Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, who held court with seven reporters while Pearl was swarmed by 20, appeared mildly agitated to spend time answering questions about a team picked to finish fifth in the SEC East.
"Most teams try to do some form of pressing and fast breaking,'' Smith said. "If I could play that way (uptempo and pressing) the whole game, I would. Either I'm not that smart or I don't have the talent to do it.
"You know, there is another team out there playing against you that gives you a problem.''
Pearl is hoping Tennessee can give Kentucky a problem; he reasserted his goal at Tennessee is to make the Vols' the Wildcats' top rival.
"Whatever I do in the SEC at Tennessee, it will be to try to beat Kentucky, because they're the best team in the conference,'' Pearl said. "And if you can't figure out a system or recruit players to beat Kentucky, the rest of it just doesn't matter.''
Smith indicated a 94-foot pressing game might not be the best way for Pearl and the Vols to go about it.
"I think we have a hard team to press; we have talented players on the perimeter,'' Smith said. "We work against the press every day in practice, so we'll try to attack it.''
