Three burning questions to ponder heading into the Clemson basketball season

The Clemson basketball team returns to the court tonight for the first game of the 2024-25 season. In the season opener, the Tigers will host Charleston Southern in a game broadcast on ESPN+.

There is considerable excitement for the Tigers' season after they reached the Elite 8 a year ago. Last year, they went 21-10 in the regular season before their improbable run in March.

This year, expectations are heightened and nothing short of another 20-win campaign will be acceptable. However, the expansion of the ACC schedule from 18 to 20 games will make the 2024-25 season a bit tougher to navigate as two games against potential cupcakes are replaced by two extra conference matchups.

So with Clemson basketball as hot as it has been in decades, let's look at three burning questions that this year's team must answer.

Can Clemson guard Chase Hunter be a consistent performer?

Last season, guard Chase Hunter became a bit of a Clemson basketball legend with his play in the NCAA Tournament. In four games, he averaged 17.8 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game.

However, in the regular season, he was a hit-or-miss proposition. Now, it is fair to wonder if he can take the confidence he gained in the Big Dance and use it to become a consistent performer throughout the entire season.

Last year, Hunter had 17 games of 15 points or more. But on the other hand, he also had nine games in which he failed to score in double figures.

What's more, even with his incredible tournament run, he took a bit of a step backward in 2023-24. His scoring dipped from 13.8 points per game the season prior to 12.9 per game. His assists fell from 4.5 per game to 3.2 per game and his 3-point shooting went from 35.6% to 31.1%.

This year, forward PJ Hall and his 18.3 points per game are gone meaning Hunter must pick up the scoring slack and be a consistent option for the Tigers. If he can play like he did in March, he could be one of the breakout stars of the ACC.

How will Clemson replace PJ Hall?

It won't be easy to replace Hall. The versatile 6-foot-10 forward will be missed greatly around the program.

He graduated with the 7th-most points and 4th-most blocks in Clemson history. So how will the Tigers make up for his absence?

Look for forward Ian Schieffelin to take up a huge part of the slack. Last year as a junior, the 6-foot-8 starter averaged 10.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. For his efforts, he was named the ACC's most-improved player.

Now, the question is whether or not he's got another level to take his game to. It will be interesting to see if he can improve again as a senior or whether playing next to Hall freed him up for opportunities that he won't get this season.

Also, 6-foot-11 Cincinnati transfer Viktor Lakhin has to be a factor. Last year, he put up 9.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. While he isn't as athletic as Hall, he needs to provide some of the productivity that Hall did, even if he doesn't replicate Hall's overall numbers.

Can Clemson sustain success after last season's Elite 8 run?

Clemson head coach Brad Brownell has done a nice job of building his program into a consistent winner over the course of his 14 seasons on the job. He's taken the Tigers to four NCAA Tournaments including the 2018 Sweet 16 and last year's Elite 8.

However, now the challenge that faces him is to do something that only one coach in program history has done, win at least one NCAA Tournament game in consecutive seasons. To find the only man to do that, we have to go back to the 1989 and 1990 NCAA Tournaments.

In 1989, Cliff Ellis took the Tigers to the second round and then a year later, he took them a step further by getting them to the Sweet 16. Since then, the Tigers have yet to win a game in the Big Dance two years in a row.

That's the goal Brownell has before him this season. The Tigers aren't going to be favored to return to the Elite 8 or make a run even further than that.

After all, last season's March success was rather miraculous. But there is the expectation that this will be a tournament team again.

If the Tigers can get back into the field of 68 and then win a game in the tournament, they will start to solidify the program as a regular March noise-maker. That would be a huge accomplishment for Brownell and it would be the next logical step in his attempt to build Clemson into a force on the national scene.