Tennessee basketball associate head coach Michel Schwartz met with the media on Thursday afternoon to recap the Vols win over Mississippi State and preview the Saturday matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks.
On what sticks out from the Kansas game last season and if Yves Pons is getting back to the form that he played with last season:
“You hope so. Obviously, it’s great to get him back in a rhythm. Defensively, he’s been pretty consistent all season long, but to have two games where, offensively, he’s had some confidence out there. He’s taken the shots that we want him to take. He’s shot it with aggression. He’s driven the ball well. He’s finished around the basket and played above the rim, which Coach (Rick) Barnes and the staff have really challenged him to do – to use his athleticism on offense. He’s done so the past two games. Obviously, that’s a real positive for our team. In terms of the game last year, thinking back on it, you think about what an incredible atmosphere it was and what an incredible game it was. With 1:30 left in the game, it was a three- or four-point game. We had a costly turnover when I believe we were down four. We got an offensive rebound on a big possession and turned it over. The game got off to a defensive start for both teams. It was slow to start. Both teams were defending really well. Kansas took a lead. We stormed back and we took a lead. I think we were up six or seven and they went on a seven or 8-0 run. Taking it into halftime, they were up a couple of possessions at halftime. They extended their lead in the beginning of the second half and we fought back to get it to within a one possession game. Obviously, it’s exciting that they’re coming in here. It was a heck of a game last year. We’re going to need to do our job in the paint and on the boards, because that’s where they really hurt us last year. Even though, big man (Udoka) Azubuike isn’t there, (David) McCormack is equally good and equally as challenging for us to be able to defend and rebound in the paint.”
On if Saturday’s game against Kansas feels more like a conference game, with it being the third consecutive season of the matchup:
“That’s a good point. I guess it’s more so than a typical nonconference game. You could say that with Kansas just because of some of the familiarity over the last two seasons, as well as Coach Barnes and Coach (Bill) Self going way back to the Big 12. That’s a good point. You also add the style of both teams, physical inside-out teams. They want to play inside-out and they’re shooting the ball really well. It’s coming from the paint first. We want to play inside-out. We may not be shooting it as well right now, but we know we want to get the ball in the paint. Any time you add that, there’s going to be that element of a physical game. That’s what they were like in the Big 12 and that’s what they have been like the past two years as well.”
On if he believes Yves Pons to be a better defender than he was last season:
“Yes, we do think he’s a better defender. It’s no different than a player on offense as they grow from year to year – as they go from the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year. He’s done the same thing. He’s really enhanced his communication out there on the perimeter. He talks. He needs to talk a lot more. Coach Barnes, the whole staff and the team have challenged him to do so. We need him to have a more vocal presence with this team – in the locker room and on the court. One thing he has done is he’s always taken a lot of pride in his defense, his one-on-one defense and obviously his shot blocking. There’s not much else to say about that. What he’s taken a great amount of pride in this year is helping the other guys try and be on the same page. All five guys need to be on the same page. He’s out there communicating. He’s calling out our coverages and he’s done a lot more off the ball, on the perimeter than he’s ever done in his career. If you look at some of the things he’s doing: tagging on ball screen rolls, being on the help line – what we call the white line – stunting and making plays that elite defenders make. He’s seeing the whole floor; he’s not just seeing his man. He’s not just seeing the shot block attempt. He’s seeing how he can help other guys off the ball, even in a non-statistical way. That’s a sign of someone who’s growing, maturity wise, on defense. He’s done that.”
On how encouraging it was to see Olivier Nkamhoua play well in Tuesday’s win over Mississippi State:
“It was really encouraging because we need it. We need his physicality. We need his rebounding. We need his size and strength. Last year against Kansas, he went in there and they went at him pretty quickly. Late in the first half, he had a good possession where he showed that physically he can do it. He did that in the last game versus a really big front line and as good of a front line as there is in this league, in terms of Mississippi State. To see him do that defensively, rebounding and finishing above the rim twice. It’s what Coach (Barnes) and the staff have really urged him to do and keep his focus on. He needs to continue to do it because we need it. If he does that, he will really help our ball club on both sides of the ball.”
On Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer stepping up and making winning plays in the game against Mississippi State:
“Yeah, I think always, and it does not matter if you are a freshman or a senior. Anytime you make winning plays in crunch time, winning free throws, offensive rebounds, defensive plays, it is huge. That’s huge for the team’s confidence, and it’s huge for the individual’s confidence. So, for two freshmen to do that, they were on the floor quite a bit late in the second half together which is another step. We know we had some turnovers—and you are always going to go through some things as they develop as you are talking about—but for them to make big plays down the stretch is really important for our team, because we know how talented they are, and we know some of the things they can do on offense. So yes, that is a big deal. That is a big deal. And a good point that they can make crucial clutch plays that are not just scoring. We know that in the game earlier, Keon went up to the free-throw line late game and went six-for-six from the line. Those kinds of moments are really big for our team, and it was good to see two freshmen do it. And honestly as exciting as everything is that Jaden was on the floor last game because we know we have missed him.”
On how Coach would evaluate the team’s performance this month:
“We need to be better. Obviously, those two losses were difficult, and the loss to Alabama earlier in the month. You know, we know that we need to be better. Alabama has proven to be one of the best teams in the country right now and obviously the best team in the SEC at this moment. And when you look back at that game we have taken some things from it. And we got rocked. We got rocked by Florida and Missouri—there is no other way to say it. We went up to Gainesville, and they played a great game. They really hurt us, and they hurt us in a lot of different ways. They spread us out, and we had to adjust. We came back, and in the Missouri game they did the same thing. And they really played a much faster, more physical brand of basketball over those two games. We tried to get back to it against Mississippi State. We got off to a really good start, and the whole point is that we have to build on Tuesday night’s game against Mississippi State, and we have to continue to build on that. Learn from those other three and build on the successes that we had against Mississippi state going into Saturday and the rest of the month in February.”
On who is the best perimeter defender on the team right now:
“Well, you would probably have to say, Yves Pons, because Yves can guard all different positions. And it is funny because that is another area that he has gotten better at. You know it is not that he ever struggled with it, but being able to guard on the perimeter versus dynamic smaller divers is something that is always difficult for everybody. And he has been able to do that this year in switch situations. In a situation where we put him on the opposing team’s best player—even if he is at the four spots, we will put him on the opposing team’s two and three and point guard—just to defend that drive. He has gotten better with it, but as a whole, it is an area that we need to be a lot better at—our team staying in front of the ball because that is where a lot of our breakdowns occur is our on-ball defense. It is a give and take because we want to pressure the ball. So, we have to find that happy medium. He has probably been the most consistent, but he has not been on it nearly as much as some of the other guys because he plays inside. I think Keon has done a nice job on the ball until recently. He knows that he has to get back to it. Same with Josiah Jordan James, he had really been solid on the ball until the Florida game, and then in the Florida and Missouri game, he would be the first to say that he really struggled to defend on the perimeter. The other guy that people may not talk about could be our best overall defender on the perimeter consistently is Santiago. Because Santiago really does a nice job of disrupting other teams’ perimeter play. He does it in a little bit different way than Yves or Keon would do. But he is just in and out on the ball, he attacks it, he has quick feet, he knows how to read plays because he is very savvy. So, Santiago is a guy, but collectively we have to get a lot better at guarding the ball. And we cannot rely on one guy, and we definitely cannot rely on Yves shot-blocking to fix those mistakes when we do get blown by. We have to continue to improve there.”
On if he is confident in Santi when goes to the free throw line, and also if he thinks he is confident in himself even if he is isn’t shooting well:
“I think he is confident in himself, and as coaches, anytime your players are confident in themselves, you are going to be confident in them. That’s what we all want, and we want all of our guys to be like that. Santiago, from the day he stepped on campus, has carried himself that way, in many ways, but particularly on the free throw line. When he goes up there to shoot free-throws – that was an aberration when he missed four free-throws that game. So, absolutely we have the upmost confidence in him. When did one of these a few weeks back, someone asked me the same question about Santiago getting up to the line, as he had a tough game, and he got up to close it, and we said we wouldn’t want anyone else up there. So, we have the ultimate confidence in him, and he has it in himself, and we were glad he was up there.”
On what jumps out to him personnel wise when scouting Kansas and what concerns him about them:
“Well, the first thing is, they have a few different layers of that. Their inside play and paint play with David McCormack – he is averaging 11.5 points per game and basically a little over 20 minutes on the season. Then he gets into conference play and it goes up to 15 points a game, and 23 minutes. So, it’s his efficiency scoring the ball and his ability to create for others, because he is a really good passer. It doesn’t get talked about enough how good he is out of the post – whether it’s double teams, or him finding guys out on the perimeter. So, once you get beyond that, with his ability to score out of the paint and rebound, now they have some high percentage shooters. Agbaji is shooting 43 percent, Christian Braun is a dynamic shooter, and then they have one of the most versatile players in the country in terms of both sides of the ball in Marcus Garrett. He is a very good driver, and a really good shooter, even though he doesn’t shoot it with the volume the other guys shoot it, he is a very good shooter with catch and shoot, and an elite defender that can guard multiple positions. Then a freshman that came out of nowhere, in Jalen Wilson – he absolutely has added a dynamic to their team, that is the way he shoots the ball, he plays the four or the five for them. So, their talent really jumps out in terms of how they can score the ball – they do it in the paint, they shoot the ball efficiently from the perimeter, and one of our biggest problems is rebounding. We gave up 15 offensive rebounds to Mississippi State the other night, and we are going to have to a good job of keeping McCormak and their players off the offensive glass on Saturday.”
On if the fact that how Yves can change the offense ever get lost, and what’s the next step for him to round out his offense:
“I don’t know if it gets lost, he wasn’t in rhythm, and he wasn’t making shots the way he knows he can. If he was sitting up here right now, he wouldn’t say anything in terms the offense that was affecting him, but he would say my play is affecting the offense. So, I don’t think it gets lost, but it’s an enhancement that he is doing what Coach Barnes has seen him do, he does it in practice, he’s done it for the majority of the last two years. So, what’s he doing? He is shooting the ball with confidence, he’s making shots from the perimeter, he’s making more aggressive drives as we talked about earlier, he is ready before he catches the ball which Coach Barnes and everyone preaches to him to be ready to make a play. It doesn’t matter if you are playing Kansas, Mississippi State, or a non-conference game. It makes no difference and if you aren’t ready to make a play on the catch, teams at this level are too good, and they are going to sit and the defense is going to shrink. When the ball sticks, it really makes a difference. What’s happened is, Yves is become more decisive, more aggressive, and it has affected our offense because when we get five guys playing like that on the floor, we’re better and it’s simple. It’s no rocket science, and he’s done that, got a little groove and rhythm, and hopefully he stays in it.”
On if they track field goal percentage on good and bad shots:
“No, we really don’t look at that. One thing we know about our guys is, we don’t think we will take bad shots. So, we don’t spend time with that, because we feel like for the most part we’re going to get good shots. We will get in trouble sometimes and we know this. Sometimes we pass up good shots a little bit earlier in the clock, and it leads to late shot clock possessions. High quality shots are difficult to get late in the shot clock, they just are. Your best chance late shot clock becomes a difficult shot on an offensive rebound. So, more tracking field goal percentage, it’s a fine line between passing up a good shot early in the clock. Just because it’s early doesn’t mean it’s not a good shot, but it’s also the mentality that we don’t want to come every time and just play defense for 25 seconds, and then we come down and take the first good shot we get. So, it is a fine line with the flow of the game and the rhythm of the game is what’s going to dictate that. As long we keep taking good shots and getting shots within the parameters of our offense, we feel good about it. Just like we talked about with Yves, they are going to start to drop. Ebb and flow in sports is normal, but we’re going to get it.”
On how a team’s ability to make open shots can improve the radiuses, especially if you are not making them at a high clip early in the year:
“I think it can improve, I really do. We have good shooters on this team. Do we have four or five guys who are 45-50% three-point shooters? No, that is not the makeup of this team. But, we have guys who have made it consistently at 35%, a couple guys at 40% or above, and I love talking about sports in general. It doesn’t matter if it’s a baseball player, it doesn’t matter if it’s in sports in fighting like MMA or boxing. It doesn’t matter if its football and a quarterback; one good throw, one good swing, one good swing by a golfer, it can change everything. And that’s the beauty of sports. And you know what, that’s why I got guys going every day doing their daily vitamins, shooting the ball. I mean, if Yves Pons decided, ‘you know what, I haven’t shot the ball well in the first four or five games, I might as well hang it up,’ you know, you don’t know if he comes back the last two games and does it. So, this is what makes sports great. And it is January something, you lose time you don’t even know what day it is these days but, there’s a lot of time. And we’ll be in the gym, our guys will be shooting, and that ball is going to go through the hoop. We feel very confident about it.”
On speaking with the SEC about whether or not the Vanderbilt and South Carolina games are going to be rescheduled:
“No, we haven’t heard anything about it. It is kind of a wait-and-see on that.”
On what he missed most about Jordan Springer not being on the court:
“Yeah, you know it really is wild. One player, you think a team we talk about our depth, and missing one player you would think we’d have depth, but he’s a unique player. You think about it and we’ve talked in here about it before. His shot selection is so good. He shoots the ball at such a high percentage from three because of his shot selection, so that was one. He spaces the floor in a different way because when he’s out there, the other team is very concerned about him as a shooter because of his numbers. Number two, he is such a controlled driver. So, when we were struggling, and we couldn’t get to the paint and not having him and his ability to get to the paint—and I think we’ve alluded to this before that he almost plays the guard spot like a post player. He can get where he wants to get on the floor under control. He’s got a physicality and a power about him that he can shoot in the midrange, shoot in the paint, deliver passes from the paint like he did at Texas A&M. So, that combination right there, just his ability to keep the floor spaced as a high percentage three-point shooter, and then his ability to drive it under control, as well as anyone we have on this team, was a big piece. And, you know, it was as big as missing anybody those two games that we didn’t have him. And you look back to Alabama, the other game we lost, he sprained his ankle that game and we didn’t have him the majority of that game. So, he brings a very unique style of play to our team. Again, like a post player that plays the guard spot with what he can do once he gets the ball to the paint. And then just depth on defense. It’s hard to play the way we want to play on defense when we can’t go into our bench. And having him playing, Olivier the other night, getting Ticket (Davonte Gaines) going because Ticket is really doing a good job right now and he’s getting close, that allow us to play defense the way we want to. We’re a team, we need everybody. We’re not a team that can rely on one player on either side of the ball and we need everybody. So, when we got our full allotment of players outside of injuries and things like that, we’re a much better ball club.”
On how one win will swing the team:
“We’ll see. It seems like losses can affect you more than wins can. Especially when you take two the way we did versus Florida and Missouri, but we knew getting off to a good start versus Mississippi State was really big. We took two on the chin pretty hard and we were staggered a little bit, but we had to answer. We came back and we got off to a good start against Mississippi State and the game turned into a possession game. I think that was good for us. It was good to have a possession game after two games we really got beat handely. So, to come back and to do that, to come back into film today, to get back into practice today; we were just really pleased to find a way to win. We hope to build on that momentum but like you said, you just have to keep building. I said this on the radio earlier, you could come into film today and you probably won’t know if we won or loss. You could come into a game where we won by 20 or more, and still not be 100 percent sure if they really won that game. Coach Barnes from the day he got here six years ago, it is going to be about this and just get better today. Win, lose, doesn’t matter; just get better today. Be better for the next game, be better for the next practice. That’s the honest truth. That’s the program culture, that’s the DNA that he has. We are going to try and do that for today, tomorrow, and leading into Saturday. You will see where those results take you, you’ll see that process takes you.”
On if he thinks John Fulkerson can bust out of his slump:
“Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the biggest signs was that last tip he had in the Mississippi State game to get us that offensive rebound. When John Fulkerson is at his best, he’s not just standing in one place with the ball in his hand and scoring. He’s obviously a skilled post scorer and he can do things like that. He’s at his best when he’s using his motor, his activity, his speed, his ability to get extra possessions on offense, and tip outs like he did. That play that didn’t get talked about a whole lot. That’s a big of play as any. When he tipped that shot out and Santiago got that offensive rebound and they had to foul him which put him on the free throw line. You look back at the Kansas game last year, some of the extra possessions he got. Sprinting in from the 3-point line, saving the ball, that’s when he’s at his best. So, you know what? If we are going to be literal about it, that last play in the Mississippi State game, that was big. He had a couple of them in that game because they are a dynamic front line. He had to find ways. When he’s moving around, active, and high energy; that’s when John’s at his best. We are challenging him to get back to that. Most importantly, he wants to get back to that. So, we are going to continue with that today and that’s what we need him to do down the stretch in January and February.
On why the guards have been reluctant to get into the paint on offense:
“I don’t if it is a reluctance to do it. I think defense has a lot to do with it. Teams that play us know we want to play inside out. Whether it’s to John or posting our guards, whether its Yves, they know we want to play inside out. So, teams do have a tendency sometimes to back off, sag a little bit, use a little bit of switching defense to take away some of the allies to drive the ball. So, a lot of it is the defense, but people wouldn’t talk about driving the ball as our guards posting up. However, that is one-way Coach Barnes does it. If you look in our six years here, there has never been a time that we have posted more guards than we have this year between Keon, Jaden, Josiah, we even have Victor this year. So, I don’t believe it is a reluctance thing but then the flip side is this; turnovers the last 3 games have been a problem. So, what happens when you start turning the ball over? Yeah, maybe that creeps in a little bit. You don’t want to over dribble, you’re trying to move the ball, trying to find a way to shift the defense side to side, to create an alley to drive. So, I think it goes hand in hand. You have to give the defense credit; they know we want to get the ball downhill. They know we want to get the ball in the paint. We just have to be stronger doing it. That’s why we missed Jaden. He’s one of those guys that can drive through contact. There are drivers with speed and then there’s drivers who know how to drive through contact. He’s one of those guys who knows how to handle that contact. That’s what makes him a really good player.”
On how important it is to find that player to snap the team out of cold stretches:
“Yeah, we definitely look at it. I think every coach in America will look at that and wonder who they can go to when we’re struggling. For us, it’s by committee right now. There is still a lot of basketball to be played. If you look at it this year, coach has called John Fulkerson’s number, and he’s delivered when we needed him to. We’ve been in some close games; you go back to Colorado and Cincinnati; those were close ball games. Arkansas was a close ball game. Mississippi State was a close ball game. So, John has delivered, Yves delivered the other night, and the freshman have delivered. He’s called Jaden’s number late; he’s called Keon’s number late. It may not be one person all season, but if we find a way to find three or four guys to where we have confidence in them, and they have confidence in themselves; it almost becomes more difficult to guard. We just have to get to that point and right now we are still building.
-UT Athletics
