Brad Brownell began to make a case for an NCAA Tournament appearance.
The sixth year head coach stopped short of calling for a spot on the bracket, but he did highlight some the season’s positives after beating Boston College on Wednesday night.
“We’ve gotten better defensively throughout the course of the year. Now we’re 9-5 (ACC)…this team needs to get a little more positive press about some things,” he said.
Brownell quickly shifted gears before he started to dive into the nuts and bolts of the Tigers’ resume, probably because he knows there’s still work left to be done.
There are at least three games Clemson has to win before anybody can confidently say they’re a tournament team. Even if they don’t lose at NC State, Georgia Tech and Boston College, there’s no guarantee that Clemson will make the tournament, but wins would most definitely helps the cause.
“College basketball is so much different now that it was 10-12 years ago. There are so many more teams that have really good players, really good coaches that the parity is unbelievable,” Brownell said. “Obviously, this year, as much as any in college basketball, you see it.
“There might be 125 teams vying for 68 spots…there’s so many more good teams now. There’s so much more parity in college basketball. It’s really hard to make the tournament. There are a bunch of teams like us that are in position where — for the last two or three weeks you’re either on the bubble, off the bubble, near the bubble, all this stuff.
“You’re just playing your tail trying to find a way to get into that tournament.”
The players know they’re position. Veterans like Jaron Blossomgame and Avry Holmes tend to do good job of delivering cliches and company lines when tournament stuff comes up, but they have phones, the Internet and access to ESPN just like everybody else.
As usual, Brownell was a little open to the conversation of getting invited to this year’s dance — not so much about his team’s chances, but the general experience of living life on the bubble.
“You can try too hard. That’s not good in sports, sometimes. You really try so hard to do the right thing, to win, to make these shots. If you’re not careful, sometimes it backfires,” he said.
Coaches are capable of creating system overload for their players, so it’s not completely on the kids’ shoulders.
“You’re certainly fighting all that. We all are trying everything we can,” Brownell said. “We’re spending crazy amounts of time watching films.
“How much information can you give your guys, to be prepared, but not so much they can’t think and play? We have to really work at it. We have good players, but we don’t have guys that we just show up and not be prepared and expect to win games. We have to be highly prepared and we take great pride in doing that. That’s one of the reasons why, by and large, we’ve had pretty good records in the ACC in the six years I’ve been here.”
One more win and Clemson will have No. 10 in league play. After a miserable end to December, who saw that coming?
Trip to the dance or not, the fact that Clemson is in the conversation halfway through February is pretty remarkable. They’ve beaten four of the six teams ahead them in ACC standings. Now that Rick Pitino has bowed Louisville out of the postseason, the Tigers are currently positioned as the sixth seed for the ACC tournament.
Like Louisville, Duke and Notre Dame (9-4) are one-game ahead of Clemson in the league standings. Finish fourth or better and you’ve got a double-bye in D.C. next month.
If you haven’t already order your copy today of Guts & Glory – Tales of Clemson’s Historic 2015 Football Season to help you celebrate and remember this special season.
