Brad Brownell breaks down Clemson's 'terrific' defensive effort vs. Georgia Tech

Clemson has traditionally excelled on the defensive end of the court under Brad Brownell, but that hasn’t been the case this year.

The Tigers have been in the middle of the pack in the ACC defensively throughout the 2023-24 season. Clemson got back to playing elite defense in the second half of Wednesday’s game against Georgia Tech, holding the Yellow Jackets to 24 percent shooting.

Clemson outscored Georgia Tech 38-26 in the second half to pull away for an 81-57 road victory. After the game, Brownell shared that he was proud of his team, particularly with the way the Tigers defended.

“We have some weaknesses that our guys really have to stay focused on, and tonight they were terrific,” Brad Brownell said. “I thought they followed our game plan really well and just continued to play with great effort throughout the full 40 minutes.”

The performance came after Clemson struggled defensively a few days earlier against NC State. The Wolfpack made 9 of 20 3-pointers and shot 56 percent from the field in the second half on Saturday against Clemson to rally for a 78-77 win.

The defensive showing left Brownell disappointed, but his team responded the right way.

“We’ve had trouble at times defending as well as we need to. The last 10 minutes against State we played very poorly defensively,” Brownell said. “We were OK in the first half – average, probably. And then for the next 10 minutes of the second half we were fantastic. And then we had a lull, and that’s a little bit how we’ve played at times this year. So just getting our team to sustain defensively and compete for the full 40 minutes.”

Clemson did that against Georgia Tech to improve to 18-8 (8-7) with five regular season games remaining. The Tigers still have a chance to earn a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

It has been an impressive bounce-back season for Brownell’s squad after the Tigers struggled down the stretch last year and just missed out on the NCAA Tournament.

The plan for this year was to leave no doubt that Clemson is an NCAA Tournament team. Barring a collapse, the Tigers have done that.

Clemson is No. 25 in the NET entering Saturday’s game against Florida State. The Tigers also have games remaining against Pitt, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Wake Forest.

Clemson is projected as a No. 5 seed in On3’s latest Bracketology projections.