CLEMSON – Clemson head coach Brad Brownell and guard Chase Hunter will do one thing most males won’t do.
“Chase and I inform one another we love one another earlier than each recreation,” Brownell stated.
Why?
“We’ve been via a lot. I imply, it isn’t like I like Chase and I don’t love the opposite gamers, it’s only a particular bond now we have as a result of now we have been via this for six years.”
Hunter has been at Clemson because the 2019-’20 season. He and Brownell have skilled extra than simply successful and dropping these final six seasons.
They’ve skilled accidents, recovering from these accidents, the pandemic, the constructing of self-confidence, the beginning of Hunter’s daughter, graduations and, after all, success each on and off the basketball courtroom.
“The primary couple of years had been exhausting,” Brownell stated. “He and I had plenty of conversations when it was not going properly. Simply encouraging him and attempting to get his confidence up as a result of he had been harm.
“It felt like he would take a step ahead after which two steps again. He simply couldn’t fairly get his rhythm. We had been bouncing him round just a little attempting to determine how we had been going to play him in the precise place. There have been totally different guys on the staff, so it was like a younger man going via it.”
Issues weren’t as tough for Ian Schieffelin. In comparison with Hunter’s expertise, Schieffelin has had a captivating basketball profession at Clemson.
By the center of his sophomore season, Schieffelin was taking part in vital minutes for the Tigers and finally turned a full-time starter. Nevertheless it doesn’t imply it was straightforward.
“He didn’t have to attend as lengthy, as most freshman do. However he labored actually exhausting to do this and he was not recruited closely,” Brownell stated. “So, he needed to type of construct confidence his freshman 12 months and as soon as he type of figured it out, we simply type of let him go.”
All of it got here collectively for each Hunter and Schieffelin across the similar time, and since then the 2 have helped lead the Clemson Basketball program to heights it has by no means seen earlier than.
Because of Saturday’s win over Virginia Tech, the Tigers closed out probably the most profitable common season within the 113-year historical past of this system. Clemson earned its twenty sixth common season win, a brand new document, whereas already shattering its document for ACC wins in a season with its 18th.
Coincidentally, Hunter and Schieffelin had been part of the outdated document when the 2022-’23 Tigers received 14 ACC video games.
“Definitely, the final couple of years, the successful, the Elite Eight, the ACC wins and positively, the 26 common season wins, that speaks for itself,” Brownell stated. “However greater than that’s simply the way in which they carry themselves. The respect they’ve helped this system earn, whether or not that’s followers, different coaches, different gamers, whoever, these guys are talked about so much.”
That’s why Saturday night time was just a little surreal for Hunter and Schieffelin. It was their final recreation in Littlejohn Coliseum. It was their final basketball expertise within the city of Clemson, in entrance of their dwelling crowd.
“It felt surreal. It actually has not hit me proper now,” Hunter stated. “It’s in all probability going to hit me in a couple of days once I know I can’t play right here once more. However it’s undoubtedly a loopy feeling for positive.”
Here’s what Hunter and Schieffelin have helped construct of their time at Clemson. This 12 months’s NCAA Match look would be the third for Hunter. It is going to be Schieffelin’s second.
They’ve guided Clemson via probably the most profitable three-year run in this system’s historical past.
Within the final three seasons, the Tigers have posted three straight seasons of 23-plus wins. They went to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Match final 12 months and this 12 months completed tied for second within the ACC standings, the Tigers’ greatest common season end because the 1989-’90 squad completed first.
“It’s about leaving Clemson higher than once we got here in,” Hunter stated. “That was our objective coming into this 12 months…make extra historical past and do large issues. I believe this staff has executed a terrific job of persevering via adversity, whether or not that’s within the recreation or various things.
“We’ve all the time persevered, and we discovered a option to win large video games and that’s the reason the staff does so properly.”
Within the final three seasons, Clemson has a mixed document of 73-28 (.722) total and 43-17 (.716) within the ACC.
“It has been an honor to put on Clemson throughout my chest,” Schieffelin stated. “To be sincere, it’s actually simply the individuals right here. You exit to eat, individuals are speaking to you, they usually say, ‘Good Sport.’
“It exhibits there may be plenty of love across the city, and it has been superior. It has been simply an superior place. Actually, if I may do it a thousand occasions, I’d decide Clemson a thousand occasions.”
And Clemson would decide them.
“There’s some envy different guys have with our staff after they see guys like Chase Hunter, who desires to remain round six years and cares as a lot as he does and the way in which he performs,” Brownell stated. “How exhausting Ian Schieffelin performs. They know there needs to be one thing by way of how these children really feel about your college to do this and for these guys to remain 4 years, as a result of they may get more cash elsewhere.”
