Why Clemson Basketball's Lack of Elite Scoring Could Define Its Postseason

Clemson basketball has a big question that has yet to be answered, and it could end up leading to its demise.

The Tigers fell to the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday afternoon, and the tightly-contested contest had a glaring issue down the stretch that has been a consistent observation so far this season.

Who is Clemson going to give the ball to down the stretch? Head coach Brad Brownell thinks that there might not be an official player to have that role

“When you don’t have maybe an elite guy who can save you, you have to have so many guys play well, and maybe we have one less guy than we needed tonight,” he said. “Credit to Florida State.”

Clemson’s leading scorer is RJ Godfrey, who only averaged 11.4 points per game. That’s the lowest amount by a player in the ACC to lead a team. To put that into perspective from last year’s team, three Tigers recorded an average more than that: Chase Hunter (16.5), Ian Schieffelin (12.4) and Jaeden Zackery (11.7).

Not having a player like that makes Brownell’s team have small margins of error. Whether it’s from missed shots or defensive breakdowns on that end of the court, Brownell can’t afford to see missed opportunities, especially in ACC play.

“Sometimes, even in the wins, we’ve had other games where we’ve won a bunch of close games, your margins are small,” the Clemson head coach said,” and you just have to be very opportunistic, sometimes a little fortunate.”

Not having a player like a Hunter, Joe Girard III or PJ Hall, from years past, limits the ways that Clemson can win certain types of games. Some of the Tigers’ best wins this eason, like home wins against SMU and Miami, saw the team play a full coast-to-coast win that saw defensive droughts, important shotmaking and a complete effort by everybody in the rotation.

That hasn’t happened through Clemson’s four-game losing streak, and that has a great possibility of continuing if nothing changes. However, Brownell knows that adversity in past teams helped lead to great finishes, and that will continue to be the focus going into next week.

“We’ve had a lot of years here where we’ve had a couple bad weeks, and bounced back and done a lot of great things,” he said. “And this team did an incredible job to win 20 games, but now we really want 21 and 21 has become hard.”

Fortunately, the Tigers have three more games to turn it around before the ACC Tournament. Louisville looms at home next Saturday, then North Carolina and Georgia Tech the final week to figure out the current struggles. However, it seems like it won’t be a singular player that will win Clemson those games, it’s going to take a team effort.

Brownell knows it, and that’s the message going into next week, which features only one game. However, it might be the most important home game this season.

“It’s different this time of year,” he said. “You’re still trying to fine-tune some things. It’ll be good to have a little extra time to work on a couple things.”