www.roanoke.com

TONY BENNETT: Getting prepared to
certainly play a team in Clemson that’s very good
at home. We had a hard-fought game against
them at our place. We were fortunate to come out
on top and certainly just getting ready to play.
Q. Will Joe Harris be able to play
against Clemson and has he done anything yet
with whatever contraption he’s wearing on his
left hand?
TONY BENNETT: Not sure yet. It will be
a game-time decision. I have not yet — there’s
obviously some swelling. We are waiting for that to
go down.
It’s not an ideal situation. If there’s two
positives about it, it’s first and foremost, you know
how tough Joe is. He played with a broken hand
most of the first half and second half without
realizing it, and I mean, tape up against Carolina
and battle through. And it’s on his non-shooting
hand. Those are the two positives in that in this
situation. But to answer directly your question, he
has not done anything yet and I don’t know for
sure.
visit our archives at asapsports.com
ACC – Second Hour 2 13 12.doc 7
Q. What will he wear on his hand?
TONY BENNETT: Yeah, I think you
wear — it just depends. It’s like a pad with
whatever complies with the rules, like a thermal
plaster, a hard shell like on the outside and covers
the palm. I think the finger movement and wrist
flexion — but the rest, there again, depending
upon — I have to see. I haven’t even seen him
work with it yet, what it will be like. Again, I’m sure
it will be a little cumbersome but it’s also got to
allow for protection.
Q. I think a lot of us see how strong
and good of a defender Jontel is on the
perimeter. Do you have a way of statistically or
anecdotally measuring his impact?
TONY BENNETT: Well, I think the point
guard is very important for you in terms of setting
the tone for your defense. He’s obviously your
point of attack defensively and when you have
someone who can do a good job of sliding and
keeping real quick guards in front of him, or
pressuring the ball handler that initiates the
offense; those things are very important.
You know, his combination of quickness
and speed with strength, even though he’s not the
tallest of players, really helps. And so he’s
important but as far as a statistical — we have
some stats we look at for our team.
But certainly you’ve got to look at steals
and just what the other guy has done and where
they start their offense, but nothing that I would
say, this is what he’s averaging that makes him so
effective. I think it’s just over the course of the
game and what he’s done, when you look at
holding some of the very good players down. But
we are more of a team-oriented defense; so that’s
not one guy, it’s not based on that. He’s a terrific –
I would say when Jontel is locked in and focused
and real alert, he can be one of the better on-ball
defenders, or just defenders, that we have.
Q. Is there something that stands out,
or anything that you’ve seen him do that
impresses you?
TONY BENNETT: He’s come up with
some big plays. We were down at Florida State
and he had a couple big defensive possessions for
us where he knocked the ball loose, got in the
passing lane or just did that. There has been a
number of — I’ve seen him as a young freshman
going against Ish Smith and some of the great
guards and I’ve seen him really at times be able to
bother and challenge. Those are things that you
say, wow, he continues to embrace that. And I
think he understands that, but he embraces his
identity in that regard; that showed that he has
those makings to be special in that end.
Q. At this point in the season, fatigue is
an issue for every team. But given the injuries
that you have had to deal with or the limited
numbers you have in your rotation, how big of
a role does that factor into — you have the
second half Saturday, and moving forward how
concerned are you with the general fatigue
level of your team right now?
TONY BENNETT: I’m not sure. I think
foul trouble hurt us against Carolina from a
rebounding standpoint. Obviously they really
attacked us and got on the offensive glass, and we
didn’t do as good of a job as we needed in that
last — we were up three with about 16, 15 minutes
and then certainly they started slowly pulling away.
So we had some hard match-ups out there
and we didn’t have probably our best rebounding
lineup on the floor because of foul trouble. Did we
get tired in that game? You know, looked like it as
the game went on, we did get a little tired, but I
think when you’re playing that hard, when you’re
going against ACC competition, and certainly
Carolina, they were running the floor and going to
the glass; that’s going to be part of it.
But I think the way the games are set, I’ve
heard coaches talk about this, and I agree with it.
The media time-outs, the way they are spaced, you
can use your time-out, there’s four hard minutes,
and then you have got a two — a two-minute-fifteen
or two-minute, 30-second rest, and so you try to
use that. As the season progressions, I think
everybody, you want to be as fresh physically as
you can, and certainly mentally.
But there is; you’re going to have bumps
and bruises. And we don’t have a ton of depth.
I’m sure a lot of people are in this boat. So you try
to make the most of it. Hopefully you get guys that
step up that you were not planning on or just play a
little bigger role that can buy some time for guys if
they are resting or not playing quite as many
minutes.
But rotations are usually shrinking at this
time of the year for most teams. Can’t shrink much
more because we have got it as small as we can,
but we are always mindful of that, watching their
fatigue factor, and knowing that’s just part of the
game.
visit our archives at asapsports.com
ACC – Second Hour 2 13 12.doc 8
Q. Close game in Charlotte, four-point
game, what do you take away from that that
you maybe emphasize coming into this one?
TONY BENNETT: Well, certainly I respect
Clemson and Coach Brownell does a good job.
They did not have Jennings for that game. He was
not available for them. And now they have him
and he’s played very well for them.
He’s a talented, long, athletic player that
gives them — they are a different team with him
and so that will have to certainly account for him.
But again, they defend hard. They run good
offense.
At home, they seem to play very well at
home with their ability to — you go back to the
Florida State game, and that was the first game of
the ACC played, but they really have played some
good basketball. When they are cooking, they are
a very good team. And certainly they know how to
use their pressure and their experience that they
have. I know Tanner is playing excellent
basketball, and Young.
So again, it’s a complete team, and we’ll
have to improve from the last 15 minutes of the
Carolina game to be successful there.