Clemson vs. North Carolina Post-Game Quotes

Feb. 12, 2011

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes |  Photo Gallery 1  |  Photo Gallery 2 

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Overall Thoughts: “Offensively, I thought we tried too hard and were too impatient. We just had a hard time relaxing and settling down. We did a little bit better for a while there in the second half, then we had a cold stretch at a bad time late in the game, then they pulled away.”

On his team’s careless turnovers: “It’s a mentality that we’re trying to bring to the program. It’s a fight every day in terms of understanding the value of every possession and working to get good shots and working together to find a way to get our team the best shot possible. Instead, we get a little antsy and put our head down and try to make a play that’s not really there. That’s a small difference between us and North Carolina right now.”

On his team’s effort: “It was a missed opportunity, and I told our guys that we should be disappointed. But we’ve played really well recently. I can’t fault our guys’ effort. When you look at the way the stats of the game were, we played every bit as hard as anybody could have played against them. We outrebounded them, our defense was good, our energy was good, our rotation was good, our attention to detail was good defensively. When you get to the highest level, to go from being pretty good to really good, you have to be clicking on all cylinders. Offensively, we weren’t there today.”

On the play of Milton Jennings: “I thought he was very locked in. He was very good and he was very confident. He was aggressive in trying to make plays. It’s that fine line with Milt; we’re trying to harness that enthusiasm, but there are times that he’s trying too hard to go make a play that isn’t always there, and it gets him in trouble. But having said that, there are some plays that he can make that other guys can’t.”

North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Overall Thoughts: “We’re fortunate to come away with a win today. Kendall (Marshall) really stepped up for us at the end and made some big free throws. Clemson kept coming. They made three of their last four threes, and some of those were deep. We just kept coming up with big possessions. The score was tied (in the second half) and then Harrison (Barnes) comes out of a timeout and makes a dunk. We have a one-point lead and then Kendall (Marshall) steals the ball. We kept going to the free throw line and killing ourselves by only making one shot, but Kendall (Marshall) went 10-for-11.That was huge for us. Needless to say, we feel very fortunate to get the heck out of here with a win. John (Henson) was big for us. He’s so long inside it’s hard for guys to get any inside easy baskets on us. But they just kept coming after us. It was an ugly game, but a hard fought game.”

On Harrison Barnes’ dunk: “We drew up a play during the timeout before that. John (Henson) was an option that Clemson did a nice job defending and Harrison (Barnes) was the other option. That dunk, for me, was just two points. I wanted us to get our butts back and guard somebody. There’s no question that play fired Harrison (Barnes) up, and also the rest of our team. But to me, it’s still just two points. I still dream of dunking the ball; I’m the only 60-year old in America that does that.”

On the play of Kendall Marshall: “He’s been big. He didn’t play very well in the first half today, with three turnovers in the first half. That’s good against a defensive team like Clemson. They wore him out a little with all the guys running at him. We didn’t do a very good job of attacking that pressure. Their defense had our guys standing still and looking around. We have to do a heck of a better job against a pressure defense team.”

On Clemson center Jerai Grant: “Jerai Grant is really a good player. We’re fortunate to have caught him on two days when he’s been shooting the ball like he shot today. John (Henson) is really long and he affects some shots that he doesn’t block. Those guys (Henson and Tyler Zeller) are really big bodies around the basket.”

On ACC defenses: “Clemson is one of the best defensive clubs in our league. Some of it for us is our immaturity or inexperience. But, give Clemson’s defense credit. They hold people down. You don’t score a lot against Clemson, and there’s a reason. If they have an advantage, they try to run the ball. If they don’t have an advantage, they run some plays and that slows you down and holds you down some. They really do a nice job of guarding.”