Clemson coach Brad Brownell had never sounded more irate than he did after the Tigers’ 72-71 loss to Duke on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The loss came after an evening of close and often controversial calls went against Clemson (13-6 overall, 3-5 ACC).
Here’s what Brownell had to say after Saturday’s game.
On the officiating:
“I’m angry. Trying to watch what I say here a little bit, but yeah, the game felt like it was taken from us a little bit at the end. We had (missed) chances. There were a couple of opportunities for us to finish the game (including) several on offense, but we had a couple of turnovers. I thought the last one was probably a really good play by their post player. I thought Mark Mitchell made a really tough steal. The play before was really the one that was a killer.
“Having said that, I’m so proud of our team and our players for the way they competed. It was a tough day all day. We couldn’t score for a long time and had a hard time manufacturing baskets. Certainly Duke had something to do with it. I thought their defense was good. It was a battle. I really thought we were going to win this game. We made some big plays and some big shots. I’m just really proud of our players. Obviously we had a couple of whistles down the stretch that is just real perplexing is all I can say. It’s really frustrating.”
On the technical foul assessed to Jack Clark in the first half:
“They said he shoved the ball into him. I watched it on (replay) myself because obviously we don’t condone that kind of behavior here. When I saw it, it didn’t look like much. To be given a technical on that is ridiculous. That’s (allowing) the emotion of the building affect the officials and creating stuff that’s not even there. I thought that happened to us several (times) today.”
On getting a good performance from the bench for a second straight game:
“The guys were terrific. We have some athletes there. Josh (Beadle), Jack, RJ (Godfrey) and Dillon (Hunter), I thought those guys brought a little juice. They bring some athleticism defensively. They bring some speed, and it really helps our team get a little bit of a different look. I’m proud of those guys. I think they’ve done a lot of good things here recently. Our bench is getting better. I said this a while back, maybe seven to 10 days ago, that I think they are a real key to us finishing the season the way we all want to. We need them and their good play to continue.”
On PJ Hall’s effort:
“He was good. I thought he was getting hit some. It was hard. I was a little frustrated. I think there were times that PJ played maybe not as protected as some of the other players in our league. It frustrates me, but I give him credit. There were some times where we started poorly. He could have gotten frustrated, but he just hung in there. He made some big-time plays down the stretch.”
On having four of the next six games at home:
“Yeah, our team is fine. We’re going to bounce back. This (loss) will hurt tonight. Certainly our guys are emotionally drained and really upset in the locker room as you would imagine. So we’ve got to dust ourselves off. We’ve got a quick turnaround here (Tuesday) with a 9 o’clock game against Louisville, another group of athletes that are going to come after us so we’ve got to be able to compete.”