COLUMBUS, Ohio — Admiral Schofield has no problems with emotion.
He’s never been shy about expressing them on or off the floor.
He’s also not been shy about what motivates him, spending his career feeding off how under recruited he was.
On Thursday, as Tennessee met the media before Friday’s opening round game in the NCAA Tournament against Colgate, Schofield said that no extra motivation is needed for the Vols.
“At this point if you aren’t motivated to play basketball and are excited being in the tournament and compete for a national championship, if you need outside things or things that happened in the past, not being a number one see? Those things are small compared to winning a national title,” Schofield said.
“If you aren’t motivated by wanting to be a winner alone then this isn’t the tournament for you. We don’t talk about the Loyola game. We don’t talk about being a No. 1 seed. The biggest thing is that you are in the tournament. Everyone is on an equal playing field. At this point in time it doesn’t matter if we were number one at some point in the season or Duke was or Gonzaga was. At the end of day you have to do it on the floor. The court is still 94 feet. The rims are 10 feet off the ground. You gotta go out and compete. No one is going to be scared out there. You have to go out and take what is yours.”
Tennessee has been in the spotlight all year. Expectation have been gaudy since practices started in October.. Many have picked the Vols to reach the Final Four. Judgement season is here.
March basketball is clearly beauty and the beast. It’s triumph and heartache more than any month of sports fans will find. Tennessee experienced the agony of defeat 12 months ago. A lesson learned not as much for motivation but more for appreciation. Appreciation to be in discussion to start the final three weeks of the season.
“It’s respecting the game,” junior Jordan Bone said. “Respecting your opponent and understanding that any team is capable of going out and getting a win. It doesn’t matter who is on your team. It’s special when a team comes together and has a common goal. I feel like the biggest thing is understanding we are super blessed to be here and be in the position we are in.”
Added Schofield, “It’s March. You take every team seriously. Anything can happen. That’s one thing we have definitely learned. At this point, it’s March Madness a lot o scenarios come into play. You gotta compete and let what you did to get here work for itself.”
As Tennessee practiced for nearly an hour in front of a handful of fans, they were relaxed. Confident because nothing on this tournament eve was new to this team. But Schofield said no one should take that to mean this team is comfortable.
“For two years we weren’t in this position,” Schofield said. “To get comfortable is disrespectful to the work we have put in. I think we just cherish the moment, understand that our work has gotten us here. This is special. There are go a lot of teams that want to be here that didn’t get the chance this year. We were just really blessed.”
A feeling the Vols and their fans hope to have Sunday night as 32 teams find the joy of victory and the agony of defeat.
