The national media may have cooled off on Clemson basketball after a winless week, but college football’s most powerful voice appears to stick with the Tigers.
During the most recent update of the Bilas Index, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas placed Clemson at No. 29 nationally. The ranking is another high-profile endorsement of the Tigers’ body of work even as the team embarks on a tumultuous three-game losing streak that has forced it into the bottom rankings of some of the league’s most revered programs. For Bilas, the story is not really the recent tumble — it’s the man on the sidelines.
In a year that featured a rotation that was forced to be replaced nearly its entire rotation for Clemson, Bilas indicated that head coach Brad Brownell is performing at an elite level. And despite the roster turnover Brownell has led the Tigers to a 20-7 overall record and 10-4 mark in ACC play.
“It’s not that he isn't proven time and time again, but Brad Brownell is one of the best coaches in the country,” Bilas wrote. “To me the real measure of a great coach isn’t only when he has talent. Brownell can do it when he doesn’t. Amazing.”
Bilas described the season as a "triumph of teaching", suggesting that one wouldn’t have anticipated the Tigers’ success early in the season without having experience returning
When the popular stories now are about losing road games in a row to Duke and Wake Forest, Bilas’ rankings are about remembering the history of Clemson’s winter. Prior to the recent “bump in the road,” Brownell’s cohort became a firestorm, winning 13 of 14 games. Perhaps most impressive was a run that went largely undiscussed nationally: Clemson’s 14-game ACC road winning streak. The streak, which had been more than a year in the making, was broken last weekend at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Clemson’s placement in the Bilas Index Top 30 is more than a pat on the back; it implies that the “quality of play” metrics still favor the Tigers, despite the scoreboard. But “coaching triumphs” are not measured in the standings. With Florida State (84 NET) on the horizon on Saturday at Littlejohn Coliseum, the Tigers are staring at a must-win scenario to prove Bilas a success.
If Clemson can stabilize, it will place it on track for its second straight NCAA Tournament run — since they left the nest after 2011. The Tigers and Seminoles play at noon ET on Saturday, a game that should set Clemson out to show that Bilas’ Top 30 status in the contest is a reflection of “ceiling” quality, not their history.