By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

It’s important that a coach at any level has the feel of his or her team. They need to know at the present moment what their team needs, and more importantly what it doesn’t.

This was the dilemma Clemson head coach Brad Brownell was facing when he met with his basketball team last Friday following the Tigers’ heartbreaking loss to Florida State the night before. After watching his squad outplay and outhustle the Seminoles all night, he knew they were hurting as they got back on the floor prior to practice.

The veteran coach knew he needed to do something to get his basketball team energized and feeling good about themselves before they played Virginia Tech.

“A big part of coaching is coaching the physicality of the game, the physical skills,” he said. “It’s coaching the metal part of the game, the teaching of the plays, and the teaching of the offenses, the IQ and all of those kinds of things. But, it’s also understanding emotionally where your team is.

“There are really three parts. The more I’m in coaching the more I realize the emotional part of it is critical, maybe as important as anything, especially as the year goes.”

So, instead of having one of his typical physical and demanding practices, Brownell called his squad off the floor and had them meet with him in the film room. When they got there, Brownell listed seven things on the board to prove to them how much they have improved as a team, and then he gave them the day off.

“I try to tell our guys that sometimes you are playing well and people want to pat you on the back and tell you how good you are doing,” the Clemson coach said. “Sometimes we tell our guys not to read the papers and do not listen to all of that. Stay away from all that kind of stuff. Even your friends are going to tell you how well you are doing. Don’t listen to them. Focus on what you are doing.

“But sometimes the other thing is true too, and as coaches we often forget about this. We played well last week. We were at NC State and with two minutes to go, it was tied. We really, for the most part, outplayed Florida State and we lost.

“The problem in sport is that last week, you lose twice so everybody thinks you are bad. You’re no good,” Brownell continued. “My job was to build them up and tell them how much better we got last week. So I listed about seven things on the board of all the things we did well last week, where we have improved. We are getting better.”

The Tigers, who will host Georgia Tech tonight for a seven o’clock tipoff, was definitely better against Virginia Tech. They made 10 three-pointers and got a career-high 28 points from Milton Jennings, a career-high 19 from Damarcus Harrison and a career-best 17 from K.J. McDaniels in a 77-70 victory.

“Our message was, ‘Don’t listen to the negativity because now people are going to be down on you,’” Brownell said. “That was a big part of what we are trying to do. We are trying to get are guys to feel good. We met for 45 minutes, then got out of there and tried to recharge our battery for (Sunday).

“Our whole thing on Friday was to tell them, ‘Your tank needs to be ready to go Sunday at one. You need to be ready to rip and go Sunday at 1.”

Now Clemson has to turn around on a short break and be ready for the Yellow Jackets, a team that is coming off a 20-point home win against Wake Forest last Saturday, and has had an extra day of preparation. The Tigers on the other hand, will be playing their fourth game in nine days.

“You have to bounce back. We have to be ready to play,” Brownell said. “I really think Georgia Tech, and I have watched them a lot, they are a lot better than the record indicates right now. I think they have played some tough games.

“They are big and strong physically. We are going to need guys like Damarcus and K.J. and guys like that to play well again because I don’t think it will be as easy to pound it inside on every possession because they have four guys that can run inside that can rebound and guard you and post hard. We are going to have to really be prepared to play and play well from the perimeter to win.”