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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Brad BrownellDaMarcus HarrisonGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Clemson – 69 COACH BROWNELL: First of all, I want to thank those of you that are still here following us. Really proud of our team. Just found a way to win when we really weren't playing as well as we needed to to win. I thought Georgia Tech, give their kids a lot of credit, their coaches a lot of credit. They outcompeted us the first 20minutes, really hurt us on the boards. Thought we were a little nervous offensively and turned the ball over a lot but settled into the game a little bit better and just tried to fight. Got down I think it was 49‑40, got the guys into a timeout and somehow KJ and Rod kind of rallied them a little bit, Damarc kind of rallied our troops a little bit. We started to up our defense. I thought Damarc moving over to Golden helped us. His size I thought slowed some things down for them. And then we just found a way to get a few buckets and to find a way to win in overtime after we lost the lead was really special, especially since we've been in a couple of these kind of games last week. Q. To both Coach and Damarcus. How difficult was it to bounce back after what happened against Pittsburgh? And, Brad, what does it say about your kids that they were able to, when things got tough at the end, bounce back and pull it out? COACH BROWNELL: Yeah, the Pitt loss was a brutal one in a lot of ways. Obviously the inbounds play, the call at the end, questionable call at the end on whether it was good or not. But to be honest with you, we moved past it. We had a meeting on Sunday where we just talked about the regular season was over. And it was start of a new season and we needed to play our best basketball now. We celebrated what we did during the season. We accomplished a lot. We did a lot more than people expected and really most of it was just doing what we did tonight. I don't know that we're more talented or better coached or anything else. I think we out‑tough people sometimes and find ways to win and that's a great characteristic to talk about with your team. DAMARCUS HARRISON: Like Coach said, we looked at it like it was a new season. It's always great to be able to play another game after a loss like that. I think we, in the second half, we came out and competed better. It showed like we fought back against that loss against Pitt. We're still in this thing to play a season and win the fight and win more games to have our goal to advance in March. Q. Coach, KJ had a rough shooting night, 4 out of 15. First of all, what do you think kind of led to that, secondly, how did he do it to be able to overcome that and still have winning plays for you guys? COACH BROWNELL: He is battling right now. He's had a shoulder injury for about a week now, or two. Unfortunately, I think it's progressively getting a little more problematic. We're trying to rest him and do some things to help him with it. But there's no question it's bothering him.  So I think that was part of it. I think you got to give the Georgia Tech coaches and players credit. We've played each other three times now. When you play each other this many times, I think you begin to know each other's strengths, weaknesses. You know a lot of their plays and know what everybody's trying to do and it makes it hard. It makes it harder to score. I think what needs to be pointed out is KJ found a way to get to the free throw line 11 times, get fouled, attack the basket, make ten free throws and still have 18points and six rebounds without playing his best. Q. Brad, there was a stretch with about six, seven minutes to go, you were down by six, Jaron Blossomgame scored six points. I think he had a steal and a rebound. Can you talk about that contribution and that stretch, how important it was to get back in the game? COACH BROWNELL: I think it was critical. Jaron, he is a freshman who most people don't know, Jaron, red shirt freshman, that broke his leg. He had the Kevin Ware injury the bone broke, came out of his leg. He had to have two surgeries last week, got infected. So he's battled, you know, through a lot of difficult things and this year hasn't been easy for him at times. I think he still sometimes isn't 100percent. But he's a competitive young man. He really fights. He's only six‑seven, about 215, and he's in there guarding guys six‑eight, six‑nine. I thought his rebounding late on both ends of the floor were really big. He made three out of four free throws, which we needed those. So I thought he and Damarcus made huge free throws down the stretch. His play really gave us a shot in the arm there down the stretch and helped us win. Q. Damarcus, can you think back to the Duke game? I know it was a long time ago. Obviously you were excited about it at the time. Now in the context of the whole season, what did that win mean to you guys? DAMARCUS HARRISON: I think that was probably like our best win so far in the regular season. It was a big conference win for us. But I just think it was big and it was important. But looking forward to the game tomorrow. I just think we just got to play with energy. And I think that's what we did the first game that helped us beat them at home. We had a lot of energy that game. I think we outrebounded them and we hustled a lot more than they did. Q. Coach, can you kind of think back to the first Duke game and what you guys did that day? Are you playing that way now, do you think, or what about tomorrow nights's game? COACH BROWNELL: I don't know that either team is playing the way we did in January. Hopefully we're both playing better. I certainly think Duke is. It was a huge win for us because it gave our guys a bunch of confidence. It was early in the ACC season. I think the win reassured our team when we do the things that we need to do and play at a high level, we can play with a lot of teams in this league. Duke is one of the marquee programs in the country, not just in the ACC, and to have a chance to compete against those guys is something you really look forward to and respect. And so when you do play well and have a good result, it certainly means a lot, not only for you and your team, but for your program. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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