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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 7, 2013Brad BrownellBRIAN MORRISON: We have Clemson head basketball coach Brad Brownell. Coach, if you could, a few comments about your team, then we'll open it up for questions. COACH BROWNELL: We're coming off a very disappointing loss against Florida State where we didn't play as well, showed a little bit of our youth and inexperience. Certainly going into one of the most difficult environments in college basketball against a great team. Look at Duke this year, they look better than last, and they were very good last year. I just think the development of Quinn Cook and Mason Plumlee has really taken them to other level. Curry and Ryan Kelly have always been good, good shooters. Sulaimon kind of plugs in the whole there where Rivers was. They're a very talented group. Mike has them playing extremely hard, very unselfishly. They've done an unbelievable job in the first 13, 14 games, had good wins against a very difficult schedule. BRIAN MORRISON: We'll open it up for questions. Q. Coach, of course you lost a lot of veteran leadership in your backcourt from last year. How has Rod Hall in particular done in stepping into that role as your floor leader, just how is he playing right now? COACH BROWNELL: Reasonably well. A guy who was under‑recruited, who has a good mentality for the game, plays very hard. He's a bright guy. He passes the ball well. He doesn't turn the ball over a lot. That's one of the reasons I really like him. He's not vocal, though. He's not a very vocal guy. That's been a problem for a young team. Devin Booker and Milt Jennings are certainly our two only upperclassmen and even Devin is a quiet guy. We don't have that kind of dynamic leader on the court. That's something we're trying to work with Rod on, trying to get him confident in being a vocal leader. He's a good competitor, understands how to play, really gets after it on both ends. Q. For somebody who is naturally on the quiet side, how do you bring out that maybe more vocal style? COACH BROWNELL: Well, it's a challenge. It is. It's a challenge. You've got to make those kids understand how important it is they communicate, how important it is that they understand that people are looking at them for answers. When you're a point guard, things aren't going well, the ball is in your hands, guys are looking at you for strength and leadership. Rod hasn't always been a point guard. He played some point guard and some wing in high school. He's always been a good ball handler, a pretty good decision maker. It's something that we're trying to work with him on, have worked with him on for the better part of a year. I think he's getting better at. It's a hard thing. Sometimes in practice you have to make it so he's the only one that talks so kids get used to listening to him. But it's not an easy situation to rectify, to be honest with you. Q. A lot of coaches, when they play Duke, talk about the difficulty in the matchup with Ryan Kelly. They call him a stretch four. You have a guy very similar, Milton Jennings, that can play inside, outside, shoots the three, handles a little bit. Can you talk about that. Is that a favorable matchup there? COACH BROWNELL: I don't know if it's a favorable matchup. I think Ryan and Milt have similar games in terms of strengths of shooting the basketball and they have size. They're guys that also are very good passers. That's what you can miss with both of them. I think Milt does a good job for us of moving the ball around and sometimes feeding high‑low passes to Book. I think Ryan Kelly does the same thing with Mason. I think they're very similar type players. I would think that the matchup in that game will be a good one. Q. I also was going to ask you about your defense. That's been a foundation. Can you talk about how your defense has played this year and are you happy with it? COACH BROWNELL: You know, reasonably well. We didn't play well against Florida State, especially in transition. We were awful, in fact. We gave up 10 threes, and about seven of them were kind of in transition in situations where we normally are very good. It's one of those things where you struggle a little bit with young players. We have young players that maybe aren't used to all the responsibilities and the communication involved in defensive transition. When you're not scoring, not playing well offensively, you're constantly in transition like we were in the first half against Florida State, it becomes a problem. We made mistakes. In the halfcourt, we were pretty good. We defended Florida State pretty well in the halfcourt. Have done a pretty good job all year defensively in that. There have been a couple games we haven't played quite as well. I think our ability to guard the ball has been better. I think we've rebounded reasonably well and we've been able to contest people and limit some threes on certain teams, have done a good job. Certainly against Florida State we didn't play up to par. Q. So much of the league has been impacted by freshmen. Can you talk about your freshmen players, how they're progressing. COACH BROWNELL: They're doing well. Both guys play with good confidence. Both guys can make a shot and are aggressive in terms of thinking about scoring. Adonis is certainly physically bigger and stronger, more ready to play at the level right away because of his physicality, his competitive nature. Jordan is a little bit more wispy, 5'11", 165. He's athletic, can jump, he's pretty quick. He has a knack for making some shots. Both kids have had good games, have played well. Been up and down. Certainly Adonis didn't play well against Florida State. Jordan played okay. Did we need them to go through these kind of experiences for later in their careers. Certainly the experience they're going to face tomorrow night will be a big one. Q. I know it's a different location having to play at Cameron, but you played some of the best teams in the country, Arizona, Gonzaga. Would that help you prepare at all for playing a team of Duke's caliber? COACH BROWNELL: Well, it will help a little bit in having faced some very good teams, talented teams. I'll tell you, I believe Duke is better. They're ranked No.1 right now. In watching the film, I think the way they play, the pieces they have, how they fit together, obviously the way Mike's got them playing, I think they're playing better than either of the two teams we played. Arizona is still undefeated, Gonzaga has only lost one. The other thing difficult for us, those games were neutral court, at home, this one is going to be in Cameron. It's an even bigger challenge for us. I think in examining the three teams, Duke is clearly better than those two teams right now in terms of talent and execution. Q. Coach Krzyzewski talked about how as the season goes along, players might take Plumlee and Curry away. Is it a challenge when they spread the floor, space, the challenges of doing that with the option of what you can do? COACH BROWNELL: That's what is really hard about the way they play. First of all, they maintain great spacing, they run good sets to put their guys in very good positions. Mason is scoring inside on his own. Shooting 63%, which is incredible. Obviously because of all their shooting, you're afraid to go down and double or dig for fear of letting them get hot and make some threes. When you don't do that, he goes to work inside. Certainly might do a job on the three, but now he's scoring. If you go down there, he's a pretty good passer. They have shooters spread out. They beat you on the shot, closeouts. It's a difficult challenge and why they're very hard to guard. BRIAN MORRISON: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today. COACH BROWNELL: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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