Clemson Basketball: Road woes continue under Brad Brownell

To say the 2020 Clemson basketball team is excitingly frustrating would be an understatement. There is no rhyme or reason to any of their wins or losses and all we can do it simply smile and shake our head.

This isn’t another article on Clemson basketball needing a new leader and how a change of direction and a new voice would go a long way in helping this program take another step forward toward yearly NCAA tournament bids.

Instead, let’s look at the contrast between home and away because it is a stark contrast.

Clemson lost on the road at Georgia Tech Tuesday in embarrassing fashion to a coach and a program that is more than likely going to part ways in the very near future. Tevin Mack had a really bad game and it showed on both sides of the floor. When Mack isn’t hitting shots, he isn’t playing defense either, though that has been the story of his entire career at Texas, Alabama and now at Clemson.

Clemson at Littlejohn is 10-5 with some really big wins, namely Louisville and Duke, both are capable of winning a national title in 2020. Yes, Clemson has a couple of bad home losses as well – South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Miami specifically.

Clemson basketball on the road in 2020 in an unmitigated disaster. They have are an atrocious 3-7 overall record in true road games and don’t even look like the same team. Again, simply refer back to the game Tuesday night on North Avenue in Atlanta against the glorified trade school.

Their only three road wins this season, Chapel Hill, Chestnut Hill, and Pittsburgh. Because of that win in Chapel Hill as well as their home wins against Duke and Louisville, most are willingly overlooking how bizarre this basketball program has become and are looking forward to “next year”.

Looking back at Brad Brownell’s tenure as head coach shows how bad a road team Clemson is under his guidance. In only four of his seasons as head coach has Clemson won at least four games on the road in a single season, though they have never won more than four road games in a season under Brownell.

Under Brownell, Clemson basketball is 34-71 on the road for a 32 percent winning percentage. Winning programs can go on the road and play at least .500 basketball. Hopefully, at some point, Clemson basketball becomes one of those programs.