What Clemson coach Brad Brownell said about facing Alabama in Elite Eight

LOS ANGELES – Clemson head coach Brad Brownell and select players spoke to reporters on Friday afternoon before the Tigers’ matchup with Alabama in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Below is everything Brownell said ahead of the game against the Crimson Tide.

*** Editor’s Note: Quotes are courtesy of ASAP Sport.

BRAD BROWNELL: Excited. Tremendous accomplishment, happy for our players. These guys have been unbelievable to coach all year, and certainly Chase and PJ have been with me for a long time. So very rewarding to get to this point. But don’t want to stop now.

I think we’re a hungry group that is playing really good basketball. We know we have a terrific opponent in Alabama. They played fantastic last night and beat a really good Chapel Hill team. We have our hands full, but we’re excited for the opportunity.

Q. Obviously this is the first time you’re in the Elite Eight since the ’79-’80 team. You being around Clemson for so long, has anyone from that team spoke to you about this moment? Obviously Larry Nance was on that team. Has anybody back then ever talked to you about playing on this team?

BRAD BROWNELL: Nobody on that team. Certainly a lot of players, some that I coached recently in the last 10, 12, 14 years, what not. But some other guys that are much older are certainly very proud.

And it’s a great moment for our program. Certainly we want to keep going. But, yeah, taking these kinds of steps are big ones. We know that. And I think our alumni are very proud of what this team is about, both on and off the court.

BRAD BROWNELL: Yeah, we split things up a good bit. Coach Bender and Coach Reynolds are in charge of the offense with me. So they’re constantly working on game plans for that.

Coach Donlon and Coach Dixon are the defensive side of the ball. So every week I meet with them at the beginning and meet with Coach Bender and Coach Reynolds to work on the offensive game plan.

Obviously we’ve got a bunch of other guys behind the scenes doing a lot of different things that help supplement the staff. But you don’t get to this point unless your staff is terrific. And I think Nate would say the same thing about his guys.

We just have experienced guys that have been through it. I’m very fortunate because I have some people that have been with me a long time. Coach Bender coached me in college. And I coached Coach Donlon. And Coach McKay was one of my managers at UNC Wilmington almost 20 years ago. Very family feel at Clemson basketball. A lot of trust in those guys.

Q. You mentioned Wilmington. How did working with Jerry Wainwright kind of shape your philosophy in being a head coach and prepare you when you stepped in that role?

BRAD BROWNELL: Coach Wainwright was terrific. I learned a lot. I’ve had a bunch of good mentors that worked for Jim Crews at the University of Evansville for a year. And I worked for my coach, Royce Waltman at the University of Indianapolis.

Then I got the opportunity to work for Coach Wainwright back in 1994, a restricted earnings coach. He just gave me a lot of freedom. I think philosophically we had a lot of the same ideas in terms of defense. He’s a Midwest guy. He’s from Chicago. I’m from Indiana.

We felt the game should be played a certain way. And so that part of it was easy for me, and he quickly kind of put me in charge of the defense, and I think that really helped me grow as a coach.

But more than that, I probably learned just more about how to run a program. He was a tremendous speaker, fundraiser, unbelievable relationships with the players, very good recruiter. And I just saw all the different things that he was good at. And I also saw the fact that he delegated. He gave his assistants freedom to be involved and obviously held us accountable. But I’ve taken some of that with me as well.

Again, you don’t get to these points unless you work for really good folks. And I’m very blessed that he was one of my mentors.

Q. Coach Oats mentioned earlier that when you see Clemson and Alabama playing in Los Angeles you think it would be happening in the Rose Bowl. A lot of people online are saying, here we go, another Clemson-Alabama match-up, but this time it’s in basketball. What’s it mean to see a traditional — or a school that’s been known for football, to have a team like yours that’s now having success in basketball? And how do you guys continue to manage, like, hey, we’re a football school but also we’re doing something big in basketball?

BRAD BROWNELL: The first thing you better realize, I’m sure Nate feels the same way, if you’re the head basketball coach at Clemson or Alabama you’re not going to become a basketball school. You’re going to be a football school. You better embrace that early on.

That’s OK with me. I’m great with that. I have a great relationship with Coach Swinney. I want us to be great at everything, and we’re really good at a lot of sports at Clemson.

There’s pressure you feel because you want to have as good a program as the others coaches have. Coach Noonan in soccer has won national championships. We’ve got a great group of coaches in our athletic department.

Certainly we’re known as a football school and will be one forever. And we’re all really proud of that. But I’m just doing the best I can to make our program as good as it can be. And I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish the last 14 years. And certainly this year has been really special.

Q. Over the course of the tournament, you guys have held your opponents to just less than 40 percent from the field. Is that a point of emphasis after that ACC loss?

BRAD BROWNELL: We haven’t been — I wouldn’t say we’re a defensive-minded group. I’ve got a lot of good offensive players. And I think a lot of times guys who are that way, their identity is with their offense. And certainly I embrace offense and want to be really good at both.

But there are times defensively we haven’t been as good as we needed to be. And I have a saying that when it’s harder than you want it to be, you find out a lot about how important something is to you.

And sometimes defense can be really hard. When it’s harder than you want it to be sometimes you don’t do it very well. And we’ve had some games like that.

I think the way we played in Washington, D.C. — and we got humbled and did not play very well, probably our poorest performance of the season by far — probably helped us a little bit because we went back to the practice and had two really hard days of practice on Saturday and Sunday leading into the tournament.

I think it helped me get their attention. We’ve had a little bit better competitive edge down the stretch. And certainly the good defense has helped us advance.

Q. In terms of Chase Hunter, you talked about early in his career, trying to take his focus away from the offensive end off and trying to get him to focus on defense. How much has that carried over into the player he is now? And stamina-wise, how much has he improved?

BRAD BROWNELL: He’s improved a lot. That comes to my point of initially as a young player, especially Chase was completely offensive minded. And it’s been a process to get him to flip that because he’s an outstanding defensive player as well.

One of the big changes is when we moved Chase to the point last year, one of the things you saw was — and maybe I had to learn — was that your point guard has to do a lot. Obviously handle the ball, get you into offense, all those things, deal with press.

But he’s also got to probably guard about 50 ball screens. So there’s a wearing effect there that sometimes if a guy hasn’t played that position, that’s different.

And I think Chase went through that a lot last year. I think he’s much better this year. He’s completely different. I think he’s much stronger both mentally and physically and I think you see it in his play right now.

Q. Your parents were in the stands yesterday for the Sweet 16. Just how special it is to have them in attendance and have them follow along with you on this journey with your team?

BRAD BROWNELL: It’s great. I’m blessed. Raised by two wonderful parents, and they’ve had the opportunity, since they retired, to follow our teams.

It started when I was at UNC Wilmington, they would come down there for three months. They did the same thing in a different way when I was at Wright State. And now obviously the 14 years I’ve been in Clemson, they’ve come down and gotten away from the weather.

And most of the times it was just to see their granddaughters, who were young at the time. Also my dad was a former high school coach. Loves to be around the game. My mom loves basketball. For them to get out of the weather and be able to spend time with their grandkids and occasionally me and go to games, and my dad goes to practices, it’s what we’ve done, and certainly it’s a great story, and for them to be a part of this with me is fantastic.

Q. Wanted to ask you about Joseph Girard’s evolution as a defender. Obviously he’s well known as an offensive guy. But coming to Clemson, not too familiar with playing man-to-man defense. How have you seen him progress on both sides of the court and just that evolution in the postseason?

BRAD BROWNELL: He’s obviously very willing. He’s one of those guys that wants to be good and knows if he’s going to play for me that that’s going to be part of the deal. And he’s a competitive guy, so he’s going to compete.

Obviously, like a lot of guys, he has some physical limitations, but he’s also a bright guy, and he’s a guy that can be a play ahead because of your basketball IQ.

I think he’s learned a lot. I think it’s certainly been very challenging for him in terms of a guy who hadn’t played it in a long time. There’s been some things he’s had to catch up on. But a smart guy, tough, competitive guy who is willing — is going to be fine. And he’s done a very good job for us.

Q. Joe Girard yesterday got a Facetime call from Dabo in the locker room. How much have you been able to communicate with Dabo during this run and what’s his words been to you like?

BRAD BROWNELL: Not a lot throughout the tournament. About three times yesterday leading into the game once or twice and then after the game got a text from him and then another text first thing this morning.

And I think there’s a lot of jockeying going on between some of his friends who are Bama fans. There might be even a few dinners bet with some of his old cronies because he told me this morning that we really need to win.

But obviously we have a great relationship. He took me under his wing when I first got to Clemson he was maybe in year two.

We’ve spent a lot of time together over the years. He’s a huge basketball fan and thinks he’s a good player. He loves to play.

It’s fun. We enjoy each other’s company. We play golf some together. We have vacationed occasionally with each other and our families.

They’re just great people. That’s one of the best things about being at Clemson, is we just have so many good folks in our department, certainly in our community. You just really enjoy being a part of it. And Dabo is one of the guys that makes everybody feel welcome. We all know who he is and how famous he is and all that, but to us he’s just a regular guy.

Q. Alabama finished strong the last two games, held it together down the stretch. I guess it was not the case through the non-conference schedule. What’s changed about them and how do you potentially combat it?

BRAD BROWNELL: I think they’ve just gotten better. Some of it is Grant Nelson looks more comfortable. Obviously the way he played in the last ten minutes of the game last night was remarkable. Probably made himself a lot of money.

We played him early on and he was still kind of feeling it out. I’m sure Nate was doing the same — we’re all trying to put our teams together. We think we’re good at this; we’re not sure about that.

They’ve just done an unbelievable job. Nate’s done a terrific job at Alabama. The way they’ve played and what they accomplished the last several years, remarkable. I know how hard it is.

And their guys play with tremendous freedom and confidence against tremendous offensive swagger. They seem like they’ve gotten better defensively the longer the year’s gone, which we all hope we do. But I just think it’s a product of good coaching. And they’re playing their best basketball right now when it matters most.

Q. In terms of the moment, obviously, Clemson’s never been here before. What is your message to them in terms of how not to make it too big, how do you frame that for them?

BRAD BROWNELL: I’ve talked about this with our team for a long time this year. I told our team early on I thought we were good enough to make a Final Four. And it was really when we were struggling in January, and I was a little upset with them. I thought they were a little full of themselves. They weren’t listening and being quite as coachable as they maybe should be at times.

We were different. We had a different feeling from November and December and, quite frankly, we got smacked in the mouth a few times.

We had a stretch where we were starting the league 4-6, and I told our guys this is a turning point, we go 4-6 down the stretch we won’t make the tournament.

I said, I’ve only told two teams that I’ve coached at Clemson that I thought they were good enough. Our ’18 team was good enough. And if Donte Grantham didn’t tear his ACL, we might have made it. But my guys understand because I’m real with them. They know when I’m upset. They know it’s straight talk.

And so I think they understood that and it hit home that, man, Coach thinks we’ll really good but we’re blowing this opportunity. We had to kind of like stick with it. There’s going to be growing pains. There’s going to be ups and downs during the seasons. And so I say that to say that this isn’t the first time we’ve ever thought about it or talked about it. It probably didn’t seem realistic maybe back then and maybe it didn’t seem realistic to some guys at the beginning of the tournament, especially after the ACC Tournament.

But there is a quiet confidence about our group. Our guys are good players. I think they know that. They know that I think they’re good players.

When I think that we play the right way and play at a high level, we can play with just about anybody in the country. We’ve proven that. And we’re certainly going to have to do it tomorrow to win.

Q. You’ve played Alabama a couple times now. I guess the last four years there’s been some consistencies in the outcome, eight-point difference and you held them below their average. What’s your been your key to beat a Nate Oats coached team?

BRAD BROWNELL: I don’t know about all that. We played well. Those games don’t matter. They really don’t. I don’t know that there’s anything that we’ve done that’s that special. Sometimes you’re a little fortunate.

I think we’ve gotten our defense set and maybe guarded pretty well. But other than that, I don’t know that we’ve done anything that other teams maybe in their league didn’t do. Certainly been excited to play those teams and their games because of how good they are.

We just have a lot of respect for how good Alabama’s been. When you get an opportunity to play good teams like Alabama, your guys are up for it. They’re excited. But there’s no specific coaching thing that we’ve done that’s been any different than what other people have tried to do.

Q. You spoke about Grant and what are some of the things he’s doing much better than the first time when you competed against him?

BRAD BROWNELL: Looks just more confident. Certainly was very aggressive last night, had a phenomenal year. Made a bunch of winning plays. I mean, he shoots the ball, he drives the ball with size. He plays with force. Defensively, he seems to have adjusted better to the level. I mean, it’s a natural change that a lot of guys have to adapt to. He’s just a terrific player. Man, is he good. And he’s playing to his level.

Q. Joe Girard was obviously 1-for-5 last night, but on the inbounds pass that PJ dunked it, looked like his gravity kind of caught the defender and PJ was able to cut. How much does he open up things for you in terms of that?

BRAD BROWNELL: He does he does a lot. Just him being on the floor, he’s going to be guarded hard. That’s going to create space for Chase to drive or us to post Ian and PJ. It’s natural. You’ve got to guard the guy because he has a quick trigger.

Obviously there’s times in screening action when he draws two, to take away his shot, and sometimes you can slip. We got a couple of those last night, which were key down the stretch.

So his willingness to pass, his willingness — when he’s got two on the ball — to get rid of it, his poise, I think you appreciate his basketball IQ when you see him every day as a player and are around him, he’s got a really good feel for the game. And certainly those assists last night were a big part of the win.

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