Brad Brownell is not one for slogans. It’s not really his thing.
However, if the Clemson basketball coach had one for this year’s team, he said it would be “Daily Improvement.”
Granted, it’s not a slogan that gets the juices flowing and gets a team all fired up and ready to play on game days, but it’s a slogan that puts what the 20th-ranked Tigers are trying to do in perspective. They want to continue to get better.
Since losing star player Donte Grantham to a torn ACL in the Notre Dame game back on Jan. 20, Clemson (18-4, 7-3 ACC) has done just that. After being hammered at No. 2 Virginia on Jan. 23, the Tigers bounced back with a gritty road victory at Georgia Tech, a game in which they rallied from 12 points down. They then turned around two days later and knocked off No. 19 North Carolina for the first time in eight years.
“We just need to keep working,” Brownell said. “I think our team has done good job this year of not overly reacting to wins or loses. We are just trying to play and play well and do what we practice. Hopefully, that will continue.”
Clemson would like that to continue on Saturday when it travels to Winston-Salem, N.C. and takes on Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons will be a tough test for the Tigers despite their 2-8 record in the ACC. They are coming off a nice home win over Florida State on Wednesday, which snapped their seven-game losing streak.
Brownell says he has seen some things in the last game or two the Tigers still need to improve upon, but overall he likes where his team is at as they head to Wake Forest.
“I like how our guys have competed,” he said. “Certainly, we have won some close games, which a lot of what being successful in this league is about.”
The Tigers are 6-1 in games decided by five points or less this season, including Tuesday’s four-point win over the Tar Heels. They beat Georgia Tech by two points last Sunday.
“If you go and look at most teams that are doing well, they’re going to win more than their fair share of close games because that is what a lot of games end up being so we are not going to overpower anybody with our talent or anything like that,” Brownell said. “We have to go out and execute a game plan and play well to win games.”
So far they have been doing that. Now they just have to keep their “Daily Improvement” going.