One Quick Thing: Time to give Brad Brownell credit for Clemson Men’s Basketball success

Clemson Men’s Basketball is having one of its best seasons under head coach Brad Brownell.

The Tigers lead the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 10-1 record. Let that sink in: we know by the end of January that Clemson will not have a losing conference record. No other ACC team will be able to say that, and I have no idea how long it’s been, if ever, that the Tigers have achieved that.

The Tigers aren’t blowing teams out right and left. They needed late-game heroics from Hunter Tyson and Chase Hunter to defeat Virginia Tech and Florida State, respectively.

The computer rankings don’t think highly of the Tigers. It has become a thing that Clemson wins a game and drops in the NET metric (I refuse to call it a ranking any longer).

Nothing is being handed to the Tigers on a silver platter. It never has been. The Clemson men’s program does not have a history of success.

Many have pointed to that logic when defending Clemson’s patience with Brownell. This is his 13th season at Clemson. He is now just one game above .500 in ACC play during his tenure. I doubt many major-level programs would keep a coach around that long if the best they can achieve is average.

What’s the secret ingredient this season? It looks like a combination of three things.

First, it’s experience. It’s Tyson in his fifth season. It’s PJ Hall and Chase Hunter in their third seasons. Those guys have stuck around when others have not. It’s also a veteran like Brevin Galloway from the portal.

Second, it’s young players who are contributing. Ian Schieffelin and Ben Middlebrooks as sophomores. Josh Beadle, Dillon Hunter, and RJ Godfrey as freshmen.

Brownell might not be the world’s greatest recruiter, but he hit the target with these young players, and he has convinced the older players to stick with the program. He is a big part of the first two reasons the Tigers have been successful this year.

Brad Brownell is at the center of Clemson Men’s Basketball success this season

The third reason is in-game coaching. Again, no one is going to confuse Brownell for Larry Brown or Mike Krzyzewski, but when this team finds itself in a battle, Brownell is keeping his team in a position to win. He is managing these games expertly, and most of the season he has been doing it with key players sidelined with injuries.

I am not going to say that two-thirds of a season suddenly make a very average coach great, but I am going to give Brownell credit for what this team has achieved this season. He’s done a remarkable job with this group. They might not impress the computers, but I think their peers in the conference understand how hard it will be to defeat them.