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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 5, 2012Brad BrownellBRAD BROWNELL: Two great games between Virginia Tech and Clemson this year. We won by two at home and lost by two on the road. The games were very similar in a lot of ways, so I'm sure it's going to make for entertaining basketball. You know, looking forward to hopefully being in Atlanta for a couple days at least. Q. As a coach, is that a good thing, a bad thing, to have just played these guys? BRAD BROWNELL: Oh, I don't know that it matters. Just in terms of preparation. It's a little bit easier for both teams just because we just played this week. I can't imagine that either one of us is going to be putting in new offenses or defenses here over the week to try to change everything. You are familiar with what you're facing. That's the good thing. The bad thing is that we had two nail‑biters with these guys, and I feel like Seth's team is much better than their record. He's done a pretty good job with a bunch of young guys playing a ton of minutes, and you know, just‑‑ they've lost probably more close games than anybody, and we're not too far behind them on some of that. Probably just make for a really competitive game again. Q. You guys, between Clemson and Tech, even before you were there obviously, have had some really close games. It's not a natural rivalry. What is it about those two teams that seems to bring that out? BRAD BROWNELL: Oh, I don't know. I'm sure‑‑ my first answer would probably be that the talent level on the teams is very similar, because at the end of the day that's what some of it gets down to is the kind of players you have. I think really good environments at each place. Both places have good home environments, and teams usually do a good job playing better there. But I don't know. I just think it's a game, we recruit some of the same kind of guys and some of the same players, so I would imagine that there's some familiarity there, and it's just going to lead to some closer games. I don't know if there's specific anything with style of play or anything of that nature because all of his teams pressed and were up and down the whole time and we're not as much that way and the teams were still really close, and they've kind of been that way in the two years I've been here. Q. It seemed like Jarell Eddie had two pretty good solid games against you guys this year. What's the scouting report on him? BRAD BROWNELL: I just think he's a good player. He's a guy that can really shoot the ball, has great range, and I think he has an improving mid‑range game, and I think he's one of those guys that can be a match‑up problem for people at times because he's a little bit of an undersized four that stretches it and can really put stress on your defense. They've got other good players. Erick Green I think is one of the better players in our league, and Raines inside I think has done a terrific job, and Seth has done a terrific job with him, of taking a guy who was kind of a backup center and all of a sudden the guy has emerged into a pretty good load down there where he's getting double figures every night. So I think that helps with Jarell Eddie a little bit in that you now have a guy who can score in the low post and you have to worry about now Jarell is getting some free shots on the perimeter. Q. You mentioned Raines parenthetically there. I guess because of Davila's injury, he's probably the biggest difference between the Tech you saw in Blacksburg and the one you saw at Little John. I guess there was some tape. Was he much of a surprise to you? BRAD BROWNELL: A little bit, yeah. To be honest with you, you don't necessarily know that guys who are‑‑ you don't want to call them back‑ups, but a guy who doesn't start and is in some ways a back‑up would be able to come off the bench and come into that role and be so effective so quickly. I know from talking to Seth that he'd been hurt some, and so it's been hard, a little bit‑‑ slowed his development I guess is what I'm trying to say, and now all of a sudden the guy gets a great opportunity and he's feeling healthy for the first time and you can see what he really can do. What you find out sometimes as a coach is a guy is a little bit better than you thought or pretty productive when he's healthy and ready to go. It takes big guys a little lit longer. I know he's been red shirted so he's been there a couple years, he just doesn't have as many reps. A little bit of a surprise for an opposing coach to see a guy in the post who has that kind of feel because he really has very good feel with his back to the basket game, and I think that's a little bit unique. There aren't as many kids with that kind of feel these days in the post. Q. Also, you mentioned last week that you were a little anxious as to how your guys would respond on senior night. The result would indicate that they responded pretty well. What did you think? BRAD BROWNELL: Yeah, I thought we were very competitive. You know, we didn't make a three. There were times I felt we were a little nervous, but I thought we had great energy, great life. The building was really‑‑ was loud and positive, and our guys didn't always execute great, but I thought our defensive intensity was very good. I thought our attention to detail was pretty good. We found a way to win a difficult game, and so we certainly were pleased by that. A couple of my older guys I thought played well, so all in all, it was a very good game for us. Q.  That first meeting you had with Tech you guys scored a bunch of points late to throw a scare into them this time around. Neither team scored for the last few minutes so it was kind of anybody's game there. To have any kind of breathing room in this game, what do you guys have to do better or differently? BRAD BROWNELL: You know, we obviously have to make some shots. It's hard to make threes. Tech does a great job of defending the three, but you're going to have to do that to kind of‑‑ you've got to make a few shots to kind of get away from somebody. If you don't make a shot like that or you don't make many shots like that, it's hard to pull away. You've got to have a true low post guy that just dominates or you've got to create so many points off your defense that you can get away from somebody, otherwise you're going to find yourself in a slugfest. To be honest, that's probably what's going to happen if I had‑‑ if I were thinking about the game and predict what kind of game it's going to be, I would suspect it's going to be a game that's close and back and forth and probably a little bit lower scoring again and probably a little bit more resembling the game that was played at Clemson. And that's a little bit because both of us have had a little bit of trouble of scoring consistently. They shoot the ball a little bit better, I think, than we do from the perimeter, and so we may have to do that to win. Q. Obviously you guys scored a lot of points off turnovers in last week's meeting. What is it about your defense or your guys that makes you so good at getting steals this year? BRAD BROWNELL: Well, I do think we try to put some pressure on people and we do try to guard reasonably hard. We don't always guard well, like we didn't yesterday against Florida State; especially in the first half we were very poor. But‑‑ and I also think we have some older guys that have a good feel for what we're trying to do and have some experience, and as a result I think we can occasionally get some teams going a little faster than they like and maybe get them to turn the ball over a little bit. Q. I just wanted to see how Tanner was doing. Any idea what his status will be for the tournament? BRAD BROWNELL: Still don't know. I think he's going to be okay. You know, I think he feels a little better today. I know he feels a little better in talking with him very briefly this morning. He landed really hard on his upper back and neck a little bit and took a great jolt there and was extremely sore and still is today. We're not practicing. Guys are kind of beat up from the season. We feel like we need to take a day and just kind of regroup physically. But optimistic that he'll be able to practice here a little bit either tomorrow or Wednesday and be ready to go by Thursday. Q. Did he have a concussion? BRAD BROWNELL: I don't know. I haven't really been told that. I know he did hit his head, and he had a headache a little bit along with where he landed on his shoulders and everything, but I haven't been told, hey, it's definitely a concussion and this, that and the other. I think he met with some people last night, the doctors last night, and we're all kind of waiting until this afternoon to kind of gather some more information and see how he is and all those kinds of things. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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