Home › Men's Basketball
Pearl: Chism needs to rebound with rebounds
STORY TOOLS
More Men's Basketball
- Prince admits he played most of season with dislocated shoulder
- Craft ready to go 'all-out' for Pearl, Tennessee
- Next Bradshaw? UT gets commitment from combo guard Craft
Share and Enjoy [?]
Get Reprints
Something’s got to give when Tennessee’s men’s basketball team plays host to Ole Miss on Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Vols hope it’s not their interior game when they put their 23-game home win streak up against the Rebels’ 13-0 record.
UT coach Bruce Pearl said the re-emergence of sophomore center Wayne Chism couldn’t be better timed.
“Ole Miss leads the league in rebounding and we’re last in defensive rebounding,’’ said Pearl, who has put the No. 8 Vols (12-1) through two practices since the New Year’s holiday break.
“Wayne has definitely come back looking really sharp,’’ he said. “He’s such a good defensive player.’’
Chism will need to be; the 18th-ranked Rebels are led by center Dwayne Curtis, who has been a force all season averaging 15.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.
Curtis, 6-foot-8 and 280 pounds, dominated the Chism-Duke Crews’ center combination in Ole Miss’ 83-69 win in Oxford last season.
Curtis had 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and nine rebounds while Chism (1-of-3 shooting) and Crews (1-of-5) combined for seven points and 10 rebounds.
Crews has been sidelined by a heart condition, leading to Chism playing 27 and 26 minutes the past two games.
Pearl said the 6-9, 245-pound Chism seems to like the extra minutes.
“It’s great to see Wayne enjoying playing again,’’ Pearl said. “Wayne has quietly come back around. Perhaps keeping him in the starting lineup and not disrupting his confidence helped him.’’
Chism played Gonzaga’s 6-foot-11 All-American candidate Josh Heytvelt even in the Vols’ 82-72 win over the Zags on Saturday in Seattle.
Chism had 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and five rebounds in 26 minutes while Heytvelt had 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting and four rebounds in 24 minutes.
“That No. 4 (Chism) was an athlete,’’ Heytvelt said. “He boarded hard and screened for his teammates. He did what he had to do.’’
That was the case in the previous game, too, when Chism heated up in the final minutes of a hard-fought 82-75 win at Xavier.
Chism had 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and four rebounds against the Musketeers.
“Hopefully, these last two games where he played well in pivotal moments is an indication of what we’ll see in the SEC,’’ UT associate head coach Tony Jones said. “We’re seeing a glimpse of what we envisioned Wayne could be.’’
Prior to the Xavier victory, Chism readily admitted he was struggling.
For in the three previous games, against UNC Asheville, Western Kentucky and UT Chattanooga, Chism’s combined stat-line looked like this: 3-of-18 shooting, eight points, nine rebounds.
“The thing Wayne can’t do is even when he doesn’t play well offensively, he can’t let that affect the rest of his game,’’ Pearl said. “But he’s been shooting much better in practice.’’
Pearl said he’ll also challenge 6-10 freshman Brian Williams to step up from his past two lackluster performances.
“Brian has had foul troubles, but he has got to stay aggressive, and he’s got to be willing to make plays,’’ Pearl said. “Brian won’t play like he played against Western Kentucky, when he was the star of the game, every single night.
“But by the same token, we know he can play better.’’
Looking Up: Pearl said point guard Ramar Smith and wing J.P. Prince are off to a rip-roaring start in 2008 practices.
“Ramar is playing well enough to start, and J.P. is playing well enough to start,’’ Pearl said. “They may be in there at the beginning or the end of the game, we’ll just have to see.’’
Pearl said the Vols have had two good practices, but there will need to be plenty more.
“The next four games are against Ole Miss, Vandy, Ohio State and South Carolina,’’ Pearl said. “The first three are incredibly physical teams and South Carolina has historically given us as much trouble as anybody.
“But you know me, I haven’t really looked past Ole Miss. Right off the bat, we’re playing an undefeated team, and Vandy will probably still be undefeated when we play them, too.’’
© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
- Pennington: It is what it is
- Mattingly: UT football a happening that unifies
- Chavis' goal for defense: Learn to finish
- UT to play UConn in football (not women's basketball)
- Vanderbilt ambushes South Carolina, 24-17
- McMahan told to make knee top priority
- Crompton suffered concussion in fourth quarter against UCLA
- Craft ready to go 'all-out' for Pearl, Tennessee
- Call into the Vol frustration line
- Next Bradshaw? UT gets commitment from combo guard Craft
Please download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, or enable JavaScript for your browser to view the video player.
Posted by Ironcity on January 3, 2008 at 11:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Keep them working. The Ole Miss game will be a tough one for sure. Its good to hear Ramar is picking it up. He is really close to being special.
Posted by newtonrail on January 4, 2008 at 12:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Surely Chism weighs more than 245. I know I'm overweight, but at 5' 10", uh ---never mind. We need Chism to play the 5 and not keep drifting out playing the 3 or 4. He can do it, if he will.
Posted by DenmarkVol_aka_Mbumburu on January 4, 2008 at 12:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
newtonrail, you read my mind -- a HUGE ditto from me.
I've been screaming these past several weeks for him to post up, stay near the paint, and GLASS instead of floating out and launching 3s. We need him inside, pounding the glass at both ends.
He's listed at 6'9" and 242 lbs. We need 10 boards a game from him.
Posted by fundamentals83 on January 4, 2008 at 8:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Perhaps I missed it. Where in this article does Pearl say anything about Chism and rebounding, (other than the title)?
Posted by alfrizzle097 on January 4, 2008 at 12:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Chism's asthma may keep him from getting a whole lot better than he is. Obviously free throw shooting could make him better, but as far as physicality goes, Chism gets winded I believe. That is why he doesn't play physical sometimes.
Hope I'm wrong...
Posted by bugman on January 4, 2008 at 3:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
lay off the kk's haha that's funny!
Posted by pdhuff on January 4, 2008 at 6:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Bet Ol' Miss eats a lot of glazed, too.
So there, TDTN. Is the red light on?
Did someone say "pound the glass" instead of the rock?
Posted by ballewville6 on January 5, 2008 at 2:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
ole miss beat us because it was on the road think about ieveryone pearls first year we won road games and sec east his 2 year we very seldom won on road and our record wasnt as good and we got 2nd in sec east,this year were winning on the road even with chism ,loften,and ramare all having down seasons from last year .thell get back on track and we are going to win more sec games than pearl,s first year as coach so just pull for the vols and show your undevided support and watch us win we beat xavier and gonzaga on road and look what xavier has done against two future ncaa tourney teams scoring a 108 to 70 victory over virginia and scoring over 100 while beating k state by 28 so be happy for vols were in good shapeloften will raise average up from 35 percent up to near 45 by tourney time .go vols
Posted by Plasticman on January 5, 2008 at 9:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Any news on DUke Crews possible return? THis is getting kind of strange. You would think they would have performed additional tests to determine if he could play sports or not. IF he does not return, Chism definitely needs to step up and average at leat 8 boards/game for us to reach our goal of the Final 4.
Posted by johnlg00 on January 5, 2008 at 10:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
About Chism's weight--he's not precisely skinny, but he has very long arms, very long legs, and a relatively small torso, so he may not in fact go over 240lbs or so. He looks to be all of 6'9" with probably a 7' wingspan, which I, like all the rest of us, would like see him use to grab more rebounds. Williams is about due for another good game. The lack of recent news about Duke is puzzling to me as well. My uninformed guess is that he is on some kind of medication to correct the problem, whatever it is, and they are waiting to see if it works. There may be a chance that it will work in time for him to play some this season. If it doesn't work by, say, mid-February, they will probably try for a medical red-shirt. I don't know why they would try to keep everyone in the dark if they knew now that he couldn't play anymore this season--or ever!
Posted by mparker on January 5, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thought we played Ole Miss last year without Chris, or he was hobbled. Think we were close, then some bad reffing took us out.
If I have a bone to pick with the SEC, there is stil too much homey reffing, especially if you are a visiting team who is not top-tier. For years, UK would go to LSU, f'rinstance, and the game would be called just fine. UT or UF would then go to LSU, and have their most important players in foul trouble in five minutes....
Posted by mparker on January 5, 2008 at 10:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've seen mention at times of local talk shows and some bloggers being extremely harsh on the men's bb program.
WTF???
The vols are winning at prestige sites, are on national tv, and getting high rankings, and yet people are ripping???
That's too bad. I love the Pearl style of play, it's how the game is menat to be played: active D, press, shots, slashes to the basket. I hipe I never see Buzz-ball at UT again.
Posted by jevolball7 on January 5, 2008 at 4:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Better be careful calling Pearl a god! Gotta watch that lightning. Facism will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a bible.Let's just play ball!
Posted by DenmarkVol_aka_Mbumburu on January 5, 2008 at 5:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Take it for what it's worth: Candace Parker is averaging 9.2 rebounds per game. Wayne Chism is averaging 4.9 rebounds per game.
Posted by jevolball7 on January 5, 2008 at 5:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It ain't worth nothin'! Apples & Tiddly winks.
Posted by mparker on January 6, 2008 at 2:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
here is a dumba$$ post by me on the women's board that some of you can howl over:
===================
Okay, time for some blasphemy. I want to change one of the cardinal rules in Basketball.
The rule?? explulsion for fouls. Okay, I know you purists wish to return to the days of jump balls after each made basket, but hear me out.
The team is already punished on a foul: a defensive foul continues the offenses possession, and posiilby results in free throws. An offensvie foul results in cahnge of possession. Why the double-penaly? If a player fouls constantly, they'll be sending the other team to the line.
Something else I'd change: let any player on the floor take the FT's, as they do for free kicks in soccer. That would eliminate some of the hard fouls and rough play at the end of games.
I'll be holding my breath and turning blue as I wait for these rule changes, plus the D1 college football playoff....
'Night yall.
Posted by inswhiz on January 6, 2008 at 6:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hopefully we can establish early against Ole Miss that we are for real and that when anyone comes to OUR HOUSE they will leave with a loss. SEC will be a tough schedule but I feel will be a good tune up for SEC tourney and for March Madness.
(Requires free registration.)
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.