University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota-Clemson Post-Game Notes and Quotes
11/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Post-Game Notes
• Dan Coleman scored in double figures for the fifth time this season and the 27th of his career.
• Spencer Tollackson scored in double figures for the third time this season and the 14th of his career.
• Minnesota’s first half field goal percentage of .727 (16-22) is a season high. Their all-time fifth-best field goal percentage in a half is .792 (19-24) vs. Syracuse (3/23/90).
• Brandon Smith scored in double figures for the second time this season and of his career.
• Smith set a new career high for points with 15, shooting 7-9 (.778) from the field. He also dished out a career high five assists. Smith also set another career high in steals (4) and tied his career best in shots (2).
• Lawrence McKenzie scored in double figures for the sixth time of his Gopher career and the 34th time of his collegiate career.
• Minnesota had four players (Coleman, McKenzie, Smith, Tollackson) in double figures for the second consecutive game and the second time this season.
• The Gophers had a season high of 10 steals on the night from five different players.
• Minnesota was 28-50 (.560) from the field, a new season high.
• The Gophers are 3-5 all-time in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
• Minnesota is now 59-9 in home non-conference games under Monson and 70-29 in non-conference play under Monson, including the postseason.
Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota Head Coach Dan Monson
Opening Statement
“Obviously it was disappointing. I am not evaluating this team on how much they win or loose, that’s not where I am frustrated. We did not play with the passion and energy to make ourselves the team we need to be. We played good defense early, but we did not rebound well as the game went on. I think that was obvious and then our defense just broke down. We just need to get an identity on that end of the floor. You can’t do that with the way that we are playing. It seems like putting possessions together, and getting a stop and rebounding has put a burden on this team. We did a lot of things, like attacking their press, that were probably good enough to give a chance to win. Clemson hit open shots when they needed them, it was just very disappointing defensively.”
On the rebounding comparison:
“A lot of it is personality. I told them for two days that it can’t be a jumping contest and part of it is technique. With the guys that are better athletes, we needed to be more physical. We had five guys standing next to five other guys and we lost every time in that situation. We need to be more disciplined with rebounding the ball. We did a better job in the second half, but by then had a rhythm.”
On Lawrence McKenzie’s leadership:
“I knew it was going to be an issue breaking the press. I was concerned with that, but I don’t think that putting Lawrence at the point was the issue. I wanted his accountability for this to be his team. I wanted to make a statement that way by putting him at the point. I want him to be a leader. Nobody is going to play against that press and not have troubles. I don’t think that is where we had our issues tonight.”
On the team's defensive effort:
“What is so frustrating for me is that we play really good defense the first 15 minutes of every game and then we slowly begin to loose our principles of what we are trying to do. I called a time-out with two minutes to go in the first half and it’s a three-point game and in the last minutes they hit three-3’s. We are not finishing anything off. I know it looks like we are a long way away right now, but we also just need to get some confidence. We just need to stay with it.”
Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell
Opening statement:
“I am pleased to get out of here with a win in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on the road. It’s nice to get a win on the road for the second straight year. It’s our third win in a row in the Challenge. In the first half, I thought our full court pressure was important. We got them to turn the ball over and it led to some scores for us but also, they got layups on the other end. They must have got nine or 10 layups and shot 73 percent in the first half. We were up by nine at the half and a lot of that had to do with what we did on the offensive glass because we sure weren’t making every shot. In the second half, we guarded them a little bit and as a result, we were able to put the game away fairly early. We did a better job of guarding in the half court and stopped gambling.”
On facing Dan Monson:
“It’s difficult to play friends, period. Towards the end of the game, you have to go shake his hand and you won. No matter if the game was close, it’s tough. You really do become good friends and I have learned a lot of basketball from Dan. I respect the job that he does. We came in playing pretty well and one of our team strength is their team weakness in terms of taking care of the basketball. We pressure a lot. We were in a good matchup. I thought at the beginning of the game if we didn’t start playing a bit better, we had a chance to lose the game. It’s always difficult to play friends. You never like to do it.”
On Minnesota:
“I think any time you have only one day to prepare, it’s hard. When you are struggling and feel that you aren’t doing some things well, you do have to focus on yourself. I thought they came out ready to play. The press bothered them but they shot 73 percent against us. They were dunking the ball on the other end. If we didn’t turn the ball over, they were dunking the ball. They did some good things against it. I don’t think anyone has shot 73 percent against us in a half ever. They were breaking the press and attacking. They went deep on us a few times on out of bounds and we had to fix that. I thought we fixed that and guarded them in the half court.”
Minnesota freshman guard Kevin Payton
On establishing a team identity:
“The time is going to come. We need to work on shaping our identity and go out and do it for 40 minutes.”
On the team’s confidence:
“We have confidence, but confidence also comes with winning and with good practices. We’ve been having good practices and our confidence is building, but it hasn’t shown in the games. When you lose, it takes away your confidence, but we have to continue to build it up. We have to get into our comfort level and do it for 40 minutes.”
