What Clemson coach Brad Brownell said about the refs after NCAA Sweet 16 win
The Clemson men’s basketball team qualified for only the second Elite Eight in program history with a 77-72 win over Arizona on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
But the NCAA Tournament victory didn’t come without a significant amount of midgame frustration from both Clemson’s bench and fans who followed along on social media regarding how the Sweet 16 game was officiated.
In its five-point loss, Arizona finished the game with 25 free throw attempts to Clemson’s 16 and was whistled for 16 personal fouls compared with the Tigers’ 19. The Wildcats also entered the bonus with 11:55 remaining in the game after the Tigers were called for seven fouls in the first eight minutes of the second half at Crypto.com Arena.
Fans on social media specifically criticized how the assigned crew officiated Arizona’s 7-foot center, Oumar Ballo, in comparison with Clemson center PJ Hall. After finishing the first half without a foul, Hall was called for three personal fouls in the first 5:10 of the second half.
Another point of contention: With four minutes remaining in the first half, the Wildcats had been called for two personal fouls. In the first half, Arizona had five fouls (Clemson had eight) and shot eight free throws (Clemson shot two).
Those margins evened out a bit by the end of a thrilling second half but remained a sticking point for Clemson supporters and likely would’ve been more of a story had the Tigers blown their lead against the Wildcats.
Asked about the officiating postgame, Clemson coach Brad Brownell was all smiles.
“I thought it was fantastic,” he said, grinning. “We obviously won the game.”
After drawing some laughs from the media room with that comment, Brownell added that the officiating was “fine.”
“It is what it is,“ he said. “These are hard games to call. There’s so much physicality, and the players are so athletic. It’s hard to manage it all, it really is.
“It had no bearing on anything tonight. Both teams got into the bonus, and both teams got players in foul trouble. At the end of the day, it’s about players making more plays than another team.”
Here’s some other highlights from Brownell’s postgame news conference:
On reaching the Elite Eight
“Obviously, huge win. Just really happy for, obviously, my players, my staff, and really all of Clemson nation. This was a big-time game by our guys. We got off to a great start. Arizona, obviously, punched back a couple times, but these guys have hung in there and finished a game against a really good team that has had a really good season. We have a lot of respect for them”
“I just think our guys have a lot of belief in each other, and I certainly have a lot of belief in my team. And we’re playing good basketball right now. And anything can happen in these tournaments. You’ve got to have really good players. I have good players”
“We have a lot of confidence in our team. We’ve been through a lot together, especially these three guys. ... Chase five years, Ian third year, and PJ his fourth. We’ve been together for a long time. And so we know the ins and outs of each other and our personalities. I think that helps our team”
On Clemson’s defensive success
“It’s been a process. I’ve talked about it with our team and media that follows us closely that I have a lot of guys that are offensive players. We probably have more of an offensive mentality and identity than some of my other teams”
“We were fortunate tonight. I mean, I do think it’s important to mention, Arizona had some good shots and missed them. And that’s part of March Madness. It’s part of the pressure of making shots this time of year in the tournament”
“But that’s an unbelievable team that just had a tough shooting night. Obviously we were able to capitalize on some of that”
On the strength of the ACC this season
“I’ve been in the league 14 years. So I’ve seen a lot. And I’ve coached against a bunch of Hall of Fame coaches and coached in the league when we had three No. 1 seeds. I just knew that this year’s league was much better than it was getting credit for.And we easily had seven or eight teams that were NCAA Tournament-worthy in terms of talent, and a couple teams had some injuries early”
We had a lot of young teams in our league that November and December were figuring themselves out. By the time they got to the conference they were beating some of the better teams in the league, us included”
