Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at No. 17 Tennessee
Thompson-Boling Arena – Knoxville, Tenn.
Monday - November 25, 2019

Head Coach Lamont Paris
Opening Statement:
"I'll lead off with that's a very good team. They're really solid and sound, and committed to what they do, especially on the defensive end. I think you could see that wasn't our best offensive day, but a lot of that was due to them. They did a good job pressuring the ball, they took us out of some things offensively that we wanted to do, in conjunction with the fact that a couple of guys had poor shooting days, and I thought one of the biggest factors was at the rim. They did a great job of challenging shots at the rim with their length and athleticism, and the fact that they play really hard. They're not afraid to be physical. It's a good basketball team. I felt pretty good about what we did defensively for the most part. There were three or four possessions here and there, but it's basketball. Not too many people pitch shutouts in basketball, but I thought we did a pretty good job defensively. We just struggled mightily on the offensive end tonight."

On if continued shooting struggles from beyond the three-point line are due to the level of competition:
"That's a good question. I think there may be some validity to that. I think you've got incremental differences in the length of contests on the perimeter than what we face in some other games and that can make you rush a shot just a little bit more. Was the atmosphere part of it? Who knows. I've been in a bunch of games, and sometimes when guys see a game that's a big game and you throw a number in front of Tennessee's name on television, it makes it a bigger game for 18-22-year-old guys."

On how his team couldn't get by Tennessee with poor shooting:
"You can't do that against these guys. They're going to play possession defense. You have to have some sort of efficiency when you're doing it. Having said that, I thought if we played defense at a high level—which I thought we did for the most part—that we didn't have to have any sort of earth-shattering, record-breaking night offensively. I thought we had to have a pretty good day offensively if we did what we needed to do defensively, and we did not have a pretty good day. That was the difference. I think offensively we struggled to finish some plays off around the basket, and then that extended on out to the three-point line, too."

On how you simulate what John Fulkerson brings to the court defensively:
"It's hard because he's so active and plays with such a high motor, and you're going to tell your other guys, 'Hey this is what the guys does. His blue collar has a blue collar. He's going to play physical and aggressive and play hard.' It's hard to get guys to simulate that, because that's what separates him. It's probably—I don't know him I'm not around him every day—a big part of the reason why he's able to play at this level because he plays like that. It affected the game, and it's not going to be on the stat sheet very often, but I thought his activity was definitely a factor. His activity setting ball screens, his activity as a rebounder and his activity just as a pesky defender around the basket. He impacted the game. There's no question."

Jonathan Scott – Sr.-G
On the improvements made since the Florida State game:
"We were a lot more solid against Tennessee tonight.  We stuck to the game plan for the most part.  There were a few I wish we could have back, but we were solid on the defensive end."