Tigers begin the process of picking up the pieces

Clemson failed to meet that challenge until it was too late, and now it must piece together a new look for next season.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Saturday, March 22 2025

Two days after the loss to McNeese, the Tigers and head coach Brad Brownell are left to pick up the pieces and immediately begin the rebuild for next season.

Now that there has been a bit of time to reflect on what we witnessed, I have a few thoughts on what happened. Not everyone is going to agree, and that’s OK. A group of us sat in the lobby of the media hotel until almost 2 a.m. that night and early the next morning, reviewing everything we had seen and trying to make sense of it.

I am not sure we made heads or tails of it, and judging by what I’ve seen and heard, I don’t know that those inside the program are sure what happened.

Let me start here: sometimes, the other team makes plays, and you tip your hat to them. The other guys make a shot or a defensive stop or hit a homer off your best guy, and you move on. And McNeese deserves all of the credit for simply outplaying Clemson for that first 20 minutes.

But when teams get to what seems like every loose ball and every rebound, you begin to wonder what is going on. Ian Schieffelin said it’s simple – McNeese wanted it more.

“Yeah, they're a very physical team. If you didn't box them out, they were going to make you pay,” he said. “Sometimes they wanted the ball more, and sometimes the ball bounces the other way. Sometimes it bounces your way. They were more physical and just wanted the ball more.”

I’ve wondered if the lack of an Alpha – the fiery leader like PJ Hall or Joe Girard, guys who aren’t afraid to scream and yell and show emotion and demand the best out of their teammates – finally caught up to them. The Tigers didn’t shoot well at the end of the season and when faced with adversity, it was the coaching staff doing the imploring and pushing. As Dabo Swinney says, the best teams are player-led.

Were they prepared? I would like to think so. We saw practice. No coach just says, “Hey, let’s shoot for a few minutes and then go eat.” They practice, they work, they gameplan. Then the coaches have to turn it over to the players. And that’s where the “they wanted it more” is concerning. Motivation? I can understand needing motivation in November when you’re playing a lesser opponent in front of a few thousand fans with Thanksgiving approaching.

But this is the NCAA Tournament. If someone has to motivate you for that – for the biggest stage – then I don’t know what to say. McNeese came out, nostrils flaring and fists clenched, ready for a brawl. Clemson failed to meet that challenge until it was too late.

Yes, Clemson should have taken advantage of its size and pounded the ball inside. But some of those 3-pointers were wide-open. Couldn’t ask for a better look. And they didn’t drop, as they haven’t at the end of the season. The Tigers got rattled and without a Hall or someone of that ilk to demand more, it was soon a 20-point hole.

What now? If no one transfers – and I am not sure we don’t see some attrition in that regard – the Tigers lose close to 70% of their scoring. Chase Hunter, Ian Schieffelin, Jaeden Zackery and Viktor Lakhin combined for 1,769 of the Tigers’ 2,586 points. That’s four starters, four consistent scorers. That four also combined for 752 of the Tigers’ 1202 rebounds.

That’s a lot of production, and if you look at the roster, do you see a for-sure ACC starter other than Dillon Hunter and the inconsistent Chauncey Wiggins? The kids, Dallas Thomas and Ace Buckner, should play a role but are they ready to step into a starting role right away?

That means it’s a portal team, and the difference between this year and the past few years is this: over the last few years, the coaches have supplemented a nice core of veteran players with guys from the portal. They were adding a few pieces to the puzzle. Now? The portal is going to have to be the place to go get multiple bodies.

And that starts this weekend.