Clemson vs. SC State Postgame Coaches’ Quotes

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Overall thoughts:“It was a hard fought win. I thought SC State played well, especially in the first half. To be honest we showed a little immaturity tonight and made a ton of errors defensively. We haven’t done much of that; they capitalized on our mistakes. When we helped off a shooter they made it and when we didn’t guard a screen inside right, they got it and scored. Devin Coleman shot the ball well in the first half and we went to a smaller lineup and that seemed to help out a little bit. In the second half we played more like we need to play. We defended better and we followed our game plan much better. We caused them some problems and we just struggled our way throughout on offense. Some days aren’t going to be pretty and you aren’t going to make shots and you just have to tough through it. It was a solid second half because we only turned the ball over twice, but the first 20 minutes was not very good.”

On decision to start Devin Coleman:“He has played well and has practiced well. Damarcus (Harrison) hasn’t played very well of late and hasn’t practiced as well. We just wanted to give him an opportunity. I know it’s a big surprise to you guys because he wasn’t playing a lot. I have never said he was out, and tonight we wanted to give him a shot. Jordan Roper has been out and Devin has been practicing a lot and playing well. He is coming off a couple of good games and is rolling right now, so he is probably taking minutes that Jordan had. It’s a good thing for us, because we have depth and we have competition for positions. If you don’t play well and don’t practice well, you’re going to lose minutes.”

On the difference in Landry Nnoko from last year to this year:“He still has a long way to go. He doesn’t realize yet that he can be a really good player. He is a nice guy, sometimes too nice. He is a hard worker. He is not the nastiest guy in the world and he needs to be tougher. He also needs to know that he is really good. In high school he wasn’t really a dominant player and was more of a role player. His freshman year here he didn’t get to play a lot. You go from playing a few minutes last year to almost 30 a game this year and it’s a big jump, maybe too big of a jump. There are going to be games like this where he has confidence and there are going to be games where he is soft and not confident. I had to get after him in the second half and tell him to go get some rebounds and to be tough and he finally did. After that he got in little rhythm and started to play well.”