Media Day Comments From Coach Bruce Pearl
by special report to The Chattanoogan
posted October 14, 2008
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Throughout the season, there will be highlights of the greatest moments of Tennessee basketball at each home game, a competition to select the “Greatest Vols Basketball Fan” and the selection of an All-Century team.
“During the 2008-09 basketball season we have the privilege of celebrating the tradition of Tennessee basketball as we mark our historical 100th year on the court,” head men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl said. “I feel honored to be part of such a celebration.”
All season the Volunteers will be paying tribute to the greatest players and greatest moments in Tennessee basketball history. The festivities will culminate the weekend of Feb. 13-14 with a special reception for all basketball lettermen as well as the announcement of the All-Century team presented by Coca-Cola and Reese’s during the game against Vanderbilt Feb.14.
“Our basketball team continues to garner support across the country,” UT men’s athletics director Mike Hamilton said. “I don’t think our 100-year anniversary could have come at a better time.”
Comments from head coach Bruce Pearl:
“It’s an exciting time of year as we get started. I think it’s probably my favorite time of the year because it’s that time of the year when you’ve really got to put the pieces together. It seems like whether it be in college basketball (overall) or just these recent Tennessee teams, every year has been a great challenge because there’s been a lot of turnover, and there’s been new personnel and most of that turnover has been fairly positive.
“As we celebrate 100 years of Tennessee basketball tradition, we continue to remind folks that what we’re trying to do is add to the tradition that has been started. We’ve not done anything that hasn’t been done before, but I think our fans do remember a time when we were very successful, when we were very competitive, when the game against Kentucky was a competitive game. We’ve rekindled that excitement, and I think that’s really been a huge part of our success.
“Tomorrow morning at 8:30 when the ticket windows open, Kentucky, Memphis and Florida… those games are already sold out. You can’t buy a single-game ticket to those games, and hopefully we will have kept the blue out of all three of those contests (and sold those tickets to) Tennessee fans.
“Again, lots of changes. When you lose four guards and you lose five of your top nine players, that’s an awful lot to replace. We’re going to compete for the SEC Championship. I’m confident this is a basketball team that will have what it takes to defend our championship. There may be years when I don’t know that I’m going to feel that way going in. That’s the good news.
“The bad news is that we have five true freshmen that have never played a college basketball game before, a redshirt freshman that played a few games last year has had surgery on his knee and then a junior-college transfer. To step back a year ago, we brought back a team that returned a lot of people and added Tyler Smith, J.P. Prince, Brian Williams and Cameron Tatum, and that team went on to be what I think was the best team to ever play at Tennessee. We had the best regular season of any team I think in the country. That season is over. We’ve got to turn the page, and we’ve got to recognize the challenges of the inexperience that we’ve got out there. I think that’s the number one challenge.
“The non-conference schedule… it’s the best in the country. We’ve always played a great schedule. Last year was number one. I think this year it will be again number one, but it may be tougher.
“We open up the season with four contests against four teams that are picked to win their league. Chattanooga is picked to win their league. We went down there last year and they out-rebounded us by 20. Tennessee-Martin has got an NBA guard; they’re picked to win the OVC. We’ve got to go to Middle Tennessee; they’re picked to win the league that Western Kentucky won last year to get to the Sweet Sixteen. Then we’ve got Siena and play a team that beat Vanderbilt and is picked to win their league with everybody back. That’s our first four games. Oh, and then we face the Georgetown’s and the Maryland’s and the Michigan State’s and the other folks in (The Old Spice Classic).
“This is the most challenging schedule in the country. Now, it’s what we want. It’s because we feel to have a top-20 program that we’ve got to play that kind of schedule to be able to attract the television package that we’ve been able to attract, to be able to sell the tickets that we’ve sold. I am excited about our fans seeing Gonzaga and Mark Few up close and personal and Memphis coming back in here with their great team and coach (John) Calipari, a team that played for the national championship. It’s very, very exciting.
“We’ve accomplished more in this fall than any team I’ve coached. Our individual workouts, our team individuals, what we’ve done in strength training. We’ve made more progress, but we’ve had farther to go than any team I’ve coached. Starting practice, we’re way behind where we were a year ago because of that experience. My team understands right now—if we scrimmaged last year’s team right now—we’ve got a lot of work to do. But that’s what you do when you start practice. So I think it’s important to understand where we are and it’s important to understand what needs to be done the next two or three weeks as we work to try to get there.
“I like our depth. I like our athleticism. This team is doing a much better job in the classroom; this team is doing a much better job off the court. This team has trained as hard as any team I’ve had, but this team has probably got farther to go than any team I’ve had because of five guys playing for the first time in their first college basketball game, a redshirt freshman and a junior-college transfer. It’s the youngest team I’ve had from the standpoint of that inexperience.”
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)
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