STARKVILLE, Miss. — Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said Saturday represented the best basketball his team has played this season.
He wouldn’t get any arguments from Mississippi State.
The 16th-ranked Vols raced out to a 17-0 lead and were never seriously threatened en route to a 75-59 victory over the Bulldogs in Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday night.
“That was the best basketball we’ve played,’’ Pearl said. “We obviously took this one real seriously.’’
Tennessee (23-7, 11-5 SEC) capped the regular season by winning five of its past six games, severely damaging the NCAA tournament hopes of SEC West Division champ Mississippi State (21-10, 9-7) in the process.
Vols junior post Brian Williams scored 10 points and pulled down a season-high 13 rebounds to record the third double-double of his career.
UT out-rebounded the Bulldogs 46-30 and outscored them 48-20 in the paint despite Wayne Chism being held to a season-low one point.
“The biggest thing, we had 33 defensive rebounds, they had 10 offensive rebounds,’’ Pearl said. “We dominated inside and that was the key.’’
Jarvis Varnado, the NCAA’s all-time shot blocks leader, swatted two and scored 11 points with three turnovers.
Senior J.P. Prince led the Vols with 16 points, Scotty Hopson had 14, and Williams, Bobby Maze and Cameron Tatum had 10 apiece.
Tennessee set the tone early, hitting eight of its first 10 shots to open the game, while the Bulldogs were 0-for-5 shooting from the floor with four turnovers through the first 5½ minutes..
“If you’re going to win on the road, you have to play well early,’’ said Pearl, who’s 3-0 in Starkville. “Obviously, we did. We play-called early and came out aggressively.
“They missed a couple of shots, and we got some baskets in transition.’’
Hopson, who was booed loudly each time he touched the ball in the first half, scored six of his points during the opening 17-0 burst, including a layup at the 14:22 mark to cap the run.
“I hadn’t ever really been booed like that before,’’ said Hopson, who made a verbal commitment to sign with Mississippi State before changing course for Knoxville. “It kind of got me fired up; I wanted to go right back at them.’’
The Bulldogs, led by Kodi Augustus’ 15 points, rallied back to within 11 points of the Vols on eight occasions before finally getting to within single digits.
Romero Osby’s drive to the basket pulled Mississippi State to 53-44 with 10:10 left in the game.
Tennessee answered with an 8-0 run, and the Bulldogs failed to get closer than 11 points for the remainder of the game.
Pearl said Vols’ fans might now better understand why he was upset following UT’s 80-73 victory over Arkansas on Wednesday.
“I wanted to see that (execution) against Arkansas at home,’’ Pearl said. “That’s stepped up and focused; you can win in March playing like that.’’
The Vols return to action at 3:15 p.m. Thursday against LSU (11-19, 2-14) in the first round of the SEC tournament in Nashville. With a win, UT advances to play Ole Miss, which earned a first-round bye by finishing second in the SEC West with a 9-7 league record (21-9 overall).
Tyler in Turkey: Former Vol Tyler Smith debuted for Bornova Belediye in the Turkish Basketball League with 17 points, two rebounds and three assists in a 104-79 loss to Turk Telekom on Friday.
Smith was 7-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range and split a pair of free throws.
Tennessee baseball media day with…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 208
DarthWilson writes:
Good road win finally. Time to gear up for the SEC Tournament. GO VOLS!!!!
osbymartin#581730 writes:
GREAT WIN for the Vols! Awesome from start to finish!
jandjhome#228397 writes:
I believe we have our act together. Brian Williams may not score many points but he sure has helped us with rebounding.
John_10065 writes:
Great way to close out the regular season, on the road with a convincing win.
Too bad I didn't get to see any of it until 7 minutes left in the game. Sat outside the county justice center bailing my brother in law out!!! Do you have any idea how bad the reception is in southern IN for the Vols network on 1510 AM?
Bobby Knight just commented that he thought the UT will probably be the most dangerous team in the NCAA tourney.
virginiavolfan writes:
As many on these chat room already know, I am not a big Steven Pearl fan. I think Bruce Pearl is a unbelievable basketball coach but for some reason he is blinded when it comes to his own son. I have some critics on this chatroom that believe I have a vendetta against this kid. I wish the kid would do great but just don’t understand why he gets so many minutes. I am just a Vol fan and want them to make a tourney run this year. This situation got me to thinking. Was I just an idiot and saw something that wasn’t there? Does Steven really help this team out? Or have I been right and this kid does not deserve to play more than other kids like Kenny Hall. I could think of only one way to prove if I was right or just seeing something that wasn’t there. So today I kept the score when Steven Pearl was out of the game and then when he come in the game. This was the results. The numbers list the stretches from the time Steven was out of the game until he was subbed in and vice versa.
Without SP in Game/ SP in Game
Tenn 17 MSU 0/ Tenn 2 MSU 7
Tenn 7 MSU 4/ Tenn 6 MSU 10
Tenn 4 MSU 0/ Tenn 2 MSU 0
Tenn 4 MSU 8/ Tenn 8 MSU 10
Tenn 11 MSU 7/ Tenn 2 MSU 3
Tenn 12 MSU 10/
Total:
Tenn 55 MSU 29/ Tenn 20 MSU 30
Okay I have to be fair and say we did have the 17 to 0 run to start the game. But even without this run we outscored them by 9 without him and got outscored by 10 with him in the game. This stat also gives little credit to those that say how great a defensive player Pearl is. MSU scored 30 points in the 14 minutes that Pearl played and scored 29 in the 26 minutes that he wasn’t in the game. Maybe this game was not a representative sample so I will post the same stats for upcoming games.
bUTchVFL writes:
Huge momentum win.
crimsonviper writes:
Impressive...now make a run...GBO
ProwlinAndGrowlinSmokeyDog writes:
GREAT ROAD WIN, VOLS!!!!! As another poster said, great job from start to finish. All 10 players scored,which is great balance to have that many players scoring for the Vols..At least you know that you can depend on more than a couple of players to score!!! 23-7 is a great regular season record going into the SEC tourney!! And my last comment is please no more Steven Pearl bashing because it is getting ridiculous at this point!!!
RichmondKyVol writes:
Can't imagine why anyone would think you're on a vendetta.
jandjhome#228397 writes:
Bobby Knight is impressed by the Kansas and Kentucky pelts that we hanging on the fence.
allvol9 writes:
Very impressive road win. Now on to the tournament. Go Vols!
Titan writes:
We're winning - give it a rest.
osbymartin#581730 writes:
They played a complete 40 min game but I guess some people will find some kind of flaw and the posters in this room believe you have a vendetta against Steven because you come in here after EVERY game and complain about his playing time. The fact that you actually added all that up is pretty sad. Sounds a little like an obsession to me but I digress. GREAT WIN! Keep up the good work Steven!
jhayes0926#638474 writes:
Is this your goal in life, to ride SP all the rest of his college days? Find something better to do, please.
Brian Williams has really come on strong the last couple weeks. I still think Prince is dangerous in the last 4 minutes of every game. He seems to start playing lazy and commits a lot of TO's and fouls.
JMO
John_10065 writes:
Maybe he ought to go look up the game stats, there were 5 bench players only 4 spent any significant time on the floor. Young Mr. Pearl was third out of the 4 for playing time.
RichmondKyVol writes:
It's always great to be a Tennessee Vol, but beating Miss State on road makes it even better. There's no worse place to go for a basketball game than Starkville, Miss. Place is aptly named. Still remember the 3OT win down there to claim SEC title.
eduardo writes:
Holy Cow!!!
doh writes:
its a shame we are not in the west. hopefully this team is peaking and will make a long run in the tourney. good job CBP. one heck of a coaching job this year.
lomas98 writes:
Considering everyone thought TN would lose this game by double digits, I question anybody that has anything negative to say about this game. For all of TN's faults, I have never seen them put forth the effort that Miss St did tonight with their tournament lives on the line. What happened with Chism and having to be restrained? He seemed to be out of rhythm all night. Great season for the vols with all that happened. Hopefully we can make it to Saturday to play KY again.
HtownVol writes:
Well, the Vols looked great today. I still have a issue with Steven Pearl playing so much. I know he needs to rest our bigs, but Hall deserves more minutes than SP.
Today Steven got beat up on defense. He gave up a lot of baskets and had 2 points. When he was in the game I payed attention to the score differential and UT got beat by about 10 when Steven Pearl was in the game, and we destroyed Miss St when he was on the bench. I only bring it up because the usual argument I get is "SP does'nt give up many baskets on defense" It was not the case today.
Like I have said I am coming around to Steven, but I am only hoping that we do not have to see him play (very much) in the tourney games.
Other than that, I am glad that S Hopson is finally giving the effort he should. He has started to move without the ball and it is showing in his stats.
M Goins is really getting his shot to fall lately. J.P is much more aggressive. But Chism is getting into early foul trouble (which is leading to Pearl playing so much). And that is what could hurt UT in the tourney.
Great win today. The 3rd team in the East totally beat up on the best team in the West. Making the top 4 teams in the East undefeated for the year vs. the SEC-West.
GO VOLS!
lomas98 writes:
Since you have so much time on your hands, for your argument to be valid you need to do the same research for all of the other bench players who had minutes. For TN winning by 16 and having a 17-0 to start the game, I would think the same stats can be valid for any other bench player. When Pearl is in the game, who is on the floor with him? He played a great game tonight. Get over it.
dlobh writes:
10 points, 13 boards for Williams. He's doing his part. They may be playing their best ball of the season now that their rotations are set with all the players back from suspensions and injuries. And Chism really contributed very little to this win. How many thought after the loss at Florida that this team would win their last 3? Keep it rolling in the tourney . . .
Titan writes:
Anybody hear what the deal was between CBP and McBee during the Arkansas game? Right after BP got T'ed up in the second half, he went down the bench to where McBee was sitting and really chewed on him big time. McBee didn't play any after that Wednesday night and none today. Anyone hear an explanation?
orangecountyvols writes:
A coach's dream, to go wire to wire in a hostile environment.......senior night, 4 point underdog, MSU in a must win game, and an effort that rivals the Kansas and Kentucky games, and on the road to boot.
Prince, Hopson, and Tatum really stepped up, on a night when Chism wasn't a factor......although he served as a decoy. Vols' taking quick 3's, missing them gave MSU a chance to regroup somewhat in the first half. All in all, a really great team effort, and it's becoming harder and harder for some to criticize CBP.
Finally, in an afterthought,on a night like this,
to have nothing better to do than to continue the vendetta on Stephen Pearl is pretty useless.
John_10065 writes:
I think Chism is a little bit tanked and physically hasn't recovered from the mid season when he was almost carrying this team by shear will.
Down_The_Field writes:
i'll bet you didn't like ralph parton either. i'll also bet that brian williams cramps your style too since he's not a scoring machine.
when i see SP in the game, usually i see the defensive effort pick up. i know he's not going to score a bunch, but the kid will always cause a few turnovers. same with williams. he's not going to drain a lot of points, all he's gonna do is bang the boards. there are guys on this team that do valuable things that don't show up in the stats.
i'm proud of this team from the manager to the coach and i'm dam proud to be a vol.
johnlg00 writes:
I was one of several who predicted a Vol loss tonight. I said then that I hoped I would be wrong and I am glad to see that I was. Of course, I had no idea that MSU would miss the start time of the game by about six minutes on the game clock.
I wouldn't be surprised if some schools rethought this whole "Senior Night" hoopla. I understand why they do it and I sympathize, but, given the number of ranked favorites who went down at home tonight, there seems to be something about that environment that saps the will and skill of the teams doing it. Everybody saw how sluggish UT was at our own Senior Night on Wednesday.
I'm glad the Vols won big despite getting nothing out of Chism, but it would have been more satisfying if MSU had shown up. They let the whole conference down tonight. It will be hard for UT to move up in the NCAA seedings, since MSU's "el foldo" act was so glaringly obvious. Almost as shocking was Bob Knight pronouncing UT the "most dangerous team" in the NCAAs this year! Way to go, Big Orange!!! You really took care of business!!!
Porterhouse writes:
Hmmm......if I make a dual tag, what could I be?? Would I call myself Ribeye? Pork Chop?
You don't like S. Pearl, get past it. He definitely deserves time over Swiperboy this year.
osbymartin#581730 writes:
Wow! You sound alot like another poster on here about SP coincidence?? hmmmm...
Ironcity writes:
I was one that predicted a double digit loss. I have been wrong a lot with this team. How stupid does Tater and Koolaid feel, they come on here after every loss and predict us to lose every game. They make complete fools of themselves. Our coach has out done himself this year and nothing will change that.
Go Vols!!
elbtenn#502977 writes:
Blah, blah, blah.
TopTenn writes:
GBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
osbymartin#581730 writes:
Good one T-Bone I mean Porterhouse lol! This guy has a serious obsession
orangecountyvols writes:
My apology to young Pearl......Steven ( not Stephen.) Again, a great night, a great day for both the men and women playing round ball.
And, happy times for the U T fans who support the team and remain positive......as for the others ( other )........... tough.
HtownVol writes:
You are saying that Steven Pearl played a great game tonight?
I try to stay quiet about SP, I like his effort. But I hate it when Vol fans think he plays great. And we can not be a great team when Steven Pearl plays half of a game.
How did he play great???
2 points, he got destroyed in the post, gave up at least 5 baskets that I counted and what 3 fouls? I am OK with fans liking the kid, but dont tell us he played "great".
I totally agree with the post you replied to. I see how bad UT gets beat when Steven is in the game. He kills our offense, and he is to small to defend the post. But I understand why he plays. I only wish he didnt play "so much".
Please understand what I am saying. Steven Pearl did not play great tonight!
johnlg00 writes:
I'm with you, Doc! I got about 3/4 of a masters degree from ETSU, so I have always had a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the Bucs. Today was a good day with the Vols, Lady Vols, and Bucs all winning! Even CBP's old team, Wisc-Milw, is playing Butler tough on Butler's home floor for the Horizon League championship.
John_10065 writes:
I like Porthouse better, it's like 2 steaks in one. And when you get done, you have a jumbo toothpick left that has a T handle on it!
ClockworkOrange writes:
!!!!PLEASE STOP QUOTING THE STEVEN PEARL GUYS POST!!!!!
HtownVol writes:
What are you saying? Is it really hard to believe that 2 people can see that Steven Pearl should not be playing so much?
This is why UT is not a championship team. UT fans are happy to have players with the talent of Steven Pearl. When will you guys see that it takes talent to win national championships?
Most national championship teams have 2-3 NBA players. We have 1.
I am a very big Vol fan, but I am able to admit our faults, and S Pearl playing 15-20 minutes per game is a major fault. It doesnt make me any less a fan.
Bogytrain writes:
McBee blew his defensive assignment on an inbounds play against Arkansas which allowed a wide open trey (again). Simply put, McBee can't play defense yet. For some reason, he's lost. Because of his defense, he's sitting....
As for Steven Pearl, he has earned his playing time. Some of you people need to let it go and get a life. Unless you see practice everyday, don't pretend you know more than CBP.
MOOREVOLS writes:
Great win. Our defense was very good. We forced Mississippi State to take long 3's all game long. We were tough inside. Chism had a bad night on offense, but he played good defense, as did most everyone on the team. There were very few times when our defense let us down in this game.
When we play defense the way were capable we can beat just about anyone. The only game lately where our defense was bad against a good team was the game at Florida.
johnlg00 writes:
Your middle paragraph sums up my only remaining concern about the Vols making a serious run in the post-season. It just seems that at some point in nearly every game, some of the guys start thinking, "Well, we got this lead playing the way coach wanted us to play, so now that we're ahead, I'm going to just heave up a few." Consequently, we have a 5-8 minute stretch where we let the other guys come back a little instead of keeping up our concentration and stomping on their throats! That lackadaisical attitude is going to come back to bite us in the tourney if we don't get it corrected.
osbymartin#581730 writes:
good post! It is a great to be a VOL/LADY VOL!! We responded to a loss by rolling off 3 straight to end the season and have some momentum rolling into the tournament!
lomas98 writes:
You need to get over him scoring 2 points. Steven Pearl will not score 10 points for this team. I can't agree he got abused in the post when we were up 38-21 at half and Miss St. scores most of their points from the 3 point line. 37 of their 59 were from either 3 or the ft line. vernardo had 4 fgs and I don't think all of them were against Pearl. When teams go zone it seems Pearl is th only one who knows to flash the middle and he usually makes a pass. Pearl played 14 minutes tonight and had 2 fouls, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists. Hall had 12 and Wooldrige 2 minutes were the only ones who played less out of 10 players. The only thing I wish hadn't said was he played a great game. He only needs to not hurt the team which he didn't.
ProwlinAndGrowlinSmokeyDog writes:
I think some people need to be reminded that we won by 17 points on the road when most people thought we would lose by double digits. I really thought that this game would make everyone happy, but I guess I was wrong.
johnlg00 writes:
You might be right. Big Weezy should just kick back for a few days getting treatment and getting rested for the post-season. We will need everybody as fresh and fit as possible going into the SEC tourney. A strong showing there could boost us another seed or two in the NCAAs.
usnavyvolfaninva_still_getting_paid writes:
Wow...missed the game, but pleased to see the Vols swept the West! How 'bout we win ourselves a tournament next weekend!
osbymartin#581730 writes:
I am extremely happy about the game!! They played hard and with purpose. I think we have a chance of a solid 4 seed maybe even a 3 if we are still playing on saturday of the tourney
usnavyvolfaninva_still_getting_paid writes:
heard there was an altercation between Chism and one of the MSU players after the game...anyone with any more info?
John_10065 writes:
*cough*
10.2 minutes per game over 29 games. Only two players averaged less.
235 minutes playing time. Only 3 players had less playing time over 29 games.
I think it is a matter of perception. Because everyone pro or con on this board keeps talking about Pearl is causing an inflatiion about what they think about him...good or bad.
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