By Ed McGranahan.

By Ed McGranahan

Membership in the ACC necessitated Clemson pay attention to basketball, but football casts a long shadow.

Florida and Ohio State are among the big schools to find the means for the two programs to coexist at a premier level, but Clemson has been unable to sustain a similar balance despite an avid, generous fan base.

Dan Radakovich wants to find a solution, and he wants Brad Brownell to be part of it, so he has proposed scrapping a two-year old plan for a second practice floor and examining the possibility of a new 8,000-seat basketball complex.

“Right or wrong, Clemson is perceived to be a football school,” Brownell said. “I’m as big a football fan as the next guy, but there are other places that have done a better job of promoting both and I don’t think we’ve done that as well here at times, where people are led to believe that it’s not as important.

“I don’t think that’s the case, but you have to show some things to people to prove that it’s not just talk that we want basketball to be important and here’s what we’re doing for that. Watch!”

Radakovich’s farewell gift to Georgia Tech included the christening of a $45 million makeover of the basketball facility. Sold on Brownell to assemble a creditable team, he wants to give him the tools to attract the best players and appeal to fans.

“You have to step back and say is it a practice facility you need or a performance area that you need” Radakovich said recently in describing his vision in broad terms, “What really needs to be upgraded there? And how do you balance the two of those together?”

Board chair David Wilkins described Radakovich’s approach as “prudent and smart.”

“Looking at both options shouldn’t indicate to anybody that it’s a foregone conclusion that a new facility is going to be built,” Wilkins said. “There’s no question that we need first-class facilities for our student-athletes and for our fans.

“You need to be looking ahead to see what you need to improve to attract top-quality athletes.”

Brownell was not critical of former athletic director Terry Don Phillips, who hired him, but he has been dismayed by the lack of fan support during a season in which his team lost seven games by eight points or less with two seniors and no juniors.

“It’s no secret that Clemson needs to make more of a commitment to basketball. Everybody around here understands that,” Brownell said. “Dan is somebody that has done it, and is an aggressive forward thinker, wants to make positive change happen and doesn’t want to just talk about it.

“You appreciate that.”

After more than 100 seasons, Clemson teams had lost more games than they’ve won. It is the only charter member of the ACC to have not won a conference tournament championship and did not play in a post-season tournament until 1975, only then under a cloud.

To be fair, there were stretches, although the 11 NCAA Tournament appearances came after the field expanded in 1980. Recruiting has always been difficult. One member of the athletic staff suggested basketball needs to find a player comparable to football’s C.J. Spiller.

Radakovich intends to report the preliminaries of his research to the board in March. Downsizing the general seating area actually seems practical given history. Based on figures pulled from the NCAA’s archives, attendance at Littlejohn has been historically modest, averaging fewer than 8,000 per game nine seasons since 1986, 9,000 or more in five.

“If you’re always being reactionary, if you’re just catching up, if you’re just doing what you have to do to catch somebody that’s not being proactive,” Brownell said. “It looks like you’re doing it because you have to, not because you want to. I think that’s where we have to do a better job at Clemson.

“Dan certainly has that mindset. I certainly have that mindset and I think more and more people are starting to understand that and it’s exciting. That’s one of the reasons why I am here.”