Clemson Basketball's Winning Formula Continues in Pitt Domination

As Clemson has continued to gel over the 2025-26 season, one thing stands out: the Tigers don’t play down to their competition.

The team showed that again on Saturday afternoon, defeating Pitt 62-53 for the second time this season. Clemson presented its defense early to grow the lead, then used a plethora of players to continue to hold the lead until the clock struck zero.

That’s been the winning formula for Clemson, which is now 18-4 and 8-1 in ACC play after the win this weekend. The Tigers are the only team in the conference with one loss or fewer besides Duke, who remains undefeated in ACC play thus far.

Head coach Brad Brownell’s script is simple: defense is winning his team games. It particularly occurs in the first half, seen especially in wins over Miami and SMU. Both of those teams had their lowest first-half total in those games, and the Tigers did it again with Pitt, only allowing 16 first-half points.

The Tigers are the second-best defense in the ACC as well, showing that over conference play thus far. Clemson is averaging 64.5 points allowed per game, only being less than half a point behind Duke, once again.

On the flip side, everybody helps on offense for Clemson. Multiple players end up in double-digits for the Tigers each game, and it’s like spinning a wheel and seeing someone different each game. On Saturday, Carter Welling and Nick Davidson scored 12 each and RJ Godfrey added 10 of his own.

26 bench points were scored for the Tigers compared to the Panthers’ six, which has always been a big difference for the team over the course of the season thus far.

Looking at the losses that the team has had thus far, the worst one that Clemson has is Georgetown. It’s only a Quad 2 loss, and Brownell was working with a brand-new team that saw adversity. The losses to Alabama and NC State came from poor first-half performances defensively, although there were comebacks in both.

The Tigers are beating opponents that they need to beat, so what’s missing?

That one statement win has not been picked up yet, but opportunities are on the table.

The Blue Devils await on Valentine’s Day, North Carolina plays the Tigers in March and other contests like Louisville can aid that push. If Clemson succeeds during the West Coast road trip next week and wins both, that will help the Tigers in the NET greatly.

Brownell and his team will hit the road beginning next week, going to Stanford on Wednesday night for the first of the two games in the Pacific time zone. Tipoff is set for 10 p.m. on the ACC Network.