NASHVILLE — Rick Barnes and Tennessee basketball got its revenge by downing Auburn in the SEC Tournament semifinals, 70-65.
After the game, Tigers coach and former Vols coach Bruce Pearl met with the media.
Here’s everything he said.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Well, I want to start off by congratulating Tennessee and their team and their coaching staff, their program, for advancing to the championship game of our tournament.
Tennessee is a great team. They play the right way. They’re worthy of defeating us.
We have to do a better job defensively. The last time we played them, they scored 51 points. Tonight they scored 70. In particular, we fouled them too much. That’s not a comment about the officiating. The officiating was fine. They scored 37% of their points at the foul line. That’s on us.
We didn’t convert some inside shots and some free throws and some things like that that you have to in order to win a close game.
But our guys are great competitors. I’m very, very proud of ’em. I believe that this team has from start to finish done enough to be the No. 1 overall seed in this tournament. Our résumé is historically one of the strongest résumés in the history of college basketball with the number of quad one wins we’ve had. Certainly losing to Tennessee as a team ranked fifth or sixth in the country is not necessarily shouldn’t knock us off that spot.
I’m really glad you asked me that question. We lost to Alabama, Tennessee and at Texas A&M. Yeah, we’re panicked. That’s a real softball.
We lost to some great teams. We lost at the buzzer against Alabama. We had possessions here. Yeah, we’re panicked. I can hardly wait till next weekend to start playing again. Let’s get to Sunday, find out where we’re going, find out who we’re playing and let’s get back to work. I’m looking forward, not back.
Yeah, in a close game, obviously it’s important and we’ve done a great job winning a lot of close games this year, we’ve been really good at the foul line.
Johni did a great job inside, just dominating inside, earned those foul shots that he got. Obviously he struggled at the free-throw line.
Tennessee was playing drop coverage. We had our point guards, Denver and Tahaad, were combined 1-10 from the three. Most of them were decent looks. We’re usually going to make those. Johni had one assist, that’s because we didn’t bang shots we’ve normally made.
Tennessee’s guards are elite. They’re great, great guards. They do a great job of closing out a little quicker. That’s back-to-back games where our guards, I think our guards were 5-20 against Tennessee and Auburn. We still managed to win.
Tonight obviously we just didn’t shoot a good percentage. I thought we’d shoot better, play better offensively. I know we could not play much better defensively as we did at home, holding them to 51. Hold them to 70, you have a chance. Fouled too much.
They talk about the body of work as much as anything, the wins we had all season long, the strength of the league. We lost to a team that’s fighting for a 1 seed.
Obviously I’m very proud of the SEC. Just incredibly proud to be a part of this tournament, to be a part of this league. These four teams that have made it to the championship game on Saturday, I don’t know that historically has there been four stronger teams as far as nationally ranked teams ever in a Final Four of an SEC tournament? I can’t imagine, not even close.
Yeah, it means a lot to us. In other words, to me, this is one of the things I’ve talked to the team about, if you’re the No. 1 overall seed, then basically you had the best regular season from November all the way to March. We’d love to be able to hold onto that. We’ll find out Sunday.
Yeah, for sure. I’ll roll with Tahaad all day every day. He’s played great. One of the most impactful freshmen in all of college basketball.
Tennessee is a tough cover, man. It’s hard to cover those guards. You get banged on those screens, you’re chasing those guards off that floppy stuff, that’s a lot. We never quite got into a rhythm for him.
Miles Kelly, being in deep foul trouble, that was a real factor in the second half because Miles has been one of our best defenders, he was our best shooter. He had four fouls, got his… He played probably 10 minutes less than he normally place.
He made three buckets and he was 8-8 from the foul line. It’s hard to defend him at the free-throw line.
He’s a great competitor. He’s a coach’s son. He’s a warrior. I know he’s got a great affection for the Tennessee Vols and really does a great job representing their program both on and off the floor.
Obviously their guards, Zeigler is 9-9, Mashack was 6-8, Gainey was 8-8. We just had a hard time not fouling their guards.
It’s character, it’s culture. It’s their faith. It’s the men that are coaching them. Great coaches and great men.
I remember earlier in the year I talked about two or three of the games that I thought were some of the best games I’ve been involved in this year, was at Houston, when we played Tennessee, Florida. The games are physical because they’re physical on offense, they’re physical setting screens, they’re physical defensively.
But when I say they play the right way, there’s no issues. There’s no extracurricular. You understand how they play. You respect how they play. They respect how we play. That’s from their head coach.
Yeah, no, for sure. For sure. Our bench has been terrific and we play best when everybody contributes.
It’s kind of become… We almost had seven starters in a sense that Tahaad and Chaney coming off the bench are just like starters. That’s been a great, great strength for us all season long.
Chaney had a big game in Auburn against Tennessee. We probably offensively need to think about sharing it a little bit more. We run through Johni pretty consistently. May step back and see if we can spread out our scoring a little bit, then that might make us even more dangerous and an even better team.
Yeah, I mean, whether it be Houston or Duke, probably the two best teams outside of our league that we’ve played. I put them right in there with Florida, Tennessee, Alabama. They’re right there. So there are five or six teams right there that have a chance to get to the Final Four.
