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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 11, 2013Brad BrownellCOACH BROWNELL: Certainly coming off a disappointing loss yesterday at NC State. Jordan Roper played well for us starting, and for the first time in a while, and had a nice game. Like most of the game, just couldn't get it done. Obviously playing a Georgia Tech team that's playing well right now and won two‑out‑of‑three I think, and seem to be playing good basketball right now. Q. You mentioned Jordan Roper coming back and playing a good game, he had been playing pretty well, and he went through a really good stretch in like December, early January. Can you talk about the travails of a young guy that first year college, how hard it is for somebody like that to sustain high level play that almost all young players go through? COACH BROWNELL: Well, No.1, I think the physical toll on some guys is very difficult. The practices and the games and all the travel and all that, weight lifting and the demands that the level asks of you is much more difficult, and so I think kids get tired. I think that's part of it. Young guys, especially, unless they are blessed with tremendous athleticism and strength, they wear down physically and there's a mental part of it where the season and the stress of the games, the games especially league games, there's so much pressure on them; it feels like every game is extremely significant. I don't think kids are used to playing in these kinds of environments. Kids now, they play all kinds of games, games in the summer, games in the spring and high school games, and I think you get numb to just playing games. Now all of a sudden you're in these games that feel life or death in some ways, especially in league plays. I think mentally and emotionally, that wears on you, too. So I think there's a lot of factors that go into making it difficult for young guys to sustain and play well consistently. Q. How do you help a guy like Jordan get it back when his play dropped a little bit and it seems to be surging again? Is there anything that you can do as a coach to get him out of that hump? COACH BROWNELL: I think that you have to just try to recognize situations with kids and maybe sometimes they need a little more rest. Maybe they need a little more confidence. Maybe they need to bring them into the office and talk to them and show them some things on film that they are doing well and reassure them that they are good players and they have confidence in them and they can do good things, and those kinds of things. Then there are times that I think there's just going to be weeks where it's going to be hard on them and other weeks where they are just going to feel a little better physically and have a little extra pop. Some of that is not as much driven as the coach as the player. Q. McDaniels kind of an oddity in the fact that he leads your team in blocks by a really wide margin and he also has more three‑point field goal attempts that anybody on your team. He's second in the league in blocked shots. Can you talk about his versatility or his physicalness? COACH BROWNELL: Well, he's obviously a terrific athlete who can jump extremely well, but he's quick off his feet. He just has a knack for shot blocking. That's just something that he's done all his life, and sometimes it's a really good thing; occasionally it can be a bad thing. And then the 3‑point shooting is just a product of work to be honest with you. He's not a guy that shot a lot of threes in high school or any of those types of things. It's just stuff we've worked with on to get him to be a little more consistent, be more confident. He still passes up some shots I think that he needs to shoot. But certainly the blocks for a guy his size is certainly unique and we are trying to improve his all‑around ball skills so he can be a complete player. Q. I wanted to ask what look they had with Tyler Lewis and Lorenzo Brown out there at the same time. I know that hasn't happened a lot this year. COACH BROWNELL: You know, there's just maybe a little more calmness because you have two point guards that are on the floor at the same time decision making. I don't know if it's more speed, because they have speed, that's not really much of a change. I just think it's a little more of sureness. Purvis is fast in the open court and can certainly make plays and is a good player. I think it's just when he's in there or with two point guards or with Wood, I think you've got two guys that are definitely looking as passers first. I think Lorenzo Brown is a guy who is playing very unselfish now. I think there are times that he really holds them together because of his unselfishness. I think he's a guy that gets everybody involved and thinks about others; and now you put him out there with Lewis, and you have got two guys that are playing that way. Q. We hear so much at this time of year about how everyone has scouted everyone so well, and with Lewis not having played an awful lot until the last week or so, is that a little harder to get a scouting report on him? COACH BROWNELL: Not really. He's a guy, guys have seen it recruiting and you've seen him enough in watching their last couple tapes to know what his skills are. He's proven that he's a good player. The Duke game there at the beginning, he was one of the guys that was making plays. So we had full attention on him when he came in here yesterday. He's a good player and a guy who is not afraid to try to make a play, whether it's a three or a drive, or a drive and dish. We certainly had a good feel for him. Q. You just saw Georgia Tech a few weeks ago. I know you won that game at home by three; what problems do they present? Do they change that much from that short a time until now? COACH BROWNELL: They usually don't change much. I don't think Georgia Tech is going to change a whole lot. I think they are a team that's playing very well right now and they played a difficult part of the ACC schedule at the beginning, and won a couple games and got some confidence. I think their size inside is a difficult matchup problem for a lot of people, and I think their younger players on the perimeter, Bolden and Marcus Georges‑Hunt are good players. As you get later in the season, I think guys are more comfortable and have now been through enough ACC games that they should feel comfortable, confident and ready to play. So I don't think it's much more than that. I just think, you know, playing with a little more confidence sometimes and a couple wins sometimes just helps you get yourself going a little bit and get your team in the right mind‑set for better practices and the next game. Q. Holsey seems to be coming along for them; what do you remember about him? COACH BROWNELL: I think he's a very good player. I think he's a guy that would be starting on most of the teams in our league in all honesty. I think he's a really good player. I think he's physical. I think he's a competitor. I think he rebounds it well. He can kind of drive it a little bit. He's just a very hard‑playing, physical‑type power forward, the big‑body type guys that go through you, doesn't much go around you. I think he brings an intensity level that's very good and he's playing well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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