Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich said on Friday afternoon he and men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell will meet in the morning to discuss the future of the program.
“It is our normal end of the year meeting. It is a time where it worked out for both of our schedules,” Radakovich said.
When he was asked was he considering a coaching change Radakovich said, “Brad and I will sit down in the morning and discuss the future of the program and what they can do to make it better.”
When I asked him was Brownell included in that future, Radakovich said, “I want to see Brad succeed here.”
Brownell just finished up his seventh season in Tigertown after a gut-wrenching loss to Oakland in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament on Tuesday. The Tigers blew a 20-point second half lead to finish the season a very disappointing 17-16.
“We did not achieve what we wanted to achieve by not getting to the NCAA Tournament,” Brownell said.
Clemson was expected to be an NCAA Tournament team this year after the return of All-ACC forward Jaron Blossomgame and the addition of highly thought of transfers in Shelton Mitchell, Marcquise Reed and Elijah Thomas. But that did not happen. Instead, the Tigers lost 10 ACC games by six points or less and four games by two points or less and finished 12th in the ACC.
Brownell has amassed a 124-103 record (55 percent win percentage) in his seven seasons so far. The Tigers made the NCAA Tournament just one time—Brownell’s first year—and had two NIT appearances in those seven seasons.
Brownell won 56 ACC regular season games and three ACC Tournament games. In fact, his 59 ACC wins are tied with Cliff Ellis for the most by a Clemson men’s basketball coach. In his seven years, the Tigers have had one losing season and just three times they had a losing mark in the ACC, including this past year’s 6-12 mark.