribble because a lot of times the two big guys at the back of the play are changing and blocking the shot. They probably are pretty well coached in regard to playing without fouling due to their limited depth. Tonight we had more blocked shots than they did."
On what the win means for Tennessee...
"It really does not change anything I have said this entire season. We understand the circumstances we have. I have said this, and I mean it, I would not trade my team for any team in the league because of how coachable they are and how hard they work. We understand we have some deficiencies and we will grow our program as we move forward but our team has competed. We played 29 games now and we have competed for 28 and a half of those games. Sometimes the ball goes in and sometimes it does not. I thought tonight we played well offensively which always helps, particularly on the road. It is just another game in regard to getting better and improving and hopefully we will continue on into Saturday against South Carolina."
LSU Head Coach Johnny Jones
Opening Statement ...
"We needed to come out tonight and really establish ourselves early against a team that at halftime a couple of weeks ago, we went in with a 27-point lead and wound up putting them on their heels. We came back out in the second half with enough to win the game. Tonight, we had to fight to get the score tied. Prior to the half, I thought Tennessee was a confident basketball team. I thought in the second half we needed to come out and try to take control early. I thought they came out and played extremely well--making shots. We didn't get them to turn it over. We couldn't get them to stop. They made a lot of individual plays and shot practically 70 percent in the second half, which made it very difficult for us when we did not execute at the level that we needed to on the offensive end. They had 63 shots off of our 47. They had 33 made baskets compared to our 19. I thought they did an excellent job of making individual plays with only 11 assists."
