Clemson vs. USC Upstate quotes

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Opening Statement:

“Good performance by our guys, especially under the circumstances, we had an incredibly short turn around.  We had another 5 a.m. arrival yesterday morning and really no practice yesterday, just a one day prep.  I thought our guys showed great focus and energy, I thought Avry Holmes was outstanding defensively on Holmes, he did a fantastic job and then offensively he played with good passion, he had a mix to his game.  He made his threes when they were there, we have been encouraging him to drive the ball to the rim and I thought he did that.  It was good to see Ty Hudson knock down a couple of shots early and open some things up, early on we wanted to go inside and attack them at the rim and we really kind of did that, they made a few adjustments, Coach Pain is a good coach, he has been doing this a long time and they made a few adjustments and forced us to make a few threes.  Fortunately we have a team this year that shoots the ball better and so we had to make some more threes and we did that.”

On gaining confidence from early success from three:

“Yes, obviously it does, it makes you look better it makes everything feel better, you know we have shot the ball well and hopefully it continues.  I have said all year that this is one of the keys to this years team is that we have more guys that can make shots, I don’t think we are as good defensively as we have been in the past and that is something we have to continue to work on, but we do have more guys that can consistently knock down threes and you have seen that the last couple of games.”

On if the team was tired after a quick turnaround:

“You know we try to manage it and i think we did a good job of managing the situation just in terms of yesterday.  Basically they just went to class, we got home at five in the morning and they had eight and nine o’clock classes, then yesterday afternoon instead of meeting and having practice we just told them to go to bed and then we met at eight last night and spent about an hour and a half watching film and going over their personnel and talking about what we were going to do on both ends, so really all day yesterday afternoon they didn’t do anything physical activity wise and then today we came in for an hour shoot around at midday and kind of jogged through some things that we needed to do to be organized for the game.  As much as anything it is a mental approach and our mental approach and focus and approach to detail was where it needed to be.”

On progression from Avry Holmes:

“Absolutely, we have always thought he was a good solid player and he is one of those guys that continues to improve.  He is getting better and more comfortable with how we do things, early on the first couple of games I think he was a little nervous.  There is always going to be some learning curve, Avry is a people pleaser, he is trying to do the right thing and I think sometimes he tries to hard, but as he gets more comfortable I think you will see him continue to play well.  Obviously when he makes a couple threes that helps open some things up.  He has the same competitive fight that Rod Hall had, that you like out of players, he wants to guard their best player, he stays in his stance, he works, he fights guys off screens, he grinds at the game which is a great skill.  Talent and toughness are skills, toughness is a skill that is often overlooked and he certainly has toughness.”