CLEMSON – 9-0 and No. 13 in AP Poll. The Clemson Tigers are undoubtedly one of the best teams in the country, and it’s coming off of a place of heartbreak.

Everyone knows Clemson watched as their fate was decided by the NCAA Selection Committee, and a team with a resumé deserving of a tournament bid was denied.

“I cannot express to anybody the amount of disappointment we felt on Selection Sunday. That was just one of the harder moments in his college coaching career and that was just, it was like for two days we were all numb,” Brownell said.

One thing that suck with Brownell through that moment was how Clemson had wins over NC State and Pittsburgh, but that didn’t matter in the end. The results felt meaningless.

“We won a lot of games against tournament teams and a lot of people that qualified…there was immediate hurt for a long time and obvioulsy playing poorly and losing to Morehead probably poured salt on the wound and deservedly so…we talked about ‘Leave No Doubt,'” Brownell said.

Fast forward nine months and Clemson is rising to the occasion with a mix of the players that still feel that heartbreak and new faces that carry an extra chip on their shoulder. The Tigers already have two true road wins against Quadrant 1 opponents, so there’s no doubt as of now about the performances on the court.

It’s obviously something that will always linger, but Brownell made sure that wasn’t the main driving force for this iteration of Clemson basketball.

“We can’t live in the past. We can’t make it about last year’s snub. This has to be about the collection of this year’s team and we have a lot of guys who weren’t on last year’s team and in some ways it’s disrespectful to them to make that all that we’re talking about,” Brownell said.

One quote that’s stuck with this team comes from Tigers sports psychologist Milt Lowder:  ”Success comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

Clemson is busy to say the least this season as it’s put in the work to be undefeated into mid-December. Still, Brownell knows “we’re all scarred,” and those battle marks are fuel to the Tigers’ red-hot fire.