Saturday 01/31/2015
Overall thoughts:
“This was a good, solid performance by our team today. I thought our defense was really good. [Olivier] Hanlan ended up with 15 points, but it wasn’t easy for him. They run so many things for him that you’re guarding him on every possession and if you make a mistake, he’s going to make a play. Not only did he only have 15 [points] but he only had five assists. Rod [Hall] was fantastic defensively, fighting him off of double screens and handoffs, etc. [Hanlan] is in such an “attack” mode, it makes him such a good player, but Rod [Hall] was so good on defense. This is one of those games where we got a little bit of scoring from everybody, and certainly Jordan Roper was a guy that was rolling today, making six threes. He played fantastic. I thought we had timely baskets by Landry [Nnoko], who had another good game without fouling. We had good balance. Boston College did a lot of different things on defense to keep us off balance, but I thought we handled it well. It’s good to have a little momentum going our way.”
On winning four of the last five:
“It feels good to be over-500 right now, but this league never stops. You have to take the ACC week-by-week and see what’s ahead of us and how we need to prepare. I’m pleased with how our guys have responded to the 1-3 start in ACC play. There were some games we lost in that stretch where we still showed signs of good basketball. Some of the teams in this league are just so good that if they get going, it can be tough. We’ve played pretty good basketball at different times. We’ve had to find different ways to win, like last Saturday against Wake Forest, and we’ve also had good offensive outbursts, like against Syracuse and NC State. Today was just a solid performance where you build a lead and keep them at bay and take care of your business. There’s still a long way to go. I think we’ll have a few more road games on this stretch than home ones, but I’m very pleased with where we are and how this team has improved over the course of the season.”
On play of Jordan Roper:
“I think guys are more fragile than people realize. They’re under a pretty strong microscope. They know when they’re not playing well, then they get asked about it, and social media can be harsh. When you’re not playing well, you lose a lot of confidence. Sometimes, it’s just finding a way to get that back. [Jordan] Roper had a long stretch where he just didn’t seem right. Jordan [Roper], Coach [Richie] Riley and I sat down and had a conversation about a month ago, and Jordan has responded well from that. He’s focused on talking a little more, competing a little more, throwing himself into the team and has let his good play come when it comes. He wasn’t handling some of his failure very well, and he wasn’t competing the way he needed to compete. He’s changed a couple of things, has a little burst to his step and when he’s playing like that, it changes us. It gives us another offensive weapon on the court and puts pressure on the other team’s defense.”
Opening Statement:
“Pretty obvious what happened, we got off to a bad start and they played really well, really hard. They beat us to every loose ball, hurt us on the backboard, everything you know you have to do be in the game with them we probably didn’t do a good job of. I’m disappointed with our effort but they had a lot to do with that. I thought they played unbelievably well, Brad (Brownell) has done a phenomenal job here because those guys buy in so much to what they do, they believe so much into what they do. Even when the offense falters they don’t take possessions off and they make it difficult for you. They deserved it. The only thing we learned today was that if you have that kind of belief in your system you can win games based off effort. They obviously made a lot of good plays but effort won them the game today.”
On early tipoff combined with Clemson’s hot start:
“No, it’s a function of one team playing much harder than another team. That’s exactly what happens. It’s not an offensive thing tonight. It’s hustle plays today, they had 13 offensive rebounds. Landry Nnoko was pushing us around, legally, just playing physically harder than anybody we put in the game.”
On matching Clemson’s intensity:
“We’ve been in those situations before; you’ve got to raise your level. They come in and they play at a certain level. Both teams come in, you got to feel each other out and raise your level. We didn’t raise our level today we just hung our head. It’s the first time that’s happened all year with us, we’ve been competing pretty hard, we’ve been playing pretty hard in all of our 20 games but we didn’t do it today. So I’m disappointed in that and take responsibility for it.”
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