This past spring, when Indiana was looking to replace Mike Woodson, Brad Brownell’s name popped up and frankly, we didn’t like it. Why? Because we think he’s the best coach Clemson has ever had and as ACC fans, we wanted him to stay.
Fortunately, he did. He’s very much home at Clemson now and while the Tigers brain trust at various points have seemed uncertain about him, he was, and remains, a home run hire.
Realistically, Clemson has never been able to recruit elite talent. They came close with Zion
Williamson but he chose Duke.
The perfect coach for Clemson is a guy who can coach defense and who can identify, and properly train, overlooked talent. And Brownell is great at that. Not good. Great.
Look at some of the guys he’s found and coached up: Ian Schieffelin. PJ Hall, who Mike Krzyzewski once called “the most improved player on the planet.” The Hunter brothers. Unlike Rick Barnes, Brownell has never complained that he can’t recruit at Clemson. He just gets it done.
Last year, in an historical high for the program, the Tigers knocked off Kentucky in the ACC/SEC Challenge. We predicted a Tigers win, but not too long ago that was inconceivable. Brownell has built a sturdy program.
That said, he loses a lot from last year, including Schieffelin. That guy…he looked like a pudgy frat brother, but he consistently killed other teams. He became a wonderful college basketball player. Now, apparently for the heck of it, he’s playing Tiger football for a year.
Clemson also loses the elder Hunter, Chase, Viktor Lakhin, Jake Heidbreder, Jaeden Zackery, Chauncey Wiggins, Miles Foster, Del Jones, Christian Reeves and Jackson Roberts.
That’s a lot. Schieffelin was the best of them, but Hunter was a quality player. Lakhin was inconsistent, but when he was fired up, he was really good. Zackery contributed after leaving BC. Del Jones had promise but took a step down to Radford and better pay. Former Blue Devil Reeves continues his tours of the Carolinas and will be at Charleston this season. We’ll see Wiggins again at Florida State.
However, Brownell has some useful players back and brings in some good ones too.
The returnees are 6-3 senior Dillon Hunter, 6-9 freshman Dallas Thomas and 6-3 freshman Ace Buckner.
Hunter was a solid reserve and was really, really good in spots. He’ll be counted on as a leader. Thomas redshirted but has potential. Ace Buckner is a bit of legacy – his dad is Clemson legend Greg and his uncle, Andre, was a fan favorite at Duke – but he also redshirted after a shoulder injury, so no one has really seen him.
As for the portal, Santa dropped off several players for Brownell: Jestin Porter, a 6-1 senior from Middle Tennessee State, Jake Wahlin -a 6-7 sophomore from Utah, Efrem Johnson, a 6-4 junior from UAB, RJ Godfrey a 6-7 junior from Georgia who transferred back to Clemson, Nick Davidson, a 6-10 junior from Nevada and Carter Welling, a 6-10 sophomore from Utah Valley.
Porter is just 6-1, but he’s really athletic. He wasn’t a great shooter at MTSU, but Brownell will know what to do with his athleticism on defense.
Wahlin didn’t play much as a freshman at Utah but as a sophomore, his minutes went up from 5.9 to 23.4. His stats in general improved: his overall shooting percentage went from 30 percent to 46.7. Three point shooting shot up from 9.1 percent to 35.1 and free throws moved up from 25 percent to 66.7. Those improvements suggest a boost in confidence. Rebounding went up from 1.5 per game to 4.9.
At 6-10 and 211, he could use a good meal, but he should be able to help, particularly if his improvement continues.
Johnson, who apparently prefers to be called “Butta,” shot just 36.7 percent overall and 32 percent on his threes. He’s an excellent free throw shooter though, with a career average of 84.1 percent. We’re not sure he’s a starter, but he can help.
Godrey is kind of unusual in that he left Clemson and then transferred back. Ian Schieffelin had emerged and Godfrey left because he couldn’t get more minutes behind Schieffelin. Well, with Schieffelin off to play football, there are plenty of minutes for Godfrey now. He played a major role in Clemson’s 2024 Elite Eight run.
Davidson has played 100 games at Nevada and started 67 consecutively. He got 15.8 ppg last year and 6.5 boards. He should see a fair amount of time with the Tigers. In some places, the LA native is listed at 6-8.
Welling averaged 13.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg and 1.8 blocks last season at Utah Valley. He was the WAC’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Unfortunately, Welling had foot surgery that might slow him down. We’ve seen posts that he’s back on the court ahead of schedule which would be great news for the Tigers if so.
Four freshmen will round out the team: 6-4 Zac Foster, 6-8 Chase Thompson, 6-10/215 Trent Steinour and 6-10/200 Blake Davidson.
Foster is basically a Top 50 player and he’s moved up fast. Clemson may have gotten a steal here. He looks like a solid combo guard. He won’t have the experience that some of his teammates will, but he has considerable talent.
Thompson may have grown a bit since signing – he was previously listed at 6-8. He’s drawn some comparisons to Tiger great PJ Hall for his footwork and athleticism. He has three point range as well.
We’ve talked about how great Clemson is at developing under-appreciated talents like Hall, Schieffelin and Hunter Tyson. Steinour, from Huntersville, NC, has noticed and wants in.
He runs the floor really well, according to Brownell, and he’s part of the Mahafffey legacy: four Mahaffey brothers played for Clemson between 1959 and 1970, including his grandfather, Randy, arguably the most talented member of the family. It must be amazing for him to see his grandson follow in his footsteps.
Davidson comes to Tigertown with his big brother Nick. He’s a little smaller right now at 6-9/200. He wasn’t highly rated, but if he develops like Nick has, he’ll eventually contribute.
Clemson seems to sign more brothers than any other ACC team somehow. Off the top, we can remember the Grants (Horace and Harvey), the Hunters (Chase and Dillon), Trevor and Devin Booker and obviously all the Mahaffeys. If you really want to go back, the Tigers had James and John Erwin back in the early part of the 20th century. James still has Clemson’s single-game record with with 58 points against the Butler Guards in 1912.
So what does Brownell have to work with? Well, it looks like a decent and competitive roster. He’s got plenty of size, with eight players 6-8 or above. He’s got five guards who should all be helpful to some extent and most of them are over 6-3. This is not a small roster.
What he doesn’t appear to have is a natural wing. It’s possible that Godfrey or Thompson could emerge as the answer there, but if not, Brownell will have to choose between a big lineup or a smallish one, putting someone like Foster, for instance, in in a three guard lineup.
It’s also possible that someone like Steinour or Welling may prove to be quick enough to guard smaller players. Who knows?
Most of us haven’t seen the new Tigers and have no idea what they can do. But we do have an idea of what Brownell can do. He’s a gifted coach who really wants to be where he is, and that’s great for Clemson. We’re sure this team will defend and play hard because his teams always do. The one question is how he masks his weaknesses, because there appear to be a few. If he can pull that off after massive personnel losses, there’s enough talent to get back to the tournament, even in what should be a vastly improved ACC.
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