Post-Game Quotes

Dec. 29, 2009

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

Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell

Overall Thoughts: “I take responsibility for the way our team played. Our guys weren’t prepared enough. I think we had our guys looking forward to closing [the preconference schedule] out. But give South Carolina State all the credit in the world. It was like the Illinois game in that I thought we were tentative on the offensive end. Down the stretch, we didn’t step up to the line and hit free throws with courage. Obviously we looked past this one.”

On starting Devin Booker: “It (the decision) was okay. It wasn’t one of our finest moments tonight, but it went fine. We need seven or eight players to play well, and we didn’t get that tonight. But he’s played well over the last five or six ball games. He’s been coming. He’s another guy that, when you get the ball to him in the deep post, he can cause problems.”

On the progress of the freshmen: “I would like for them to play like LeBron James, but they are a work in progress. They’re all working hard, and they are going to have some outstanding moments for us.”

On his team’s performance heading into conference play: “Coming into this game, I was happy. In college basketball, upsets happen all the time. We avoided one tonight. Hopefully, we’ll be energized to go on the road and play in the ACC.” 

SC State Head Coach Tim Carter

Overall Thoughts: “When I looked at the stats I thought we accomplished what we wanted. We out-rebounded them and made about the same field goal percentage. The ball game was won on the free throw line. We made it an interesting game and I am proud of our guys. I don’t know that we can play a lot better than we did tonight. I think people enjoyed it and got what they paid for.”

On Trevor Booker: “We wanted to decrease his touches. You can’t get into an up and down game with Clemson because he will get a lot more touches and we were able to limit that tonight. We are lucky that he didn’t get as many touches.”

On having more energy than Clemson: “I don’t know if we had more energy. I thought our guys were very focused. In a game like this what we want to do is get better, because no one expects us to win. Every game like this we just try to get better. We stuck with our game plan tonight.”

On being in Oliver Purnell position with Duke coming up: “If we had won, I would have dreaded what they were going to go through in practice. They were supposed to beat us. I was thinking before the game that if we can come out of this under 30 then it is a good night. I am really proud of our execution tonight. We were able to control the tempo and that kept us in the game.”

On close losses affecting the team: “I told the guys that the opponent is us. They need to understand that we got better tonight. They don’t need to get a big head, because we didn’t win. I am glad we didn’t get beat like other teams have this year by Clemson.”