On Tennessee playing faster this season:
“It’s big for us. Obviously it was a point of emphasis throughout the summer, for us to play faster, to kind of pick up our tempo. We feel like we have good depth. I think it has been able to be on display, so making sure that we’re able to play at a really good pace, get up and down the floor, use as many bodies as we can with also keeping a strong group on the floor. That’s, that’s always gonna be a big thing for us.
“And I think the freshmen have been doing a solid job of coming along, but, you know, man, like, if I’m being honest, for a freshman in college basketball, I think about being like 19. And you played the No. 1 team in the country, the No. 2 team in the country. I think North Carolina was 17. Wisconsin is obviously playing really well. Your first game really was Michigan State on the road, who at the time was top five. So I’m happy with them. We always want more out of them, but if you’re kind of thinking like a human about it, it’s like what freshman has to deal with that? So I think they done an unbelievable job just kind of understanding that they got to follow the older guys, watch them and learn from those situations.”
On Illinois:
“First of all, really good team we got coming in. Really good team. I think they’re big, they’re versatile. They have a lot of guys that can play multiple positions. You know, their five man sometimes can look like their point guard. Their point guard can sometimes look like their five man. Their two guard can look like a four man. And those are, in today’s day and age in positionless basketball is, that’s what everybody wants. That’s what we’ve tried to mimic as we’ve continued with our team. So they’re a really good team, man.
“They do a lot of funky things defensively. They’re very handsy. I think they’re No. 1 in the country in field goal defense. So we’ll have our hands full, man. They’re a really good team.
We’re excited to have them come in here.”
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