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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: TAMPAMarch 20, 2008Cliff HammondsJames MaysOliver PurnellK.C. RiversTAMPA, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Questions for Clemson. Q. Does it feel different now that you're finally here? Does it feel different or is it like no big deal, like the ACC Tournament, how do you feel now that you're here? CLIFF HAMMONDS: No, it doesn't feel any different. You know, we're just treating it like another game. You know, playing, focus on Villanova. Not worrying about anything outside of Villanova. That's what we did in the ACC Tournament. That's what we did throughout the season, treated every game as its own, I guess, season. And right now you've got to treat it that way, because one slip of any mistake or any type of setback, and you can go home. No more games all season. We're just treating it as one game. Not treating it any different like we treat any other game this season. JAMES MAYS: Definitely to follow up on Cliff, it's definitely an honor to be here in the tournament, and we definitely treat it as any other game. We've got to treat every game like one game at a time. So right now we're really concentrating on our game plan toward Villanova come tomorrow. K.C. RIVERS: There's not much else to say. These guys summed it up. But, yeah, it's a great feeling to be here. We had a wonderful experience last week in the ACC Tournament. We're high as far as our motivation and our confidence. I mean, for us to be here right now, Villanova's our main objective right now, and whatever happens, we'll continue to do what we're doing. Taking it one game at a time. That's the most important thing for us right now. Q. What is it about your press that makes it so effective? Is it technique, energy, what? CLIFF HAMMONDS: I think our press is designed to wear people down. We may get a couple steals here and there, but throughout the course of the game if we keep our pressure on a team and keep going after them. It's designed to wear them down to where down the stretch of a game they don't have the legs that they would have if we weren't pressing them. Q. Cliff, just wanted to ask you what concerns you most about Villanova's guards, specifically Scott Reynolds? CLIFF HAMMONDS: You know, Scottie, just watching him on tape and throughout the course of the year watching him, you know, he's kind of like some of the guards we've played in the conference in the ACC ala Tyrese Rice and Jack McClinton. He does it all for his team. He can hit a perimeter shot. I mean, he can get to the basket with the best of them. He has the mid-range game also. So we've got to focus on him and try to limit him from as many touches as possible. And I think that's one of our keys trying to get a win is just eliminating Scottie Reynolds from scoring, and also from distributing to his teammates on the drive and kick. Q. Everyone talks about Scottie Reynolds and their guard play. Is their inside game underrated? What's up with their inside game? JAMES MAYS: Definitely. They have some great post players. Really not any true 5-men. They have, like you could say fowards, but they're really athletic. And we can't focus all our attention on Scottie Reynolds and forget about the rest of the guys. But they definitely have some forwards that's can contribute and hit big shots in the paint. Q. You've played pretty well since you took off the wrap there at the Maryland game, do you wish you had thrown that off a couple of games earlier? JAMES MAYS: If I could, I would. But definitely I took it off at the right time. My hand's not bothering me as much. Unfortunately I had to wear it for like a month and a half. But it feels a lot better now that I'm playing without it. Q. You guys have worked for a lot of years to get the program to this point, do you think that the intensity with which you play will help sustain you at a time when it would be very easy to just sit back and exhale and say we've made it? CLIFF HAMMONDS: I definitely think the intensity, the enthusiasm we have for playing in the tournament and just the will that we have to get the job done. I mean, we had a great season, that's over. We had a great ACC Tournament. That's over. Now we want to go out and have a great NCAA Tournament. We're not satisfied with anything that we've done this year to this point. I mean, we haven't won any championships. We haven't accomplished any of our major goals of the season. So we're coming out to this NCAA Tournament, and I think we're one of the hungriest teams in the nation. We want to try to start with Villanova and work our way toward our ultimate goal from the start of the season, and that is winning a National Championship. JAMES MAYS: It's definitely a gratifying accomplishment for us, but I don't think we'll just settle at that. I think this accomplishment to the NCAA will fuel by far our hunger to accomplish more things in this tournament. We're just not satisfied just making it. We want to make a name for ourself and the program at Clemson as a whole. Q. Have you guys been paying attention to a lot of the national guys picking you guys to get to the Sweet 16 and even be able to cause Kansas some problems? Are you aware of that, that a lot of people are picking you guys? K.C. RIVERS: We're aware of it. But at the same time like we said earlier, it's one game at a time. Everybody else is looking for our predictions and Final Four picks, National Championship picks. That's not our concern right now. Our first concern is Villanova. We've got to get past Villanova. We're not looking beyond to Vanderbilt, Siena, whoever else might be in front of us. We're looking at Villanova. This is a capable team. The 5-12 seed match-ups have been predominantly the upset match-ups. So we have to pay attention to what's in front of us. Q. In your film study at Villanova, how would you gauge their ability to handle full court pressure? CLIFF HAMMONDS: I think they're pretty adept at handling full court pressure. They have two really good point guards in Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher. We're just going to have to try to battle them as best as we can. We play a lot of teams with really good guards. I mean, North Carolina had some of the best guards in the country. You know, Sean Singletary is one of the best guards in the country. I think we'll be able to pressure them and force them into mistakes. If we come out and pressure a team like we know how to pressure them, we'll try to force their point guards into getting the ball out of their hands or turning the ball over by pushing them throughout the course of the game. Any time you pressure a guard for 40 minutes, they're bound to turn the ball over a couple of times. Q. After your last game, you'll probably be a primary target of their defense. Do you see anything on tape about how they defend perimeter players who can score a lot of points? What do you expect? K.C. RIVERS: I know the attention is probably going to be attracted to them on the perimeter. But as far as their defense goes, most of it is just a sagging off defense, switching bigs on guards and vice versa. But just for me, it's just taking what I have, seeing what I have, taking advantage of what I can. For the most part, it's just continue to run what we've got going for us. Whatever is working, whether it's inside or outside. Just got to find what's clicking. Q. Do you see that they front the post more than y'all would normally see or y'all have seen so far? JAMES MAYS: Yeah, by the film that we have watched we've seen that their 4 and 5-men able to front the post a lot, and they come over with the weak-side help sometimes. So we have made adjustments, and hopefully it will pay off for us come tomorrow. Q. Are you concerned about the program over a lack of experience in the NCAA Tournament in this kind of setting, considering it's been a decade since you've been there? CLIFF HAMMONDS: I don't think we're concerned about a lack of experience in the NCAA Tournament, because throughout the course of the season we've played tournament-worthy teams and teams that are in the tournament. We've proven well against those teams. We've been in tournament atmospheres and tournament situations, late-game situations where the score is tied or it's a close game. Like I said, we played well in those games. If you worry about tournament experience, like we haven't been to the NCAA Tournament, I mean, we made a tournament run last year in the NIT, and we're just as tournament experienced as any team in the country because of that experience from last year's NIT. JAMES MAYS: I'd have to also agree with Cliff. I don't think us not making the tournament is really a problem for us. We really can't control the length that we haven't been to the tournament because we wasn't here that long. But I know against the competition that we have played this year, it really prepared us against Carolina, Duke, and the list can go on with the great teams in the ACC. So I think we're really mentally prepared and also physically prepared come Friday. K.C. RIVERS: These guys summed it up. I mean, it's no experience involved. Basketball is basketball. At this point in time in the season, there are no records. The seeds play no factor. It's just a matter of who wants it more. Who wants to win and advance. It's not about how long or how many years you've been to the tournament or how many times you've made it. It's about who wants it the most. That's what it comes down to. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. We welcome Clemson head coach, Oliver Purnell. COACH PURNELL: We're very excited about being here, representing Clemson University in the NCAA Tournament. This is one of the goals that we set following last year when we were kind of on the bubble and didn't get in. We returned all but one of our players, scholarship players. A guy that was very important to us in Vernon Hamilton, our point guard. So there obviously were some question marks about our team from a ball-handling standpoint, leadership and all of that. But the leadership's been outstanding from the returning players. The freshman that really fit in well. And this group has come together and formed a cohesive unit that's tough and resilient and all of those things. That is the reason we're here today. We certainly recognize that we have a very tough opponent. And I would emphasize tough. They've been through the murderers' row of the Big East. They've had some struggles and some things have happened to them. I think evidence of that was the last game with Scottie Reynolds goes out of the game. Kind of knocked out and stitched up, and he comes back and they give Georgetown a heck of a game. They lost an earlier game to Georgetown on a controversial call. Yet that team has kind of gotten up off the deck and just keeps coming at you. They remind me a lot of our team in terms of being athletic. I've got good guards and I really love their big guys. They're underrated. But I really like them and would love to have them on our team. From that standpoint, you know, we're going to have a tough match-up. Jay Wright does a great job. You know, it's an honor to play against him in the NCAA Tournament, and we recognize we have a very stiff challenge. Q. When Villanova is successful against the press, what is it that they do well? COACH PURNELL: Well, Scottie Reynolds is a great, great player. Corey Fisher, you know, their freshman is a tremendous athlete, a tremendous ball handler. They simply get the ball to those guys. And they have the ability to really play the game in the broken court. Any time you have guys that can improvise and make plays and score and make it easy for their teammates to score, you're going to have a problem. Everybody understands that Villanova has great guards and they've got a number of them. But Scottie Reynolds is as good as there is in the country, and Corey Fisher is one of the best young talents in the country at the guard position as well. Sometimes they play those two guys together, that means they are a terrific ball-handling team at that point. So they have the weapons to attack pressure, there is no question about that. Q. You've taken teams into the tournament at other schools before for their first time. Is this team as prepared for this moment and this task as you've ever had? COACH PURNELL: This team is as prepared as any team I've had. I think more prepared because of the ACC schedule, and because of the ACC Tournament. And I think the thing that really prepares us is so many tough games, so many close games. We've seen about every situation there is. Being way down and coming back. Other teams being way down, coming back on us. Six-minute games, three-minute games, you name it, we've seen it against top-notch competitions. So I think that preparation is outstanding for us, has been outstanding for us. Q. You guys force a lot of turnovers, Villanova is one of the leaders in the Big East forcing turnovers. They use kind of a softer press than you, but could you compare the two pressing defenses? COACH PURNELL: It's a little different in that the one that at least we've seen on film is a three-quarter court. Kind of a 1-2-2. But they're very aggressive in it. They're aggressive with good athletes, so they can get the hands on balls. So they're looking to trap in a lot of the same areas that we are. But it's just a different alignment. They shrink the court more with great athletes. So it's just a philosophy. Q. In Charlotte on Sunday after the game you had talked about one of your concerns going into the tournament was if there was any hangover effect from a hard and disappointing loss to Carolina. What have you seen from your kids in the last few days? COACH PURNELL: I think they're progressing fine. We've got a couple more days to get ready. It's not until ten o'clock tomorrow night. We've got a practice coming up here in just a few minutes. I like our progression. We're not ready yet, but I think that based on what I saw in terms of our preparation for the ACC Tournament, I think we're kind of right on schedule. Q. Do you kind of like the 9:00, 10:00 start, considering you've had several 9:00 starts and had one last week? Do you feel that's a rhythm you guys can get used to? Because there are some coaches who don't like that late start. COACH PURNELL: This year's team has been very successful at that time. We played in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge earlier in the year versus Purdue. And we played pretty well at 9:30. We played the first round of the ACC Tournament at 9:30 versus Boston College. So far our group has enjoyed that time of day and the rhythm of the day in terms of getting ready to play. End of FastScripts |
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