It was a fist-pump kind of night in Memphis for Clemson's Tigers |
MEMPHIS – As the Clemson men's basketball team walked off the court Sunday night in Memphis, head coach
Brad Brownell stopped to salute the fans in attendance and then broke into a big smile and gave a fist pump that showed a break is his normally stoic demeanor.
It was a fist-pump kind of night in Memphis. Clemson survived a late Baylor rally and held on for a gritty 72-64 victory, sending the Tigers to just the fifth Sweet 16 in school history. Clemson will travel to Los Angeles to take on Arizona on Thursday (7:09 EDT/CBS) for the chance to advance to just the second Elite Eight in school history. A soaked Brownell—he was doused with Gatorade inside the locker room after the win—met with the media in the hallway outside the locker room and relived the fist pump. “I try to leave it to my players. I want my players to get all the accolades and the press, and I keep a low profile,” Brownell said. “I mean, I'm visible on around town, but I'm extremely thankful to everyone, especially those fans that have stuck with us all these years, and there's a good little contingent that's really supported me and our program for a while, and I was just letting them know how much they mean to me.” Brownell then said he wanted the win for his players. “That's the part that is -- I just love this team. They're really good players, but they're better people. Really proud of the culture we have in our program. Outstanding students. We do things the right way,” he said. “And these guys are -- they're just fantastic to be around. The hard part now, you saw the Baylor kids. I'm sure Scott feels the same way about his kids, and you just get so attached. You love them. And when the season ends, you know you're not going to coach some of them. So it's hard. “To be able to spend another week with them is fantastic. And then our team was probably one of the last two teams left out of the tournament last year, and that's heartbreaking. So some of these guys, you want it so bad for them. You talk to them about it all year. And now they're realizing why this is such a significant tournament and what it's going to mean for them for the rest of their lives.” Brownell is the first coach to take Clemson to more than one Sweet 16. “I'm proud of that, certainly. And more than anything, I'm just proud of the kind of program we have, the kind of kids that come to Clemson and graduate and what they mean and the kind of lives they're living after,” he said. “Certainly want to win games and trying to get to a Final Four. I've talked about that openly. I want that to be something we get done here, and we're another step closer. So looking forward to going to LA.” Senior PJ Hall battled foul trouble all weekend and played just 18 minutes in the win over New Mexico and 20 Sunday, but he sat in his locker with tears in his eyes, overcome with the emotion of the moment. “I’m an emotional guy. Everyone knows that. Sometimes I tear up during the national anthem,” Hall said. “But this is sweet. I believe in this staff. I believe in our right coach. He believed in me from day one, even my freshman year when I was hardly playing, getting my tail kicked in every day by Aamir Simms. He continued to push me, and I can't thank him enough. I mean, through every game, he's pushed me. “But watching it from the bench and seeing these guys get the job done was incredible. And like I said the other night, that speaks to the resilience of this team, the depth of this team that they're able to get this job done.” Brownell finished by saying the difficulty of the sport makes the wins all the sweeter. “We've had three or four one-point losses - Jack Clark against Virginia that hits the back of the iron. DJ Horne made a late one against us, and Chase (Hunter) gets blocked at the rim where he's at the buzzer. A tip-in where both my guys are tipping it. We've had our share go the other way. Today, things worked for us. And sometimes, that's why basketball can be a cruel game. It's hard. I've got a lot of friends on the football staff at Clemson. “And very few of them want to change positions with me. One of them's wife, early on, lives across the street, my wife was walking to get the mail. She's like, there's no way, I could never be married to a basketball coach. The games are stressful. Every game comes down to the last two minutes, and the coach said, yeah, you guys have to inbound the ball like 50 times in a basketball game, and people don't realize how hard that is with the athletes on the floor. Basketball is going to have ups and downs and quick turns, and you've got to be strong to survive it.” The strong survived Sunday night in Memphis. And a fist pump was the punctuation to the night.
Upgrade Your Account
Unlock premium boards and exclusive features (e.g. ad-free) by upgrading your account today.
Upgrade Now
