Tigers hungry, ready to show what they can do to bounce back

Ian Schieffelin dealt with a broken hand this summer, but he's back and ready to contribute.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Sat Oct 14 15:00:09 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - The Clemson men’s basketball team looks much different than last year, with several transfers and young players. While the players are looking ahead, junior forward Ian Schieffelin acknowledges that the way things ended last year has certainly made them more hungry.

“There’s definitely still that thing on our shoulders from last year. We wanted to make the NCAA tournament. We ended up not making it,” Schieffelin said of the 23-10 (14-6 ACC) regular season that fell short of the Big Dance. “We lost our first NIT game. I mean, we all are hungry to get back to that spot, but finish it this year.”

Going into his third season with the Tigers, Schieffelin may see a larger role on this team than he has. Through his first two seasons, he has averaged 4.3 points per game. However, he still had a noticeable improvement from his freshman season to his second season. He suffered an injury this summer that, while it kept him out for a bit, he says will help with his performance.

“I broke my hand this summer, and I was out for a couple weeks, but now, I’m a full-go and ready for the season,” Schieffelin said. “It helped me with growing my left-hand game and throwing better with my left hand, being more comfortable with my left hand.”

One transfer coming to Clemson is junior guard Jake Heidbreder from Air Force. In his two seasons there, he was a standout as a freshman, scoring 303 points and earning a spot on the All-Mountain West Third team. Fellow guard Alex Hemenway actually played against Heidbreder once in high school, as both of them are from Indiana. Heidbreder certainly made an impression even back then.

“He’s a great defender. He doesn’t pass the eye test, but you get out there and on the court, he defends well,” Hemenway said. “He shoots the ball, he shoots the hell out of the ball. He’s just a great teammate, great player and we’re excited to have him on the team this year.”

Another transfer was fifth-year guard Joseph Girard III, who came from Syracuse. He is familiar with the level of competition present in the ACC, as he was on the watchlist for the Jerry West Award, recognizing the top shooting guard, before his senior year with the Orange. Girard described how part of what attracted him to Clemson was head coach Brad Brownell’s tenacity and competitiveness.

“I think what people don’t realize about Coach Brownell is that he’s been here for 13, 14 years, and that’s not easy to do at the ACC level. So, he’s doing something right,” Girard said. “I knew I was going to get the same tenacity, same competitiveness out of my coach here … I can tell that he loves winning, which is who you want to play for.”

All of these changes on the team also mean current players taking on new roles. One of those players is sophomore forward RJ Godfrey who saw an average of 9.4 minutes per game last season. As a true freshman, he made a third of his three-pointers and had 22 offensive rebounds. He looks forward to getting more action and having a larger impact in the upcoming season.

“This year, I expect to get more playing time, and I’m just ready for the opportunity, ready for the chance. Last year, when you don’t play as much, you’re more nervous when you get out there, afraid not to mess up,” Godfrey said. “But, I think as I got older, right now, I know mistakes are part of the game, and all I can do is fix it when I get out there.”

Senior guard Chase Hunter will also be an important member of the team this season. He played a total of 962 minutes last season and averaged 13.6 points per game. Further, he had 84 defensive rebounds last season. Hunter argued that the team has improved overall in the summer and have been competitive with each other.

“I think at the end of the day, we’re all good players, and we all want to be on the court. You got to show it in practice. You got to bring it everyday, and I think we’ve done that this summer. We had orange against gray a lot, five-on-five, and people have shown up,” Hunter said. “Some people have gotten better over the summer. I would say everybody has gotten better over the summer, and with the competition, we’ve got some great guards, great bigs, and we really competed this summer for sure.”