Bruce Pearl
Bruce Pearl
Bruce Allan Pearlis an American college basketball coach, and the head coach of the Auburn Tigers men's basketball program. He previously served as the head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers men's team, among others. He is a graduate of Boston College, where he obtained his first position as an assistant basketball coach. He was the first coach to lead the Volunteers to a national #1 ranking. Pearl also served as the head coach for the Maccabi USA basketball...
capable league parity team wide winning
This thing is wide open. There is a lot of parity in this league and any team is capable of winning it.
compares front love men passion press talk
I love his passion and his energy. He's a one-man press. You talk about the one-two-one-one, he's just the one in front of that press with his length. He compares favorably with a lot of the big men in this league.
disruptive eight fresh intense learn nine people trying
I wanted them to learn to not take any possessions off, just trying to be as intense as we can. We try to play eight or nine people, keep people fresh so we can be as disruptive defensively as we can.
basketball best hear people tennessee wonderful
It was off the charts. Terrific. People that have been around Tennessee basketball said that it was one of the best environments they've ever seen, which is wonderful to hear in our first year.
certainly defensive game huge offensive shoot
It's certainly a huge part of any offensive or defensive game plan. You must be able to shoot it and defend.
arkansas basketball country fight good hard imagine playing talented teams ways
Arkansas is one of the most talented teams in the country and playing really good basketball right now. It's hard to imagine (Arkansas and Alabama) having to fight their ways in as well as they're playing.
runs
Those runs that we went on, they got us in range. If we had been in range, those runs could have got us close.
asked biggest coach espn games gave kentucky permission plan rivals wearing
ESPN called it hideous. I asked Coach Mears for his permission and he gave me his blessing. I plan on wearing it for the Kentucky and Vanderbilt games because they were Tennessee's two biggest rivals when he was there.
florida looks team
Florida looks to me like they're the team to beat.
chris obviously players saw special tonight
To do special things you need to have special players and special performances. Obviously you saw one tonight from Chris Lofton.
chance chris clearly good guys job obviously open players saw shots special tonight turning
To do special things you need have special players and special performances. Obviously you saw one tonight from Chris Lofton. We did a pretty good job of getting him open and guys did a pretty good job of turning shots down to get him shots because he (Lofton) clearly had a pretty good chance of making what he put up.
dribble
Everything. Dribble penetration, post-up. When they're 19-for-25, you know.
beat biggest competing counts division eastern loss reason tennessee win year
This is the biggest win of the year for us. The reason I say this is such a big win is Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt and Tennessee are all competing for the Eastern Division title. When you beat one of those three, it counts twice, a win for you and a loss for them.
extremely force hold job nice opponent percent prepared says shooting themselves turn
They were extremely prepared and did a really nice job themselves defensively, but when you hold an opponent to 30 percent shooting and force them to turn it over 21 times, I think that says a little something about the effort.