Clemson players back Brad Brownell: 'Those Fire Brownell guys can kiss it'
The Clemson basketball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 on Sunday afternoon, topping 3-seed Baylor to move on as the 6-seed in the West region. For coach Brad Brownell, it was a bit of sweet satisfaction.
Brownell has railed on the inequities in college basketball scheduling and team profiling, claiming the ACC wasn’t getting the respect it deserved. And it’s hard to argue based on this year’s NCAA Tournament results so far.
But perhaps Brownell also deserves a bit more respect. His players certainly think so.
“Yeah man, I don’t like usually doing this but all those ‘Fire Brownell’ guys can kiss it,” veteran guard Joseph Girard said. “He’s done an unbelievable job here. He’s built this program for 14 years. He’s been in the league for so long. You don’t get that every day. You don’t get that everywhere.”
Brownell was reportedly on the hot seat late last year, when the Tigers narrowly missed out on an NCAA Tournament berth as one of the top bubble teams.
This year the Tigers left far less to doubt.
And that was in part because his players feel a sense of responsibility for how Brad Brownell is viewed. They love the guy, and they want fans to share that same love for their head coach.
So as Clemson secured a second Sweet 16 berth under Brownell (the last coming in 2018), players like big man PJ Hall weren’t shy about speaking their mind.
“It’s incredible. For four years we’ve had to listen to people hating on that man and they don’t understand how incredible he is behind doors, how genius he is and how (much of) a blessing he is to be at Clemson,” Hall said. “There are people that support him thick and through and we love that. We love everybody, but everybody needs to know that coach Brownell is arguably the best coach to come through Clemson in terms of Xs and Os, and we’re trying to prove that right now.”
Brad Brownell is certainly making a nice case for himself this postseason. He’ll get a chance to further that in the Sweet 16 with a matchup against 2-seed Arizona.
His players, though, have his back no matter what happens from here.
“Brownell’s an unbelievable coach, obviously has a lot of strategies, a lot of techniques that he likes to do, that’s why he’s so successful,” Hall said. “So shoutout to coach making history, it’s unbelievable foor him.”