Brad Brownell: Heart hurts for Clemson seniors after NCAA Tournament snub

Despite an impressive season, the Clemson Tigers missed out on the NCAA Tournament this year. Some feel that the Tigers got snubbed by not being a part of March Madness this year after a 23-10 finish to the season and a 14-6 conference record that was only bested by two other ACC teams. But head coach Brad Brownell feels that his senior class got snubbed the most.

“I’m really proud of this team, my heart hurts for Hunter Tyson, Brevin Galloway, the seniors,” Brownell said. “They don’t get another chance. And what those guys sacrificed and how hard they worked to put our team in this position to get a chance. That’s the part as a coach that you see that really – that just hurts you personally to have to watch that, watch those guys suffer a little bit.”

Clemson has wins over three of the five ACC teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament, likely adding an extra dose of ache for the Tigers’ senior class. But now their attention shifts to the National Invitation Tournament, where they’re a No. 1 seed facing Morehead State in their first round matchup on Thursday.

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“Having said that I do think we’ll rally, I think our guys will hopefully shake it off today. Yesterday was tough and we can understand why, but today we’ve had to try to turn our attention to Morehead State. Got a lot of respect for them. We played them a couple years ago, coach Spradlin does a great job,” Brownell said.

Morehead State finished the season 21-11 and boasts the Ohio Valley Conference’s best defense this season, as Brownell previewed the Eagles’ personnel.

“Won their league again, they’ve been winning their league most years now, just a really good team. Great quickness, good speed, shoot the three, I think they had the defensive player of the year in the league, he does a really good job,” Brownell said. “They run some really good action, a lot of movement, a lot of pace to their offense, a lot of misdirection. It’s good stuff and you can see why he’s a good up and coming coach. So it’ll be a challenging game and we’ve got to shake off the cobwebs here and move forward, so we’ll see how we do at practice today, but try to get that energy back.”