Bruce Pearl Quotations

What Major did tonight was no surprise. I almost predicted it if I could have.

We've tried to do a lot of things this year to embrace the history of Tennessee basketball.

Hard work alone won't guarantee success, but without hard work, I'll guarantee you won't have success.

I've made mistakes, I clearly did, but what I was hoping for was that some other dumbass would get on the front page and take me off the hook. I miss Lane Kiffin.

We set standards that we expect our student-athletes to adhere to both on and off the court. We will not tolerate anything less.

We're not communicating. We're capable of defending better. I call it having a sense of urgency. You need it this part of the season.

LSU, Alabama and Arkansas are big, physical and athletic. Add Oklahoma State and Memphis -- there are our five losses.

I am disappointed in some of the decisions that Jemere has made. We have a set of expectations for our student-athletes, both on and off the court, and he has not met them.

I am very disappointed, but Kentucky played a terrific second half. We must focus on playing better. Every night we have had intense games, and there is no margin of error for this team.

Great players are going to have to step up if you're going to beat the best team in the country. Certainly Chris carried us.

I don't remember the last few days. I don't remember traveling to Lexington. I don't even remember traveling home. I remember the game. ... That is the best we've played.

Half of them were very well-defended and contested. Those are the ones that just sort of take your breath away and take the wind out of the opponents' sails. That's what makes him so special.

I sweat sweet. It's not a stinky sweat.

I think a lot of people thought that was it. We've done everything we could do, and I think that would be a fair assessment. I saw more than I thought we had. It was nice to see it.

I think it's very wide-open. I think LSU is obviously the team to beat as SEC (regular-season) champion. I think Florida comes in playing extremely well, as does Arkansas.

I see a lot of similarities between the ones and twos and between the threes and fours.

Rodney Carney is a great player, and we lost him a bunch of times, and that was the key.

That was a game of two completely different halves. I was thrilled with the way we played in the first half. I was very disappointed by the second half. Give Auburn credit - they have not packed it in. They are well coached, and they will be good down the stretch.

We couldn't stop them in the half court. They did a wonderful job of executing. They got great looks and made shots, which put too much pressure on our offense to score every time down the floor.

We'll look at it again when we get started and see where he is. It really depends on him.

We're not playing our best basketball right now and haven't been. I think that for the first time the confidence has to be shook a little bit.

We've come from behind three times from 9 points or more, so we know we can come from behind. We're not going to physically overwhelm people, we're just not. We've got to wear them down.

The players have had a good fall. I say that by my standards, it's been a good fall. We're stronger and we're bigger. ...We're going in the right direction.

To do special things you need to have special players and special performances. Obviously you saw one tonight from Chris Lofton.

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.

Those runs that we went on, they got us in range. If we had been in range, those runs could have got us close.

This thing is wide open. There is a lot of parity in this league and any team is capable of winning it.

Everything. Dribble penetration, post-up. When they're 19-for-25, you know.

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 to me like they're the team to beat.

People that have been around Tennessee basketball said it was one of the best environments they have ever seen. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support.

Sparks makes that team better because he's so versatile. He's a threat from three, he takes big shots and he does a great job of getting his teammates involved.

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.

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.

It seems the more tired Chris Lofton got, the better he shot.

It wasn't very good, but I guess it's a pretty good sign that the guys know that after an SEC win I'm not real happy about how way we played.

It was a real gut check for both teams. Both teams were physically exhausted at the end of that game.

I told him I wanted his permission and his blessing to bring out the orange jacket for the Vanderbilt and Kentucky games. He fully approved of it.

It's certainly a huge part of any offensive or defensive game plan. You must be able to shoot it and defend.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I hope if Kentucky ever becomes irritated with me, it's because my team is good enough to compete with them.

Georgia is pretty darn athletic. Their guards are terrific. When both teams are fresh, you have to give the advantage to Georgia. ... They were much quicker, much more athletic.

I can't tell you how honored and emotional I'm going to be to walk on that (Rupp Arena) floor.

I don't think the ranking is going to mean anything to the coaches and the players as it relates to this team. It's just what it could mean at the end of the year and what it could mean in recruiting and what it could mean in fan support.

I don't want to see that tape. I think I looked bad. I tried to catch him, and he blew me over. I didn't wrap up. It would have been a terrible tackle. Chavis would have substituted for me right away.

This is a great win for Tennessee. This game meant a lot to us. We hadn't played against this type of competition.

All season we've talked about getting better. I thought we got better in the first half, but in the second half, we didn't. How much that is a setback, I don't know.

And he looked at me, and he put the whistle in his mouth like I was coaching and he was going to give me a technical. I said, 'What, are you going to throw me out?' And he ran over to security. Before anything could happen, I just left the gym and went to the concession stand.