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Pearl says UT won't fall for lack of effort

By Mike Griffith (Contact)
Originally published 10:46 p.m., January 16, 2008
Updated 10:46 p.m., January 16, 2008

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl concedes that defeat is a possibility in tonight's men's basketball game against Vanderbilt.

But if that happens, Pearl said, it will be because the Commodores are a better team or out-play the Vols - not because UT is complacent or caught up with its hot start.

"We could be as excited about playing as anybody, and Vanderbilt could come in and beat us," said Pearl, whose sixth-ranked team has won nine consecutive games. "That absolutely could happen."

The Vols (14-1 overall, 2-0 SEC) will tip off against the No. 16 Commodores (16-1, 1-1) at 7 p.m. at a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena with an ESPN television audience also watching.

Tennessee has won 24 consecutive home games, and its No. 6 ranking is the program's highest since the 2000-01 season, when the Vols peaked at No. 4 under coach Jerry Green.

So what? Pearl says.

"I don't see an SEC championship banner up there (in the Thompson-Boling Arena rafters), unless it's there and it's behind some other banner," Pearl said. "Get complacent about what? I don't think we have any trouble getting ready to play or getting excited about playing."

Especially not against in-state rival Vanderbilt, which Pearl said boasts the best center in the league in 6-foot-10 A.J. Ogilvy and the best shooter in the league in Shan Foster.

And, of course, there's Commodores coach Kevin Stallings, for whom Pearl has a great deal of respect.

"Kevin does an outstanding job," Pearl said. "He maximizes the talent that he has."

Pearl recalled how Stallings and his Vanderbilt program aced UT out of a bye in last year's SEC tournament by virtue of having a better record in the East Division.

"I know we played on the first night of the SEC tournament at 10-6 and Vanderbilt didn't," said Pearl, whose Vols had a better overall record and higher RPI. "We had the second-best record in the conference and we had to play the first night."

Pearl paused, lips pursed, and shook his head: "I have no problem getting this team ready to play."

Pearl pushed his players hard throughout this week in preparation, adding plays and adjusting sets with hopes of a victory.

"You evolve every game, every season, and if you want to call it tweaking, that's what it is," Pearl said. "You show people certain things, and then you counter it in different ways in anticipation of them defending it."

Pearl, conducting an interview on the News Sentinel's Sports Page radio show, wouldn't get specific with the differences the Commodores might see tonight.

"Offense is broken down into four categories," he said. "Can you score on the fast break, can you score on the secondary break and can you score in your half-court offense.

"The last part is your last-possession, last-second offense. There's four different schemes you're running at one time."

The Vols have scrambled to pull out their close games this year, going 5-0 in games decided by seven points or less.

"The team has step-up ability … the cream rises to the top and our kids have risen in the last two years as high as they were capable of," Pearl said. "But we've played a lot of close games, so there's always the law of averages to think about."

There is not, however, complacency on the UT basketball team, Pearl insists.

"We will rarely beat ourselves," Pearl said. "In 15 years of being a head coach, I can count on one hand the number of times we may have lost the game because we weren't excited about playing, so we'll be fine from that standpoint."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

       47 Comments

Posted by ColumbusVol on January 16, 2008 at 10:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Gotta love the Pearl

Go Vols...good luck

Posted by coach75 on January 16, 2008 at 11:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)

as long as we sweep vandy i would relish the season. i can't stand their wait till bball attittude. they can't say that anymore though because we have a coach thatmakes our teams compete with them. go vols. does anyone know why tabb is not playing more when we need sme defensive stops, i thought he was a great defender.

Posted by JAJUAN on January 16, 2008 at 11:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)

not sure about tabb, but it just looks like there are too many good players on this team-aka a great problem to have. jp prince has really been a great midseason boost. can't wait to kill vandy.

thebruceisloose.com

Posted by cdldoc on January 17, 2008 at 12:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)

There goes volcr, creeping into the Basketball section with something negative. I wonder what it must be like inside his unhappy head?

Posted by newtonrail on January 17, 2008 at 12:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)

VolCR, I believe the Tournament is the only one that counts. Pearl won the Overall mythical title in his first year, if I remember correctly. I know he won the East, and at the wire, I believe they won over West % wise and tie breakers. But the only Banners are the Tourney like football has to win in Hotlanta.

Posted by BigOrangeVol on January 17, 2008 at 12:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Nothing is worse than living in Middle Tennessee and having to listen to all the Vandy idiots on a daily basis!

The Tennessean just re-vamped their already pitiful newspaper web site and made it worse so I'm sure that a whole slew of new Vol fans are on the way to KNS.

Posted by chrisw2967 on January 17, 2008 at 1:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I hope this is the game where Lofton breaks out of his slump. If he ever does and the way they are playing with him in a slump, Tenn will be lethal. but thats when or if he breaks out of it.

Posted by anthony on January 17, 2008 at 3:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

there are some people who don't want you to win, to remain mediocre. Show them why you play the game. Go Vols.

Posted by GreerVol22 on January 17, 2008 at 7:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)

here is some mindless babble...

I ran into Chelsea Clinton campaigning the other day.....I told her I was worried about three things....Osama, Obama, and your mama!

Go Fred Go!

sorry everyone, it make about as much sense as some of these other posts.

Posted by rccheek on January 17, 2008 at 8:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Electile dysfunction: unable to become aroused by any of the candidates who are running for president.

Posted by pupvol on January 17, 2008 at 8:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

can't we all just get along.big game tonight and we"re talking abooutpolitics and each other.GO VOLS!

Posted by King53 on January 17, 2008 at 8:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I HATE Vandy! Pearl will break out the bright orange blazer tonight in memory of Coach Mears and Vandy will crumble. Do they even have one quality win this year? I don't think so. They will be humbled tonight in K-town.

Posted by Carlitovol on January 17, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I'd love to see tonight be Lofton's BREAK-OUT game.. Just think.. ESPN primetime home game, and what if he came out bombing threes and scored 35??? As Bert would say, "MONEY!"

C'mon Chris... Make it happen.....

Posted by pdhuff on January 17, 2008 at 9:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Just beat Vandy. Like bigorange said at 12:29, Tennessean has revamped and its tough to log back in. Should be a tremendous game.

Posted by GoVol on January 17, 2008 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Does anyone have an update on 'smokin' Duke Crews? We still miss him badly underneath!

Posted by Basketball_Jones on January 17, 2008 at 9:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I don't care if Lofton scores 5 or 35 ....just win. Why is everyone so concerened with Lofton getting his numbers? In a day and age where all kids think about is scoring and most fans attest that attitude of "me first" they want Lofton to get 30, is being 14-1 not good enough?

Posted by inswhiz on January 17, 2008 at 9:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Main thing is to concentrate on winning first. You know in time Lofton will come around and for me, love to see it happen in March when we will need everyone to be at their very best. Vandy will be a very good test where we are as a contender.

Posted by THE_VOL on January 17, 2008 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

If Lofton scores 35 - Vols lose. Number 15 is waiting tonight and it will happen just like the other 14 - TEAM PLAY, BALANCED scoring, and improving defense! NOTHING else matters!

Posted by VolnAZ on January 17, 2008 at 10:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)

If Lofton goes for 35, No way the Vols lose. Are you kidding? He drops 35 and the Smiths drop 20, 15, and 10! Vols over the century mark!

Posted by dirtdobber1 on January 17, 2008 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

anybody heard the story on Tabb and playing time? probably because of Prince and T smith.

BigOrangeVol- agree on the Tennessean coverage of UT sport- use to be regular reader, but since Cris Low left for ESPN- coverage has been bad.

Was at the vandy game last year in Nash- Vandy fans can be brutal after a win. Would like another payback like last year in Ktown-

Posted by dirtdobber1 on January 17, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Look 4 Chism to have a good game tonight.

Posted by mparker on January 17, 2008 at 11:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I think UNC got a big break last night against GT. Sure looked like Peacock was fouled, not once but twice....refs didn't want to piss off Roy Williams.

Posted by mparker on January 17, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)

My view on Chris;

I keep thinking that Chris is trying to fill Dane's role from last year. Chirs is making a ton of passes, moving the ball to different shooters. That doesn't always show up in the assist column.

Posted by mparker on January 17, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)

...and, finally, I expect to see frantic defense against vandy. won't be surprised to see vandy shoot 30 FT's tonight.

Posted by Orange4life on January 17, 2008 at 11:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)

LOL, are you guys Vol Fans? Come on, let's get behind our boys tonight and no matter who scores, as long as the final score has us 1 point above Vandy. If Chris can find is mid range game first then shoot 3's he will be fine. He's primarly a 3 shooter now and needs to mix it.

I see this one being a game of the year candidate!

V O L S go vols go!

Posted by johnlg00 on January 17, 2008 at 12:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Gonna be a real test for us tonight. Vandy is so jealous of us right now, they can't stand it! They feel they owe us for the beat-down we put on them at TBA last year, and Stallings really doesn't like CBP. If we can't turn them over or if we shoot badly, we could be in trouble. Our best bet is to get either Foster or Ogilvy in foul trouble since I doubt we can stop either of them straight up. This feels uncomfortably like a trap game to me--full house, national exposure, hungry, disrespected opponent, questionable interior defense....Hope all of our guys are ready to step up big-time! Go Big Vols!

Posted by THE_VOL on January 17, 2008 at 12:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey jw a$$hole - I STILL know and it's not for me to make public. I also never said CL going from 30% to 60% would hurt us. But the FACT is that he's averaging 11 shots per game. To shoot 60% AND get 35 pts he would need a minimum of 18 and they'd ALL have to be 3s - THAT isn't happening tonight. But for your amusement IF it did, we would be playing from a pretty large deficit - THUS a LOSS. It isn't brain surgery. BTW, that "weird feeling" you have is probably your head up your a$$.

Posted by VenomousVol on January 17, 2008 at 12:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Let me help VolCR. Bossvol351 is a mustang reference not a self-esteem thing. I do agree with you about Fulmer though, 10 years is to long.

Posted by fundamentals83 on January 17, 2008 at 12:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)

THE_VOL,
I missed the Sunday posts. Can I read from today's post that you know for a fact that there is a problem of some sort with Lofton which might be hurting his shooting % this year?

Posted by dirtdobber1 on January 17, 2008 at 1:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)

VolCR- agree with you 100%- if someone mentions "mustang package", must be a loser!

Posted by redneckerson on January 17, 2008 at 1:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)

fundamentals,be careful with thevols' facts - he's posted several facts that are uh, well, something less than fact. We were all guaranteed that Prince would be in the starting line-up from the day he was eligible (unless, of course, something happened to make that not a fact). He should probably have his own page on Snopes.

Posted by redneckerson on January 17, 2008 at 1:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)

By the way, thevol, before you go off ... you couldn't really expect me to just leave that one hanging out there, could you?

Posted by TommyJack on January 17, 2008 at 1:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Look for alot of T's tonite on Bruce. He saves'em for Vandy & KY.

Posted by Kwitcherbellyachin on January 17, 2008 at 2:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)

In the "Hate Memphis Early" category, we have this story in the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html...

You know, I used to like Calipari when he was at UMass, but now... not so much. I can hear the whining bursting forth from the words in this interview.

Posted by THE_VOL on January 17, 2008 at 2:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

fundamentals - my spologies for jw. He wants to be me so much that he's now replying to posts addressed to me even if they don't mention him at all. However, the answer to your question is yes.

Good to see you back redneck - I guess you've duly worn the sheep out? As for my post on Prince starting it was conditioned with "barring unforeseen circumstances." I believe Crews situation qualifies and THAT is what changed the equation. Nice to see you still treat FACTS as you do the sheep though.

TommyJack - are you serious? ALOT of T's??? Hell, he can only get TWO!

Posted by bigbluevol on January 17, 2008 at 2:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)

The_Vol...I don't know why I'm getting in this pi$$ing match, but if the Crews situation is the unforeseen circumstance, wouldn't that make Prince more likely to start? After all, that's one person less in the rotation and Prince is a tall guy who can play multiple positions and could help with the rebounding. Crews being out doesn't really prove your point.

Posted by redneckerson on January 17, 2008 at 2:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)

thevol, or should I say thesheepfetishist, good to be back but can you please try to post without engaging your sheep fantasies. And I'm sure you're right - something really is wrong with Lofton ... unless, of course, there isn't.

And, bigblue, good point but you must understand that all attempts to engage thevol in logical conversation are futile.

Posted by orangebass on January 17, 2008 at 2:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)

hope the fans get off their hands before the final two minutes. Let's show what a home court advantage means. Get loud and stay loud!

Posted by jevolball7 on January 17, 2008 at 3:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Seen those scores last night? SC beat ARK on the road! GA.,AUB.,LSU.,ALA.....All jokes. We could lose 3 games at Vandy,at FLA and MEMPHIS. IMO

Posted by TommyJack on January 17, 2008 at 4:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)

The_Vol: Yeah..how astute of you.

Posted by VOLS85 on January 17, 2008 at 5:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Could calipari please cry a little bit more...It was as if we owed him for coming from UMASS and expecting us to usher memphis in as the next SEC powerhouse in basketball. The truth is that we have a solid conference that hasn't changed since the mid-90's...so now he feels that we deserve him something because C-USA sucks and Memphis is finally decent at a sport...keep him there.

Posted by GreeneVol on January 17, 2008 at 5:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Kwitcherbellyachin - thanks for the refreshing post. Even if the article get my dander up - seems like Calipari has a knack for that sort of thing....with his permanently pouting bottom lip...poor whiner - now do what the Regents say - play UT and live with it! I just don't understand why he wouldn't want top talent from the rest of the state - fine, just go ahead and burn the bridge - one less competitor we have to deal with!

Go Vols - nothing would be better than a good Commie beat down tonight!

Posted by weedbreath on January 17, 2008 at 7:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

OK I'm sitting here watching and it was a slow start but it seems the Vols are finally picking it up. But one complaint, STOP GIVING UP SO MANY OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS!!!!!!! I don't understand how the Vols can be so dynamic on offense and defense but struggle so poorly at rebounding. BP needs to make this a focus of practice in the near future before it catches up.

Posted by weedbreath on January 17, 2008 at 7:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Has anybody seen Chris?

Posted by weedbreath on January 17, 2008 at 8:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Never mind I see him now.

Posted by weedbreath on January 17, 2008 at 8:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Did you all hear that? Crews may be back anyday now!

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