By William Qualkinbush.
By William Qualkinbush.
A few assorted observations from Clemson’s 72-61 victory over Auburn on Sunday…
1. Brad Brownell’s self-reflection has seemed to pay dividends.
Immediately after his team’s disappointing loss to Rutgers, the Tigers’ head coach was honest about his role in a 4-3 start that included a pair of losses to Big South opponents. He was spending too much time coaching technique and nuance and not enough on fundamentals and effort.
Since Brownell shifted course, Clemson has added a pair of wins against SEC foes. The Arkansas win is a great one to put atop a resume considering the national profile the Razorbacks have at the moment. The Auburn win wasn’t quite as impressive in that regard, but it was an up-tempo game that required Clemson to play 94 feet. Going forward, it’s the kind of win a team can build upon.
Both wins have come courtesy of defensive energy and more focused offense. More on the latter in a moment.
2. Speaking of up-tempo, Clemson proved it can win a game without grinding it to a screeching halt.
Last season, Clemson barely cracked 60 possessions per game as one of the slowest-playing teams in America. Brownell hasn’t always played at such a slow pace, but rarely will you see his team play a 70-plus possession game.
Sunday’s game against Auburn featured 73 possessions, tied with the Winthrop game for the most this season. The Tigers worked diligently in the half court, but they also managed to seize opportunities against Auburn’s press. It also didn’t help that they seemed to savor throwing passes directly to Auburn defenders throughout the game.
Either way, the bottom line is that Clemson won that kind of a contest, which might surprise some people. Brownell talked of playing at a quicker tempo this season but has lamented his team’s inability to do it well at times. With that in mind, this might be a good place to start.
3. Donte Grantham is starting to find his game.
I love this kid. He is a more polished version of the Jaron Blossomgame we thought we would see before his broken leg. In other words, his trajectory might keep him even with (or even behind) Blossomgame, but he looks like an all-ACC caliber player if he continues to grow and mature.
Grantham has rightly been pegged as the best basketball talent on the roster, and he proves it by filling the stat sheet on a regular basis. He had four blocks and four steals against Auburn and was a one-man wrecking crew on defense in the first half. He only made one of his seven shot attempts, but I hardly noticed given the other stuff he was doing on the floor.
4. The right guys are starting to get the ball more frequently.
One look at a usage chart for Clemson could cause advanced stat nerds like me to projectile vomit. Quite simply, the exact wrong players are getting the touches for this team.
Let me start by saying it’s never a good idea to paint with a broad brush in terms of usage. We’re ten games into a 30-game season, so there is a ton of ball left to be played. Coaches know personnel better than we do, so maybe there’s a reason these numbers read the way they do, even if it doesn’t make sense to us.
Also, this conversation can get a little hazy, so hang with me.
The top two more frequently used players for the Tigers so far have been Jaron Blossomgame and Jordan Roper. Usage is calculated based on an individual’s minutes played, so this means those players end possessions with a shot or turnover a significant amount of time when they’re on the floor.
Blossomgame has been used on 24.9 percent of his possessions, while Roper has been used on 24.1 percent of his possessions. That wouldn’t be bad except that both players are woefully inefficient on offense.
Effective field goal percentage is a weighted measurement of a player’s shooting efficiency that factors in both two- and three-point shots. Blossomgame (41.8) and Roper (34.5) are horrific in this regard, particularly Roper since I would consider 40 percent the “Mendoza line” for effective field goal percentage.
Meanwhile, Rod Hall is used just shy of 20 percent of the time, but he has an effective field goal percentage of 60.9, which is 16th among all ACC players. In fact, the Tigers have four players inside the top 30 in the conference, while Blossomgame—the better of the two heavy usage players—sits at 53rd.
In layman’s terms, Clemson is a much better team when—as in the Auburn game—players like Hall, Damarcus Harrison, Landry Nnoko, and Grantham monopolize the ball. Hall’s usage rate was 31 percent against Auburn, which I feel is a necessary development moving forward.
Meanwhile, Blossomgame sat at 20 percent, while Roper’s impact was negligible in five minutes. Both players can play better, but until they do, they can’t be as heavily utilized as they have been so far this season.
God Bless!
WQ