Clemson vs. Georgia Tech Postgame Quotes

Feb. 5, 2011

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Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Opening Statement “Certainly a good win for our team. We played reasonably well on the road this year and just haven’t been able to find a way to get a win. We didn’t get off to a good start, the Georgia Tech kids played hard and made plays early. Certainly our defense was much better the last 25, 30 minutes of the game and that kept us in the game and allowed us to have our run and then we did a better job of executing under duress late in the ballgame.”

On limiting Iman Shumpert and Glen Rice Jr. “I know Demontez [Stitt] did a really good job of doing the best you can on Shumpert. He is a great talent, he can score in so many ways, he can post you, he can shoot threes, he can drive. I admire him because of how hard he plays on both ends. I think he plays as hard as anybody in our league in terms of both ends and he can beat you with the pass. Certainly coming into the game Shumpert and [Glen] Rice were two kids that we wanted to key on.”

On getting a road win “It’s just feels good for our guys. We have played well enough to win a road game, we just haven’t done it. Sometimes until you do things successfully…you know we are a new team, a new coach, a new staff. We are still kind of learning each other, figuring everybody out. Believing in each other, when you have success, it happens more. I’m glad we were able to finally get this next thing done. We needed to do that, we needed to prove that we were good enough to do this. We have two seniors that are good players that should enable us to compete on the road and we have, but it’s good to put it behind us, but we’ve got a lot more work to do though.”

On the play of his seniors Demontez Stitt and Jerai Grant “Demontez, I though defensively was really good, and he did a better job of letting the game just come to him tonight. Every once in a while he gets a little too aggressive at times and puts his head down. I thought he was good during the run of getting rid of it, getting assists, throwing the ball ahead, moving it and that helped. Jerai [Grant] certainly was outstanding. He was making the high-post jump shot on a regular basis, some of them they were pressing us and we got the ball to the middle and in one or two possessions of zone, we flashed him in there and he made a play and in a couple just against man-to-man and obviously his free throws at the end were big as well.”

Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt

Opening Statement “We have had very similar games the past two games. I think that we are playing hard, forcing turnovers and having opportunities we just aren’t ringing the bell, scoring and shooting the ball well. We just have to keep working through that.”

On the Clemson defense “They are very physical team and very good defensively where they well get in your face and take you out of your comfort zone. I thought we did some things very well, shots just didn’t fall and guys might have had looks but they were making an extra pass when it didn’t need to be made. Give them credit for being a good close out team. For the second game in a row, we did have an unbelievable effort. We forced Clemson to make 20 turnovers and they don’t turn the ball over much. They are known for their half court defense and offense. We will get back to the gym on Monday though and get a lot of shots up, have an individual practice and get those guys to regain their confidence in shooting the basketball.”

On Daniel Miller “I don’t think that he took a step back today, I thought he did some great things, he just played against one of the best inside players in the league [Jerai Grant]. I thought that he got off to a great start, but again he is playing against a pretty good player.”

On Clemson’s run “The cliché is that basketball is a game of runs. We had our run early and offensively we just missed some shots [during theirs]. Certainly, their defense had something to do with it but I know that we are capable of shooting the basketball better. Defensively they are just a good team and I am going to have to watch the tape to see what we did. I hope that we didn’t drop our heads defensively, you always worry about that when you are not making shots that guys will take it to the other end of the floor with them. “