‘I certainly hope to be back.’ What’s next for Monte Lee, Clemson after losing season
All the Clemson Tigers could play for Wednesday night was each other.
One of the cruelties of pool play in the ACC baseball tournament is that even if a team is eliminated from postseason contention in its first game, it still has one more to play. Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 11-5 on Wednesday in Charlotte, displaying moxie in climbing out of an early three-run hole. Yet the game only mattered for the sake of sentimentality — one last game to play together.
Clemson’s season ended the day before in a topsy-turvy 15-10 loss to Louisville that played more like a home run derby. Coming into the tournament two games below .500, the Tigers (25-27, 17-20 ACC), needed a deep run in Charlotte to even sniff an NCAA regional — and even that might not have been been enough. With an RPI approaching 70, the Tigers likely needed to win the ACC tournament outright.
Instead, Clemson will miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008 and just the second time since 1986. The Tigers’ losing record is the first for the program since 1957.
“We’ve had a nice run here at Clemson of being in the postseason, so I don’t know if ‘weird’ is the right word or not, but I think just trying to come to grips with just the reality of it is really, really hard right now,” head coach Monte Lee said after Tuesday’s loss.
“I’m going to be very accountable for everything in this program, so I’m gonna look at myself first ... because we got a lot of really good players in here. We’ve got some young guys in this program that are outstanding players and they have expectations of playing in the postseason, so I failed them. That’s the bottom line. I failed our club, and I didn’t do a good enough job this year of putting them in a position to be successful in getting into the postseason.”
Clemson baseball is not accustomed to losing, nor is the Clemson fan base particularly fond of it. The head coach since 2016, Lee led the Tigers to NCAA regional play each of his first four years and led the Tigers to a 14-3 mark last year before COVID-19 wiped away the season. But there’s a hunger for the program to play deeper into the postseason, in super regionals and in Omaha.
That hunger has existed since the final years of Jack Leggett’s tenure, whom Lee replaced after a 22-year stint. Leggett’s teams missed the tournament just once in those 22 years, but after five straight years of losing during regional play, Clemson turned to Lee in the hopes of invigorating the program. Now questions abound about the possibility of another change.
After hearing Lee take accountability for Clemson’s losing season Tuesday night, freshman Caden Grice, one of the team’s most consistent bright spots this season, stood up for his coach.
“He teaches us to take responsibility for ourselves, and I think that’s him setting a good example for us as a team,” Grice said. “He’s done a great job, and I think it all just comes down to us performing on the field, so I don’t think it has anything to do with that.”
Just three weeks ago, Clemson had seemingly found its groove. After struggling through an injury-riddled early portion of the season, the Tigers found new life in an impressive seven-game winning streak that included back-to-back weekend sweeps of Wake Forest and then-No. 7 Louisville. The streak pushed Clemson above .500 and into the top 40 in RPI.
But Clemson couldn’t keep the momentum rolling through the final weeks of the season, losing their final three ACC series — two via sweep.
Lee said that he couldn’t quite point his finger on why the Tigers struggled to put away opponents with consistency this season, saying that his team struggled to play “complete baseball” for nine innings.
He expressed optimism for the future of the program, pointing to promising freshmen like Grice and pitcher Ty Olenchuk and to the next two recruiting classes, which he called top 10 classes. And with the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility for seniors due to COVID-19, it’s possible the Tigers could return a bulk of this year’s team.
But Lee also recognizes the high-stakes nature of the Clemson brand and said he’s ready to defend his 13-year track record as a head coach when he meets with athletic director Dan Radakovich in the offseason. Before Clemson, Lee never had a losing season in his seven years with College of Charleston, making the NCAA tournament four times, including one super regional appearance. His teams have gone 483-258 all time.
Lee said he remains confident in his ability to win at Clemson and said “our club is close.”
“As far as my status and do I think that I will be back, I don’t make those types of assumptions,” Lee said Wednesday. “That’s going to be determined by Dan Radakovich and the administration. And I’m accountable for what happened this season.
“I certainly hope to be back. If I am back, then we’re gonna work really hard to turn it around and get these guys ready to have a nice run next year.”
