‘It's going to happen’: Brownell Describes Clemson Roster Overhaul

The Clemson men's basketball head coach is juggling a lot of new faces, even in the starting five, this upcoming season

Brownell is prepared to go into next season starting from the ground up | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

In an ever-changing world of college athletics, NIL and the progression for schools to pay their athletes brings something new for everybody, and Clemson Tigers basketball head coach Brad Brownell experienced its chaos. 

In the 2025 offseason, the team lost four starters, all seniors, due to lack of eligibility, giving Brownell a younger foundation to work with next season. However, another six players entered the transfer portal, leaving Brownell to pick up six others and adding four freshmen. 

While the coach has to almost start from scratch, optimism for the team’s potential is there. 

“It’s different for all of us,” Brownell said on Tuesday. “It’s a drastic difference in our team, I mean, all you have to do is go to the first team meeting and [see] a lot of new faces, but some of that is exciting. There is an enthusiasm that comes with a lot of new people.”

Only one player from last season who saw minutes, guard Dillon Hunter, came back this season. Redshirt freshmen Dallas Thomas and Ace Buckner remained with the team as well, but saw no action in the 2024-25 season. 

Despite this, Brownell has had to change the way practices go. With only three from the year before remembering the calls and how practices go, it’s been a slower development than years past. 

“It’s been challenging this summer, it’s just the best word to use, because everything you’re calling out, guys don’t know,” he said. “We’ve been able to call a lot of things out, we’ve been able to skip some steps and move into deeper learning situations, and we are not able to do that with this group.”

Brownell’s expectations in the offseason were to attack frontcourt transfers, due to the losses of Viktor Lakhin and Ian Schieffelin. He filled the holes quickly with Nevada forward/center Nick Davidson, Utah Valley forward Carter Welling and Georgia forward RJ Godfrey, who played for the Tigers in his first two collegiate seasons.

However, it was the players he expected to stay that threw a wrench in his plans. 

“I thought that we would have some turnover with this roster,” Brownell said. “I didn’t want quite as much as we had, but, at the same time, guys got offers that were for more money at other places and decisions had to be made, and then we did the best we could with what we had.”

Brownell also describes his freshmen class as “very competitive” as well as more physically ready than freshmen classes that he’s had in years past. It could lead to extended minutes for this group, something that isn’t seen often with freshmen. 

While there is a rising amount of “kinship and a friendship that have developed” with the team over the summer, the unexpected switches that changed the offseason transfer process is something that will only happen more often in college sports. 

“That’s part of this new world of college basketball with the transfer portal and money,” Brownell said. “It’s going to happen, it is what it is. It’s hard.”