NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - RUTGERS VS CLEMSON

March 19, 2021

Brad Brownell

Clemson Tigers

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Postgame Media Conference

Rutgers 60, Clemson 56

BRAD BROWNELL: Congratulations to Rutgers. I thought this was tournament basketball. Their kids played extremely hard. I thought our guys did, as well. Both teams very physical and aggressive defensively. The defense was better than the offense on both ends.

I thought the difference in the game in the second half they got some extra rebounds. A lot of those led to some easy baskets. Like the play at the end, they had a couple balls that seemed to find their way. We kind of went in Trapp Baker there at the end.

All of a sudden we think we have a half steal, it bounces into somebody's hands. They lay one in. In a game like this, with ebbs and flows, both teams are competing hard, the easy baskets are often the difference.

Give the Rutgers kids credit. They got a couple more easy baskets than we did in the game, and that was the difference.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What motivation does this add for the off-season? How will you remember this loss and carry that over into the off-season?

BRAD BROWNELL: Really just young players having the opportunity to play in games like this. It wasn't a true NCAA atmosphere in terms of your hotel and band and fans and all the things that go with it, some of the pomp and circumstance that you really want these kids to experience. It was a big stage. It was big-time basketball. You could feel how competitive it was.

As a player, you should want to play in games like this. So it should serve as motivation to not only play in games like this, but play well and win and advance. We talked about that very briefly with our young guys in the locker room. Obviously we're very grateful for our three seniors who have had outstanding careers.

Q. Tonight Clyde Trapp really tried to provide that spark.

BRAD BROWNELL: Yeah, I thought Clyde was going to play well. He's practiced very well lately. His knee was bothering him in our Miami game in the ACC tournament. He's had probably three games this year maybe where his knee has been a problem. He just can't quite get it loose.

But he felt great all week. I could tell going into the game that he had a lot of confidence. He did make some big shots at the end of the Miami game in the ACC tournament. He played very well tonight. Played with a lot of confidence, swagger, aggressiveness, assertiveness, made some big-time shots for us when we needed it. Kept us in the game.

Proud of our guys. We got down 9 or 11 there, 11 at one point I think in the second half, looked like we were going to cave in. Our seniors wouldn't let that happen. Clyde is a big part of that.

Q. The last possession when Aamir had the ball, what did you see on that play?

BRAD BROWNELL: I don't think he traveled, no. I think he took two steps. I think there was contact. It's a similar play. It's the exact same play we ran against Georgia Tech late in the game, and Aamir did about the same thing, scored through a guy to cut it to two in that game.

Clyde made a read. I probably wish he would have come for the handoff. He thought he was going to get a back cut layup, so he went to the basket. Aamir didn't pass it. Might have clogged it up a little bit.

But Aamir still got a drive. We were going to put it in our best player's hands, he's going to drive it to the basket, make a play for your team. That's what you do as a coach, trust your guys. Unfortunately they called travel. I'll look at it, but I don't think it was.

Q. You mentioned your two seniors there, Simms and Trapp, how they kept this team and willed this team. What have these two guys meant to this program?

BRAD BROWNELL: They're terrific people. Both have been absolutely zero problems. I mean zero, like not late, not anything. Good students. Good players. They have won a lot of games. They were part of a Sweet 16 team as freshmen. We represented the United States at the World University Games in the summer of '19. They won a gold medal. Won 20 games as sophomores. Would have won 20 games this year if we played a full season. Made two NCAA tournaments, NIT, World University Games champs. These guys have done a lot, and they handle their business like professional men. They're going to be great ambassadors of Clemson.

These are the kind of guys you want to coach. You hate to see them go because of how easy they are to coach, how good of players they become. They've really developed. It's what you want your program to be about: freshmen that bide their time, are patient, coachable, keep working.

We have a couple good young freshmen in our program right now that we really like. We're hopeful they'll do the same. We think they can be similar players. They have to work and be coachable just like these guys were. You trust in your process and you develop into a really good player.

Q. You'll obviously have time to look back on this in the coming days and weeks. At first blush, what are your thoughts about the season and being able to pull it off despite all of the restrictions, being able to win 16 games, advance to a NCAA tournament? Would you say you think you had a really good year, you were successful? What is your first blush look back at it?

BRAD BROWNELL: Absolutely I think it was successful. I'm very thankful to our administrators for putting our team in a position to have a chance to play these games, protecting our players, really all the athletes at Clemson, with the things they did to help put them in individual rooms, give them space, protect them as best they can.

I think we all would have taken 20 plus game regular seasons and post seasons and opportunities like this to play. Then my guys are a joy to be around. I've got great kids. I've said this, we led the ACC in all academic team members. We finished whatever we did in the league, 10-6 in the league. Made an NCAA tournament. These kids have been absolutely zero problems.

They're a joy to coach. I'm proud of our program. I'm proud of what our program stands for. It's that way because we have really good kids, we recruit good kids. These kids give us everything they have. As coaches we try to love them up as much as we can, mentor them. You hope you have seasons like this for the older players on your team so that they'll remember this. This will be an experience that they'll remember.

Unfortunately it didn't end the way that we wanted it to, but when it's all said and done, they're going to be very proud of all that they accomplished this season.

Q. What went into the decision at the end instead of fouling, letting the guys play out on defense? Was that trusting your guys to make the stop?

BRAD BROWNELL: With 37 seconds left, I think there was 37 seconds left when they called the travel. Yeah, we had a foul to give, all that kind of stuff. We could have been a little more aggressive maybe in a trap or two. Their guard play is good. Their size was a factor in the game. In the open court, their players are even better. I was very hesitant about opening the court in that situation and giving up a dunk.

There's plenty of time left to still get a stop and transition back at them in the open court and make a play. They were going to use clock and have Geo Baker go 1-4 flat against us late in the clock. We decided let's disrupt in the halfcourt. We came and ran at him.

I'm anxious to watch the play. Looked like we had a chance, got a deflection on it. Got through, bounced to their guy, they laid it up. It made the difference.

I didn't want to press. We did think we needed to come off Geo Baker there at the end, but it didn't work.

Q. Could you elaborate on the defensive possessions that you couldn't close out. You mentioned it seemed like the ball sort of bounced their way. Was it purely that in your mind?

BRAD BROWNELL: I'm sure it's not all that. It's a big, strong, physical team. These guys are big, athletic, they play really hard. Physically they're bigger than we are at almost every possession. We faced that a lot this year in certain situations. Sometimes it's a problem. Rebounding, loose balls, whatever you want to call it.

We had some opportunities. We probably missed at least two opportunities, maybe three, to take charges that we normally do that could have erased a basket. Really disappointed in a couple guys that I thought had positions to do that. I'm sure their kids out-hustled us to a ball or two.

The other thing is part of what you're doing defensively is you're spread, they got you spread out. They're such good one-on-one players that you have to put a man and a half in every gap. So now you're not standing right next to the guy that you're blocking out, you're 15 feet away from that guy. If you want to go stand next to your guy, Geo Baker and Young are going to go live in the lane, play over the top of our little guards.

Because we have to get up in those gaps to help, we have longer block-outs, we have more challenging situations because their guys are going to get a little bit more of a running start occasionally.

I'm sure when I look at the film, there will be two or three times when guarding those guys off driving penetration and being in a gap was part of what was difficult about blocking them out because we're not standing right next to them, if that makes sense.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much for your time today.

BRAD BROWNELL: Thank you.