Opening Statement…
“Our guys just beat a team that’s got a 15 NET, a team that was picked to win our league, and did it with tremendous effort and energy. I was so proud of our guys in their preparation. It’s been obviously tough this season because we haven’t had as much success as we would’ve liked and we knew how young we were. So there hasn’t been a ton of joy after games. But you could see the kids just haven’t quit. And somehow, we were the more excited team to play, which is really hard to do. Our starters were terrific. They all stepped up in a huge, huge way. I thought Jamal Johnson only having one turnover was incredible. We did make an adjustment. I decided to play Al (Allen Flanigan) at his best position and let Al be Al. We played Jamal at the point and let him get us into stuff. The fact that we only turned the ball over 12 times – it’s been a while since we only turned the ball over 12 times in the league, that might even be the season low. But we got good looks, and the guys let me coach them a little bit. I thought Steven Pearl and Maddux Jeffreys had a phenomenal game plan again. You’ve got to stop Tennessee inside. You’ve got to stop (John) Fulkerson and (Yves) Pons at the rim, front them out of the post. You’ve got to make Tennessee beat you from 3 not 2, and they almost did. We kind of needed that one.”
On better offense in the second half…
“The offense is in front of me in the second half. Mike Burgomaster is kind of my offensive coordinator. Mike and I, and Steven who was the scout today, kind of go over the things that we like, and I thought we were able to get Al (Flanigan) downhill. We were able to get some guys some shots. We did a couple things on the under-the-basket out-of-bounds (plays) we hadn’t done all year long and got some big, big buckets. We had some things we hadn’t shown yet that we thought would be effective against Tennessee. Guys made shots. Guys made plays. I just thought the fact that we were able to turn corners a little bit on Tennessee in those double gaps made a difference.”
On Jamal Johnson playing point guard…
“That was the key to the game. He gets the game ball because of it. Again, putting him in that position let him set us up, and it let Al Flanigan be Al Flanigan and be a dominant player off the ball as a scorer. It paid off for us. That paid off for us. But obviously, Jamal played (great). He’s the oldest guy, he’s the smartest guy. It shows his versatility. When Jamal Johnson looks back at his career, I want him to remember this AUTLIVE game. I want him to remember this game. The fact that he was able to take the ball over, in an SEC game, and play point guard, a position he hadn’t played all year long virtually, and only have one turnover? Pretty impressive.”
On Allen Flanigan’s 23-point performance…
“He was physically dominant. He ties us with Stretch (Babatunde Akingbola) as the leading rebounder. Stretch is our leading rebounder and only plays eight minutes, so Stretch gave us great effort and energy coming off the bench. Dylan Cardwell played well when he was out there also. Even though their numbers don’t say it, those guys gave us effective minutes in there. But Al played 36 minutes, he plays the whole game, and we ask him to do so very much. He’s a workhorse. If I was a better horseman, I would know what kind of horse to call Allen. I can’t call him a Thoroughbred, but he’s got a little Thoroughbred in him. He’s not a Clydesdale. They’re too slow. He’s not a plow horse because he’s a better athlete than a plow horse. But I tell you what, he’s a Flanigan. They’re going to grind now. They’re tough, they’re physical, they’re hard on themselves. He was a load in there today.”