Belief in Brownell high after NCAA Tournament Run
Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich and head basketball coach Brad Brownell are expected to finalize a new contract in the next few weeks.
This time last season, Radakovich was at a crossroad. Do you stick with Brownell through the adversity and keep him in Clemson for another season, or do you go in a different direction with the men’s basketball program?
Radakovich chose to keep Brownell for his eighth season, a risky move, but one that proved to be a good decision. It will be interesting to see what the deal looks like ahead of next season given one year of success. One brick doesn't build a house.
Let’s rewind back to March 2017.
Brownell and the Clemson basketball team received a No. 2 seed in the National Invitation Tournament and had a chance to finish the 2016-17 season on a positive note by going on a run in the tournament.
But it didn’t happen.
Instead, the Tigers lost in the first round of the tournament, 74-69, after giving up a 20-point lead to Oakland.
Brownell and the Tigers never could seem to get over the hump in close games during the season, which was frustrating to Clemson fans, to the point where some fans wanted Brad Brownell fired at the end of the season.
"While the outcomes weren't always positive, you could see that there was progress," Radakovich noted in a recent exclusive interview with Clemson Sports Talk.
Clemson had the talent to turn things around with players like Gabe DeVoe, Shelton Mitchell and Marquise Reed returning for another year.
For Clemson fans, that was encouraging, but the confidence of these guys needed to be built up if they were going to turn things around, and that’s exactly what happened during the course of the 2017-18 season although the Tigers were picked to finish 13th in the ACC.
The Tigers had impressive wins early on in the year in beating Ohio State on the road, and Florida down in Sunrise, FL back in December. The Tigers got another confidence boost when they came away with a 64-48 win over in-state rival South Carolina.
The real test of the season would come when this team was in close ball games. They were able to break that trend from last year with close wins in January over Georgia Tech, Louisville, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina.
This season had its fair share of adversity, however. In the win over Notre Dame on January 20, Donte Grantham tore his ACL which ended his senior season and career as a Tiger.
Clemson also went through a stretch where they lost three games in a row to Florida State, Duke, and Virginia Tech in that order. Despite the rollercoaster ride on the back end of the season, the Tigers were still set up to make a run in the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
Clemson earned a No. 4 seed in the ACC Tournament and found a way to win another close game, this time over the Eagles of Boston College, with a 90-82 win, before falling to No. 1 seed Virginia in the second round. What awaited the Tigers was an NCAA Tournament appearance, the first since 2011.
Then opportunity knocked, and Clemson answered by defeating New Mexico State in the first round, in a game where many national pundits had predicted the Tigers to lose despite earning a No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region.
In the second round, a clear message was sent to the college basketball world, as Clemson routed Auburn 84-53 to advance to the Sweet 16, the first since 1997.
A chance to advance to the Elite 8 fell just short out in Omaha, Nebraska as Kansas defeated Clemson, 80-76 in a game that saw Clemson down by 20 at one point during the second half, but they fought back to make things interesting in the late stages of the contest.
Clemson tied a program record for wins with 25 wins during the 2017-18 campaign and was ranked in the top 25 for a good chunk of the second half of the season.
Following the season Brownell stated, “We have a great opportunity to build on this. The last piece was just showing that we could be a high-level team. I think we showed that this year with our performance all season long."
Assuming that Reed and Mitchell return next year it looks like the Tigers will have another "high-level" team. The future is bright – all it took was the belief from the players and the administration. Proof that belief is a powerful thing.