Official Transcript

(On the carry-over from the team‘s Europe trip)
“I thought what that trip did, as much as anything, it allowed us to really develop some chemistry with this group. One thing we did in those three games over there, I thought we competed really hard. There’s no question that we’ve got more depth this year than we’ve ever had. Our practices have been much more physical, much more competitive. I think there is some carry-over from the fact that all three of those games were very physical games as well. We’ve still got work to do, like everybody does this time of year. This group, they’re competing. The physicality has probably been the biggest difference for us.”

(On where his team will improve from last season)
“Depth is a big part of it. You go back the last two years, and we’ve been in a pretty good position at the end of the year, but we lost Kevin Punter the first year, and then last year, Robert Hubbs III did everything he could. In the last three weeks of the season, he was just limited in what he could do. The depth is a big part of it. I do think the addition of James Daniel III and Chris Darrington allows us to handle the ball better. I think that Derrick Walker gives us another guy that can pass and handle the ball, skill wise. I do think our skills have improved. We still haven’t gotten John Fulkerson back in the fold yet or Jordan Bone. Bone got banged up the other day. I’m not sure what his status is today, whether he’ll practice or not. He didn’t two days ago, but I just think we’ve improved all-around. We have to do that. When you’re dealing with young people, whatever it is they think they do well, they’ve got to get better at it. I think as a group, we have collectively have had a good offseason. I think these guys do their part in terms of they want to get better. They put a lot of time in individually. It’s the best culture we’ve had in the three years that we’ve been here.”

(On his expectations for last year‘s freshman class)
“I think what happens when you have some freshmen who have some success is they think it’s going to be pretty easy. I think you fight guys with that more from their freshman year to their sophomore year. Grant Williams hasn’t show the consistency that we want him to show. There were times last year that he would dominate some practices. He hasn’t done that to this point, and hopefully, that’s because we’ve improved. You’re always concerned about that jump. How much will they improve? It’s so easy. Human nature tells us to sit back and relax, and think that we’ve gotten things done. We’re there. I can tell you Grant, Jordan Bone, Jordan Bowden, they’ve all improved. It’s not just the numbers you look at. It’s the mental side of it. How much are they going to improve there? How much more are they going to embrace being a leader? You can lead in different ways. You go back to every one of those freshmen a year ago, and you mentioned that it was the most productive ever. At times, it was very inconsistent, too. What you look forward to seeing is that consistency. We haven’t gotten that from all the guys in the sophomore class.”

(On the recent college basketball scandal)
“I don’t think any coach has been doing this as long as I have. You have to know what’s going on in your profession. I don’t think that I was surprised by the involvement of shoe companies and outside people. That’s more so outside people the last couple of years. I think probably the biggest the surprise was that the F.B.I. was involved in it. Stuff has been going on in this profession for 100 years. It makes everybody stop and think about the game. That’s what happens when things start getting out of whack. People forget about the game. It’s a great game. It’s been a blessing for a lot of us. The game is going to be bigger than all of this. The game will survive this, it will. There’s a lot at stake out there, and people want to work hard. One thing I do know in this business, the majority of guys in this business do things the right way. I coached Merl Code Jr. at Clemson for one year. I’m telling you, there’s not a finer family that I’ve ever been associated with. I can tell you his family is devastated. I haven’t even spoken to him, but I know his dad and his mom. I was at his grandfather’s funeral. The Code family name means a lot to the state of South Carolina. Merl was a terrific teammate. Everyone loved him. I’m sure he got caught up in something that I know he deeply regrets. We all make mistakes. This game is big. It’s going to survive it. Hopefully, it’s going to be better off, and it’ll put the brakes on. Who knows what it’s going to affect, in terms of maybe how it changes recruiting, AAU basketball? Who knows? I don’t know, and I think there are going to be issues that are going to have to be looked at. Our game is going to survive it because it’s a great game. It has survived a lot of different things.”

(On the emphasis on the backcourt during the off-season)
“Even though we lost some guys, and now I’m watching James Daniel III. He didn’t do very much at all with us during the summer. He was in a rehab situation. We’re watching him get better and better each day. Chris Darrington probably played as well as anybody that we had on our foreign trip. He actually did some wonderful things over there. Both of those guys, if you talked to them today, if they’re honest with you, they’re going to tell you that this is probably the most demanding anyone has ever put on their bodies, in terms of the effort that goes into this. They want to be good at it. Their bodies are experiencing some things that they’ve not experienced before. They’re going to get through it, and they’re older. Some of the younger guys, believe it or not, have been through it. We put time in, and we work hard. But, I do think those guys bring a skill level that they’re still learning the system. They’re not in flow yet where they totally understand everything that we’re doing. I do think that when Yves Pons handles the ball, he’s another guy that brings a little bit of skill to the perimeter. But also, Lamonte Turner, Jordan Bone, those guys have improved. We talked about what they needed to do to get better, and they’re working at it. They continue to work at it. We’re expecting every one of those guys to be better from a fundamentals standpoint.”

(On the culture of Tennessee basketball)
“Well, I think we’ve built it every year. We’ve tried to build our culture every year. It’s when you see teammates really holding each other accountable. I think the communication there has been really good. I think we’ve got a group of guys that aren’t afraid to work and get better at it. It’s so much easier when everybody is pulling in the same direction and everybody’s got that commitment. There are different levels of that. I could probably go down and list from one to 16, who works the hardest. I think our guys could do that. I think our guys would be pretty accurate in saying who puts the most time in, who’s more committed, who works at it. I think they could probably tell you who the best passer is, who the best shooter is, if you went from one to 16. We’ve got more guys that are equal than in the past. We might have had two, three or four guys that were really there. Then, there would be a big gap. I think that gap from one to 16 has really closed a lot. That’s when your culture starts growing a lot. That’s when your culture starts growing the way you want it to grow.”

(On Yves Pons transition to life in the United States)
“Yves has done wonderful. You’re going to find out today why people love him so much. He is just a good and kind person. He works hard. He is going through something from a physical standpoint that he has never gone through before. He never lifted weights until he got here. He would do pushups and things like that, but he has never lifted weights in his life. When you look at him, you will probably tell me I’m crazy because he is so defined. He is learning a lot from that standpoint. He is also learning a different game. European basketball is different. I think he would tell you that it is more physical here. His teammates love him. It’s wonderful to watch how they have gone out of their way to help him. Every day that he is here the language barrier gets better. He has a tough academic schedule. He will do great with that, but with the way the times fall, he has to leave practice early once a week to go to class.”

(On Jalen Johnson and John Fulkerson‘s injury progression)
“Jalen had offseason surgery. He hasn’t been able to do anything with us since that surgery. I think he is progressing. I do not know his timetable to get back. Fulkerson has worked in out and out of some things. We have been very cautious with him. I think he will be back full go by the end of the month. He is doing some things with us in practice.”

(On giving James Daniel III a scholarship to play even though he is a fifth-year senior)
“If he helps us win one game, it is well worth it because we had that scholarship available. I asked him the other day if anyone has ever taught him how to run an offense, and he said only instant offense. I told him were not going to need that unless the shot clock is running down. He is working hard. He has a wonderful attitude. He is learning how to play with better players. This is his first time working with post players who can truly play. He would probably tell you that the hardest thing for him right now is learning where and how we want him to play on the court. There is no doubt that he has ball skills and can score. He is just going to have to figure out how he is going to do that in a different system. I think he had his best day two days ago. He has showed that he can defend but not for long periods of time. When he played at Howard, he played for a terrific coach and a great friend of mine. They played a lot of zone defense, mostly because they needed him to be in good form on the offensive end. We want him to get out of his comfort zone on the defensive end and get back to play in a man-to-man defense. His father told me that he was a better defensive player than offensive coming out of high school. That’s what we him to show us too. He is not afraid to take a big shot, which is a good thing. We want him to improve his all-around game.”

(On if it will take a while for Fulkerson to get adjusted back to the game coming back from his injury)
“I don’t know for sure. My gut feeling is that when you have been away from the game for as long as he has, he will ache and hurt until he gets back into the flow. He plays different. He is one of those slippery types of players. He relies a lot on his athletic ability. He really wants to get back out there, but my gut feeling is that it’s going to take some time. He has been out of the grind for a year, and everyone else has been going through it. I wish it would be an easy transition, but from my experience, I think it will take him some time to get back adjusted to the physicality of the game. Again, we are much more physical this year than we have been since I have been here.”

(On what head coaches Will Wade [LSU] and Cuonzo Martin [Missouri] bring to the SEC)
“I think they will both be successful. I know Cuonzo, and I have always respected him. I think I coached once against him while he was here when we played him in Madison Square Garden. I know Will, but I am not that close to him. He is obviously younger. They both have themselves in a position where they are recruiting well. This league is going to be better than it has been in about three years. Last year, it proved to be one of the best leagues in the country. This year there are going to be some terrific games in this league. I think those guys will do well.”

(On this team’s rebounding potential)
“Rebounding is a point of emphasis. We must rebound the ball better than we did last year. It’s not just with our post guys; it’s also on our guards. It’s an attitude. It’s up to me to make sure that is as big of an emphasis as everything else. We have gotten better defensively, but I don’t think anyone would look at us and say that we are really hard to score against. We must get better there. You can’t be a good defensive team if you don’t rebound the ball. The team that won the National Championship last year led the nation in offensive rebounding. I think they got 43 or 44 percent of their missed shots. That tells you other teams didn’t finish defensively by blocking out and rebounding. That is a big emphasis that we have placed on this team. We are going to rebound the ball better than we have in the past.”

(On Chris Darrington and James Daniel III‘s impact on leadership being transfer students)
“I think they have shown a great deal of coachability. I expect a lot from them. I am hard on them. They have really embraced wanting to be coached hard, and that shows leadership. When I get on to them, their only response in yes sir. It doesn’t faze them. Some guys have security blankets where they smile when you get on to them or they will try to talk, but they don’t do that. I like it when guys say yes sir and get on down the road. More guys should watch them. They understand the message and don’t let the tone affect them. Some guys let the tone affect them, and they don’t receive the message. I try to make practice harder than the game. I try to put them in as many tough mental and physical situations as I can. When I see guys start to crack, that’s when I really clamp down on them. That is a part of the game that you must teach. It falls under mental toughness. It’s up to us to create those adverse situations in practice along with creating intensity and simulating the speed of the game. Those two guys are as good as any that have walked into a situation, not knowing what to expect. It’s great that they are willing to embrace that.”

(On Admiral Schofield shifting to the wing since he has worked hard to lose weight)
“He has been working there almost exclusively. He thing will be maturity and if he can handle the game when things don’t go well. He must understand exactly what his role is as a player. He must learn how to keep the ball moving and not over dribble or over pass. The real question is whether or not he can defend how we need him to defend on the perimeter. He is working on it. Admiral really works at this game, and most of the time, he is his own worst enemy. He wants to do it right every single time. It’s not a game of perfection. When things don’t go well, you must let it go. He has a tendency to get overemotional. As coaches, it’s our job to help identify player weaknesses and help them correct it. We have to work with our team every day to try to help our players improve to their full potential.”

-UT Athletics