Clemson is no longer undefeated following a road loss to Memphis Saturday. The Tigers went back and forth, but this was the first time it came up short in the final moments.

Following the game, head coach Brad Brownell detailed his view of the game and said Clemson “played well for stretches.” Where the team didn’t was when it got tired. Forward RJ Godfrey got into foul trouble, limiting a team with an already short bench.

“I thought RJ being in foul trouble really bothered  us because we were tired. My guys were tired. Older guys were tired, big guys especially and we needed him in the game and maybe I should’ve found another way to get him in for a while longer,” Brownell said.

This was a tough challenge with the pair of David Jones and Jahvon Quinerly, who Brownell spoke highly of. Neither of these teams took on soft non-conference schedules, and Brownell credited Penny Hardaway for that because a battle-tested team always makes a difficult challenge. Their trapping defense threatened the Tigers, and the fatigue led to turnovers.

“It probably disrupted us a little bit. No question. There were some times we did some good things, there were times it probably pushed us out a little bit starting our offense but that was obviously a difficult time for us,” Brownell said.

That’s how the lead dwindled to start the second half, and Memphis hit the gas, never looking back even as Clemson threatened to the final moment.

Defense became a struggle in the second half as Memphis shot 50% from the floor after the break, and Clemson dropped into a zone to try and deny it. That’s when the broken record played again.

“We wore down and we lost our pick and roll consistency. The zone worked for a while but I thought we got tired in the game. I thought our big guys especially. I thought PJ (Hall) was exhausted,” Brownell said.

A tired PJ Hall is bad news for Clemson, and keeping him fresh is key to adding wins. Losing is inevitable at times, and the Tigers have to turn around and find a way to avoid the exhaustion because the ACC schedule is grueling.