Brad Brownell addresses how tournament metrics impact early-season games
Clemson head coach Brad Brownell is sick and tired of hearing why his team narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament. Bracketologists like Joe Lunardi pounded the hammer over and over again in the leadup to Selection Sunday that the Tigers’ non-conference resume was pitiful and would ultimately be the reason they’d likely miss the tournament. Of course, Clemson came up just short.
This week, Brownell doubled down on his scheduling beliefs. He likes having some easier games in the non-conference slate where he can ease freshmen into the college waters and experiment with lineups.
“You know, you you want to have a certain amount of home games. You also want to have a certain amount of games where you think you’re going to win sometimes early because you need to play some guys. Like, you don’t really know what you have, you know. Then you have an injury and then you got young players that you’re trying to get minutes and you’re trying to figure out what can this guy do and what can he not do. And, you know, hopefully you have a little bit of an advantage where you’re the better team and you can sub a little bit and feel good about doing some of those things.”
A more traditional basketball coach, Brad Brownell is also put out by the reliance on metrics to decide who gets in the NCAA Tournament.
“And then you still got to worry about the metrics at the end. You know, there are there are some schools — and I was good at that — they do this: They play a lot of the 300, high 300s (teams) and then they try to win by as much as 50. And then their metrics started tremendous. Like we’ve just kind of figured this out like in the last year, watching some of them.
“And I don’t like that you’re trying to beat somebody’s brains in down there by as much as you can, so that your offensive numbers are better and your defensive numbers are better. And it takes a long time for those numbers to even out but that’s like a strategy. Now, we’re like: What are we doing right? Is that really what this is about? I don’t know.”
Brownell certainly not a fan of how metrics have changed the way teams play. But metrics aren’t really the reason his team isn’t in the tournament. It’s scheduling! Clemson went 23-10. There is no way an ACC team 13 games above .500 should miss the NCAA Tournament. But don’t be confused: this is not a plea that the Tigers should have been in.
They scheduled poorly in the wrong year. The ACC was historically weak when it’s usually one of the best two leagues every year. Instead, it had some of the worst power five teams in the country, including Louisville and Boston College, who both beat Clemson. Louisville had four wins all year, just two power five wins, and one of them came against Clemson. That’s why the Tigers missed the Big Dance.
When Clemson tripped up during the regular season, they didn’t stub their toe, but instead, tripped and face-planted. The UL and BC defeats are inexcusable scarlet letters on an NCAA Tournament resume. So was their loss at South Carolina, another of the worst power five teams in the country. Clemson’s non-conference schedule was a bunch of cupcakes, a terrible South Carolina squad and Iowa, who they also lost against.
The Tigers beat nobody of substance outside the ACC and suffered some horrific losses. Yet Brownell thumbs his nose at the idea of scheduling differently going forward knowing the committee left his team out because of how they scheduled this season.