Associate Head Coach Michael Schwartz Media Availability
On how much pride he takes in holding Kentucky without a field goal for 11 minutes during the first half…
“Well I think the whole team and the whole staff, everybody takes pride in that. I didn’t even realize that stat until after the game. I think someone brought it to our attention that they went that stretch without making a basket. Honestly the basket they made was on a defensive breakdown. We had a poor switch. We didn’t execute the way we wanted to on the switch and I think that was the basket that Keion Brooks had when he hit a midrange jump shot. But more than anything, in a game like that when you look back at the way they really hurt us in the first game. Offensively they got anything they wanted, particularly in transition. So to come back and bounce back with a good defensive effort versus an elite offensive team was obviously good for us. The whole team was proud of it.”
On how it will be to defend against Arkansas…
“Yeah, it is going to be a real big challenge for us tomorrow. As much as anything you’d talked about JD Notae and Stanley Umude. They have big guards and that’s what they’ve done. When they got off to a little bit of a slow start they made a couple adjustments. One of the biggest things they did was go to a big guard lineup. JD Notae, Stanley Umude, and Au’Diese Toney being three of those guys that are dynamic scorers. And then you throw a Jaylin Williams in there. It’s a real challenge for us. They do a great job of isolating on areas of the floor that they want their players to have the ball to try and take advantage of defensive matchups. It’ll be no different tomorrow. And with that being said, as good as they are on offense. In terms of those three, four players we spoke about. They’re even more dynamic on defense. They’re the leading SEC defensive team in conference play. Allowing teams to shoot under 40 percent versus them. We know it’s going to be a very big challenge for us. Not only to guard them, but we have to be able to score and be efficient on offense too versus an elite defensive team.”
On how ready Tennessee is for the atmosphere at Bud Walton Arena…
“Well I think that’s why we do play difficult non-conference schedules, hopefully to prepare ourselves to be in environments like this and to be in games like this. But without question, we know that playing at Arkansas is as difficult as there is in the country. We really believe that. We love our fan base and Thompson-Boling Arena the other night, Tuesday, was electric. We feel we have as good a home court advantage as there is in the country, but we also know what it is to play at Arkansas. We’ve been there a few times. It’s been rabid when we’re in there. We did and we have seen the Auburn game. And Arkansas is one heck of a team, one of the top teams in the SEC and so we know what the atmosphere will be like tomorrow afternoon. Our readiness for it, all you can do is prepare. In terms of what we’ve had, up until this point, we’ve played some tough games in the SEC. We went on the road in non-conference play to try and test ourselves and prepare ourselves for games like this. But until game time and avid flow of the game, we obviously have a much better answer as the game’s going on. We’ve talked about it. Our guys know what that environment at Bud Walton is going to be like. Now we have to go in and hopefully keep the crowd as quiet as possible.”
On Tennessee’s ball movement being better the last few weeks…
“That has been the biggest thing on offense, and I think a lot of people have talked about that. We’ve made shots and shot the ball better, but the coaches and players feel it’s because of the ball movement, player movement, and crisp passing of the basketball. A couple of things that probably go unnoticed are the post players ability to connect the offense whether that’s John Fulkerson, Uros Plavsic, Jonas Aidoo, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, or Josiah (James) when he plays at the four spot. Those guys do a good job of keeping that offense on the perimeter, flashing out to the perimeter, and keeping the ball moving. Everyone has been great at moving without the ball, but the one guy we use as an example is Santi (Vescovi). The way Santi cuts and moves without the basketball continually is beneficial for our offense. His movement influences other guys, they watch him in film, and coach uses him as an example. I think our guards are doing a better job of moving without the basketball, we’re cutting and moving, and it’s been much better for our offense.”
On what makes JD Notae a prolific scorer…
“He can score at all levels, he’s a physical guard and knows how to score through contact. He can score with a guard on him, taking the ball to the paint, he knows how to draw contact, and he’s dynamic in transition. There’s no matchup that you can say we can take advantage of; he takes away any advantage that we have, but we know it’s going to be a great challenge for us. If a smaller guy is guarding him, he’ll take them inside, if a big man switches onto him, he will drive the basketball and see if he can draw a foul. He is one of those guys that the minute he gets the ball, we need to be focused to stop him because he has no weakness in being able to score the basketball.”
On the consistency of John Fulkerson the last two weeks…
“It’s so big for us because we all know his veteran status as a sixth-year guy. For him being able to play the way he’s playing and bounce back from the time he was struggling, is big. We think that not only is he playing better right now, but we’re hopeful that his best basketball is still to come. On the defensive side of the ball, he’s always someone that we can count on executing our defensive game plan, he’s always been solid with that. When we played Kentucky, when Jonas Aidoo and John were in there, being able to play John at the four defensively and allowing him to switch onto the guards was important. At this point in the season, Josiah has been the main guy to do that. When he must play most of the game defending big men and guards, it’s important to have another guy like John that can do that and was big for us. Doing that for little periods helps us especially when Josiah is in foul trouble, a guy like John can step up and do a lot for our team. His offensive pace of play, aggressiveness, and executing on the defensive end has been a big positive for us.”
On turning the page to Saturday’s game at Arkansas after Tuesday’s win over Kentucky…
“The page was turned in the locker room right after the game, to be totally honest with you. We immediately in the locker room after the win Tuesday night started talking about the challenge and what faces us going into Bud Walton Arena on Saturday. I don’t think there’s any hangover whatsoever in terms of thinking about the Kentucky game and thinking about what a big win that was—and it was a big win, just like they all are right now, to be honest. Every game this time of year, late February, every conference game is as big as they get. So we started talking about it right after. We had an opportunity on Wednesday just with the way that the schedule broke down to give the guys a day off, and we immediately got right on to Arkansas when we got into the film room and practice Thursday, and we’ll do the same thing today. I don’t think that changes how difficult things will be when we head to Fayetteville tomorrow, but from a standpoint of moving on and preparing and understanding the importance of this and understanding the Kentucky game was one game that ended Tuesday night, I don’t think there’s any confusion of that whatsoever.”
On Jonas Aidoo earning more minutes…
“Jonas has been doing it every day in practice. He went through some things early in the year as well that are well-documented in terms of some injuries and some physical things that held him back and made it tougher, made it tougher for him to get opportunities in the games. It’s not only opportunities in the games. We’re a fairly deep ball club, we have a lot of guys, and when you’re in practice and you have four, five or six post players, those guys all want to be in practice. If you came to our practices, they’re as competitive as anything in not wanting to be subbed out during practice. So Jonas had to earn his minutes in practice, and he’s done that. What Jonas gives us is a little bit different than what Uros (Plavsic) gives us, what John (Fulkerson) gives us. Jonas was playing good basketball a month ago in practice, he really was. But what this team needed was a physical presence, and that’s what Uros provided. Right now, what Jonas has given us the last few games is length and rim protection, which Uros doesn’t give us as much. He gives it to us in a different way, so we’ve been able to call on that. Now also, Olivier (Nkamhoua) goes down. So you lose a starter in the frontcourt, so naturally whoever is playing and being productive in practice is going to get more opportunity and there’s more opportunity to get reps in practice. And what Jonas has done—and all credit to him—is he’s been able to take advantage of that. So Jonas, we’re really proud of him and really excited for him. He’s working his tail off to keep getting better and better, and he gives us ability to give us some rim protection and length, allowing to play some more zone on some possessions here and there. We’ve had in two of the last three games, a lineup, albeit very few possessions, where we’ve had Uros and Jonas on the floor at the same time. That’s good size. That’s pretty good length out there and we’ll see how that keeps going moving forward.”
On the expectation that Saturday will be an exciting, high-level game and atmosphere…
“From a record standpoint and watching Arkansas on film, our guys know it, our coaching staff knows it… they’re as hot as anybody in the country. They are really clicking on all cylinders on both sides of the ball. We’ve alluded to it before how many weapons they have on offense. This is an elite defensive team, in Arkansas. There’s no team (in the country) playing any better than they are in the country and definitely not in the SEC. And then on our side, we also feel like we’re playing some of our best basketball. Whether it’s the streak and winning eight of nine games or winning eight straight SEC games in a row… it’s more than that sometimes. Because the game we lost at Kentucky, we weren’t even close. We absolutely got run out of the building. But we feel like our team is coming together, and we’re playing some of our best basketball here in mid-February. Arkansas has been doing it for about six weeks now. They’ve been playing their best basketball. So, it has all the makings to be a high-level basketball game. But every game has a different identity. Every game takes on its own unique challenges and ebb and flow, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Your first question (today) was about Bud Walton Arena and the atmosphere in there. The homecourt (advantage) that Arkansas has and what their crowd can mean to their team, is huge. We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it from watching tape, and we’ve been in that building, as I alluded to before. That’s just like it is for us here in Thompson-Boling Arena. You hope it’s a very high-level game. We’ll just have to see how it goes tomorrow and all the unique things that the game will bring.”
On Tennessee’s proficiency on creating steals this season and whether that’s a product of skill, scheme or simply effort…
“Good point. It’s probably a little bit of all three of those things. I can’t remember the exact game recently, but in one game Zakai and Kennedy combined for 10 steals between them. The other night (against Kentucky), I think we forced 14 turnovers, and nine of them were on steals. When we look at our defense, there are areas that we know we need to better and that we’re constantly looking to improve. We’re not satisfied with the field-goal percentage defense that we have in SEC play. Teams are shooting above 40 percent against us, and that’s not meeting our goals defensively. We want that (percentage) to be lower. But we also didn’t realize and could not have predicted that we would be as efficient as we are with our steal percentage and continuing in SEC play to basically force 16 turnovers per game—17 turnovers per game overall on the season. That’s an area in which this is the highest we’ve been over the last four or five years in terms of forcing turnovers. Steals have been a really big part of that. So, it’s kind of become a bit of the identity of this team between Santiago Vescovi, Kennedy Chandler and Zakai Zeigler being very dynamic with steals—particularly some late-game steals by Zakai and Kennedy. I think it’s kind of happened on its own, but they know their job defensively is to be the head of the snake. They’ve got to provide pressure and make it a little bit of a challenge for the other team to get into their offense. And when the time is right, (we need them) to provide full-court pressure. Now, with that part, you can say that’s all effort-based for them, because we can put schemes in and we can tell them this is our expectation, but their effort, tenacity and heart is what has allowed them to be really effective—statistically—coming up with big steals and having a good number of them.”
On playing meaningful games late SEC play and leaning on freshman to perform…
“Without a doubt, I think the thing is, everybody lives to play for March, that’s the bottom line. That’s the most exciting time of the college basketball season, so to be in a position where you can actually talk about seeding, or you can talk about being in play to win an SEC championship, of course that is what all coaches want, that’s what all teams want. I think the unique thing about this team is that, here we are, Feb. 15th, we play Kentucky and a player like Jonas Aidoo gets to emerge a little bit. You talk about freshmen, Zakai (Zeiger) being a freshman, Kennedy (Chandler) being a freshman, maybe they haven’t played their best basketball yet, and they are playing pretty well. They know, and coach’s expectations of them are to be a lot better on both sides of the ball. We’re going to go work on that here in the next 30 minutes when we start practice, some of these areas to improve. I think that is really exciting when you talk about freshmen. Not only guys that have been playing most of the season in terms of Zakai and Kennedy, but then you get a guy like Jonas who really hasn’t played a lot, and we feel could be better. So, who knows what kind of impact he could make in the next two weeks, heading to Tampa, and then heading into postseason. Yes, very exciting, there is a great unknown about it, but anytime you are playing for high stakes in late February, early March, you wish it could always be like that, without a doubt.”
Super-Senior Forward John Fulkerson Quotables
On his confidence level now and if he lost confidence earlier in the season…
“I don’t think so. The game of basketball, you just go through ups and downs. If I was perfect all the time, I probably wouldn’t still be here at Tennessee. I know there are going to be ups and downs, I know some games I’m going to play good, and I know some games I’m going to bad some games. I think that’s just where you have to trust the work that you put in and trust your teammates and coaches that they’re going to have your back. You just have to keep working and keep playing.”
On being on the court with Jonas Aidoo…
“He’s doing great things. I was just saying the other day that for somebody that hasn’t been playing a lot this season, that hasn’t played in a lot of games, for him to be put in there—and I always say our next game is the biggest game of our season—so during the biggest game of the season and for him to be as productive as he was and to do what he did, a lot of credit goes to him. I think that just goes to show you the level of players that our coaches recruit and the hard work that they put in is paying off.”
On his decision to continue to come off of the bench after Olivier Nkamhoua’s injury…
“I think it’s good to give guys like Uros (Plavsic), Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) and even Jonas confidence to be in there at the start. I was also kind of joking about this when I said this earlier, but I kind of mean it a little bit that that first group of guys can get in there and tire those first guys out and then I can get in there and be fresh and those other guys will be tired. So that’s another way for me to look at it as well. Really it just gives me kind of a few minutes to kind of survey the game and see how things develop and if they’re playing different positions, different schemes, so I really kind of enjoy it.”
-UT Athletics
