The road map to Clemson's extended stay in the NCAA Tournament

CLEMSON — Sunday was a day of celebration within Clemson basketball. That’s the way it should be when you gather for the NCAA Selection show with zero suspense about your inclusion.

The third consecutive year of inclusion (and probably should be the fourth).

Yeah, that’s something special.

But Saturday was a day of agitation as Brad Brownell looked back on what unfolded late Friday night against Duke.

“I told my team some of that is on me,” Brownell said in the postgame press conference. “I don’t think that we had the best plan in place initially, and I didn’t do enough to help them in the first half.”

Brownell could’ve blamed fatigue, physical and mental, as his team played its third game in three days. His team certainly looked a step slow in the first 20 minutes.

But he wanted none of that.

“I need to do a better job of helping my players. When we don’t play well, it starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job on either end of the floor. I won’t sleep very well tonight because of it.”

That scathing wee-hours assessment starts with the head coach but doesn’t end there. Our hunch is Brownell was also talking to his staff in the aftermath of the Duke dismantling.

This brings an interesting layer as this team moves past Sunday’s celebratory vibe and directly into preparing to do something memorable in Tampa, starting with an Iowa team that’s a slight favorite.

Over the past two years, the aura Clemson carried into March Madness wasn’t predictive.

Two years ago they’d suffered a desultory one-and-done defeat to Boston College in the ACC Tournament and almost had to remind themselves that they should be excited for Selection Sunday.

That team ended up advancing all the way to the Elite Eight, was that close to the Final Four. Some brutal practices after the team returned home from the Boston College defeat ended up being a critical piece.

Last year, most folks in the Clemson bubble were pretty optimistic about advancing past McNeese State in the first round. But then came a horrid first half that closed with Will Wade’s team up 31-13, and the Tigers fell.

One important development that contributed to that performance: Ian Schieffelin had battled an Achilles injury for much of the season and it worsened to the point that he couldn’t even practice the week of that game in Providence (he finished with a mere point that day).

Add in the absence of Dillon Hunter, who suffered a broken hand in the ACC Tournament, and that’s a lot to overcome in the pursuit of shining moments.

A year later, Clemson is without another important big man with Carter Welling sidelined with a torn ACL.

Two important players lost in the ACC Tournament over a period of a year? That’s tough.

Against a pretty good team Thursday night, the Tigers summoned the spirit and determination to push through and win one for their fallen teammate.

Against a great team the next night, some sobering realities descended. 

On one hand you could fairly say that Clemson had Welling in the regular-season meeting at Cameron Indoor Stadium and the result was basically the same.

On the other, playing without such an important piece is difficult regardless of the quality of your opposition.

With or without Welling, outside shooting was going to be a major factor in how far this team could go in March.

Last year’s team had more skilled shooters but they slumped at a bad time, shooting 24.1 percent from 3-point range over the final six games. That included 3-for-20 against Virginia Tech in the final game of the regular season, 4-for-21 against SMU in the ACC Tournament, and an awful 1-of-15 in the first half against McNeese (they made eight in the second half to finish 9-of-30).

So that was the rub.

And the same will probably be true this week, whether for or against the Tigers.

In the first half against North Carolina on Thursday, Clemson went 5-of-11 from 3-point range in taking a 39-31 lead and then hit more big ones in the second half in surging to an 18-point advantage.

The next night Clemson missed 11 of 13 shots from long range before halftime and found itself down 19.

Theoretically, subtracting Welling from the equation makes for less space outside. But that theory didn’t apply against the Tar Heels as Clemson’s guards did an excellent job of attacking, getting into the paint and breaking down UNC’s defense for high-percentage shots.

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Yes, that’s the road map to an extended stay in the NCAAs.

Of course defense has to travel, too.

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But at this stage, games are decided by what your guards do or don’t do.

That’s the key to more celebrations.

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