Coach Pearl previews the Round 1 NIT Matchup against South Alabama

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and level. So without taking questions.

Steven has become more common for high majors too when they don't make the TARN-NCA's to just

turn down the TI team move on. Why did you guys decide to keep on playing when so many teams

in y'all's position are turning it down these days? Yeah, I mean, I'm here to coach basketball.

The guys on my roster here to play basketball and we're all here to compete and

you know, I'm not going to duck away from an opportunity to go out there and prepare and compete

and play basketball because that's what we're here to do. I'm not going to take my ball and go

home because we didn't make the tournament. So I just see it as an unbelievable opportunity for our

guys to go out there and just compete on a stage. You know, most of our games will prize you

on the ESPN, you know, and there'd be there's a lot of people in college basketball that would

love to be able to do that. And obviously our goal is to not to play in the NIT.

Our goal is to play in the NCAA tournament, advance the NCAA tournament, but that didn't happen

this year. And, you know, we have an opportunity to, to, you know, go play in a tournament that's

nationally televised and, you know, continue to play basketball for these next few weeks. So

if we're able to advance, so I'm, you know, I'm of the mindset of like, let's just go play,

let's go hoop and, you know, have some fun with it. So that's ultimately why I made the decision

for us to, uh, to play in the NIT. Steven, similar to first question, when high majors do play

sometimes there are some opt-outs. So you guys going to be at full strength to the NIT. And I

guess what was the, what was the reaction from the team of, of decided to do this? Because in,

in Nashville, they talked about, hey, you know, don't want to go home, don't want to play their,

their final game. I guess were they pretty fired up to still have an opportunity to play more

basketball? Um, yeah, I don't know about opt-outs yet because we, you know, we visited last night

after the selection show and obviously everyone was, uh, you know, upset for not having made the

tournament and, um, you know, told them to sleep on it and, uh, you know, I'll be with them

here in the next 30 minutes. So as of right now, no one's called me or anyone on my staff saying

that they're not playing, um, but if that changes, obviously we'll let you guys know.

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Yeah. How does this affect, uh, like just getting ready for the portal? How do you kind of

merge and do these two things and be coaching a lot, portaling and getting ready for the portal?

How do you do that? Well, the portal doesn't open until after the final fours. If, if the portal is

open now, that might have affected my decision, but like right now, like, you know, besides us getting

organized and getting a roster of, you know, guys that we'd like to go after if they do intend to

go in and watching film, um, there's not a whole lot we can do. We can do both of those things

of playing home games in Auburn in the NIT. So, um, I just felt like, you know, you can do both

and that's what we're going to do. So we've, we've been actively preparing for this portal cycle

for a few weeks now and, you know, we, our staff's been really hard at work, just getting things

organized and, you know, identifying some of the positions that we'll need to fill for next year

and looking at potential targets. Um, you know, that, you know, if they do go in, we'll be prepared

because we've watched film, we've evaluated the things that they do and, uh, you know, we've been

obviously looking at the international market, uh, as far as players that are available from,

from over there that we can currently be, you know, recruiting. Um, so, yeah, we, we just feel

like right now, you know, we're, we're able to do both. So that's what we're going to.

South plays, uh, looks like a pretty funky kind of zone, you know, they, nobody shoots more

through or gave it, saw more threes than they did this season. Just talk about that matchup and

just it's a very different kind of defense than what y'all have been seeing really the last few

months. Yeah, it's got some Merrimack tendencies to it. And, uh, just with the activity and how much

they fly around, they leave their conference. And, in turnovers, um, turnovers force and they do a

great job, um, of taking away some of the things that, you know, you want in as far as when you go

against zone, like when the ball goes to the high post, they're all collapsing. They want you to take

threes. Um, and, you know, that's, uh, you know, we, we got to find certain spots in the four that

we can attack and be aggressive. But, you know, they're going to play the entire game in zone,

whether it's two, three or one, three, one, they're going to try and junk it up and keep you off

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Then on the offensive end, they're best. You know, they have the sunbelt play of the year,

66 point guard who doesn't shoot a lot, but he gets, he scores a time. Um, you know,

just the challenges kind of matching him up and the guys they put around him seems like they

got some catch and chew guys that they likely use around him. Yeah, he's big and physical and,

you know, he plays bully ball. You know, he gets the rim. Uh, does a great job of finishing through

contact. He draws a ton of fouls. So he does a great job of getting to the free throw on.

And, um, you know, surrounded by some really good shooters, you know, one of the best shooters

in the country. He's made like 102 threes this year. So, um, you know, they, uh,

and then they have two other guys that can really shoot it out there. I mean, they, they,

they, you know, they were, they were playing for a share of the commerce title in their last game at

home and they were ultimately weren't able to win that game, but the coach probably, he's done a great

job to share with this group. And I know they're going to be really excited about this game. So

our guys are going to have to get up for it because, you know, we're going to have our hands full

because they play an interesting style. Uh, they have two, you know, high major players on their

roster. And, um, you know, our guys got to be, you know, ready because they're going to be coming

in here with their hair on fire, you know, trying to knock us off. Coach, is this the same style

defense that you saw from South seven years ago when you guys played down there, where they

playing that much zone at that point? Uh, eight years ago in the COVID game, you know, they,

they were running that zone a good bit. Um, I would have had time to look back. I've watched

three of their games from this year. I haven't been able to watch our two games from those years,

but I know my staff has. So, um, I'm sure there's definitely some similarities to, to, to,

to the, from the clips I saw today, uh, of the zone that they were running, you know, we played them,

um, um, COVID year and then Isaac's first year. You mentioned how, you know, excited South

Health Emma would be for a game like this. How do you get this group to go, you know, quickly turn

the page from the disappointment of not making the tournament Sunday to now, you know, two days later,

you've got a, you know, chance to keep landing against a team that is going to come in fired up.

Yeah, I mean, it's, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to be prepared and I'm going to do, you know,

the things I always do to try and get our guys motivated to play. And, you know, if it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's on us as coaches, but also as players, you know, to continue to have joy

in playing basketball, you know, um, it's another opportunity to go out there and compete and, you

know, um, that's, that's got to be all you need to, to get excited and you're playing at home,

you know, so I mean, I'm not sure what else I need to say to them in order to get them going, um,

you know, it's a nationally televised game against a team that's in our state, uh, at home, um,

at a national tournament, you know, um, so, you know, just, that's to be all the motivation

they need to go out there and play and compete. How much does it help that the, you guys,

most of your guys on the roster could come back next season, like you only have two, two seniors

and how much this could be pretty beneficial when you talk about trying to look ahead to next year?

Yeah, I mean, you know, part of the decision is trying to be around the guys that, you know,

we'd love to keep in this program and have another couple of weeks of practice with them and, you

know, just try and finish this thing on a high note and, um, you know, continue to try and make

their own history because, you know, even though we're 17 and 16, this team's in a lot of really

good things this year and, you know, let's try and add to it. So, um, yeah, that's, that's part of it,

too, is, you know, being around the guys that we want to come back next year for, you know,

hopefully another week or two. Part of the question here, are you going to continue wearing the jacket?

Is that something you think will be a permanent addition? Uh, I don't know. It's a good question,

JG. Um, do you like it? Why is the huge fan of it? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I was doing that,

you know, back in like 2018, 19 when we were, you know, still dressing up and one of the best

compliments I got was from Roy Williams after we beat him in the sweet 16. He said nice jacket,

and he was, he was like the original like slacks with like the pattern blazer guy. That was his

thing. He was one of them, um, as far as, you know, recently. So, yeah, I was done a while ago,

but, uh, you know, it's, uh, we'll see. We'll see. Steven, you've, you've mentioned this defense

wanted to continue to evolve and get better over the course of the season. You had one of your best

defensive games of the year, really good half against Tensi. Anything you learn, I don't know if you

had too much time to go back on that film yet. Anything you've learned on defense,

then maybe you can take it and use in this, trying to make a run in the NIT.

Yeah. I like, the Mississippi State game, like, you know, we, we were really good. And we,

we did some things that like we hadn't done all year, which I, you know, kind of was surprised

a little bit with how, how well we, we took to it. The first half of the Tennessee game was,

you know, that was impressive. Like, you know, we, we trapped every ball screen and just like made

those bigs, make plays and like we did a great job with it. And the second half, they made the

adjustment and didn't run any ball screens. Um, but, you know, I thought our guys, you know,

did a lot of really good things. So yeah, um, that may be something that this team is better at.

Then, you know, what we're typically used to doing. But, you know, um, we'll, we'll mix up our

coverages and we'll, we'll do a little bit of both. But, you know, I thought those were two of our

better defensive efforts, you know, of the year and the SEC tournament. I think that's something that we

can build off of.