Brad Brownell downplays struggles against Syracuse's press

Clemson managed to pull off a 91-73 win over Syracuse on Wednesday night, even with the Orange running a good deal of full-court press against the Tigers. Syracuse’s press wasn’t overly effective.

Coach Brad Brownell was pleased with how his team dealt with the press, refusing to get panicked or play at a different pace simply because of it.

“You can nitpick on a possession or two, he traveled once or whatever,” Brownell pointed out. “By and large it was fine. We probably could have tried to score more against it, but then you’re creating more possessions and that’s part of why they’re doing it.”

Brownell explained that he didn’t necessarily want his team to get into an up-tempo, length-of-the-floor contest against Syracuse’s press.

“There’s a reason why they’re creating three-on-twos and two-on-ones,” he said. “If they don’t get the steal and you shoot one, they’re coming right back at you and you’ve just added six to eight possessions, 10 possessions to a game. So you’ve got to be careful.

“I thought we did a nice job. We scored on a few of the transition situations after, but we also did a nice job of not doing it all the time and buying into that.”

Clemson busted the Syracuse zone, too

Syracuse is also known for its ability to play strong zone defense, but Clemson had an answer for that too.

“Making shots, you know. When you make shots then it spreads out a little bit. When you have a lead, it spreads out. Like in the second half, obviously, they’re pressing and everything’s different than — you know, there’s some open court stuff. They’re just wider because they’re trying to get a steal or two. And now you can get the ball inside a little bit easier. So it’s really different when it’s that way versus maybe the way it was in the first half, even though we executed, I thought, very well.”

Zone defenses tend to leave shooters open from deep, so teams facing Syracuse, above all else, have to knock down some good looks from three, which Clemson did,.

“But, you know, you got to make shots. If you don’t make shots, it’s challenging, because it’s not easy to get it to the places you want to get it to. But, you know, we had a nice mix to our game today. Our guys did some good things.”