ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2022

Brad Brownell

P.J. Hall

Nick Honor

Barclays Center

Clemson Tigers

Postgame Press Conference

Clemson - 70, NC State - 64

THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin the Clemson press conference. We're joined by P.J. Hall and Nick Honor.

BRAD BROWNELL: Good win for our team. Proud of how we defended. I thought we guarded exceptionally well today. They're hard on those ball screens. They do a great job of getting downhill. I thought P.J. and our post players really did a good job of leveling some things off. Kind of a game that was bump and grind for most of the start, but our guys just kind of hung in there, and I thought we got better flow the longer it went. P.J. really helped us get off to a good start offensively.

We kind of played with a lead through most of the second half. They made a nice little run, and then give our guys credit, we were able to answer. Nick was terrific. Two big threes back to back. Chase hit a big three, and Al hit a big three. Made enough free throws down the stretch to get a good win.

So happy for our team. We've really hung in there this year. Proud of these guys.

Q. Brad, 13 minutes for P.J. on Saturday, 31 and change tonight. Was there a game plan in managing this, or was it just play it like it was normal?

BRAD BROWNELL: Yeah, I really hoped I was going to try to play him 25, 26 maybe today. We had a couple freshman bigs maybe not play quite as well as I would have liked to, kind of steal a few more minutes. So I talked to him, and he's ready to go. It's great to think about, hey, the next game, the next game, the next game. You've got to win the game you're in.

We'll wake up tomorrow pretty much how we have all year, and P.J. will tell me how he feels, and the trainer will tell me how much he can play if he thinks he can play or else he won't.

That was probably five or six more than I would have liked, but I think P.J. will tell you in the moment that he wants to win the game and be out there.

Q. This question is for P.J. The coach mentioned the bump and grind early. You spent a large chunk of the final stance of the game playing with four fouls. What was your mentality out there as NC State was able to narrow the gap a little bit.

P.J. HALL: Don't foul. I was making sure vertical, be out of the charge circle. If I do jump, keep my arms up, don't lean forward. Keep contact off the arms, chest up, wanting to drive down the lane. Seabron is great getting to people's chest and going up and finishing at the rim. So I was making sure, whenever he got to the rim, I wasn't causing a whole lot of contact. That was huge point also in a lot of our practices leading up to it. So down the stretch, I was making sure I wasn't just enforcing contact.

Q. For each of you, the importance of staving off obviously what NC State tried to do at the end of the game with second chance opportunities. Coach, just how important that was. To each of the players, just what you can say about making sure that you stayed poised on offense and got those opportunities.

NICK HONOR: In practice, we do a good job preparing. Our scout team does a wonderful job helping us try as best as possible to be like those teams we're going up against. But I think it just goes on, like as the season goes on. I think this was our 32nd game maybe. As many teams as we play, we've seen a lot of different styles. So just being poised was -- I mean, I guess you could say the least of our worries because we've just been prepared.

P.J. HALL: That's a great point. We have a tremendous scout team. We have a guy who's a walk-on that was added on this year. Just a higher motor than I've ever seen in my life. So we had to make sure that we always worked on not giving them a second chance in practice. That's a shout-out to Dan Nauseef. He does a great job of preparing us.

Going out there, you play 32 games. You learn to make sure that you can't give someone else a second chance. That's kind of how basketball works. Whenever they get that second chance, it feels like it's guaranteed to go in whenever you throw something up. You've just got to limit those for sure.

BRAD BROWNELL: You know NC State's going to make a run and come at you. They're playing downhill a little bit. You're trying to keep your guys aggressive, confident. I think that's important. Not as easy.

I think we had a couple plays where we got a couple stops and then turned it over kind of unfortunately. That probably opened the flood gates just a little bit late.

Our guys did a nice job. They handled the press. We looked up the floor, made good enough decisions to keep separation, and got just enough stops to keep them at bay. I thought we guarded the three well and obviously did a great job on Smith, which was a big key for us in the game as well.

Q. Coach, obviously that's five wins in a row for you guys now dating back to the regular season. In those games, neither of your opponents have cracked that 70-point plateau. I was just wondering, what has changed for you guys defensively since that little midseason slump you guys had during this year?

BRAD BROWNELL: We probably have changed ball screen coverage a little bit. Some of that was done while P.J. was out. We had to sacrifice a few things with P.J. not being able to move quite as well and practice as much. When he went out, we -- with our young big guys, we became a little more aggressive in certain things. And I think that helped. P.J.'s fought to do that and did a nice job today.

So I think those things are probably the difference in our defense being a little bit better.

Q. Coach, you have Virginia Tech now who you just saw on Saturday. What are the challenges, and what are the advantages of playing a team you just saw the other day? What did you like about the way you guys played defense in the game on Saturday?

BRAD BROWNELL: I thought we played as hard and as well as we can play defensively against a great Virginia Tech team. They have great poise, experience. Their big guys, they're not only talented, they're really smart, very -- they're high IQ players.

But I love the way we competed. Our guys fought like crazy in that game. We're going to have to play with maximum effort and shoot the ball probably better than we did tonight to beat a really good team.

The advantage really for both teams is it's an incredibly quick turnaround, right? We've got 24 hours. Having just played them, have a good feel for what they do. They're going to know what we do. I'm sure they've been practicing for us at NC State for a couple days, but that's a slight advantage. It's somebody we played. NC State, we hadn't played till early January, so we had to go back and figure some things out.

Q. P.J., what have the challenges been of managing your practice and workout routines and then games? I'm sure an athlete's instinct is to go, go, go, but you've had to learn to curb it a little bit.

P.J. HALL: For sure. That was definitely a huge challenge for myself. Whenever I was first having the thing in my foot, flare-up all over the outside of my foot, it was hard to be truthful to myself and my staff that I'm hurting. So then we're playing Drake, and I'd go down a little bit and it wasn't feeling too great, and it progressively got worse.

Obviously, I wanted to be out there and compete and fight with my teammates, but that hasn't happened anymore. I've learned to sacrifice and make sure I can be truthful to my teammates because there were times I was out there and I hurt my team because I couldn't move very well. And Middlebrooks did a great job when I actually went out.

Looking in hindsight, I want to compete, but you have to be smart. That was definitely a huge learning point for me.

Q. Brad, just how important was that stretch in the second half after they cut it to three, where P.J. gets a bucket and Nick gets back-to-back threes there?

BRAD BROWNELL: Huge momentum swing for us. They'd made a run and had taken momentum from us. These two guys over here made huge plays. This is a game where players got to make plays. Nick, both of his shots were just a guy making big time shots. We didn't call anything. It's just him recognizing the situation and staying in attack mode, being confident and hitting big shots.

P.J., I thought, played very well and settled us into the game. Then as the game went on, he had a couple of big buckets and big rebounds and did a nice job protecting our basket. So that was a huge point in the game when it looked like momentum had shifted. Quickly those baskets, Nick's two back-to-back threes gave us the lead and the cushion we probably needed down the stretch.

Q. Nick, I was wondering what do you feel about your performance today? 13 points, playing 35 minutes. It felt like you really kind of controlled the pace of the game, also dealing with Hunter dealing with foul trouble early on.

NICK HONOR: I felt pretty good out there. Just playing my game, just kind of seeing like the flow of the game and how they're playing and just basically taking what they give me. I would say I played okay. I probably would take back the one turnover I had with the missed free throw. All in all, I'm just glad we got the win.

Q. P.J., how much did sitting those last two or three games and late in the regular season help the foot? How did you feel today physically?

P.J. HALL: It definitely helped a lot. Just whenever I went down to Louisville, I had to take a few days off to at least be able to move around at all on it. Missing the games against Georgia Tech -- all those games, Boston College and some other one -- it was huge to get some rest on. And I came back the last game of the season to get my feet wet, regular season at least, and I felt pretty solid out there tonight.

So get rested up, ice it tonight, and be ready to go tomorrow hopefully.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks very much, guys. Congrats on the win.