By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

The two-hour bus ride from Atlanta back to Clemson Thursday night was a much better one than the week before for Brad Brownell.

Following a 37-point loss to Virginia on Feb. 7, a snow storm that hit the Virginia-Maryland area that night did not allow the Clemson team plane to land and pick up the Tigers, Clemson instead had to bus the eight hours back home. It wasn’t a happy trip.

Fast forward to a week later and the Tigers found themselves again in a bus headed back to Clemson following a Thursday night game, but this time there wasn’t dejection or doubt during the ride. Instead there was a sense of confidence and belief that they can turn this season around after a 56-53 victory at Georgia Tech.

It was Clemson’s first ACC road win of the season and more importantly gave it the confidence it needs to make a run in the last three weeks of the regular season.

“There is something special about winning a road game like that,” Brownell said. “Fighting through adversity and being on somebody else’s court and finding a way to get one done, that’s special. That was really good for our guys.”

It’s especially good considering, the Tigers (13-11, 5-7 ACC) will host No. 3 Miami Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum. The Hurricanes come into the game playing as well as anyone in the country as they sit 11-0 in the ACC and 20-3 overall.

“Inside they are big and strong,” Brownell said. “Kenny Kadji, Julian Gamble and Reggie Johnson are three strong physical guys that can all score a little bit around the basket. Kadji can also make threes, and with (Shane) Larkin and Durand Scott you have two guys that can also play point guard.

“They have great vision and are great decision makers and passers.”

Miami is an experienced team as well, as most of the players on the team are third and fourth year guys that have been through the battles of the ACC. That veteran leadership has helped carry them through road wins at North Carolina, at NC State and at Florida State.

At NC State, the Hurricanes rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half and got a tip-in from Johnson as time expired for a 79-78 victory.

“They don’t get too high and they don’t get too low,” Brownell said. “When they play poorly or get off to a slow start, they just kind of play through it and that shows experience. They have guys that have been through the wars a little bit and don’t get rattled as much.

“When they are playing great, which they have been at times, their confidence is through the roof and they just roll.”

Brownell says Miami is having so much success this year because its players have an appreciation for what they are accomplishing. They have lived through the journey and now know what it takes to be successful.

With a young team that has only two seniors and no juniors, Brownell hopes his team will be able to learn from this season and use it to hopefully make a similar run as Miami when they become more experienced.

“It is certainly unique what they have this year, and it is certainly different because they’re not a lot of teams with it,” he said. “There is an appreciation for the journey and the success you are having.

“When you have an older group and they are all kind of doing it together and it is going well, it is a pretty special feeling and a pretty special time in those guys lives… You are all invested because there is a bunch of you and you are afraid to let each other down.”

Brownell points out the best teams Clemson has had through the years are a lot like this year’s Miami squad.

“You’re best years at Clemson is when you have older teams,” he said. “We don’t get a lot of one-and-done guys here so you hope to put together two or three classes of guys that get to play and get some experience and learn from experience and grow up through the program.”

And he hopes that growth starts Sunday.