Clemson's reality check
CLEMSON -- Brad Brownell has always been a realist, and that nature can be useful during times when everyone is sky-high.
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Such was the case in mid-December when his team prepared for a trip to Memphis.
Brownell knew the atmosphere was going to be unlike anything Clemson had seen to that point. He knew Memphis was really good. And he knew his team's depth, in the continued absence of Jack Clark and Alex Hemenway, could be a problem.
Even as Clemson battled Memphis to the end and took no shame from what unfolded, Brownell's fears were realized.
It might be stretching it to say he envisioned what chewed the Tigers up in the second half Wednesday night against Miami, because no coach pictures his team allowing a 60-point half, and 21 made baskets on 28 attempts for an almost ridiculous 75-percent clip.
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But he did share that he chastised his team at a practice a few days earlier because their defensive intensity wasn't near what it should be.
"Maybe as bad a defensive half as I've had as a coach," he said in the vapor trail of Miami's 95-82 victory.
And therein, perhaps, rests the trick of one of Brownell's best teams as it navigates the rest of the season.
This team has some really good scorers and is offensive-minded on the whole. But as the 11-2 (1-1 ACC) 16th-ranked Tigers prepare for a visit from No. 8 North Carolina (10-3, 2-0) on Saturday, there's some legitimate questioning as to how much that takes away from their focus on defense.
Maybe it was just a really bad half. It happens, particularly against a team with the caliber of speed, athleticism and skill that the Hurricanes boast.
But there have been times recently -- the second half at Miami, and early in the second half at Memphis -- when Brownell looks out on the floor and wonders what he's watching on the defensive end.
Even in the opening minutes Wednesday, the Tigers were discombobulated on that end of the floor.
"We started the game terribly defensively," Brownell said. "We made like three mistakes in the first four possessions of the game and it's like: ‘I don't really know where our guys were mentally.’ I was disappointed."
Clemson was better thereafter in the first half and took a six-point lead into halftime. In the locker room there was a feeling that the Tigers could build on that lead early in the second half.
Instead, those hopes were quickly ground to dust.
"A little bit like Memphis, we start the second half just awful," he said. "Once it snowballed against us we had a hard time getting it turned around."
The defensive hemorrhaging seemed to affect the flow and decision-making on the offensive end, as even PJ Hall seemed to get away from the plan to establish position in the low block and attack.
More real talk from Brownell to his superstar:
"I was disappointed. I don't think he wanted to get down there very much. And I was telling him that. Plus they're scoring, so he's taking the ball out a lot.
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"But he needed to fight to get lower and do some more things. We just did not have a lot of grit and toughness and staying power in the game. We did not get the game grinding enough probably at times."
And here is where his mind drifted back to defense.
"The thing I've fought this team with occasionally is we have a lot of good offensive players whose identity is probably more offensive-minded than defensive-minded. And sometimes that can work against us where we're not as bothered by being scored upon as some of my other teams because we think we can outscore them. And we do usually outscore them. We scored 82 tonight. That should be enough to have a chance to win the game, and we really weren't in position to win the game."
Brownell doesn't put it all on his players. He said he should've done a better job of helping his team find its bearings when Miami started turning on the afterburners in transition.
"I just thought we were completely out of sorts, and I didn't do a good job of getting my guys to calm down and relax. This was probably the first time all year where we probably lost a little composure in terms of doing what we planned to do in the second half, a little bit on both ends."
So for a gifted team that's led by a realist, this brings a reality check.
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