Took some time to step away and reflect on this year and Brownell's career as a whole. In full disclosure, I'm a Brownell guy, I'm a defense first basketball coach, but more importantly I'm a Clemson guy. I try my best to remain optimistic. I know the game a little, but I'm far from an expert but here are my opinions nonetheless.
First key to having a good basketball team is to have a good PG. That is day 1 stuff, nothing ground breaking. Someone has to be able to dribble the ball against pressure and get over half-court to get your offense started, and without a PG you won't be very successful. I've experienced coaching both with and without a good PG, and can attest that you won't be very successful without one. I think it's amazing how well we've done with Rod Hall at the point. This is not a knock on Rod Hall as a player, because I think he's a terrific player, just playing WAY out of position/role. Rod Hall was not even the primary ball-handler in HS, he was a combo guard who could dribble the ball some. Rod would be best suited to be the backup PG who's main job is to deny the other team's leading scorer the ball. I think this is what he was recruited for by Coach Brownell, let's not forget that we had some misses and Rod Hall was a late addition to that recruiting class.
Rod Hall was not intended to be a 4 year starting PG at Clemson, but through recruiting misses, mis-evaluations, and transfers he was the PG by default. A lot of those shortcomings have to fall on the coach, and I'm sure Coach Brownell would admit that. I think his recruiting strategy has changed drastically since he's been here. I think he got a crash course in ACC basketball his first year here, and realized he needed a different type of system/guy to be successful here over what worked for him at Wright State and UNC-Wilmington. Those teams he had were tough, scrappy defensive teams with balanced scoring atttacks on offense usually led by an undersized 2 guard who can absolutely fill it up if you give him just a sliver of a look at the basket.
I think that Coach Brownell put a lot more emphasis on defense here than he has in the past, because maybe you could win games on defense alone at the lower levels. But the ACC has guys who can hit contested shots on a regular basis night in and night out, and that's just not something that is comparable to the competition at Wright State and UNCW. I think part of the reason we struggle is because Coach Brownell was stubborn in his ways and kept trying to recruit guys to make his system work. He's tried to take athletic guys who excel at playing defense and hope that we can score just enough to win. In the ACC you just can't simply out-defend people, and before you bring up Virginia they weren't really good until they got a couple of good guards (Perentes and Brogdon) and a couple of scorers (Justin Anderson, etc). Obviously that hasn't been a consistent way for us to win, and I hope we are starting to see some changes.
Hopefully gone are the days of trying to force a combo guard into playing PG in the hopes of being able to out-defend everyone at every position. Finally getting a win on the recruiting trail with Hudson and Holmes, will allow us to see an actual Brad Brownell offense for the first time since the days of Demontez Stitt and Andre Young. A good lead guard will allow us to play faster when we want to, and be able to control the ball when we don't.
Coach Brownell always hung his hat on playing tough man to man defense and running a motion offense. But when you have a PG who isn't a consistent threat to score from outside or isn't a great passer then you are playing 4 on 5 at best. If Holmes and Hudson are what we think they are then it makes everyone on the team better. Grantham and Blossomgame will be able to stretch the defense allowing the PG to penetrate and either finish or dish. Nnoko will be better just by floor spacing alone and we may finally see Jordan Roper/Gabe DeVoe/Patrick Rooks in a spot up shooter role where they play their best basketball. Neither of the last 3 players mentioned would ever be considered great ball-handlers and I'm sure are more comfortable in a catch and shoot role than they would be in a slashing role.
The best part about Holmes and Hudson is that neither one of them is expected to be the man, for the first time in Brownell's career at Clemson he will have his leading scorer returning to school. It will also be beneficial having 2 true PG's, competition will only make them better and being able to practice against a talented player everyday will make us better as a team. We are on the verge of seeing Brad Brownell's first real team and that's what he should be judged on. If you want to fire him because he wasn't able to out-recruit Rod Hall in 4 years, then that's another issue and a case can certainly be made for that. Hopefully the new arena will give us the edge we need, or at the very least put us on a even playing field with the teams we recruit against.
I'm excited about the future of Clemson Basketball because we haven't seen a real Brad Brownell team yet, if you don't believe me find the video of the UNCW vs Maryland NCAA tournament game that was made famous by Drew Nicholas hitting a miracle shot at the buzzer to give the Terps a win over Brownell. Those teams were fun to watch and played a very entertaining brand of basketball. Hopefully with a PG and a talented cast around them we can be known for more than just lockdown defense.
First key to having a good basketball team is to have a good PG. That is day 1 stuff, nothing ground breaking. Someone has to be able to dribble the ball against pressure and get over half-court to get your offense started, and without a PG you won't be very successful. I've experienced coaching both with and without a good PG, and can attest that you won't be very successful without one. I think it's amazing how well we've done with Rod Hall at the point. This is not a knock on Rod Hall as a player, because I think he's a terrific player, just playing WAY out of position/role. Rod Hall was not even the primary ball-handler in HS, he was a combo guard who could dribble the ball some. Rod would be best suited to be the backup PG who's main job is to deny the other team's leading scorer the ball. I think this is what he was recruited for by Coach Brownell, let's not forget that we had some misses and Rod Hall was a late addition to that recruiting class.
Rod Hall was not intended to be a 4 year starting PG at Clemson, but through recruiting misses, mis-evaluations, and transfers he was the PG by default. A lot of those shortcomings have to fall on the coach, and I'm sure Coach Brownell would admit that. I think his recruiting strategy has changed drastically since he's been here. I think he got a crash course in ACC basketball his first year here, and realized he needed a different type of system/guy to be successful here over what worked for him at Wright State and UNC-Wilmington. Those teams he had were tough, scrappy defensive teams with balanced scoring atttacks on offense usually led by an undersized 2 guard who can absolutely fill it up if you give him just a sliver of a look at the basket.
I think that Coach Brownell put a lot more emphasis on defense here than he has in the past, because maybe you could win games on defense alone at the lower levels. But the ACC has guys who can hit contested shots on a regular basis night in and night out, and that's just not something that is comparable to the competition at Wright State and UNCW. I think part of the reason we struggle is because Coach Brownell was stubborn in his ways and kept trying to recruit guys to make his system work. He's tried to take athletic guys who excel at playing defense and hope that we can score just enough to win. In the ACC you just can't simply out-defend people, and before you bring up Virginia they weren't really good until they got a couple of good guards (Perentes and Brogdon) and a couple of scorers (Justin Anderson, etc). Obviously that hasn't been a consistent way for us to win, and I hope we are starting to see some changes.
Hopefully gone are the days of trying to force a combo guard into playing PG in the hopes of being able to out-defend everyone at every position. Finally getting a win on the recruiting trail with Hudson and Holmes, will allow us to see an actual Brad Brownell offense for the first time since the days of Demontez Stitt and Andre Young. A good lead guard will allow us to play faster when we want to, and be able to control the ball when we don't.
Coach Brownell always hung his hat on playing tough man to man defense and running a motion offense. But when you have a PG who isn't a consistent threat to score from outside or isn't a great passer then you are playing 4 on 5 at best. If Holmes and Hudson are what we think they are then it makes everyone on the team better. Grantham and Blossomgame will be able to stretch the defense allowing the PG to penetrate and either finish or dish. Nnoko will be better just by floor spacing alone and we may finally see Jordan Roper/Gabe DeVoe/Patrick Rooks in a spot up shooter role where they play their best basketball. Neither of the last 3 players mentioned would ever be considered great ball-handlers and I'm sure are more comfortable in a catch and shoot role than they would be in a slashing role.
The best part about Holmes and Hudson is that neither one of them is expected to be the man, for the first time in Brownell's career at Clemson he will have his leading scorer returning to school. It will also be beneficial having 2 true PG's, competition will only make them better and being able to practice against a talented player everyday will make us better as a team. We are on the verge of seeing Brad Brownell's first real team and that's what he should be judged on. If you want to fire him because he wasn't able to out-recruit Rod Hall in 4 years, then that's another issue and a case can certainly be made for that. Hopefully the new arena will give us the edge we need, or at the very least put us on a even playing field with the teams we recruit against.
I'm excited about the future of Clemson Basketball because we haven't seen a real Brad Brownell team yet, if you don't believe me find the video of the UNCW vs Maryland NCAA tournament game that was made famous by Drew Nicholas hitting a miracle shot at the buzzer to give the Terps a win over Brownell. Those teams were fun to watch and played a very entertaining brand of basketball. Hopefully with a PG and a talented cast around them we can be known for more than just lockdown defense.
