Brownell challenging senior leadership heading into another run at Big Dance

Brad Brownell's Tigers spent a couple weekend in the NCAA Tournament and had a shot at making the Final Four.

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Thursday, October 10 2024

CHARLOTTE - Each season is different.

For Brad Brownell, the 2024-25 campaign will have plenty of new faces and fresh expectations.

The Tigers are coming off a relatively short offseason, only months removed from making history in Los Angeles.

Once again, it was a rather successful sales pitch in the portal, bringing in talent across the ACC, such as Jaeden Zackery and Christian Reeves. They looked outside the scope of the conference, adding Myles Foster and Viktor Lakhin as well. Those additions will look to help carry the weight of the added eyes on Brownell’s program, with an Elite Eight berth not far from anyone’s memory.

Brownell understands what it takes to get back to that level, and it starts with the buy-in of his current roster. Where he leaned on Hunter Tyson and PJ Hall to be the ambassadors for the roster, he will now lean on two familiar voices to amplify their sound.

Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin both decided to return to Clemson, both telling the media at ACC Tipoff it was another opportunity to make history.

That history can’t be made without the foundation established along the way. He’s challenged his veterans to be the pillars of this team’s structure. The energy of an Elite Eight berth can charge a team into the offseason with plenty of energy. He knows that adversity can drain that enthusiasm but hopes that the body of work this program has put together can keep things rolling.

“The vibe can dissipate quickly, Brownell said. “I think there's tremendous energy. Obviously, season ticket sales are high, and interest in recruiting has been good. Excitement with basketball is great. Those are all real positives. We have to keep doing our part and continue to win at a high level to try to keep building off of it. But yeah, there certainly is an excitement level here that's really started about 2017 or 18, which we've slowly built, culminating in last year for certain.”

He believes those positives are the structure that will endure into 2024, and he has Hunter and Schieffelin as his voices of reason. Is buy-in easier to obtain in the dog days of the offseason, with results to back it up?

“It is, but it's a whole other issue for them regarding being the voice,” Brownell said. “There's so many times opportunities in practices and behind the scenes where you need your main guys not only performing like main guys but vocally doing the things that you need to be done to encourage guys that are maybe struggling or challenge guys when they need to be challenged, or we've got to do better.”

Brownell wants the messaging of his program to be player-driven, empowering his guys to forge their own paths.

As the 2024 season begins, he knows this roster will face challenges but believes that if the player leadership is strong, it can withstand anything.

“Whatever the messaging is, you need guys within your locker room to do that,” Brownell said. “I mean, if your team is consistently coach-driven, there's too many hurdles out there right now. There are too many voices and players' ears that we've got to figure out a way as a team to handle all of this and to understand what's important, who's important, and how we're going to move forward. And I said it in there: I think when we start to have some adversity, how do these guys help us handle that as coaches? If they can help us handle that, we'll be fine. And if they don't help us, we'll struggle, and it'll last longer than needed.”