The most commonly heard words at the Tennessee men's basketball scrimmage Tuesday were "sprint,'' "effort'' and "hustle.''
Coach Bruce Pearl indicated he didn't see enough of any of it with Friday's 9 p.m. tip with Austin Peay (TV: Fox SportSouth) fast approaching.
"I don't see enough toughness and physicality at this point to convince me we're ready to play,'' Pearl said after the 2 1/2-hour workout in Thompson-Boling Arena. "Most of it is pushing themselves through fatigue.''
When Pearl didn't see the Vols pushing themselves through the fatigue, he took it upon himself to help them out.
"I was not pleased with effort, execution and the inability to fight through the fatigue,'' he said. "At one point, I put them on the (base) line and ran them to fatigue them further.''
Nine full-court trips in under a minute were required, or the consequence would be more running.
"They did respond after that,'' Pearl said with a degree of satisfaction.
Seniors Tyler Smith and Bobby Maze said they understood the reason for Pearl's displeasure and how he handled it.
"Yeah, you saw how much we were running,'' Smith said. "This year coach wants to press, press, press, and while we're better than we were at the end of last season, we can still be a lot better.
"That's what makes him such a great coach; the extra sprints and the (Neyland Stadium) Gate 10 sprints at 6 in the morning.''
Maze said he shifts his mental game into survival mode when Pearl goes on his sprint rampages.
"I just think to myself, 'This can't hurt me,' " Maze said. "You may be upset at the time about having to run, but you know that in the long run it's going to help you.
"I watched (former Kentucky player) Jodie Meeks a couple of years ago when I was in JUCO, because I thought I was going to Kentucky, and the thing I noticed last year was how much better shape he was in, just coming off screen after screen.''
Maze's conclusion?
"Coach Pearl is a smart guy, and he has a gameplan for us and knows how to get the best out of us,'' he said. "Toward the end, we weren't giving all the effort we needed, and he saw the opportunity for us to run.''
The Vols' feature scrimmage lasted five minutes, with the projected starters split up.
A team featuring Skylar McBee, Cameron Tatum, Kenny Hall, Smith and Maze defeated a team with Brian Williams, Scotty Hopson, J.P. Prince, Wayne Chism and Melvin Goins, 14-12.
But Pearl wasn't as interested in the result as how the scrimmage played out.
"We made about a half-dozen game-losing plays in five minutes of basketball,'' he said. "Missed free throws, not matching up in transition, over-running the ball on defense. Our rebounders get their hands on a lot of balls, and they don't come up with them. They don't get the 'man' rebounds.
"Just too much apathy off the ball, primarily on defense.''
The Vols started the workout with scrimmage action in half-court sets, and Pearl was none too pleased with that part of practice, either.
"In 40 possessions, we scored 24 times, and that's way too many,'' Pearl said. "It's not March, it's November, but right now I'm not happy.''
Scrimmage Notes: Hall led the winning team in the five-minute scrimmage with five of his team's 14 points while Tatum had four, Smith had three and McBee hit a pair of free throws.
Chism had six points for the losing team with Hopson scoring four and Williams getting a basket.
The Vols came through the workout injury-free.
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Comments » 10
Chris4Vols22 writes:
Yeah, this team looks really comfortable running up and down the court. Lots of opportunities for fast breaks and full court press! GO VOLS!!
Ironcity writes:
Its sounds to me like these guys (the team leaders) still haven't figured it out yet. keep pushing them coach!
wayoutwill writes:
Sounds like a killer team getting pushed hard early so they'll start out ready and possibly be as dominant as the UNLV team that whizzed thru the whole season undefeated and nearly the tourney along with it!This team reminds me of that team in a lot of ways!Hopefully they can get the ring!I belive they can and I belive they will!
awbunch3 writes:
at the point where coach pearl put them on the baseline, the team ran for 1 minute, twice, with rest in between. 2 players stood out putting forth effort, Sky McBee and Brian Williams. They finished easily before everyone else. those that finished last will remain nameless but will most likely be in the starting 5
MidTennVol writes:
Keep pushin', Bruce, until they push themselves the way champions are supposed to.
volsfan92 writes:
keep working vols
CleverUserNameVol writes:
Good luck to you as well, CatScratch. Looking forward to both Tenn. v. Kentucky games this year! There are few people in the world that I loathe more than Jon Calapari, and I'm excited about the chance to play his team, at least, twice a year. Who do you guys play Friday? I didn't even know the game was on, now I have something to do while awaiting the start of the UT game!
VolunteerLifer writes:
Work em, coach, work em.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
Sounds like a nice way to pass an evening! Enjoy! Good to see that basketball season is almost here. Hope always reigns supreme at this time of year.
CleverUserNameVol writes:
That "copy and paste" comment is pretty funny considering everyone that reads this board knows exactly what you're going to post before you even get a chance slither out of your hole and turn your computer on.
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