Clemson Tigers guard Chase Hunter announces his return for a fifth season

Clemson Tigers guard Chase Hunter has announced that he will return for a fifth season on Monday. He made the announcement on Instagram.

Hunter is using his extra year of eligibility from the pandemic impacted season.

“Unfinished business,” Hunter wrote in a social media post on Monday. “Lets run it back!”

In the 2022-23 season, Chase Hunter started in 31 games for the Tigers. He averaged 13.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game as a starter. He also shot 36% from three last season. However, he did miss some time due to an injury.

Coming out of high school, Hunter was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2019. In that class, he was the 23rd ranked shooting guard and the 114th ranked player overall.

Chase Hunter will hope to build on his performance from last season and lead Clemson to the NCAA Tournament in the 2023-24 season after being snubbed last season.

Brad Brownell said his heart hurt for the seniors

After being snubbed out of an NCAA Tournament bid, Clemson head coach Brad Brownell explained that his heart hurt for seniors like Chase Hunter.

“I’m really proud of this team, my heart hurts for Hunter Tyson, Brevin Galloway, the seniors. They don’t get another chance. And what those guys sacrificed and how hard they worked to put our team in this position to get a chance. That’s the part as a coach that you see that really – that just hurts you personally to have to watch that, watch those guys suffer a little bit,” Brownell said.

“Having said that I do think we’ll rally, I think our guys will hopefully shake it off today.”

After starting the season well and making a surprising rise to No. 1 in the ACC during the early part of the conference schedule, the Tigers fell off the bubble and missed out on a chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament.

Head coach Brad Brownell and his staff now look to rebuild the roster and build on the flashes of success by carrying it into March with a chance to play more postseason basketball.

The retention of Hunter is a great start for the Tigers, who will need to replace production lost to graduation with young talent or the transfer portal in order to make an impact.