Auburn coach Bruce Pearl spoke to the media Monday afternoon to preview Wednesday night's game at Vanderbilt. Here's a summary...
** Starts off congratulating the women's basketball team for the big win and how the Auburn fans turned out.
** Happy MLK Day. Pearl says he's grateful for the work that MLK did.
** Vandy has had some close, competitive losses. We got beat there last year. Had lost 13 straight to Vandy before winning 5 of last 6. We will work hard to prepare.
** Ezra Manjon will be fastest, quickest, smallest guard we'll play all year long. Bruce said he's the best small guard he's ever seen that can score over larger players.
** It's going to be a close game and we haven't had close games. It will likely be our best defensive players on the floor late against Vandy. Pearl anticipates all four of the next games to be much closer and he's preparing for late-game situations.
** Proud of the state of basketball in Alabama. Auburn and Alabama have been SEC champions in four of the last five years. Don't think SEC has done a good enough job of promoting that.
** Tre has improved. We don't drop off when we go to the bench. The 2nd unit has been better defensively.
** Pearl is in favor of the one-time transfer. Not so much the two-time transfer, or unlimited. The best way to evaluate a potential transfer is how he performs against the best competition. Our evaluations are on film study. Staff has done a very good job with those evaluations -- transfers, JUCO. Don't think we've got one wrong in the last 3-4 years.
** Jerry Stackhouse could coach in the NBA right now and be very successful. Has a great offensive mind. They will be patient. They send teams to the foul line the least. They run down the shot clock and don't turn the ball over. They switch defenses to try and get you to shoot early and make mistakes.
*****THAT'S ALL*****
** Starts off congratulating the women's basketball team for the big win and how the Auburn fans turned out.
** Happy MLK Day. Pearl says he's grateful for the work that MLK did.
** Vandy has had some close, competitive losses. We got beat there last year. Had lost 13 straight to Vandy before winning 5 of last 6. We will work hard to prepare.
** Ezra Manjon will be fastest, quickest, smallest guard we'll play all year long. Bruce said he's the best small guard he's ever seen that can score over larger players.
** It's going to be a close game and we haven't had close games. It will likely be our best defensive players on the floor late against Vandy. Pearl anticipates all four of the next games to be much closer and he's preparing for late-game situations.
** Proud of the state of basketball in Alabama. Auburn and Alabama have been SEC champions in four of the last five years. Don't think SEC has done a good enough job of promoting that.
** Tre has improved. We don't drop off when we go to the bench. The 2nd unit has been better defensively.
** Pearl is in favor of the one-time transfer. Not so much the two-time transfer, or unlimited. The best way to evaluate a potential transfer is how he performs against the best competition. Our evaluations are on film study. Staff has done a very good job with those evaluations -- transfers, JUCO. Don't think we've got one wrong in the last 3-4 years.
** Jerry Stackhouse could coach in the NBA right now and be very successful. Has a great offensive mind. They will be patient. They send teams to the foul line the least. They run down the shot clock and don't turn the ball over. They switch defenses to try and get you to shoot early and make mistakes.
*****THAT'S ALL*****
