ASHEVILLE CHAMPIONSHIP

November 10, 2023

Andy Kennedy

UAB Blazers

Harrah's Cherokee Center

Press Conference

Clemson - 77, UAB - 76

ANDY KENNEDY: We can go right to questions.

Q. Coach, you guys outrebounded Clemson tonight 39 to 26. What did you implement before the game to get this result?

ANDY KENNEDY: Well, I had my two biggest, most experienced players foul out in record time, so then we went to two guys who have never -- one who has never been in a Division I game, and the other one, I think this was his second Division I game. So that was our strategy (smiling.)

No, we were just trying to keep 'em off balance. You know, that's the changing up of defenses. Now, we do a lot of that anyway, but we had no answer for PJ Hall. We knew man-to-man it was going to be difficult for us, so we were just trying to mix and match. Fortunate for us we were able to make enough shots to keep 'em off balance. I thought we were in a great position and then, again, we just had a disjointed lineup or two, and then we had a couple of missed opportunities offensively, left points from the floor alive from the free-throw line, and they make a push at us.

So you think, okay, it's over, and then Eric Gaines, big three in transition. His name is Efrem, but we call him Butta, Butta Johnson with two big threes. All we need is a stop. We just couldn't get it.

Q. So you guys have played in now two close games this season. What do you think that you guys need to do to close these games out?

ANDY KENNEDY: You know, our attention to detail -- I got nine new players. Again, today as we finished that game, if you were to look at some kind of rotational chart, we've got one kid hurt so we brought 12 scholarship guys here. We got guys that would typically be lower on the order as it relates to experience and productivity to this point in the season, and we had them in the game. So it was a valuable experience for them.

Obviously, as a coach, I've been doing this a long time, this is my 17th year as a head coach, so obviously you want to grow, you want to learn, that's why you come to play in tournaments such as this against quality opponents. You would certainly like to win as you're doing it, but unfortunately for us we haven't put ourselves in a position to be one possession better in two straight games. As a result, we're sitting here without a win.

All we can do is try to watch it, be honest with ourselves, learn from it, grow, make the changes that are necessary to come back and give it another shot on Sunday against Maryland. Thank you.