CHARLOTTE – Eight months ago, the Clemson Tigers were racking up wins, while taking down teams like Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina at every turn. Seven months ago, the Tigers kept the momentum going, while winning 18 ACC games and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year. They told media members they anticipated a Final Four kind of finish.
Yet, one month later, Dillon Hunter remained, literally, the only player in Clemson’s locker room.
The drastic change started close to home. Hunter’s brother Chase, a former guard for the Tigers, ran out of collegiate eligibility with the Tigers’ first-round loss to McNeese State. Veteran guard Jaeden Zackery, power forward Ian Schieffelin and graduate transfer big-man Viktor Lakhin also ran out of eligibility as the final, disappointing buzzer sounded in Providence, RI.
Additionally, six other players transferred out of Tiger Town and, for the first time, Hunter was alone in Clemson.
“It was definitely crazy like that March to May, when I had broken my hand,” Hunter told media members at the 2025 ACC Kickoff at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown Wednesday. “I wasn’t able to work out. So, I was just at home chilling, not doing much. And then guys are like going on visits and stuff like that… everybody has their own thing they want to do, but it was crazy at the time.”
Last season, nearly 3,000 college basketball players decided to enter their names in the transfer portal, including Hunter’s six former teammates. In this time, Hunter leaned on the words of his older brother Chase, who also declined to enter the transfer portal at any point in his career, to stay committed to Clemson.
“Coming in, especially my freshman year, Chase was there, my brother, and so it already felt like a family,” the younger Hunter brother said.
“I came in there and realized, ‘You got to grind it out,’” he added. “That’s what life’s going to be about. You can’t just just go everywhere just because you don’t like it, you got to grind it out sometimes. So, I think having my brother, he had his experience and stuff like that. So, having him in my ear tell me, ‘Man it’s going to be okay if you just keep working. Everything work outs for Itself.’”
As Hunter worked through the hand injury he sustained against SMU in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, and untangled the web of emotions from his team being eliminated, his brother graduating, and starting from scratch ahead of his senior year, he turned his focus forward.
It was time to be a recruiter for Clemson.
Though his own brother was no longer at practice every day, Hunter wanted to show recruits that Clemson is a “family home.”
“I had to do a lot of reflection at that time, and so I sat with myself, like, ‘What’s best for me and for the team?” he said. “And then, going out and getting guys, recruiting… We all met in early May when the team came so we could get to know each other. That was good for me and building camaraderie. You know, it was difficult for me, but now I feel like it worked out in the end.”
The latest camaraderie builders have been taking a team-visit to a haunted house in Greenville, S.C., which Hunter called “corny but fun,” going together to Bible studies and church services, and getting to understand new players from across the country, 18-year-olds and 24-year-olds alike.
Hunter may no longer be playing with the Schieffelins, the P.J. Halls, or the Chase Hunters he came to Clemson with, but he has a chance to start something entirely new.
He has an opportunity to create a season marked as “Dillon’s” year, and a chance to lead a new squad to a third-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Hunter and the Tigers can first be glimpsed by Clemson fans on Friday, Oct. 17, when Clemson plays the Presbyterian Blue Hose in an exhibition game at Littlejohn Coliseum.
–photo by William Howard / Imagn Images