Monday 12/15/2014
Opening statement:
“It was a tale of two halves. I told our guys late in the first half in one of the timeouts that offensively we are really struggling and I didn’t think we would be. It wasn’t the press at all, it was more in half court, the turnovers. Rod (Hall) was having a hard time getting going and sometimes you struggle to find a rhythm. We did that a little in the first half, but our defense was great, then in the second half the defense wasn’t nearly as good. Some of that was (Landry) Nnoko being in foul trouble and not being at the rim to protect. But our offense was really good. Three turnovers, we made 20-25 free throws, guys made plays and that’s what you have to do to win. This was a good win for us leading into a big game.”
On Hall’s strange stat line:
“He obviously didn’t play well in a lot of ways in terms of a floor game, where he usually plays great. But in the second half he really got his head in there and made some big time plays and we wouldn’t have won this game if he’s not out there. He had some really bad turnovers. When you play a team that presses you for 40 minutes, as a point guard, you are going to have some days where it’s like that. You’re going to have assist to turnover lines similar to these in games like Arkansas and Auburn because it’s more difficult to run clean offense. We need to improve our passing, we aren’t a great passing team and that hurts a little bit. I thought Rod and Damarcus (Harrison) were really big in the second half in terms of production, and I thought Josh Smith gave us some really productive minutes in the time he was out there.”
On Hall’s assertiveness:
“There were times I thought early in the game some of his turnovers were because he was a little tentative. He was trying to make reads to passes and almost trying things that weren’t even there, and then he got a little careless instead of just putting his nose in there and going and making a play at the rim. But he figured it out. He came to me at halftime and told me, ‘Coach that’s my fault, I’m just a little out of it right now, I’m going to get my mind right and play better for you in the second half.’ And I said, ‘Hey man you got plenty in your bank account to have a couple of bad halves, you’re fine, go make some more plays’ – and he did.”
On success against SEC opponents:
“We just played well against some good teams from that league and our guys have been motivated to play and have played well. But we will have our hands full in the next one (at South Carolina), these guys are going to really be ready, are playing well and are big, strong and physical. It should be a good game.”
On the home crowd:
“I thought it was great. The lower bowl seemed to be mostly full. I thought it was a good environment and certainly I thought the environment helped us. I think it helped us even when we playing poorly offensively, it kept our guys juiced up defensively to guard. As much as anything I think it puts pressure on the opponent sometimes, and the fans were great today and were certainly part of the win.”
“I enjoyed preparing for Coach (Brad) Brownell and his team because of the way they play and their style of play and the stuff they run. His team did a great job defensively.”
On his team’s play:
“When you have 18 turnovers, we were out of character and not very sharp today. They (Clemson) made 20 free throws in the second half, and that was a huge factor.”
On playing from behind:
“This is a team that knows how to win, and it’s something we’re going to improve on. I’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys to understand what we do.”
On his team’s pressure defense:
“It’s tough to press on the road and especially tough to press against a good team like this one. Our team has a lot of moving parts, but it was good to have Antoine Mason back in the mix.”
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