Clemson vs. Wofford postgame quotes

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Opening statement:

“Really good win for our guys, felt a little pressure with soccer winning and football winning, we had to win to make sure everybody kept smiling all weekend. Obviously it was a great weekend for Clemson athletics, and I am super happy for Mike Noonan and the soccer team going to the Final Four and Dabo (Swinney) and all his coaches and players. It has been quite a fall for the sports teams and hopefully our winter will be good, too. We had a good win today, Wofford is a good team. Mike (Young) does a great job with them, he and I are good friends and have been for a while. I don’t really like playing them too much to be honest, but playing his team helps us because we know we are going to have to grind defensively. They take care of the ball, have mentally tough kids and they execute their offense very well and force you to defend for long periods of time. You have to be ready to stay in your stance for 25-30 seconds on most possessions, and tonight our guys really locked in, I thought we had two really good days of practice and we played well today.”

On the opening 20-0 run after the initial basket:

“Yes, I thought it was spurred by our defense. I didn’t think we gave them anything easy, I thought we were a little bit disruptive early. We were to get them out of their flow and our guys got locked in and did a good job not letting them get to Justin Gordon and limiting some of his touches also getting him in some foul trouble helped in the game. Also we were pretty good offensively, especially early. I thought we were efficient, I thought we moved the ball well and put them in some long closeouts and did good things to get penetration and score.”

On Jaron Blossomgame’s late three deterring Wofford’s rally:

“Yes, that was a big shot. You know it is funny, these are harder games for schools like Clemson than people think. Wofford is used to winning 20 plus games a season, and that was me for a long time as a mid-major coach. So, the pressure is solely on Clemson. In a game like this, where you get a lead and then they are coming back, we probably tightened up a little bit offensively … but that is what you have great players for. A guy like Jaron knocks down back to back threes and really doesn’t let us get in a position where the lead is really ever in jeopardy, to let the game get any closer. He was able to keep them at bay and we were able to force them to make tough shots and I thought that they did make some tough shots.  Because they have guys like Spencer Collins and Eric Garcia, they have tough guys who are going to keep coming at you. But again, that is part of the reason that we scheduled Wofford this year because we knew we would need that, so I was pleased with the way our guys stuck with the plan for 40 minutes.”