Our one-on-one with Brad Brownell

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The close losses tend to even out.

But they never came close to evening out during the 2018-19 season for Brad Brownell and Clemson’s basketball team.

If the other team had a last-second shot to win, it was going to go in.

If there was a questionable call in the waning moments of a close game, it was going to go against the Tigers.

That just felt like the rule of a disappointing season in which Clemson went 20-13, 9-9 in the ACC and without an NCAA Tournament appearance that most folks counted on when Marcquise Reed and Shelton Mitchell decided to return for their final season.

The hard luck continued this summer when anticipated starters Jonathan Baehre and Clyde Trapp suffered torn ACLs, further thinning a roster that lost Reed, Mitchell, Elijah Thomas, David Skara and Javan White.

Mass turnover has been the story of this offseason, and not just with players: Steve Smith’s contract wasn’t renewed after his entanglement with the FBI’s wiretap investigation. Two new faces are on the coaching staff, adding to seven newcomers on the player roster.

Though Brownell’s hopes of sneaking up on the rest of the ACC this season took a major hit with the loss of Baehre and Trapp, the recent trip to Italy for the World University games brought reason for hope.