Brad Brownell stresses importance of health for Clemson's success

Clemson has had a bit of an up-and-down season, but the Tigers managed to snap a three-game losing skid on Wednesday night with a decisive 94-54 win over Florida State.

The good news for Tigers fans? Clemson is beginning to get healthy again.

“Well I hope so. And yeah, that’s important,” coach Brad Brownell said after the win. “We need Brevin (Galloway) healthy, we need Chase (Hunter) healthy, we need PJ (Hall) healthy. Alex (Hemenway) is still not all the way back. We need him to be able to help us down the stretch run. But our freshmen have improved, and I thought they played well tonight. That’s really important down the stretch.”

Clemson’s freshmen were very good off the bench on Wednesday night.

Joshua Beadle scored 10 points, Chauncey Wiggins scored nine and RJ Godfrey scored six off the bench.

In total the freshmen combined for 25 points, six rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block. It’s not the first time they’ve contributed meaningfully to the bottom line.

Clemson’s health seems to be improving overall along with the comfort level of the freshmen.

“We had some games earlier in the year where we played them a few times and sometimes it didn’t always go very well,” Brownell said. “But they’ve been very positive contributors here recently, and we expect a lot out of them.”

Clemson still alive in ACC title race

It’s been a rollercoaster season for the Clemson Tigers, but Brad Brownell and his team are still in the thick of the ACC title fight.

Clemson is 19-7 on the season, and currently fourth in the ACC with a conference record of 11-4. Still, they’re just one game behind the lead, and just snapped their three game losing streak.

After a victory on Wednesday over Florida State, one with Clemson’s health improving, Brownell elaborated on how his team is still in the thick of things.

“We’re still in it. We’re right there,” started Brownell. “We might be a game out right now. But we’ve got to continue to play well and keep us in it. It’s what you want to be. You want to be playing meaningful games in March. That’s what this team has done. It’s kind of what I told them was part of my message this week. I put up a calendar from Richmond to Duke. We were 7-0. We worked really hard during that time. A lot of that time was during the break, when we were going two-a-days. I just kind of reminded our guys that the reason you’re still playing for special things right now was because of that five-week period, you guys — all you thought about was Clemson basketball. We really poured into it, and we had an incredible five weeks.

“As you get back to school and a lot of things happen and distractions of that, injuries and all kinds of things that can sidetrack you. During the season, you may get sidetracked for a week or two. It happens to a lot of teams, most teams. But if you’re still in a position to play for something special, but we need to have a good week. So we’ve started off with the first step in that, and now we’ve got to play well on Saturday.”