Brad Brownell disappointed Syracuse fans booed Joe Girard

Head coach Brad Brownell led his Clemson Tigers into the Carrier Dome and earned a win against Syracuse. Amid that game, former Orange star Joe Girard returned to his former home court amid a chorus of boos.

After the game, Brownell shared that he was disappointed that Syracuse fans booed Girard.

“I don’t know, I was a little disappointed in the boos,” Brad Brownell said. “I mean, I get it. The students, especially, that’s just normal stuff and I hope that most of the fans, I think probably a lot of the fans were Joe Girard fans and weren’t booing him.”

Amid the booing, Brownell led the Clemson side in a round of applause for Girard. It wasn’t a planned moment but it was an important one to the Clemson head coach.

“But I was just supporting my guy. I mean, he’s one of us now. He’s always going to have a big part of his heart as Syracuse, but I think he’s gonna have another shade of orange down there that’s Clemson, and that is something that’s good about all of this and he has built relationships with a whole different set of folks and, obviously, he has a whole other set of folks down in Clemson that are going to help him for the rest of his life also,” Brownell said.

“Right? We’re not just using Joe for basketball. I’m gonna help that young man as long as he needs help for the rest of his life and hope to have a relationship with him for 40 years.”

Joe Girard spent four seasons at Syracuse, where he was a star. However, for a fifth season, he decided to move on and transfer to Clemson. Since then, he’s started 23 games for the Tigers, averaging 15.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game.

Joe Girard happy with win over Syracuse, his former team

After the game, Joe Girard shared that he was happy to get a win over his former team. He explained that winning was the most important thing to him going into the game.

“I mean it was very important. I had people text me from Syracuse that I’ve met that were saying, ‘I hope you have 30 but Syracuse wins.’ But for me it was the complete opposite. I would have taken three points and the W. So, that’s all I cared about,” Girard said.

“And I’m glad, especially coming off a big win like North Carolina. You don’t want to kinda have a mishap in the next game and let all of your energy out. So, I’m glad we could get rolling here. We haven’t won two games in a row in a while. So, it’s big for us.”