Brad Brownell Remains 'Really Proud' of Clemson Team, Despite Adversity

Monday mornings are often a difficult wake up, but for Clemson basketball, film study from this past week began at 7:30 a.m.

While being critical about his team during moments like these, head coach Brad Brownell made sure to continue to uplift his team while going through the adversity of this past week. Clemson dropped from a tie for first place to third place in the ACC standings this week after losses to Virginia Tech and Duke.

More importantly, Brownell told his team how proud he was, despite Monday morning’s constructive criticism.

“We were a little demanding with that, but also reminding our guys I’m really proud of, you know, we were 10-3 in the non-league,” he said. “We’re 10-3 in the conference. We’ve played a lot of really good teams. We found ways to win some games, and we haven’t played our best some games.”

Both losses had initial adversity built in. Wednesday’s loss to the Hokies was coming off of a West Coast trip, and ACC teams are 4-10 in their first game back from the excursion. Duke is the No. 4 team in the country and head coach Jon Scheyer has only lost three home games in his four seasons as the main guy of the program.

Despite this, Brownell was critical on the things that Clemson didn’t do well in the losses.

“Obviouslty, some of it’s the quality of the competition, and then it’s also the thing that we can control that we didn’t, and the mistakes that we made that are on us,” he said on Monday, “and if you continue to make those mistakes, our margin for error is not as great as some of the teams.”

The last time that the Tigers lost back-to-back games (Alabama and BYU), they rattled off nine straight wins to get back into the AP Poll. Clemson only has five games remaining on its schedule, and a strong final push to close off the season will erase any national doubt that the Tigers are currently receiving after this weekend.

Brownell wants his team to get back to his team’s identity. That will begin on Wednesday against a Wake Forest team that has won two straight games.

“So, we’ve got to be on point,” he said. “You know, our team connectedness, our spirit and our defense is really our superpower, and we have to lean into that every game.”

Tipoff between the Tigers and Demon Deacons is set for 7 p.m. from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the game will be broadcast on the ACC Network.