Post Game Quotes

COACH Oliver Purnell QUOTES Clemson vs. Old Dominion, 11/18/07

On Old Dominion:

“That’s going to be a really good basketball team. They gave us a whale of a game today; they gave us a whale of a game last year. That will be a postseason team this season. As an alumnus, I’m proud of what their staff is doing with their program.”

On the win:

“I think our team’s a little tired from the stretch of three games in six days and all the traveling. That’s why I’m so proud of the way they came out in the second half. They really stepped it up, especially on the defensive end.”

On 2nd half defense:

“Defense is what won it for us. I thought we kind of wore them down toward the end of the game. Our bigs played better down low.”

On big 2nd half run:

“We finally found that explosiveness in the second half. James and Trevor really asserted themselves there at the end. It’s a sign of growth that we hung in there, despite the fatigue.”

On potential top 25 ranking:

“We’ve got to continue to improve, but it would be good to get there. That’s where we want to be all the time as a program. But we still need to get better.”

ODU’s Blaine Taylor

“We played some good defense. I thought we needed to get to 70 points. We had some unnecessary turnovers. I’m sure they feel good about last year, they only turned us over seven times and this year they got us for over 20.

They are big enough at the four got us a little thin. Sam Harris played 31 minutes, a career high. This was a good trial for him. We were down two on the glass at half, and we end up getting outrebounded by ten. We needed to take care of the ball a little better. I think our guys played hard and we guarded them pretty well.”

On the first technical:

“None of us saw it. It’s hard to say. Even the official said he only saw part of it. The timeout had already been called, it was kind of a bit of a momentum change going into the half.”

Turnovers:

“I think its Clemson’s pressure and our inexperience. Clemson did a good job putting pressure on us. WE have a little bit of youth and inexperience. We put a big burden on our starting PG.”

2nd half difference:

“We made a nice push, but were starting to fatigue. We came up empty in our rotations, trying to get fresh guys on the floor.”