Brad Brownell identifies what stands out to him in Clemson's road tests

Clemson men’s basketball is 9-0 to start the season and sitting atop the ACC. And Brad Brownell’s squad hasn’t been doing it with a buffet of home games, either.

The Tigers have played just four games at home to start the year, playing a pair of road games and three neutral-site games. It’s provided some good tests, Brownell said, and taught him plenty about his teams resilience and mental strength.

“I just think we’ve been a little resilient at times. When we’ve gotten behind, we’ve been fine. We haven’t panicked. We’ve kept playing, stayed with things. I think we’ve done a good job, both as a staff and team, or making a few adjustments every once in a while within games or, whether it’s timeouts or halftime, and having an older group helps because you feel like they can handle that and they can make an adjustment on the fly,” Brownell said.

Veteran players have also aided the group coming together, Brownell said. Clemson has its share of new additions, and the new faces have acclimated perhaps quicker than normal due to the advanced age and maturity of the roster.

And that experience spills over on the court, too. The players on this Clemson team have been around long enough to know some games might be decided on defense while others will be about transition scoring and getting to the free throw line and act accordingly, tailoring their play to what the game dicatates.

For Brownell, the result has been a team that’s handled its business no matter where it has taken the court, letting the head coach focus on maximizing this veteran squad amid a 9-0 start.

“And I think that experience has helped us in just that they’ve come together the way that they have. Every time you start a new season, there’s a different voice in the room. There’s — you’ve gotta start over building your group and they’ve done a really good job of coming together, listening with each other and trusting each other and just playing good basketball and kind of playing, doing what’s necessary, maybe, because every game can be a little bit different and play itself out a little bit different,” Brownell said. “Sometimes it’s more a little inside or outside or defense or rebounding, whatever we need to do, our guys have been able to make some adjustments to how we’re being played, pretty well.”