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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALLOctober 24, 2018Brad BrownellShelton MitchellMarcquise ReedCharlotte, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: Open the floor up for questions, please. So as we have reached the end of a very long day, coach, I will ask from here. The Tigers last year advanced to the Sweet 16, the first time since 1997, and finished the season ranked 20th in the AP, 18th in USA today. What type of springboard has that been through the off season? BRAD BROWNELL: I think there's a lot of positive momentum in our program. Certainly the Sweet 16 run is a big part of that, but I think there's a lot of other things that have been going on the last couple years to really make us feel good about what we're doing and where we're going, specifically the new facility that we're in, Swann, has just been an unbelievable upgrade for us. I think it's made our players realize that basketball's important at Clemson and that they have everything they need to be successful. Certainly last year's run was a lot of fun for our players and just the culmination of a lot of hard work. I do think that the challenge for this year's team is to continue to build on that and these two guys are a big part of that. Q. You guys are at the end of what will presumably be a fantastic career at Clemson, knowing that this is your last spin around, what thoughts are going through your mind? SHELTON MITCHELL: Really just to enjoy it. Like he said it's our last season, we want to go out with a bang, really just have fun and just do everything we can to have another great year. MARCQUISE REED: Yeah, going off what he said, just enjoy my senior season, try to do all the right things on and off the court and just make it a fun time. Q. I was wondering going into the season how you feel about this team as compared to some of the ones in the past. BRAD BROWNELL: Well I'm excited. Any time you're blessed to have a back court like these guys coming back, experienced players who have been through the warrants of our league, been in NCAA tournament games, both played extremely well in difficult environments, and then to have a guy like Elijah Thomas inside, a guy who is worked as hard as anyone in our league in the last 18 months and has been a real catalyst for our team, especially defensively, to come back just gives you a lot of confidence. David Skara, another senior. It's fun and exciting for me to have a veteran group back not only because they're good players but because they're fun to coach. This is just a really good group of guys that cares about our program, cares about Clemson, and care about each other. So that, any time you're around guys like that who are also very talented as a coach you realize that's special. And that's certainly what I'm blessed to have this year. Q. Marcquise, talk about what you see in the young guys, the new guys that Clemson people in the media can see this year, especially at your position. MARCQUISE REED: We got a lot of new guys, we got a few freshmen that came in, we got some transfers and then we got the young guys from last year. And all them bring something different to the table. At the guard spots we got Clyde, we got John Newman and Hunter Tyson on the wings and all those guys bring toughness to our program, Hunter can shoot the 3, John Newman, athletic guard, a wing that can defend, come off ball screens, make shots. And Clyde has definitely up his game from last year, he's running the offense great at the point guard position, showing he can score and lead, rebound and doing all the little things. Q. Shelton, you finished last season on a pretty much a positive note, you were on fire there for a bit. As you put the goals in place yourself for this year, and you've probably already played those goals through your head several times, what is it beyond the points per game that you feel like that you want to contribute this year? SHELTON MITCHELL: I feel like I just want to be more of a leader, be more of a vocal leader. Like he said, last year we had seniors that were very vocal and outgoing that helped the team at all times. And I think besides the points and everything like that, that's very important, just to be more of a vocal leader, someone that guys can look up to during the game, ask questions, just stuff like that. Q. We hear a lot of players say that they want to be a leader. How do you as a coaching staff, how do you convey what leadership means? Obviously it's by example, but as a teacher how do you teach leadership? BRAD BROWNELL: Just a variety of avenues. Certainly I think you talk to them about it, find out what they think it means to them, where they have seen it, examples that they have seen in their lives. And then you talk about how, we talk a little bit about how leadership doesn't discriminate in our program. You don't naturally have to be a captain or the senior on a team to be a good leader. You can lead in a variety of ways. What we try to talk about a little bit is just you have to lead with your personality. It doesn't change who you are. Some guys who get older try to become somebody they're not and that's not what we want, we want you to lead out of your personality and these guys do a great job of that. These guys, Elijah, are probably the three leaders in our program right now, they're all very different. Elijah is much more vocal and demonstrative and energetic. 'Quise is kind of a quiet guy, goes about his business, really very competitive, so when he says something guys listen because they understand the competitive fire that burns in him. And then a guy like Shelton is just kind of the guy who keeps our team calm. I think he's a guy who understands the needs of others very well, he's very bright. And so I think they do a good job of leading to their personalities, which is something we talk about in our program a lot. Q. When you look at the course of your career who have been your biggest influences style list particularly philosophically, that kind of stuff? BRAD BROWNELL: Well I've had a lot. Certainly my dad in terms of just how you do things. He was a high school coach and just raising me the right way to do things the right way. I think that is where I got a lot of my belief and how I live my life and what we do. In terms of basketball it started probably the greatest influence on me was my college coach, Royce Waltman, who I played for at DePaul University. He was assistant for Coach Knight. He was very instrumental in my development as a player and as a young coach and I asked him a lot of things when I was a young coach. I was very fortunate to work for Jerry Wainwright at UNC Wilmington for eight years. I learned a lot about program building and all that is entailed in running a really good program and kind of trying to build a program from scratch. So he was very helpful to me in that area. And then just a lot of other folks in the business throughout the course of my career that I've leaned on piece by piece on certain situations. Q. Marcquise, in walking around this building today this is obviously where you're going to play the tournament in March, in walking the building how much more real does the season feel? Does this allow you some context for what it is that you're striving for? MARCQUISE REED: Yeah, for sure. We're going to be playing here for the ACC tournament, it's also a great location for us, we're going to have some fans come down here. Also it brings back memories to playing here my freshman year in the tournament, so that's all good things for us heading into the season. Q. Shelton, same question for you. SHELTON MITCHELL: Definitely. Not only for the tournament just to show that the season's almost here. We have been waiting all off season, going against each other in the summer, practices, and workouts and really just finally being able to play against somebody else and just enjoy the season. Q. Someone asked a question earlier today and I thought it was a very good question, what type of team will you be bringing here in March? BRAD BROWNELL: That's hard to say right now. I think we're all still a work in progress in October. I like our team a lot. If we're playing well it's because we're defending at a high level and playing with great energy and passion and togetherness. That's kind of the feeling that we had late last year throughout most of last season really, started early as we developed our identity in November and December of last year with some great wins on the road. And then we were able to overcome the injury of Donte Grantham, a really talented senior last year, and tweak a few things and play at a high level to finish the season. I was really proud of our guys with that. But this is a new team, with new leadership, and we do have a lot of positive experiences to draw on, but our identity is still a little bit yet to be figured out. Q. Do you have to walk out of here with a trophy to call it a successful season? BRAD BROWNELL: No, not necessarily. There's certainly lots of games out there notice ACC and hopefully beyond. We obviously want to come here and play extremely well in Charlotte, it would be important to us, we hope to bring a lot of fans and want to do something that hasn't been done in our school in a long time, which is play deep into the tournament. So we want to do that. Q. Do you feel like there's any one player in particular who is ready to take a big step this year? BRAD BROWNELL: Oh, I don't know. I mean Aamir Simms is a logical guy from the standpoint of he started a little bit at the end of last year, he'll have a great opportunity to start this year. I think he's put in tremendous amount of work, really improved his shooting. Hopefully just feels like the game is slowed down a bit and adjusted for him. He's a likely candidate. Maybe David Skara is another guy that even though he's a senior and played some last year we hope that he's going to take a step and show some development. He's had a good fall for us, he's, he really always helps us defensively, sometimes he's one of those guys that he can't always be measured by his pure stats because he does so many other things, his versatility, his ability to play multiple positions, guard point guards, power forward, you don't always appreciate just his basic stats, but I think he's a guy that could take a big step forward as well. THE MODERATOR: Clemson, thank you. Good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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