Clemson walks through a door and right into a wall

In hindsight, Purnell believes team’s stretch run exacted a price

By PAUL STRELOW - pstrelow@thestate.com

CLEMSON — During Clemson’s season-ending basketball banquet last year, coach Oliver Purnell implored his team to knock down the door to the NCAA tournament instead of again trying to beg its way in.

With this year’s banquet two weeks away, Purnell has yet to update his motivational plea.

But he is not lacking material. With Miami and Virginia Tech returning their youthful team cores and Wake Forest adding three top-25 recruits, the Tigers have work to do if they are to remain in the ACC’s upper third.

“The league will be better next year, so any time the league is better, it’s going to be harder to succeed,” Purnell said.

A week removed from Clemson’s 75-69 upset loss to 12th-seeded Villanova in the NCAA tournament’s first round, Purnell is trying to identify what went wrong so the Tigers can avoid a similar flameout in the future.

In its first NCAA appearance in a decade, Clemson squandered an 18-point first-half lead by falling apart on both ends of the floor.

“All of (the players), to a man, feel they should still be playing because Villanova’s still playing,” Purnell said Friday, before the Wildcats’ Sweet 16 game against Kansas.

Purnell said he suspects the Tigers slammed into an emotional and physical wall three weeks in the making.

Purnell said it felt as though Clemson’s postseason began with the Feb. 27 home game against Miami, the first of four consecutive games in which the Tigers had something at stake — such as an ACC tournament first-day bye or positioning in the conference standings.

Once in the ACC tourney semifinals, the Tigers beat second-seeded Duke to snap a 22-game losing streak in the series. In the program’s second ACC title-game appearance, it took top-seeded North Carolina to the wire.

“What jumped out at me was the ACC tournament really takes a lot out of you,” Purnell said. “Our guys were under that tournament gun for a long time. I’m not so sure that didn’t affect us.”

That was evident in the subsequent week’s practices; Purnell prematurely ended Clemson’s morning practice two days before the NCAA opener because of the team’s lack of energy.

Only once after their first-semester exam break did the Tigers have two days off in a row. Because of the pace needed to employ the team’s pressure defense, Purnell said he is considering adjusting the team’s schedule to include more such breaks next season.

That is one of several changes Purnell said the coaching staff will toss around in the coming weeks.

The others will be in response to Clemson losing three senior starters: guard Cliff Hammonds, power forward James Mays and swingman Sam Perry.

“We could be and probably should be a better offensive team,” Purnell said. “But defensively is going to be the big question mark. Can we get back to that level without those three guys?”

Getting back to this season’s level, if not surpassing it, figures to be the recurring theme for the future.