Clemson vs. N.C. State Post-Game Quotes

Jan. 25, 2011

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Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Overall Thoughts: “We just got rocked early. N.C. State played really well. I didn’t think our defense was terrible, but they made shots. I thought offensively we were better than the score was indicating. We just didn’t make shots. We got a little tight, but we just kept imploring our guys to hang in there and improve defensively, then we could go on a run and momentum would help us a bit. In the second half, both teams struggled. We won the game with our defense in the last 28 or 30 minutes.”

On how his team came back throughout the game: “I just think that things get going well for a team and things get going bad like they were for us at the beginning. I’m calling timeouts and coaching and everything and nothing is working. We didn’t make any drastic changes that changed the game, and I don’t think Sidney (Lowe) did anything different. We got momentum and our guys just started to make plays.”

On his team’s rebounding edge: “We got them to shoot a low percentage, but N.C. State is a pretty good offensive rebounding team. For us to keep them off the glass and not give up those putbacks that break your back was key for us in the run.”

On the impact of Scott Wood: “The scare was that Scott Wood would start making shots and it would open everything else up. Then the inside game gets going when you over-help to Scott Wood and you can’t get it shut off. That was a major concern. A couple of times, our big guys switched out onto Wood to take away a shot or at least make him take a tougher shot.”

On the play of Bryan Narcisse: “He plays hard. He’s out there giving it his all, and he’s long. He covers a lot of ground and space. His arms are long and he has big strides, so he just covers a lot of space. He’s been doing it a while now. He is a junior, so it’s time for him to do these things.”

N.C. State Head Coach Sidney Lowe

Overall Thoughts: “After we had a good start, Clemson just became more aggressive. They turned up the defense and started going for the ball a lot more. They got more physical with us. We stood around too much; we didn’t come around and get the ball from the dribbler like we talked about. They just turned up the intensity. It’s a game of runs. We made a run at the beginning and then they made runs that we just couldn’t stop. We talked about not giving them the game by not taking bad shots or turning the ball over and making them play defense. I thought we took a couple of questionable shots, but we had a lot of open shots that we just missed inside. Some were questionable (whether they got hit or not) but we just didn’t do our job tonight.”

On Clemson’s comeback: “They don’t have a clear cut superstar, but they know how to play hard. This isn’t a young team; they have plenty of guys that have been here before. They know what type of effort they needed to give to get back in the ballgame. It showed a lot of character and a lot of toughness. They did whatever they had to do to win the game. I saw one guy body-block Scott Wood. They did what they had to do to get back in the game. When you’re down like that, you do whatever you have to do, and they did it.”

On today’s game compared to Sunday’s game vs Miami: “We made shots Sunday. We were able to score. When Miami made a run, we were able to make a shot to keep ourselves in it. Today, we had trouble scoring. Their defense was good and they took some things away. Jerai Grant was on the inside, taking that away and blocking shots. Once again, we had five shots on the inside and he blocked at least two. We just couldn’t get that one basket we needed to break the momentum and I was running out of timeouts. I used them all in the first half, trying to stop that run, and I was trying to hang on to them in the second half.”