Saturday 02/14/2015
Opening Statement:
“A really good performance from our team. I thought our guys were locked in after a few good days of practice. I’m really proud of the way our guys in the second half locked in, up 19, they stayed locked in and I challenged them to come out in the second half and play well. That’s really good to see obviously when you shoot the ball and make 11 threes it’s easier for you — you get to set your defense, you’re scoring, the crowd’s energized. We played well today.”
On wondering where today’s shooting has been this season:
“Some of it’s basketball, and Jordan Roper wasn’t playing very well the first two months of the season. That’s probably all of our fault. He’s played much better in the last month and really energized our team when he jumps up and makes shots. He had some really good passes today and it takes a lot of pressure off of other people. We had good balance, I thought Landry (Nnoko) played really well in the first half and had eight points, gave us a great mix. Jaron (Blossomgame) was really solid, he gave us two 3s when a lot of times he’ll only make one. Our defense was really good against a three-point shooting team. We got 88 percent of our defensive rebounds in the first half. Because we’re making shots we were able to get our transition defense set while they were taking the ball out. It all goes together and it’s the reason we played so well.
On having a 35-point lead in an ACC game:
“We haven’t had that. That was an interesting feeling. But that’s a part of it. There was still a lot of time left and give Buzz (Williams) and his kids a lot of credit; he kept them competing. He won’t let those guys give in, and they don’t. They keep playing and they played better at the end and started making shots. But it was good for us to have a game like this where you make shots and it’s good for your confidence and we hope it continues on Monday.”
On the difference in Jordan Roper:
“Oh, I don’t know. I think he’s just more energized. I’ve talked about how we had a conversation a month ago now. I think moving back and forth between the one and two confused him some, because he’s a kid who thinks so much, almost too much some times. He’s a conscientious kid. When you’re doing it back and forth all the time, he thinks too much. He doesn’t make as many shots and he’s not aggressive and it was seeping into other parts of his game. He just didn’t feel right, and that’s all confidence. Once he started playing a little harder, not worrying about things as much he started playing better in practice and that translated to games where he’s been outstanding.”
On quick turnaround at Georgia Tech:
“Yeah, we’ve had a lot of these. I think it’s our third one. It’s hard. You don’t have a practice day; we can’t guard the Georgia Tech offensive stuff like we would if we had a day to practice. So you walk through it a little bit but it’s not the same. You can’t practice different things you want to do offensively to make adjustments sometimes. There’s a lot of mental practice. Coming off a win hopefully that will keep us energized and let us play well but Georgia Tech is a different team. They’re not as good of a three-point shooting team but they’re physical like us, they rebound and they defend. Our games with them are usually low-scoring, it’s hard.”
Overall thoughts:
“I thought they were really good. Obviously they started both halves in great fashion. The moxie they played with, their confidence level, I thought they were dominating form start to finish. I don’t look at Coach (Brownell) as a defensive coach. I don’t get into any of that. I think that’s just people that write blogs and things like that. I think he’s done an incredible job here. I have the utmost respect for him, always have. And I thought that from start to finish today, they absolutely handed it to us.”
On Hokies defense:
“Not very good in the first four minutes of each half, particularly. I think they scored seven out of their first nine in the first half, and I think they scored 17 points before the first media timeout of the second half. I thought all of those guys, it looked like every player scored except for No. 10, and I know he probably played more minutes today than he typically plays, but I don’t know that we played much defense. And I don’t know that we played much offense, either. I thought they were really, really good.”
On Clemson’s hot shooting streak:
“Just thought they played with great confidence. Not trying to coach this team, but I thought their execution was at a very high rate. Don’t think they took a lot of empty dribbles, I thought there was purpose in their cuts, purpose in their screens. I don’t know if he would say they took many bad shots. I think they executed and took practice shots, and the shot that you practice are the ones that typically go in.”
On his team’s focus:
“I would have hoped that we were. I don’t know that we didn’t have good focus. I think that they were just dominating in how they played, and we didn’t respond. I don’t know that it had anything to do with focus. When you’re in last place, you won a game by two points, you’ve lost so many times, it’s not like that lingers around very long. And we haven’t played since Monday, so I don’t think that had anything to do with it.”
On Jordan Roper’s performance:
“He was really good. I would say that was his best game of the year. I know a couple of weeks ago he was ACC Player of the Week, I never look at it, but I know he got some honor from the league, but I would say if he got an honor that week he ought to get an honor this week, because he played really good.”
On Clemson’s shooting and what made it tough to defend:
“I just think that’s how they play. They’ve won four of their last six and I think Notre Dame had to get to 60 in order to win, so I think they’re great in ball screen coverage. The girth, the size, the length that they play with, they switch a lot one through four, and their ball screen coverage is really, really good. The help side and the weak side, the three guys that are not involved in the ball screen are as good as anyone in our league, so it’s hard to get open looks. I think any coach that’s played Clemson would say that, but I can for sure say that because we didn’t get many today.”
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