CLEMSON -- There's a years-running joke among Clemson fans about Dabo Swinney's public assessment of injuries.
Coaches have charts that tell them whether to go for it on fourth down, go for two instead of kicking an extra point, etc.
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Well Clemson fans, particularly those of the message-board habitat, have a chart that translates Swinney's injury explanations.
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"Day to day" usually gets cynically interpreted as "thoughts and prayers" or "RIP."
Brad Brownell operates from the opposite extreme. He's a realist, and he acknowledges probably too much so.
Case in point: Back on Nov. 17, after a hard-fought loss at Boise State, Brownell revealed Ian Schieffelin had been dealing with a calf injury that wasn't going away anytime soon.
This is what he said that day:
"It's actually something that's been with him probably for a couple of weeks now. He's practiced most days leading into this week, not every day. We've pulled him a couple of times. He's just got a calf-muscle strain that really is bothering him. And so he really -- I don't think he felt like he could go these past couple of days, and I wasn't going to risk it. We wanted to make sure we had him for the game. I just think he played with great toughness. I'm sure he's playing through some pain. And we're going to have to manage him. I think it's going to be one of those things we're going to have to manage for a long time."
This sounded ... ominous?
Turns out it's been ... not so much.
Schieffelin has been a force of nature of late, earning ACC Player of the Week honors after averaging 13 points, 16 rebounds and three assists in victories over Miami and Kentucky.
And those numbers don't adequately encapsulate his recent impact:
He had 20 rebounds against Kentucky, eight of them offensive, while handing out four assists despite missing 16 of 20 shots from the field.
In a highly impressive win over Penn State on Nov. 26, he had 19 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists and four steals.
And a day earlier against San Francisco: 18 points, 13 rebounds and five assists.
That's not just good. It's startlingly good.
As Clemson prepares for a late-morning tip against Memphis on Saturday, it's abundantly clear that the 9-1 Tigers are way ahead of schedule after losing PJ Hall, Joe Girard, Jack Clark and RJ Godfrey.
It's also abundantly clear that all the attention on Hall last year wasn't the catalyst for Schieffelin that some of us thought.
And when we say "some of us" we're fully disclosing we were in the camp of people who thought it'd be a chore for Schieffelin to exceed or even maintain his level of play from last season when he earned most-improved honors in the ACC.
So far, that analysis has been comically wrong. And Schieffelin hasn't even been at full strength.
From the Boise State loss to last Saturday's victory at Miami, Clemson played seven games in three weeks.
Now they -- and Schieffelin -- should benefit from the week of rest.
"I feel good, honestly," Schieffelin said Wednesday. "We've had a couple of days off here, and we had just been kind of going at it for this first month-and-a-half or however long we've been playing now. I feel good. Ready to go for Saturday."
Brownell's current view of it:
"He's doing better. I think there's still times when he has some soreness, certainly. But for the most part he's been practicing recently. Obviously got a couple of days off. Sunday, and Monday we didn't do much. I don't even think he did anything; we just kind of did some skill work. Tuesday we were off. So he's had three or four days really to kind of get back at it. And he practiced (Wednesday). He was fine.
"So he's fine. He has some soreness and tightness in his calf. We've just got to be careful with it every once in a while."
The beauty of what's collectively unfolded to date has been the diversity of important contributors.
Entering the season it was thought that Schieffelin and Chase Hunter would have to be star-quality players for this team to continue achieving highly. But there have been plenty of revelations beyond those two, including:
-- Jaeden Zackery has not only supplied some important offensive contributions, but he's been a total ace as a lockdown defender at the top.
-- Viktor Lakhin is averaging 11.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. He's crafty in a number of situations and just seems to have an overall comfort that wasn't apparent at the start of the season.
-- Four other guys (Chauncey Wiggins, Dillon Hunter, Del Jones and Myles Foster) have been ready for the moment in various ways.
Undoubtedly, Schieffelin and Hunter provide the horsepower of this engine. The plays they made for Clemson to overcome Miami six days ago provided a calming effect and a confidence for everyone else.
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Brownell has been around a long time, and as we said earlier he's a realist. So when he was asked this week if Schieffelin is the best rebounder he's ever had, his answer brought gravity:
"Yeah, he probably is. ... I don't know that I've coached anybody that got 20 rebounds in a game. I've coached some good players and competitive guys. But his ability to pursue the ball, and drive to pursue the ball -- it's different.
"Especially when he was a young player, we used to talk about it a lot. He talked about: 'Hey, that's my way to get on the court.' He's a relentless competitor when it comes to that. ... I think he has a willingness to sustain effort and consistently go after the ball. Most guys give in after a while and don't. But he certainly has a knack for it. He certainly has a feel for where the ball is going to go. And he's been doing it a long time. So yeah, he's pretty dog-gone good at it."
In the moment, Brownell's mid-November assessment of Schieffelin's injury seemed to bring a red flag.
Turns out the opponents since then have raised the white flag.
Turns out the guys in Scheffelin's way have been ... day to day.
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