Brad Brownell to Clemson players: 'Don't just be happy to be here'

A year after narrowly missing out on the NCAA Tournament it would be easy for Clemson to be satisfied with where it’s at. After all, the team has secured a berth in the Sweet 16 for only the second time since 1997.

It’s been one heck of a run. But coach Brad Brownell has a message for his team going into the Sweet 16 against 2-seed Arizona on Thursday night.

“Yeah, don’t just be happy to be here. We talked, at one point during the season, I think it was in January, when we were struggling, I had a really hard meeting with our players,” Brownell explained. “I told them I was — we were teetering a little bit. We had an unbelievable November and December. We were, I don’t know if it’s just so excited to play, and we played a really hard schedule, and we won a bunch of games. We had, like, no adversity, and we were 10-1 and playing great.

“Then came back from Christmas and got smacked in the mouth by some teams in our league. And had a hard time stringing some games together. We lost a bunch of close games, one-point games.”

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The Tigers have been a little streaky this year. They managed to win enough in the ACC to earn an NCAA Tournament berth, but for a while it looked like that might not happen.

Clemson was wobbling, wondering whether the same fate as a year ago might be in store. Brownell delivered a key message to his team.

“At one point I told our team, I think we were 4-6 in the ACC, and I said, ‘Guys, we need to understand something. I think some of you guys think we’re the 10-1 team. Right now we’re the 4-6 team. If we go 4-6 again, we won’t be playing in the NCAA Tournament,'” Brownell said. “I said, ‘That would be a shame because of what you did the first two months of the year, but also because I think we’re good enough to go to the Final Four.’

“That’s not something that I throw around easily. I asked my older players, have you ever heard me say that to you? And they said no. I know my 2018 team, I said the same thing to them. I thought we were good enough to do it.”

Clemson is only two games away now. First up will be Arizona. Get through that one and either 1-seed North Carolina or 4-seed Alabama will await.

“But obviously we’re going to have to finish the season the right way,” Brownell said. “And we played better, still a little inconsistent at times. But I do think there’s a belief our guys have that we’re pretty good. And when we’re clicking, we can play with anybody in the country. We’ve proven that. We’ve beat some of the teams in this tournament. So I think that’s a big part of it.

“But these seasons are so long. They’re almost too long, to be honest with you. We start practicing in September, and now we’re at the end of March. You’re going to have ups and downs. You’re going to have some times that don’t go well, and you’ve got to respond.”

Clemson has done that all year long. The team lost three of its last four going into the Big Dance but has bounced back admirably and won two straight.

How long can it keep the winning streak going?

The Tigers will tip off against the Wildcats at 7:09 p.m. ET on CBS on Thursday.