CLEMSON – Hannah Kohn came into her coach’s office with a prepared message Saturday afternoon.
She sat down on a familiar beige couch across from Shawn Poppie, her coach of three years, facing a memorabilia wall behind his desk lined with both pocket and jumbo-sized photos of their time together at the University of Chattanooga at Tennessee. Her picture and signature also appear on a canvas commemorating Poppie’s first ACC win last season.
Poppie has coached Kohn for three seasons at two different schools, as long as any player on Clemson’s team. Her signature and picture are forever embedded in her coach’s office décor and lore. Still, when she sat down, her message was simple.
“Coach, stick with me,” she said to a surprised Poppie.
Sure, she set a program record for three-point percentage in her freshman year at Chattanooga, making 68 shots from beyond-the-arc on 46.3 percent shooting. And yes, she drilled 79 three-pointers in her first year at Clemson, ultimately keeping the Tigers’ season alive with heroic heaves in the ACC Tournament.
But in recent Clemson games in the 2026 season, Kohn has struggled from long range. In six games from Jan 6-29, the junior made just two three-pointers on 19 attempts. She felt the need for a meeting, a reset.
Poppie’s response to her pre-practice plea was incredulous.
“I kind of shook my head like, ‘What do you mean stick with you?’” Poppie said one day later, following a win over Florida State at Littlejohn Coliseum. “‘You’ve been with me for three years now, came with me from Chattanooga.’ The kid cares about me, cares about my staff, cares about her teammates, and ultimately just Clemson winning. She knows that she hasn’t been her best.”
His next words could have centered around decreased playing time, mechanical advice about shooting form, or a vague directive to get back in the gym.
Instead, three words sufficed.
“Stay the course,” Poppie said. “You’re in the gym every single day. You can’t worry as much about makes and misses. Just stay the course, and who knows, maybe tomorrow will be your day.”
As if spoken into the ether, whether by magical manifestation or old-fashioned motivation, Sunday was, in fact, Hannah Kohn’s day.
Against Florida State, Kohn scored 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range, just two points shy of her season high. She added a steal and made a free throw to finish with a plus-16 in the plus-minus category.
After her final basket of the night, a baseline floater to beat the buzzer and extend the Clemson lead to 73-48, Kohn’s teammates erupted from the sideline. The Oviedo, Fla., native cracked a small smile as Poppie clapped rhythmically, knowingly, for a performance that stayed the course.
“She does spend all her time in the gym and just like seeing it made me happy and just proud of her,” said Raven Thompson, who led the Tigers with 18 points.
This season, Clemson (16-7, 7-4 ACC) has featured seven different leading scorers, including Thompson and Kohn. According to Poppie, the belief that any player could explode on any given night has become a foundational belief for the Tigers, who already eclipsed their conference and overall win totals from last season with seven regular season games left to play.
“I think that our team’s okay with that,” Poppie said. “Does it become stressful as a coach because you’re not sure where the ball is supposed to be thrown? Yeah, absolutely…but, we’ve got really good players that are willing to fight for one another. And when it’s their turn, they step up.”
When it was Kohn’s time, she stepped up and into her familiar jumpshot. But the familiar steps into her coach’s office may have been just as important as getting her feet set before letting a shot fly.
Kohn, Poppie, and the Tigers will have their next chance to step up Thursday when they travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.