The Clemson men’s basketball program got some huge, great news last week when star big man PJ Hall announced that he had withdrawn from the NBA Draft and would return to Clemson for the upcoming campaign.

Brad Brownell is certainly happy about Hall returning to Tiger Town, and Clemson’s head coach spoke about the senior center’s decision when he met with media Tuesday evening at the Greenville Prowl & Growl.

“Probably the best recruit we’ve had at Clemson,” Brownell said with a smile. “No, super excited. I thought it was a great process for PJ. I think he learned a few things that we’ve talked about with him for a while. But the experience of playing out there in those kinds of settings is invaluable. I think he’ll grow from it. He’s had a really good spring and I know he’s excited about this year.”

Hall led the Tigers in scoring last season (15.3 points per game) and averaged 5.7 rebounds, while shooting 53.5 percent from the field, 39.8 percent from 3 and 78.6 percent from the foul line.

The 6-foot-10, 245-pounder from Spartanburg becomes the No. 2 returning scorer in the ACC for 2023-24 (behind only new teammate Joseph Girard III) after averaging 17.6 points per game last year in league play. Hall also totaled 6.6 rebounds per contest and added 21 blocks.

Brownell was asked if there was any point in time when he was worried about Hall potentially leaving Clemson, when he was performing well while testing the draft process.

“A little,” Brownell said. “I’m really happy for those guys to get to that point because that’s a lifelong dream for them, to get to wear an NBA logo and to perform at the highest levels in front of people that you’re trying to impress.

“But I also know that PJ loves Clemson and he wants to leave a legacy there. So, I knew that unless he felt really strongly that he might be like a first-round pick or something like that, I felt really strongly that he would come back.”