Mike Anderson
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Very quick turnaround. Think it’s our first Big Tuesday game and it’s against one of the best teams in the country. I think they’re one of the best in the country. Grant Williams, the player of the league last year, is back, and so is Admiral Schofield. They’re a very experienced combo. Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden are both solid, too.
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Coming off a tough OT loss, we’ll find out more about the make of our team. I’m not discouraged in any way because we’ve been right there in the end in all of our losses. Our bench is going to be a big part of that and they have to come in and play at a high level. The guys who finish the game off have to finish it strong. Welcome to the SEC family. Every game is going to be a challenge.
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This is new for our guys having to go play one of the best teams in the nation at their place. We’re going to play some great teams, so let’s find out where we are. They’re physical, and we have to match their physicality. They shoot at a high percentage, and when they miss it they go get rebounds.
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You can’t teach experience, and they took some lumps early in those Tennessee players’ careers. They’ve added depth with their bench and the Kyle Alexander kid is someone who isn’t talked about a lot but he’s a huge piece. Sometimes there’s some tough losses and hard knocks, but you learn from it. Can we get over the hurdle? It’s a game we’re looking forward to.
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Gabe and Reggie are going to have to help out with keeping the Tennessee bigs off the boards. You have to have some poise on the road, too. All of our guys … it’s all hands on deck when you go against a team playing as well as Tennessee is.
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We have to do a better job with Isaiah of running him off screens, and he has to make plays off of those. He has to be constantly in motion. And I think Daniel has been the recipient of some scoring chances with the floor as spaced as it is.
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We are an attacking team. Daniel is not a black hole. He can make some great passes. You play to win, you don’t just play to play. Now a guy like Mason is getting to the line and is not being just a perimeter-oriented guard.
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The games get tougher and tougher and we’ll find out more about our basketball team. I still don’t think we’ve played some of our best basketball. Against LSU we played better but there’s another level we can get to. This will continue to be a fun team to watch and for you guys to cover.