#1 – UNC || #2 – NC State || #3 – Wake Forest || #4 – Virginia
Somehow, Clemson has become one of the ACC programs we most admire, and given the history there, that’s a surprise.
Clemson, since the days of Tates Locke, has largely recruited Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and southern North Carolina for talented players who, for various reasons, were overlooked by ACC rivals.
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Think of Dale Davis, the Grant twins, Larry Nance, Sharone Wright, Harold Jamison, Terrell McIntyre, Mitchell Wiggins, Tree Rollins, and others.
A lot of those guys went on to excellent NBA careers, but in high school, a lot of them were not highly regarded. The Tigers recruited a lot of great athletes back then, and some of them became skilled basketball players.
And from the Locke era to 2010, it was more or less the only path for Clemson to compete in the ACC.
That changed when Brad Brownell took over.
Brownell hails from Evansville, a great and underestimated basketball town. Evansville, by the way, was the site of Indiana’s first-ever basketball game, and the Evansville Purple Aces won five D-II titles before moving to D-I.
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Jerry Sloan, one of the great hard-asses in NBA history, played there, as did Don Buse, who also did well in the league.
Evansville also was the victim of one of the greatest tragedies in college basketball history when their plane crashed in 1977, wiping out the entire team except for one player, who was injured. In a horribly cruel twist, he died in an accident two weeks later.
Brownell was 9 at the time, likely already basketball-obsessed. You know it had to affect him, and it wouldn’t surprise us if he thinks of it when he takes his team on flights. How could he not?
The Evansville native first came to prominence at UNC-Wilmington, very nearly knocking defending national champs Maryland out of the first round of the 2003 NCAA tournament before Drew Nicholas saved the day with a tremendous buzzer beater. Maryland won 75-73, but Brownell left an impression.
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He moved from Wilmington to Wright State for four years before taking the Clemson job.
He has faced the same problem Clemson coaches have always faced: it’s hard for Clemson to recruit against Duke, UNC, NC State, Virginia, and the rest of the league.
Brownell, though, has proven highly resourceful. He has done the classic Clemson thing and recruited under-appreciated talent, but he has also done a brilliant job of developing those players. It’s hard to argue that he’s not one of the best developers of talent in the ACC, if not the best.
His teams always defend physically, and very well. In his first trip to Cameron, Clemson defenders really went after Nolan Smith, who got downcourt and looked at the refs for help, shocked at the physicality.
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It was nothing dirty. It was just much more aggressive than Smith ever experienced from Clemson.
In addition to player development, Brownell has put much more emphasis on guard play than most of his Tiger predecessors. Look at the perimeter players on his 2024 Elite Eight team: Josh Beadle, Chase and Dillon Hunter, Joe Girard, among others.
None of those guys, except Syracuse transfer Girard, were seen as major talents coming out of high school, but all of them helped immensely.
And he’s also developed some really good big men. On that 2024 team, he had PJ Hall, who former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski once called “the most improved player on the planet,” and Ian Schieffelin, who was nobody coming out of high school, yet became an incredibly effective college basketball player.
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In our opinion, he’s the best coach the Tigers have ever had. It’s not like football-obsessed Clemson will ever be a basketball school, but Brownell has made it highly competitive, including ending one of the most amazing streaks in college hoops history.
Clemson had never won at UNC prior to 2020’s 79-76 overtime upset, going 0-59 prior to that. Brownell did it again in 2024, breaking the ACC’s biggest jinx into a thousand pieces.
Yet he’s been on the hot seat a lot. At one point, allegedly anyway, Clemson was willing to fire him when Will Wade was set to leave VCU in 2017 for a bigger opportunity, which he found at LSU.
He’s adapted reasonably well to the new era in college sports, largely because again, he’s a resourceful guy who makes players better, and who gets his teams to play hard and together.
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Since Covid hit, Brownell has put together a 17-18 season (his only losing season at Clemson), 23-11, 24-12, 27-7, and 24-11 last year. 2022-23 was an NIT disappointment, but he has made the Big Dance the last three years, including the 2024 drive to the Elite Eight.
So what can we expect this year?
More or less the normal from Brownell: he’ll do more with less than just about anyone else in the conference.
But he does lose a lot. Butta Johnson wasn’t a great transfer, but he had his moments, particularly from behind the line. RJ Godfrey returned from his walkabout with Georgia, averaging 12 ppg and 5 rebounds. Dillon Hunter is also gone, along with Nick Davidson, and Jake Wahlin decamped for BYU. Jestin Porter is done as well.
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But we’ve learned not to underestimate Brownell. Here’s what he has to work with:
Returnees
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Ace Buckner – 6-3/180/R-SO
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Blake Davidson – 6-9/213/R-FR
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Zac Foster – 6-4/190/SO
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Trent Steinour – 6-10/218/SO
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Dallas Thomas – 6-9/180/R-SO
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Chase Thompson – 6-8/228/SO
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Carter Welling – 6-11/240/SR
Portal
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Cole Certa – 6-5/205/RSO (Notre Dame)
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Liutauras Levicius – 6-7/225/SR (TCU)
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Dylan Faulkner – 6-10/245/SR (Samford)
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David Fuchs – 6-9/245/SR (San Francisco)
Freshmen
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Harris Reynolds 6-5/175/4-star
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Will Stevens – 6-10/225/FR/3-star
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Amare James – 6-6/190/FR/3-star
Our first question is how he sorts out point guard. Ideally, it’ll be Foster, who averaged 2.5 apg last season. Hunter got 3.0, but he played 10 minutes more per game than Foster. However, Foster tore his ACL in December, and that may slow him down.
Foster and Buckner got about the same amount of minutes last year (18.6 vs. 19.5), and Buckner is a solid defender.
After what we saw last season from Certa at Notre Dame, he’s very likely to start. Certa scored 35 against Virginia, 37 against Georgia Tech, and 32 against NC State. Notre Dame was injury-riddled again last year, and Certa became a focus of defenses. Nonetheless, while he shot a pedestrian 37% overall, he was an impressive 37% from outside. He should be able to improve on both with Clemson.
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Carter Welling tore his ACL in the ACC Tournament, so we wouldn’t expect him back immediately, and if he does make it back for this season, it’ll take him a while to get up to speed.
We’re not sure what to expect out of Steinour either. He barely played last year, getting into six games for a total of 15 minutes. He might make a major leap, but he might not, too.
By the way, Steinour is a cool legacy: his grandfather is Randy Mahaffey, one of the five Mahaffeys who played for the Tigers between 1959 and 1970. All five were strong rebounders, by the way, with the lowest career board work for any of the five being 8.5.
The younger Davidson brother redshirted last year, and no one has seen him in a live game, so who knows? There are two other candidates from the portal, Faulkner and Fuchs, but both are making a major competitive jump. If one of them can come through, Clemson may be okay, or they may run post by committee. It’s a really key problem for Brownell and his staff to solve.
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Of course, freshman Stevens could surprise, but more realistically, he’s a year or two away.
Thompson played 9 mpg last season, so at least he has some meaningful experience. Thomas played considerably less. Are they ready to step in at forward?
Levicius played for Jamie Dixon at TCU last season, which is pretty good prep for Clemson, and he’s 6-7 and sturdy. He’s listed as a guard, but at 6-7, he could probably play in the frontcourt, too.
Reynolds is also listed as a guard, but he, too, might spend time in the frontcourt. He’s a talented player, and was listed at #72 overall nationally.
James is a classic Brownell development player. He might not play much this year, but don’t be surprised if he comes on in a year or two.
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In a nice touch, James’s father played for Evansville when Brownell was an assistant there for Jim Crews.
There are a lot of potential issues for the Tigers to solve, not least of all depth. With Foster and Welling both rehabbing ACL injuries, that’s a real problem.
And while we’ve been very impressed with Brownell’s ability to develop talent, he’s got some challenges there, too.
However, we’d rather have questions about a Brownell team than, say, one coached by, say, Micah Shrewsberry. Brownell has proven that he’s an excellent coach. Clemson is very lucky to have him.
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