University of Tennessee Athletics
NC A&T-UT Post Game Quotes
November 27, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Bruce Pearl: "North Carolina A&T is a team who we knew could rally. They beat DePaul Saturday, and Steven Rush had 40 points in that game. But we held him to 4-for-16 tonight, and we feel good about that.
"We are trying to get Josh Tabb more into the ballgame. Tabb is a physical defender. He rebounds well for his position, and he is unselfish. I was happy to see Tyler Smith record a double-double, which is more like what we expect from him, but with a few more assists. He had a very fine night.
"If we had shot well tonight, we could have had some good numbers. Of the 50 3-pointers we tried, they were mostly open. North Carolina A&T invites you to shoot the 3-pointer. They are an up-tempo team, but we did a decent job of stopping them. This team pressed us a lot tonight, and we welcome other teams pressing us the rest of the season.
"Chris Lofton was aggressive during his streak tonight. He hit better in the tournament at Newark, N.J., and that was a good sign. He had mostly pretty good shots, and it was good to see him hitting them so well. Early in the game I jumped Lofton for turning down some 3-pointers.
"Cameron Tatum will be a special player. This freshman lights it up. One reason he is at Tennessee is that Lofton and JaJuan Smith, who are our main scorers, will graduate. Tatum is an aggressive player who is really helpful when either Lofton or JaJuan is in foul trouble. When we send Tatum in, I say, 'Cameron, get in there and score.' And he does just that. We are getting better and we will be a good team."
North Carolina A&T Head Coach Jerry Eaves: "Tennessee played well tonight. I thought they bounced back from their Texas loss, and came out with a lot of energy. For five or six minutes, we were able to hold our own and run our back doors. But once they figured those things out, their length and their speed began to affect us.
"They are ranked there for a reason. Chris Lofton got his jump shot going again, which really did not bother us because we wanted them to shoot jump shots. But what killed us was they had 15 offensive rebounds in the first half, and that is when the game got out of hand.
"I think my team did well. We limited them to 41 points in the second half. We want to run up and down and score the ball, and we became a little more comfortable and scored at a better rate.
"We played a very good opponent that is very well coached. I think they had something to prove coming off the Texas game. We played a super game against DePaul. We are a small, little shooting team, and when we hit our shots, we are very dangerous."
POSTGAME NOTES
* Tennessee was 14-of-50 from 3-point range tonight, breaking the Tennessee record for attempts in a game.
* Chris Lofton was 8-of-20 from 3-point range, smashing his own school record for attempts in a game. (18, vs. Wichita State, March 18, 2006)
* Chris Lofton tied his career-high with five steals tonight, moving him into sixth place on UT's all-time steals list (156).
* Josh Tabb scored a season-high 10 points, the third time he achieved double figures. Tabb's eight rebounds was a career-high. Tabb's five assists tied a career-high.
??Tabb's four steals set a career-high.
* Tyler Smith's 17 points is a season-high, and his 12 rebounds is a career-high.
