Dan Radakovich details expectations for Clemson men's basketball
CLEMSON — Even with spring football over, there is still plenty going on at Clemson. Senior writer Matt Connolly is ready to answer whatever questions you might have. You can submit your question for the “Question of the Day” here. Today’s question is about Clemson’s men’s basketball program.
Several of you have reached out to ask about the Clemson men’s basketball program and head coach Brad Brownell since the season ended with a loss to Rutgers in the NCAA Tournament.
I did my best to break down what expectations should be for the program a while back. But more recently I spoke with Clemson AD Dan Radakovich about the Clemson basketball program when I had a chance to meet with him one-on-one.
Here is what Radakovich had to say:
Connolly: “How did you view the men’s basketball season this past year and what did you think of the job Brad Brownell did?”
Radakovich: “I thought it was a really fun year, to be honest with you. The way the team played and how it started. Then we had the COVID pause and didn’t come out of it as great, but after the calendar flipped to February started playing incredibly great basketball, a lot of exciting games, especially at home.
Sure, the game against Miami was disappointing. And the Rutgers game, yes we lost and it was just a possession here or a possession there. To be able to get that whole season in, like we did with a number of our other sports, was just a phenomenal effort. Our student-athletes, in basketball we had a Skip Prosser Award winner with Aamir (Simms). We had probably the highest GPA that men’s basketball has had in a while. They continue to graduate. They’re student-athletes, they’re outstanding young men and great representatives of the university.
As you look at evaluating programs, culture is a big part of it. We had a couple of people who transferred, but if you look around the landscape of men’s basketball, that’s the norm. And in fact we’re on the low end of the number of people who transferred or left as it relates to some of our other peers. So I think that’s a testament to the great culture that has been pulled together.”
Connolly: “As an AD, what do you look at and say, ‘OK, this is a good season for basketball?’ How do you view what the expectations should be?”
Radakovich: “You know, I think expectations are a moving target. First of all, we made the NCAA Tournament this past year, which is always a goal. I think next year we have to, you know, a goal, or those kind of things, would be to repeat what you did and maybe take another step. When you get into the tournament, so many things can happen, as we saw a few years ago when we made the Sweet 16.
So you’ve gotta make the tournament, and that is one of the items that kind of helps set the bar. And as you get into the tournament multiple years, well OK then maybe you start to readjust those. But, you know, where we are, it’s the 13th time in school history that we’ve made the tournament, so [making it two of three tournaments], that’s not bad. But we’ve got to continue to grow and get better.”