Tigers rollercoaster season rewarded with NCAA Tournament bid

CLEMSON — Brad Brownell talked all season about his Clemson team reaching the Big Dance.

In a year filled with COVID-19 concerns and guidelines, the 11th-year head coach wanted his team to experience the feeling of hearing their name called on Selection Sunday. The feeling of stepping on the hardwood with the March Madness logo. The feeling of winning an NCAA Tournament game.

The Tigers had to endure two COVID pauses along the way, but they’re in Indianapolis for the NCAA Tournament. Seventh-seeded Clemson plays No. 10 Rutgers in the first round of the Midwest Region on Friday night inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Tip is set for 9:20 p.m. on TBS.

“I’ve got a tremendous group of young men that I’m privileged to coach,” Brownell said on a Wednesday morning Zoom call. “They’re good basketball players, but they’re great people. They’re willing to make these sacrifices, stick together, battle through the adversities of basketball, life and health. All the things you have to deal with in a year like this year.”

Playing tough man-to-man defense, the Tigers opened the season 9-1. They earned non-conference wins over Alabama, Maryland and Purdue — all three tournament teams. Entering the seventh week of the season, Clemson was No. 12 in the AP Poll.

But a COVID-19 pause hit in early January. The Tigers dropped three-straight games coming off the stoppage, struggling to score and keep pace with top-flight ACC competition.

“Fitness level, that was a major point of concern,” said Brownell, on the impact of COVID-19 pauses. “That (focusing on fitness) was something we did the second time around. The first time around, probably didn’t address that as well as I would’ve liked. … That part of it is hard, and different guys on your team are affected differently. Not everybody’s the same, I think that’s the thing you quickly see, too.”

The Tigers regrouped, however, winning four of their next five before another COVID-19 halt in mid-February. But with previous experience, Brownell’s squad wasn’t fazed by the break. Clemson picked up three wins in four games before entering the ACC Tournament.

Clemson fell in the second-round and in its first game of the conference tourney, however, losing to Miami 67-64. The loss wasn’t the start to March the Tigers were expecting.

“When you have those kinds of kids, you want good things to happen for them,” Brownell said. “You want them to play in a tournament like this because they deserve this. That’s why I felt so strongly about this group all year, I knew what kind of kids we had, how hard they’d been working. The sacrifices they’ve made. You just want it for them very badly because you want good things to happen for good people.”

Now, the Tigers’ sole focus is on making an NCAA Tournament run. Their defense is the 25th-best in the nation, per KenPom.com. Aamir Simms was a freshman on the 2018 Sweet 16 team; now he’s an All-ACC second-team member leading Clemson in points, rebounds and assists.

Brownell wanted his team to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Now they’re here.