Quotes From The Men’s Basketball Game With NC State

Jan. 27, 2000

Clemson Head Coach Larry Shyatt: “After being on the other side of the stat sheet so many times, I can empathize with NC State. I feel our guys deserved this win. They did a good job of keeping the ball out of the paint on defense.

“Not to take away from any of the other guys on the team, but our team is a much better ball-handling team when Ed Scott is on the floor.

“Over the past three games we have been able to see inside a lot better. We have not been able to get the ball in there as much, but we have been able to get the good looks and execute more effectively on the inside.

“This win is great for the team. All wins are equally as good, but to be victorious over a ranked team is excellent for these guys. I tell our guys, ‘Win today, build for tomorrow and the future.”

N.C. State Head Coach Herb Sendek “You have to give Clemson credit for a fantastic defensive effort. We were completely handcuffed.

“[The delay] had nothing to do with it, both teams were delayed one day.

“I think you have to take your hat off and give Clemson great credit. They were very well prepared and executed their game plan well.

“Anytime you play a game you have two possibilities, you can win or lose. And those possibilities are very real. We know that going into any game these possibilities are real. We had no misgivings at all about the capabilities of Clemson. We weren’t for one second unaware of their potential against us. Not withstanding that awareness we were incapable of over coming their defensive effort.”

Clemson Guard Will Solomon “It was great. It feels great to have the W in an ACC game. We just feel great about ourselves. This gives us a lot of confidence. In practice we had a full group of guys and everybody practiced together. We haven’t had everybody practice together since probably the first two weeks of the season. Everybody is getting healthy and we have just been playing hard in practice and Coach Shyatt said that it would carry over into the game and that is what it did. We executed well and got the job done tonight.”

Clemson Guard Edward Scott “It was a great game, we came out and took advantage and tried to have a little bit of fun. We played together and finally got most of our team back. We will get more pieces back probably next weekend. Since the Maryland game we finally got everybody back into practice except Ray (Henderson). Practice was just like a game finally for the first time.

“I twisted my ankle, hopefully it is just a minor thing. Just get a little extra tape thrown on it and be back out there.

“It was huge to be back out there. I am not quite back to where I was before I broke my foot. Got a couple of days of rest and took advantage of it. Got back a little bit better and tried to have fun with my team again.

“To be honest I think we can play better than this. This team is great. Will was in foul trouble at one point and he wasn’t out there with us. This team is a great team, it is just a matter of getting together. We are young and we are still getting experience on everything.”