Brad Brownell: You can achieve your basketball dreams at Clemson

Clemson basketball put together its best season in more than 20 years in 2017-18 as the Tigers reached the Sweet 16 and finished tied for third in the ACC.

Clemson coach Brad Brownell is hoping to build on that success by signing some top prospects in the next few years.

Brownell spoke in Columbia earlier this week and detailed why he believes the Tigers are ready to continue their success. In addition to making the NCAA Tournament this past season, the Tigers also produced a pair of NBA draft picks in recent years — K.J. McDaniels and Jaron Blossomgame.

“We produced a couple of guys that were maybe a little under-recruited, and we were able to get those guys in a position to be drafted into the NBA. Now, this past season, we proved that we can be one of the top three or four teams in the ACC, we can advance in the NCAA Tournament to the Sweet 16. Basically, what I think we’ve shown to young people is if you come to Clemson you can do whatever you want,” Brownell said. “You can achieve your dreams at Clemson in basketball, graduate from a great university, play in meaningful tournament games, play well enough to get drafted into the NBA, and just have a great college experience.”

Brownell believes it will take time for Clemson to reap the full benefits of last year’s NCAA Tournament run. But he can already tell a difference in the level of recruits Clemson is getting on campus thanks to its success, as well as a renovated Littlejohn Coliseum.

“It always takes time, but I certainly feel like we’re getting more and more high quality players to campus. I think that’s where having an improved facility has really helped us. When we’ve gotten those kids to campus I think they’re impressed with what they see,” Brownell said. “I think our staff has always done a good job of getting out and working kids at a young age and bringing them to campus as much as we can. But now with better facilities, and now with some team and individual success, I think it really opens the eyes of recruits.”

In addition to recruiting at a high level, Brownell hopes to develop the players who are already on campus.

Clemson lost rotation players Gabe DeVoe, Donte Grantham, David Skara and Mark Donnal, and guards Shelton Mitchell and Marcquise Reed are testing the NBA waters.

But the Tigers will return several rotation players, including Elijah Thomas, Clyde Trapp, Aamir Simms and AJ Oliver.

“As much as anything, it’s the development of the current guys on the roster, changing our games, physically making the changes you need to do here through the summer to come back, whether it’s adding weight, maybe taking a little weight off and then just creating that buy-in, that culture, that willingness to sacrifice for the good of the team,” Brownell said. “I think that’s something you’re working on every day. I like the kids that we have coming in so far. I’d like to add one or two more, but I feel like the players that are returning are in a good place and are going to be motivated to achieve at a high level next year.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Brad Brownell: You can achieve your basketball dreams at Clemson."