CLEMSON -- Three days after an excruciating football loss to South Carolina, fans packed Littlejohn Coliseum not knowing what to expect against mighty Kentucky -- but certainly knowing they needed a lift after what unfolded at Death Valley.
BECOME A TIGERILLUSTRATED.com SUBSCRIBER!
Brad Brownell's team provided a great, if not perfect, hangover cure in a 70-66 victory on Dec. 3.
ALSO SEE: Sammy's brother talks Clemson's coaches, updates recruiting | Tuesday Insider | Four-star running back dishes on Clemson interest | Monday P.M. Nuggets | Monday Insider | Clemson's verbal commitments
And in a weird way it felt like some of the lift the Tigers supplied that night might've helped with some of the football mojo present four nights later in Charlotte against SMU.
Dabo Swinney attended a basketball game last night for the first time in a while. He's been a busy man lately, hiring a new defensive coordinator among all the other things these days that make a college head coach's job crazier than ever.
But it seemed totally fitting that he was in the house and just a few rows behind a basketball team that not only outplayed but outclassed a North Carolina team loaded with McDonald's All-Americans.
Forty-eight hours earlier, Clemson knocked off a much mightier team in Duke and Garrett Riley announced the image of Brownell as his new profile pic on X.
The football shadow has always loomed over the basketball program at Clemson, and the corresponding disparity of attention and passion has sometimes naturally worn on basketball coaches including Brownell.
During the Oliver Purnell era, one of the main reasons fans gravitated to basketball was because football was such a frustrating rollercoaster under Tommy Bowden.
After Brownell's first team in 2010-11 went 22-12 and made the NCAA Tournament, over the next six seasons the Tigers were shut out of the NCAAs and made the NIT twice.
That stretch of course coincided with Swinney ushering the football program to a level not even the most ardent orange kool-aid guzzlers thought possible when he took over.
Brownell signed up for this job. And he certainly wasn't perfect over that aforementioned stretch. Yet it's nonetheless difficult for a basketball program to get traction when an ascending football program is taking up all the oxygen in the room.
Last night, North Carolina's bus became the third this season to leave a trail of blue blood on its route out of Clemson. Regardless of what this team does or doesn't do from this point, those three victories are going to be treasured for many years by Clemson fans.
But as much is made of the recent Dabo 2.0 version of leadership that includes a less stringent stance on the transfer portal and no apparent misgivings about the presence of four millionaire players on his roster, we're probably all guilty of not fully appreciating the Brownell 2.0 era that goes back much further and began when most of us were consumed with six straight playoff runs in football.
A long time ago, Brownell correctly concluded that if a lot of money was going to be raised for basketball he was going to have to spend a lot of his time and energy on it. The "friendraising" ended up helping with facilities, and then with player compensation.
Last night's victory made it five 20-win marks over the last eight seasons. It started in 2017-18 when transfers Shelton Mitchell, Marcquise Reed and Eli Thomas helped propel them to the Round of 16.
Last year, transfers Joe Girard and Jack Clark provided vital contributions in the run to the Elite Eight.
And now, two more representatives of a more transactional era are providing overwhelming evidence that the right type of transfers can not only not detract from your culture but add to it greatly.
This time last year, the vast majority of people inside Littlejohn last night had never heard the name Viktor Lakhin.
Now the jolly Russian is a certified, fan-freaking-favorite.
Jaeden Zackery was a more familiar face upon arrival because he played at Boston College.
But fans are as smitten with him and his presence as they would be someone who's been here for five years.
Last night the two combined for 38 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists (all from Zackery), five steals and five blocks (all from Lakhin).
But it goes beyond the floor. Witness the joyous celebrations by Lakhin and Zackery during Saturday's court-storming.
Witness Chase Hunter, who's been here since 2019, sitting with Lakhin during a press conference and smiling at just about everything the big guy has to say.
Witness Lakhin, after his post-Duke press conference concluded, saying: "Go Tigers baby."
Witness Lakhin last night in front of the microphones: "We're blue bloods too now."
The point we're trying to make: You resonate with fans when you play well, sure. That's the most important part.
But you make them fall in love with you when you speak the language.
Don't misunderstand: We're not saying Brownell's blueprint for roster management is superior to Swinney's. That part is apples and oranges in a lot of ways.
Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!
But as Swinney has evolved and adapted while watching the impact transfers have had on Brownell's program, surely some of this has been a revelation for him.
And confirmation of the bounty that can come if you find the right guys.
Football has always been king at Clemson and it always will be. Grand things appear within reach for Swinney's program right now as a highly gifted team trains its focus on 2025.
Yet this is one of those rare times when the shadow cast by basketball achievement is so extraordinary that it looms over even the football giant.
BECOME A TIGERILLUSTRATED.com SUBSCRIBER!
Swinney's program is doing quite well and doesn't really need a lift at this point, but the basketball program is providing it.
All hail Brad Brownell, the culture/portal king.
TODAY: BIG DEALS on a ton of Clemson gear at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
(Checkout code: 24SHIP)
