Monday 12/08/2014
Overall thoughts:
“This was certainly a great win for our guys. I’m proud of our team. I thought we had an outstanding week of practice. We just tried to focus on energy and effort; we haven’t been good that way for long periods of games and it’s cost us. I thought our guys were really keyed up. We wanted to play a very good team today in Arkansas. In the last minute of the game we used our press and stole the ball and the 1-3-1 bothered them late in the game a little bit. Our guys made plays, we got it to even up and Rod (Hall) was tremendous. That was really the difference in the game for us.”
On close game experience this season:
“It’s helped us a little bit. Obviously we’ve beaten Arkansas and LSU in close games. We’re still a team that’s trying to figure things out identity-wise and for whatever reason our guys seem to rise to the occasion, but in some of these games we aren’t as competitive as we need to be and we don’t have enough offensive confidence to get away from some of these teams where we may have some physical attributes that are better. Shooting the ball is sometimes a problem for us; we can get careless and turn the ball over, so we can allow teams to stay in the game and if they make some threes late which some have done against us we have problems. Tonight we obviously had a huge stretch at the beginning of the second half where we were really poor offensively, these droughts are when teams get away from us, Arkansas got away from us but then thankfully our defense picked back up. I thought our defense in the last six minutes of the game and into overtime was good.
To be honest, I thought we should have had a big lead at halftime. We outplayed them in the first half and really should have had an eight- to 10-point lead.”
On the difference for Rod Hall:
“He and I had a heart-to-heart this week; he has to play better. I think it’s a lot harder on him than everybody realizes, K.J. (McDaniels) and he were really tight. He’s close with other guys on the team, but it’s not the same. Obviously he’s here by himself now that some of his classmates have left. I think Coach (Earl) Grant leaving has had a bigger impact on Rod than some, because Coach Grant was a guy that really believed in Rod and gave him the opportunity. I think there’s a lot of little things that can take away from your focus and he’s played ok, he’s played fine, but he hasn’t played with a big heart and a big spirit. He’s not an outgoing guy, so it’s not natural for him to be out there. He’s a humble guy. He doesn’t get too high about playing great.”
“I’m certainly disappointed of the outcome and I told the players I’ll take the blame for that. We didn’t close it. We talked about this year being the year we committed to finish and we didn’t finish, but lets give Clemson credit, they didn’t go away. (Rod) Hall made some big plays and Brad (Brownell) did a great job keeping his guys engaged. We didn’t finish the way we are capable of finishing off games.”
On any hangover from Iowa State loss:
“Nah, I don’t think so. The game was dictated by Clemson in the first half that’s why we scored 25 points, but in the second half I think we ratcheted it up a little bit.”
On late Clemson run:
“It’s a game of runs. When we play that way it’s going to be a game of runs. It gets down to the point where maybe it’s a possession here, a possession there. For a team that prides itself on creating chaos we really value taking care of the basketball and we didn’t down the stretch.”
On Michael Qualls’ final three-point attempt:
“I thought it was one of those desperation shots. We were out of timeouts and wanted to get off a quality shot. We still had time on the clock and it’s all about making the extra pass, but we will learn from it.”
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