'I’m Built for This': Dillon Hunter’s Leadership Fuels Clemson’s Perfect ACC Start

Clemson basketball’s roster this season starts with Dillon Hunter, and perhaps ends with him.

The senior isn’t known for his shooting ability, but more for his leadership and elite ability to facilitate the floor each contest. However, at the 3:42 mark in the second half of the win against Miami on Saturday, Hunter let one fly from the right side of the arc.

Splash. Timeout Miami.

He would then run to the student section, holding up three fingers, essentially sealing the game between two undefeated teams in ACC play. In his head during pivotal shots like that, only one thing is on his mind.

“I’m built for this.”

“That’s all I tell myself,” he said after the game. “I make plays during the game for other guys, and then I just know when my time has come to go score and lead our team to victory.”

Hunter was the only player who logged minutes for head coach Brad Brownell’s team last season that returned to the 2025-26 roster. Not known for his scoring ability, like his brother, Chase, Dillon brings a level of leadership that perhaps his older brother didn’t have at his age.

Brownell said that his fourth-year guard knows what to do in the right moments, dishing seven assists and only two turnovers in the crucial win over the Hurricanes. He also had a team-high four steals to show his presence in Brownell’s defensive system.

“Dillon has always been a guy who just kind of quietly says a good word or two here or there,” Brownell said. “He’s not a huge vocal guy all the time, but he knows he has a good feel of what to say. He's been with me a long time.”

This past offseason brought a challenge that was bigger than playing on the hardwood: forming a team relationship. Clemson welcomed in 10 new players this season, including four freshmen. Even though that brings a challenge to put people together for long times to generate the chemistry that would eventually be seen on the basketball court, Hunter didn’t bat an eye.

“I don’t want to be a guy, when they come in like, ‘Oh man. I’m not hanging out with them. I’m not, like, making them feel at home,’” he said.

Fortunately, he had RJ Godfrey back, who he entered the program with before Godfrey became a boomerang transfer after the 2023-24 season. While the two Georgia natives were back together, others came in from afar. Players like Carter Welling and Nick Davidson come from the west coast, meaning it was important for the two to make it feel like home.

“It’s far away. I wanted to make it feel like home for them, and in the summer, we are going to get something to eat,” Hunter said. “After practice, we’re just hanging out with the guys, chilling. You know, we don’t really have cliques. We all chill together, we come in, work, get our stuff done and do what we need to do.”

Mentions of bowling, movie nights with the Avengers and Godfrey taking the new group fishing have also been mentioned earlier in the season.

Welling sees the work that his teammate puts in, saying that the culture that has been instilled within the program comes from Hunter himself, due to the way he leads.

“I think Dillon’s done a good job of creating the culture here,” Welling said, “and he was one of the key returners, and I think he’s done of good job of setting the tone and what to expect, and I think you see it, night in and night out.”

Now, that culture has Clemson reaching new heights. The Tigers have won nine straight and haven’t lost a home game all season. The team is a perfect 6-0 in conference play, being at the top of the ACC basketball standings.

That doesn’t come from just coaching alone; it comes from belief within the roster. That starts with Hunter, and until Clemson are done with the 2025-26 season, that culture will be ending with the Atlanta native as he finishes his final year as a Tiger.

Hunter took it on to help others understand Brownell, and now, that understanding has Clemson as a ranked team in the country.

“I would say in my past years, with certain transfers, I kind of got used to, like, you know, they’re not used to Coach,” he said. “They’re not used to certain systems. So it’s a lot like a lot of different things.”

Clemson is back in action on Tuesday night, playing NC State at Littlejohn Coliseum to keep the streaks going.