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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 7, 2011

Brad Brownell

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Clemson head basketball coach Brownell. We'll ask for a brief opening statement.
COACH BROWNELL: Guys are coming off of a very demanding week. We lost a hard-fought game at Duke, but proud of the way our guys responded on Senior Day, played at a very high level against a good Virginia Tech team, came away with a nice win. Fortunate through some tiebreakers to get the fourth seed and have an extra day off.
Looking forward to being a part of my first ACC tournament.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Brownell.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about what Devin Booker has brought to the team this year, how much you need him to play at a high level to advance into the tournament?
COACH BROWNELL: Devin, he's a guy who has improved throughout the course of the season. He's certainly a tremendous athlete, a guy who is really improving his basketball skills. I like the way he's able to defend smaller players around the court. I think he does a good job with that.
But we certainly need Devin and Milt to play well if we're going to do anything in the ACC tournament. We've gotten good, consistent play from Demontez, Jerai, and Andre Young. You need those third and fourth scorers to play well and rebound their position if you're going to advance.
His play will be critical along with some of the other guys'.

Q. Devin has done a good job of expanding his game. Would you like to see him maybe mix it up, be a little bit better inside?
COACH BROWNELL: Yeah, we're certainly working with Devin to do that. Sometimes because he plays with Jerai, there's not quite as much space there. It's not as easy to put two big guys right down there around the basket and expect those guys to have enough space to make plays.
There are times that I think he has to defer and get out and play a little bit out on the perimeter because he can make a three, he can do some things away from the basket, he is reasonably comfortable out there, give more room for Jerai. We would like to find Devin to attack more. He needs to find ways to get to the free-throw line a little more, no question, because he's a pretty good free-throw shooter.

Q. You've referenced the fact that you got the first-round bye. How important do you consider that?
COACH BROWNELL: I think it's pretty significant. The fact you only have to win three games instead of four, especially the way we play. We really try to be very aggressive definitely in our man-to-man. Playing as hard as I think we've tried to play, with the limited number of players we have, nine scholarship guys, we can run out of steam I think if we're not careful.
Having to do that, if we can get into the tournament, have some success, try to get deep in the tournament, having an extra day off I think will be critical.

Q. Was there an equivalent in the Horizon League at all?
COACH BROWNELL: The Colonial, where I was the coach before, is obviously very similar. Really an identical format right now. It was the same. We've done that. But the times we've won, we've only had to win three times, play three games is what I'm saying.

Q. I wanted to ask how aware you are, is it even on your radar, all the speculation about NCAA bubble teams, the fact that most of the so-called experts have you guys barely in at the moment, but some of them perceive if you play Boston College Friday as an NCAA elimination game, does any of that register at all?
COACH BROWNELL: Well, it does because our local media talks about it every day. I've told them throughout most of the year, we've had a bunch of games they've asked me if they're must-win. Seems like we've done all must-wins in February and here into March.
We certainly have some idea of where we are, what we're doing. But we don't talk a lot about it with our players. I think you can do it too early in the season. We just focus on what we've got to do to try to beat the next opponent. Our guys are aware of what they're doing, what Joe Lunardi thinks. I think everybody does, if you're involved in college basketball, if you're a college basketball fan.
It's not something we go around talking about, Hey, we need to win this game to stay in, any of those kinds of things. I think you have to keep your team pretty focused on the job at hand. So we do more of that.

Q. On a slightly different area, anytime when you were in Wilmington or before that, how aware were you of the ACC tournament? It dominates the state.
COACH BROWNELL: The 12 years I lived in Wilmington, I was aware of it from the standpoint of our season wasn't always over. If you were lucky enough to win your conference tournament, advance to the NCAAs, you were watching the NCAA tournament, because the CAA always ended. In fact, the championship is tonight. It's been that way for a long time. You always had that weekend to enjoy watching some basketball.
Growing up in Indiana, we didn't have a Big Ten tournament. As a college basketball fan, it was your time to take your focus away from IU, where I grew up being a fan of, and you'd watch college basketball. Certainly what you would watch often was the ACC tournament. The history, the pageantry of that, I always enjoyed watching those games. They were great games. Excited to be a part of it now.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, I think we're completed for today. Thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend.
COACH BROWNELL: My pleasure. Thank you.

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