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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 14, 2011

Brad Brownell

THE MODERATOR: We have with us Clemson head basketball coach Brad Brownell. Coach, if you could, a few comments about your team, then we'll open it for questions.
COACH BROWNELL: Coming off an up-and-down week. Coming off a game with Boston College, thought we played one of the better games of the year for us Wednesday night, then couldn't quite pull it out against North Carolina on Saturday. Very competitive game, very physical. Just didn't make enough plays to win that one.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Demontez seems to be playing at a really high level for you right now. How do you evaluate his game, the way he's performed for you this season?
COACH BROWNELL: Demontez has played well. We've done some things where we've moved him off the ball some. He was the primary ball-handler probably throughout a lot of his career. With our team this year we've kind of mixed it up we and Andre Young. We've tried to let both guys play some point and allow both guys to play off screens in our motion offense.
I think it's been good for Demontez. I think through the course of the season, he's gotten better at playing off the ball, not always having to have the ball in his hands to make a play.
He's certainly still very good in transition, he's a very good finisher around the rim, and draws fouls and does things of that nature. But he's really improved as a shooter and he can make three-point shots. He's a heck of a competitor. I mean, he really comes to compete every night, wants to win. He's been the backbone of our team for certain with his competitive fire.

Q. What ways has that competitive nature shown itself?
COACH BROWNELL: He doesn't have fear when we go play places. He's very confident in his ability. I think that carries into our team in terms of when we're in a tough spot looking for him, not always just to make a play, but whether it might be in the huddle, a timeout or anything, I think our guys gain confidence from his strength and his confidence as a player to think that we're going to be fine, to just continue to follow the game plan, do whatever we've got to do.
Certainly there are times also if we get a little wobbly on the road, he's not afraid to grab the ball and make a play. It might be for himself, it might be for somebody else. But he's just a very confident young man, a competitive young man. It's really helped our team.

Q. I was watching the game this weekend with North Carolina. Watching the atmosphere, the way the crowd was engaged in the game, I was struck by the level of that. Have you done much this year to engage fans, change the culture at all? Has that been a priority for you?
COACH BROWNELL: Well, I certainly have done whatever has been asked in terms of going out and seeing students, doing some things of that nature.
To be honest with you, Little John has been good for several years now as the team has improved. Oliver did a great job, the marketing people here, of making basketball a priority. Just the way that Little John is set up with the seats being close to the court, it's a little bit of an intimate environment. Our students are certainly at both end zones, very close to the court.
They're excited about their team. In all sports, that's one thing that's very special about Clemson, it's a small town and everybody rallies around the Tigers. There hasn't been a whole lot I've had to do or anything of that nature that's been different than what's been done in the past. There's always been a good environment here. Because we've had a little bit of success, I think it's helped to continue that this season.

Q. Coming into this league this year, you're about two-thirds of the way through, has anything surprised you? Is it better than you expected, worse than you expected? Competition on the road different? Anything catch you by surprise?
COACH BROWNELL: I don't think I've been overly surprised by anything. There are some wild moments during games when you see kids on both teams making high-level plays that you certainly don't appreciate watching it on television or even maybe in a seat that's high up in a rafter somewhere. When you're at floor level, when you're close, you see how hard the kids are playing on both teams, you see some of the plays that are made above the rim, just some of the athleticism is pretty special.
It's certainly different than at the mid-major level. There's more athletic plays at the rim. Doesn't always mean there's a lot better players; it just means there's more bigger players and there's more athletic plays made around the rim that do catch your eye and for a second you're like, Wow, that was a pretty high-level play. Most of the time you're just hoping it's one of your guys making it instead of somebody else's.
Certainly I think that's the thing that has caught my eye this year. There have been some times in games, usually almost every game there's at least one play when you're not used to seeing that.

Q. Another theme today, devastating injuries all across the league. You have been fairly lucky. But you've had some problems, too. How much did it impact your team to lose Stitt with knee surgery?
COACH BROWNELL: Then we also lost Tanner Smith for a couple games. He's probably still not a hundred percent. He's definitely not a hundred percent. He's playing with a pretty big knee brace on. Then we had a couple kids transfer at the beginning of the season unexpectedly. We started the year with nine scholarship players and we've added a couple of our walk-ons that have gotten scholarships at the semester. We've been a little out-manned at times in terms of not having numbers at practice that you would like to normally have. I think sometimes that's something that's forgotten, too. If you don't have enough people for practice, quality practice becomes difficult. I felt like that slowed us down early in the year, we didn't have enough numbers to have quality practices. We would wear out. We couldn't go as long as we probably needed to at the time in November and December when we needed to have the two-and-a-half hour practices. We don't practice that long now.
But certainly losing Demontez for a couple games was a little scary for us. We're certainly a different team with him. Fortunately our guys rallied and did some good things. Even losing Tanner for a couple ACC games, losing him for two-thirds of the Carolina game at Carolina was hard. We just don't have enough numbers to overcome much of that.
It's hard. It's hard for everybody in the league. That's the nature of this sport.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today.
COACH BROWNELL: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: That concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for taking part.

End of FastScripts

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