Brad Brownell provides Monday update ahead of two-game road trip

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On the road again.

Following an impressive win over Florida State over the weekend, Brad Brownell’s unit got back to their brand of basketball.

Now, the Tigers hit the road once again, starting with Georgia Tech on Tuesday night (9 p.m./ACCN), followed by a duel with Pittsburgh on Saturday (noon/TheCW), who currently holds a 9-1 record at home. The Yellow Jackets would slot as a quad-three win, whereas the road matchup with the Panthers ranks as a quad-one, magnifying the latter half of Clemson’s road stretch.

Brownell addressed the matchup with Georgia Tech, updated Ian Schieffelin’s health, and much more.

On Ian Schieffelin’s status:

Schieffelin was spotted with a back brace exiting the locker room out of halftime during Saturday’s win over Florida State, and Brownell added that his senior forward was dealing with some back spasms.

He played 31 minutes on Saturday, adding two points and leading the team with six assists. Regarding how Schieffelin’s minutes could be managed on a two-game road trip, Brownell said it was too early to speculate but anticipates Schieffelin will play.

“Yeah, I think it's too early to tell,” Brownell said. “I mean, I would anticipate he's going to play, but you never know in these situations. So yeah, it's probably too early for me to speculate on that.”

On Del Jones/Bench Impact:

Brownell expressed on last week’s ACC media coaches' call that he was going to need more out of his bench, and reiterated that point after the victory of the Seminoles.

Jones dropped nine points on Saturday afternoon, being a reliable spark plug for Clemson’s offense beyond the starting five.

After watching the film, Brownell believes that his freshman guard’s athleticism made all the difference against Florida State.

“I thought he played very well,” Brownell said. “Obviously, he made the three threes, which he can do, but I also thought he defensively provided good energy. I thought he touched the paint a few times off the bounce, which is good. He just had a little bit more rhythm and flow to his game, and really, his athleticism was valuable in a game with those kind of athletes picking up full court and challenging us. I thought he really was very good. Our team played very well against Florida State.”

On Jaeden Zackery’s impact:

Brownell has gotten what he’s wanted out of one transfer and more. The former Boston College guard gave Chase Hunter fits in the ACC Tournament last March, and put together quite the audition for his future team.

The Tigers have another solid duo that defines their backcourt. Hunter's pairing with an ACC guard eases some of the burden, allowing him to be more of an offensive threat.

“He's been what we thought he would be, which is really good, really tough, really competitive guy that wants to win, unselfish, not at all; this is about me, it's about we,” Brownell said. “It's about us trying to have a great year, and that's been very fun defensively. He's an excellent on-ball defender. He's brought some juice that way, which I think has freed Chase up, even more this year to be more of a scorer, and those guys share duty at the point throughout games. We don't really care who has the ball in different situations, but it's probably been better for Chase. Chase used to have to guard the other team's point guard every game and deal with all the ball screens and all the things that come with it. And this year, he hasn't had to do that as much. And so it has been fun watching those two guys grow together, just like it was fun watching Joe Girard and Chase last year.”

On NIL/House Settlement:

The rapidly changing NIL world is steadily on Brownell’s mind.

He was asked a multi-layered question about other conferences, like the SEC, having more to work with regarding player acquisitions. The second prong concerned whether the House settlement may level the playing field for all conferences. Brownell has taken multiple players out of the portal in back-to-back cycles.

“To your first question, I think that's probably likely that that's things that we hear on the recruiting trail and stuff,” Brownell said. “There's a lot of resources in the SEC with a lot of different schools and even in the Big 12 and maybe in some schools that you wouldn’t anticipate, the average fan wouldn't anticipate having as much money for players. And I think there's certainly a correlation to some degree. Am I optimistic about the second? I'm hopeful, but I don't know if I'm optimistic right away. I just don't know. The revenue sharing is going to be different at each school. Certainly, the real NIL will be different and unique from situation to situation, and I am not a hundred percent sure that even though they want the collectives to go away and to all go away right away. So, I think I'm optimistic and hopeful, but I don't know if it's realistic. We'll have to wait and see.”

On Georgia Tech:

Brownell wrapped up his availability by breaking down Georgia Tech and let everyone know about the challenge of playing a conference game on the road.

“Nathan George is outstanding in the pick and roll, especially with (Baye) Ndongo. I mean, it's amazing,” Brownell said. Last year, Damon (Stoudamire) did an unbelievable job with those guys for them to be so good at that early in age. I mean, he sees everything. He sees all the passes, all the defensive ways of guarding it, and I mean, he's got 110 assists already, but for those guys that even last year to be so good at it, it's just remarkable. And then they can space you with guys that can make shots, Lance, Terry's a very underrated player that can shoot the ball extremely well—a great athlete. Winning on the road is hard, especially in conference play, when everybody knows each other, your styles, and your personality. And it's one of the real challenges is the games are extremely competitive because everybody is so familiar with one another. It makes it hard.”

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