CLEMSON — Shawn Poppie has long said his Clemson women’s basketball program is different.
On Thursday night, it showed in more ways than one.
Despite a few tough games and flu symptoms circulating through the locker room, the Tigers handled their business, defeating SMU 83-54 at Littlejohn Coliseum. But the final score told only part of the story on what was so special Thursday night.
There was a special guest in the stands, one who had traveled across the world to see her daughter play for the Tigers.
Transfer Rusne Augustinaite, who is from Siauliai, Lithuania, had never before had her mother, Rasa Augustiniene, in attendance for a college basketball game, until Thursday night.
With her mother in the seats at Littlejohn watching her daughter play for the first time in six years, Augustinaite had herself a night. She put up a season-high 21 points in leading the Tigers (15-7, 6-4 ACC) to their sixth ACC victory of the season.
The best thing about the whole story is how her mother got to Clemson in the first place. It was Augustinaite’s Clemson teammates that paid for her mother to make it to Clemson. They used their NIL money to make the whole thing happen.
For Augustinaite, the moment still has not set in, or how her teammates executed her mom’s trip without her knowing.
“It feels unreal still to this day.” Augustinaite said.
How did it all come together?
Augustinaite’s teammates had been planning her mother’s surprise visit since Thanksgiving. Poppie was approached with the idea and a request for help when they were in the airport on the way to the Bahamas for a holiday tournament.
“A couple of them came to me and needed some help,” he said.
The language barrier complicated things for everyone. Augustinaite’s mother does not speak English, so communication became a little more difficult. Poppie found help translating to overcome the barrier.
Poppie said the toughest part was keeping it quiet.
“I was dang near in tears with just the idea,” he said. “The hardest part was holding onto the secret for that long.”
Her mother’s flight was delayed because of the weather, so her teammates tried to stall her as long as they could. She is usually in bed by 8:30 p.m., every night.
“It starts with the group we have in that locker room,” Poppie said. “Just what they did on Monday for Rusne, but that’s just who they are. It’s not a facade; it ain’t fake. This is genuinely a family that loves one another and wants the best for one another.”
For Augustinaite, her teammates’ love and gestures meant everything to her.
“For them just making this happen its amazing, and you know, I just thank Coach Poppie for recruiting those people because without them I would not experience that.” she said.
Poppie believes moments like these are what make this Clemson team so special and why he took this job two years ago.
“I am very, very proud of it because we’re trying to build something special here,” he said. “When I took this job two years ago, I thought Clemson could be very, very special. Were not only proving it on the court, but also off the court and what it’s like to be a Clemson Tiger.
“The word around here is we don’t say ‘Tiger Nation’… we say ‘Tiger Family,’ Clemson Family. Why? Cuz that’s what this place is.”
With a roster full of transfers and a second-year coach, there can be assumptions that the group might not mesh well, but that is not the case for this Clemson team.
“With a lot of transfers on this team and different colleges and backgrounds, it can be hard to get a team to mesh, but this team has had no problem doing that.” Augustinaite said.
Augustinaite believes that being a good basketball player is one thing, but the kind of players on the team and how they are as people is another key to success.
On a night of an ACC win, it was the love of the team and program that made it memorable.
—photos courtesy of Clemson Athletic Communications