CLEMSON – When navigating through Clemson Athletics’ website, you can find every Tiger athlete pictured with their respective team, hometown and number.

Go one step further, and you’ll find a page labeled ‘historical,’ which shows all the former roster pictures of these players across their Clemson careers.

It can be fun to look at the changes. A new haircut, change in stature after years in a collegiate weight room or a different facial expression pop out while glancing across the miniature time capsules of a Clemson career.

However, with the current college landscape, it is growing rarer by the year to see an athlete pictured all four years in the historical tab on Clemson’s website, and the same goes for any other school.

For example, Clemson basketball’s roster this season has seven new faces, accounting for half of the team. Assuming graduate Dillon Hunter has exhausted his eligibility, only two Tiger players have more than one historical picture to look back on according to the current roster.

For reference, five years ago, only two non-freshmen were only at Clemson for one year, and the majority of the team stayed for at least three years.

“I say this all the time, there’s a lot of people wearing the same jerseys, but I don’t know that there’s as many true teams out there as we really like or think there are,” Clemson basketball head coach Brad Brownell said. “And I think the nature of college sports right now lends itself to not really being a team guy. It’s about the transaction of money. It’s about finding the right fit for you, and sometimes that doesn’t involve others and team.”

Brownell, highly opposed to this premise, took his emphasis on teamwork into account when planning the Tigers’ trip to Europe this summer, where they played three exhibition games in as many cities in Italy over a seven-day span in July.

What better way to create a team rather than embarking on an alternative mode of transportation in a location completely alternative to Upstate South Carolina?

“We left Como and they went to Switzerland and found some boat up there and went out,” Brownell said. “I think Dylan Faulkner was the skipper, and they had a good time out there in the middle of the lake in Switzerland together for an afternoon. You know, that kind of stuff that is more important than the basketball when we go on those trips is those guys doing different things together.

“I do think getting your team connected, spending time together is vital,” he added.

Though senior Carter Welling, who tore his ACL last March, was unable to play in any of the exhibition games with his team, he also feels that the experience was worthwhile from a bonding perspective.

“I think it’s a huge factor,” Welling said. “I went on a foreign tour as a freshman at UC Irvine and just how the team learns more about each other and the camaraderie you build, I think those trips are vital and they help bring the guys along and get more familiar with each other over a fun trip.”

Of course, the Tigers also got some meaningful experience on the court. Freshman Harris Reynolds grew significantly as a starter overseas, while sophomores Chase Thompson and Blake Davidson got to play over 20 minutes per game after having limited roles last season. 

Presumed starting guards Ace Buckner and Zac Foster, as well as Welling and a few other banged up players were unable to participate in the games. Still, Clemson walked away with a 3-0 record.

But maybe more importantly, they grew as a team, in the truest sense of the word.

“That’s what I hold sacred to is I still value being a part of the team,” Brownell said. “It’s why I coach. You know, we’re all put on a team at five or six by our parents and it’s hard to not be on a team. I mean, we want to feel like we’re a part of something, and it’s why I still coach at 57, to have somewhere to go, of belonging and purpose, and hopefully our guys feel that way. I think it’s impossible to be successful without it.” 

The Tigers will get their first chance to show off their new-look team on Oct. 23, when they will open with an exhibition game against Georgia at Littlejohn Coliseum.