Head Coach Brad Brownell Identifies What Clemson Must Fix Against College Basketball’s Best

Clemson Tigers head coach Brad Brownell didn’t mince words following the Tigers’ buzzer-beater loss to No. 10 BYU on Tuesday night.

When speaking to the media postgame, and speaking about what went wrong in the team’s blown lead, Brownell put it simply.

His team needs to play better against the upper echelon of college basketball. After the close loss in Tuscaloosa to Alabama, then the breakdown in New York City against the Cougars, that’s going to be his challenge to his team moving forward.

“My guys keep playing, but we have to play better basketball against elite teams,” he said. “That's what we've played this week. We've played Alabama and BYU, two top 15 teams in the country, and we just haven't quite played well enough for 40 minutes to beat them.”

The two games were completely different from each other, as Clemson erased a 19-point Crimson Tide lead to get a small lead of its own in the second half. However, missed shots from the free-throw line and in the paint caused the Tiger comeback to be nonexistent.

On the flip side, Clemson held a lead as much as 21 points before BYU stormed back, going all the way to the final horn to shock Brownell’s team.

The Clemson head coach says that it's a testament to his team, who fought all the way both times the clock struck zero.

“Yeah, I've got a great group of kids, and we fought all year,” Brownell said. “We've been down in games and come back and won a couple. Obviously, we just lost a heartbreaker to Alabama on the road in similar fashion where we came all the way back and took the lead.”

Going forward, it’s going to be about building the habits, something that Clemson basketball’s culture heavily instills. With a new-look team, things are going to happen that come at the cost of experience, and Brownell is looking to continue to positively build that.

When some games had the Tigers come out firing out of the gate, they would end up finishing not as strongly as they’d like. This time, against an elite opponent, it came back to hurt them.

“The games are so different because this team is so good,” he said. “Yeah, we had a few rush possessions. We certainly had a couple of bad turnovers. We had a couple of bad shots. We looked hurried a couple times, no question. We lost our flow. A lot of that's a credit to BYU.”

Going forward, with no more games against elite teams from outside the ACC, it will be about taking advantage of the matchups that Clemson has in-conference, with games like Louisville, Duke and North Carolina all looming, and all being ranked opponents that the Tigers could pick up wins against.

For now, as the team finishes up conference play, Brownell will challenge them to continue to fight. Guard Dillon Hunter echoed that in his statements after the game.

“We're a resilient group,” Hunter said. “We're built on toughness and grit, so we know the game's never over. The guys also believe it as well. Coach instills that in practice. We believe no lead is safe, no game is over, we're going to fight until the end.”

Clemson will be back in action at home on Saturday afternoon against Mercer, with tipoff set for 3 p.m. from Littlejohn Coliseum.