Decision made on Brad Brownell’s future at Clemson
A decision has been made on Brad Brownell’s future.
Clemson’s men’s basketball coach will return for his 11th season, a source told The State Friday afternoon.
The news comes the day after the college basketball season abruptly ended thanks to the coronavirus.
Clemson finished the season 16-15. The Tigers were set to face No. 1 seed Florida State in the ACC tournament early Thursday afternoon before the tournament was called off.
Brownell and the Tigers battled injuries this season as potential starters Chase Hunter and Jonathan Baehre missed most of the year with injuries.
Despite that, Clemson earned wins over No. 3 Duke, No. 5 Louisville and No. 6 Florida State. The Tigers also won at North Carolina for the first time in school history, ending an 0-59 streak.
“That’s a pretty big deal. At least it used to be by everybody. Everywhere I went that’s all I heard about from most Clemson fans,” Brownell said earlier this week. “Now that it’s a couple of months passed, let’s not just forget about and dismiss that. This is the team that did it, and it’ll always be the team that did it. That’s pretty special.”
Still, there were plenty of low points during the year as Clemson was swept by Virginia Tech and dropped games against Wake Forest and Miami, teams that finished near the bottom of the ACC standings.
“I’ve been doing this almost 30 years and it’s one of the more unique seasons I’ve ever been a part of,” Brownell said. ““I do think as we won some games, expectations changed and they should... But I’m proud of what this team has done and how they’ve tried to evolve and the way they’ve competed and conducted themselves this year.”
In his 10 seasons at Clemson, Brownell has compiled a record of 185-142. The Tigers have two NCAA tournament appearances under Brownell (2011 and 2018) and reached the Sweet 16 in 2018.
Clemson also has three NIT appearances under Brownell and had a strong case to make the NIT this year before it was canceled.
