Clemson’s Brad Brownell defends his team’s accomplishments ahead of ACC tourney
Clemson basketball’s regular season ended in disappointment Friday when the Tigers suffered a 65-62 home loss to Georgia Tech.
Clemson had worked its way onto the NCAA tournament bubble down the stretch, thanks in large part to its three wins over top six-ranked teams this season. But losses in the final two regular season games against Virginia Tech and the Yellow Jackets ended the Tigers’ chances at an at-large bid for the NCAAs.
Clemson fans were understandably frustrated with the way the regular season ended, but Tigers coach Brad Brownell defended his team’s accomplishments during a news conference Monday to preview the ACC tournament.
The Tigers earned win over No. 3 Duke, No. 5 Louisville and No. 6 Florida State this season, in addition to ending an 0-59 streak at North Carolina.
“That’s a pretty big deal. At least it used to be by everybody. Everywhere I went that’s all I heard about from most Clemson fans,” Brownell said of the UNC streak. “Now that it’s a couple of months passed, let’s not just forget about and dismiss that. This is the team that did it, and it’ll always be the team that did it. That’s pretty special.”
Clemson was picked to finish 11th in the ACC in the preseason poll, and the Tigers exceeded expectations, going 9-11 to earn a No. 8 seed in the ACC tournament. Clemson will face No. 9 seed Miami (15-15, 7-13) at noon Wednesday on ESPN.
But even with Clemson exceeding expectations, the team’s inconsistency is what seemed to bother fans the most.
The Tigers lost three of their final four games to end an unusual regular season. Clemson went 4-4 against the bottom six teams in the ACC and 3-3 against the top four teams.
“I’ve been doing this almost 30 years and it’s one of the more unique seasons I’ve ever been a part of,” Brownell said.
Clemson lost four senior starters off of last year’s team, and making matters even more difficult for Brownell were the injuries his team dealt with. The Tigers were without two potential starters (Chase Hunter and Jonathan Baehre) for most of the season with injuries.
But as Clemson piled up upsets, the possibility of being a part of the NCAA tournament seemed like a real possibility until recent struggles.
“I do think as we won some games, expectations changed and they should. And we all hoped that, ‘Hey, maybe we can get hot and have a great run and make an NCAA tournament,”’ Brownell said. “Now we’ve got to play great in the ACC tournament to do that. But I’m proud of what this team has done and how they’ve tried to evolve and the way they’ve competed and conducted themselves this year. They’ve been very good.”
While at one point making the ACC tournament seemed like a real possibility, now the only way for Clemson to be a part of this year’s version of March Madness is to win four games in four days at the conference tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. That will mean knocking off several of the top teams in the league. The good news for Clemson is it has some experience doing just that.
The Tigers defeated three of the top four seeds in the ACC tournament during the regular season: No. 1 Florida State, No. 3 Louisville and No. 4 Duke. Should eighth-seeded Clemson beat No. 9 seed Miami on Wednesday, their path could very well be FSU, Duke and Louisville to win the championship.
“We’ve beaten some of the better teams in our league, so we know it can be done. There’s evidence that we can do it. It’s not just hope. But we’ve got to play great and we know that,” Brownell said. “Every team can kind of dust themselves off a little bit, point to new life. You’re going to get most people’s ‘A’ game when they play in these tournaments. We all are playing for something really special.”
Clemson played in the NIT last year after making it all the way to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 in the 2017-18 season.
Clemson has aspirations of winning it all this week in Greensboro, but the Tigers could still sneak into the NIT with a win over Miami on Wednesday.
However, that’s not what is on Brownell’s mind right now.
“We’re just trying to win the first game, focused all of our energy on that, and whatever happens next we’ll deal with that accordingly,” Brownell said.
Next Clemson game
Who: Clemson (15-15) vs. Miami (15-15) at ACC tournament
What: ACC tournament
When: Noon Wednesday
Where: Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC
TV: ESPN
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 12:18 PM.
