CHARLOTTE – The 2022-23 season came to a screeching halt for Clemson basketball, and it’s a feeling that’s stuck with this team heading into the season. While it’s something they’ve put in the past to a degree, it’s also a lesson and motivation to build into this season.

It’s a very clear argument that the Tigers deserved to make the NCAA Tournament, but that can’t be changed. What can be done is preparing for the 2023-24 season with that ending in mind and senior guard Chase Hunter talked at ACC Tipoff about how that possibility will be erased.

“I wouldn’t say we weren’t dialed in for lesser opponents but it’s really just making sure that we make sure we are in our film, making sure we got our scouting report right, just the little things. It’s something that we’ve harped on this summer,” Hunter said.

It’s not just the players that were on last year’s team that understand that. Transfer guard Joseph Girard III has said on multiple occasions that Clemson should’ve made the tournament last season, but there’s a new saying head coach Brad Brownell is stamping to make sure history isn’t repeated.

“Coach Brownell has a saying each year and this year’s saying is leave no doubt. Obviously, everything, the first thing you’re going to think of is leave no doubt to making the tournament so that you’re not on the bubble…leave no doubt that you’re working the hardest. Leave no doubt that you’re giving your best foot forward on every play and every effort so there’s just a lot of things that go into it,” Girard said.

At the center of it all is star center PJ Hall. He decided to return to the Tigers with unfinished business. That fire is the hottest with Hall, who didn’t come back to see this team fail to reach its potential. For that matter, there’s no bar too high for Clemson in 2023-24.

“I think about that just about any time we go to practice or inner squad or go scrimmage somebody, it’s definitely a big fire for me and the whole team,” Hall said. “The thing is everybody talks about you’ve got to make the tournament…that’s not the goal, the goal is not to make the tournament. The goal is to make the Final Four and then some. You want to continue to win, shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars.”