Clemson Basketball Is Rolling — And Tiger Fans Should Be Fired Up

Tiger fans, basketball season is officially here — and it is ramping up in a big way.

To start the year, this brand new Clemson squad, made up almost entirely of transfers outside of Dillon Hunter, looked exactly like what you would expect from a team that barely knew each other. The Tigers handled the smaller Division II and Division III opponents early, but when they faced teams with a real pulse, it wasn’t pretty.

Road losses to Georgetown and Alabama, along with tough defeats against BYU and others, had plenty of fans wondering just how long it would take this group to figure things out.

But something changed.

Over the last week, Clemson has flipped the script in a major way.

It started with a huge win over a very talented Syracuse team. That momentum carried into another impressive ACC victory against Pitt, and then the Tigers capped it all off by taking down a ranked SMU squad inside Littlejohn Coliseum.

Just like that, Clemson went from searching for answers to sitting at13–3 overall and 3–0 in ACC play.

And what makes this run even more impressive?

This team does not have a true number one guy.

Instead, it’s depth — real depth — that is driving Clemson’s success.

One night it’s RJ Godfrey stepping up and hitting a clutch and-one to ice the game. The next, Dillon Hunter takes over and controls the tempo. Then you have Butta Johnson coming off the bench and drilling four threes like it’s nothing.

Jestin Porter has embraced a larger role, while the bigs — Nick Davidson and Jake Wahlin — are doing the dirty work in the paint.

This is aBrad Brownell special.

The system is finally clicking. The rotations are tightening up. And defensively, this might be one of the best Clemson teams we’ve seen in years.

The Tigers are guarding at a high level, forcing bad shots, and turning every possession into a grind for opponents.

And they’re doing it without one of their most talented young players.

The season took a devastating hit in the South Carolina rivalry game when true freshman four-star Zac Foster went down with a torn ACL, ending his season. Most teams would have folded.

Brad Brownell and this roster just kept finding ways to win.

Think about it — this is literally a team of transfers that barely played together a few months ago. Now they’re beating ranked opponents and sitting undefeated in ACC play.

If Clemson keeps this up, we are absolutely talking about a tournament team come March.

At the end of the day, Brad Brownell knows how to work the portal — and he knows how to coach.

This team is proof of that.

It’s going to be fun to see how long the Tigers can keep this rolling.

Go Tigers.
I Bleed Orange forever.