Re: What is it with Clemson M&W basketball?

What is it with Clemson M&W basketball?

With men's sports - Football is great, soccer is great, baseball is great... even track & field is really good.

With women's sports - softball is great, soccer is great, lacrosse is really good...

Why can't we seem to get any kind of consistency going with men's or women's basketball? I think women's has pretty much always been average to poor. Men's hoops has certainly had it's great moments, but overall, I think it's safe to say Clemson men's basketball is middling or average.

We overhauled Littlejohn and the basketball facilities. Money is there in the AD. Forget the Brownell talk specifically - obviously getting the right coach for a program is big - but we've managed to do it for every other major sport. Why can't we seem to get or keep any consistency with either basketball team? I just don't get it. It's like we're driven to excel at every other sport, but with basketball we're content with mediocrity or potential, but not willing to strive for achievement and consistency.

olddoc

Letterman [164]

TigerPulse: 91%

Posts: 95

Joined: 2021

Jan 12, 2024, 10:21 AM

Several reasons:
Clemson is relatively rural, and a significant percentage of great high school basketball players are urban and black, and prefer a city environment. Not racist, just population based. (With notable exceptions, a higher percentage of Clemson's great black players have been from smaller towns.)
It's hard to get over the reputation of being a "football school" that doesn't care much about basketball. And, in truth a significant portion of Clemson fans don't attend the games and don't support the team except to whine and ##### about the coaching when we don't win all our games. Since the majority of the fans who attend ACC games of other teams have a shorter distance to go, it's easier to fill their arenas and create more home court advantage.
The seating at Littlejohn leaves a large blank space where the high rollers sit up at their
tables drinking cocktails, for the games they actually attend, instead of being down in the seats cheering for the team.
It is only relatively recently that the facilities and administrative support for basketball have gotten closer to to the rest of the league. It takes time to build a tradition. Clemson had some short term flash-in-the-pan success with Rick Barnes and Oliver Purnell, both of whom cut and run, Barnes for more money and losing recruits to Dean Smith, and Purnell because his recruiting bombed (Bobo and Milton turned out less than they were recruited).
Probably the best thing for the Clemson basketball program was a steady, not flashy coach like
Brad Brownell who has gradually built up the program and improved recruiting (We're getting 4-stars now instead of two and three) and produced teams that can beat anybody on a given night.

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Re: What is it with Clemson M&W basketball?

What is it with Clemson M&W basketball?