Tennessee star Nate Ament breaks down laughing at comment Steven Pearl made about his teammates after Vols’ win
The former Vol was nearly in tears during his postgame press conference.
It’s not every day you see a player laugh uncontrollably during a press conference. However, Tennessee star forward Nate Ament was sucking wind briefly at the microphone after the Vols’ 77-69 win over the Auburn Tigers on Saturday night in Knoxville.
It was a physical matchup between the two teams, one in which Tennessee was clearly the more aggressive and physical group. In fact, Steven Pearl admitted repeatedly after the game that his team got “punked” by the Vols.
But Pearl went further in complementing, I suppose, the Vols’ physical interior play, referring to the Vols’ duo of DeWayne Brown II and Jaylen Carey as defensive ends during his postgame conference.
“They look like two SEC defensive ends out there that were just ducking in, and [we] just weren’t able to get around [them],” said Pearl. “And they draw fouls. In the moment, when they draw a foul, you don’t think it’s a big deal. But then they get into the bonus quickly.”
When asked about the comments after the game, Brown cracked a grin, but Ament broke down laughing.
Nate Ament broke down laughing about Steven Pearl’s comments about his teammates looking like two SEC defensive ends
“Nah, it’s really true,” Ament said through laughter. “In practice when I’m playing the four, I’ve got to guard him (Brown) and stuff like that. It’s tough, man. He’s just (laughs). Yeah, it’s true. It’s true.”
It may not seem like a patently absurd question or comparison, as Brown II and Carey are both very big men in stature and are both very physical players, as Saturday night’s display proved.
But Pearl’s comment and the question about it clearly caught both Ament and Brown in a very funny way, particularly the former. Perhaps it’s some carryover from the challenge of facing the duo in practice and the chatter they have on the floor.
Regardless, it’ll always bring a grin to your face to see a player crack up in a lighthearted manner like Ament did. Particularly after a big win.
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