CLEMSON -- On the surface, it might sound odd to hear that Brad Brownell and his staff are still learning about their team.
The calendar says it's late January. Ordinarily that's more than enough time to figure out what works and what doesn't.
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Yet there's some validity to the idea, based on the following factors:
-- Jack Clark, viewed as a true difference maker when Clemson grabbed him out of the transfer portal, has struggled mightily with groin issues and will probably never be totally back to what he was. Alex Hemenway has also been out for an extended period.
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-- For all his shooting talent, transfer Joe Girard can be a liability in other areas. He's still adjusting to life at a new program, and vice-versa.
-- This team has some really good offensive players, and some really good defensive players. But few who are a good mix of both.
A Brownell detractor, who's probably been detracting for a while now, would say this is a bunch of excuses.
But, well, it does seem to comport with the reality we've seen on the floor as Brownell is still honing a sense of what makes his 14th Clemson team function the best.
The good news is the Tigers, at 13-5 overall, have already collected some of the bonafides that were beyond the reach of last year's team.
You might have noticed just this week that the Alabama team Clemson beat in Tuscaloosa bagged a victory over Top 10 Auburn.
You might have also noticed that the South Carolina team overpowered by Clemson in Littlejohn just blew the doors off Kentucky.
These are good things for Clemson's standing in the NET, which has been closer to a four-letter word since last March when the Tigers' low regard in the formula ended up costing them a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Yet there's still an element of uncertainty about this bunch, in large part because of a 3-4 ACC record that includes enough dispiriting elements to make you wonder where they go from here.
They stopped the bleeding six days ago at Florida State, and it was certainly an uplifting development to see the catalyst come on the defensive end of the floor where they had sagged so much late in a knee-buckling home defeat to Georgia Tech in double overtime.
But really, all the passing of that test did was shift the focus to the next examination.
That being Saturday's 4 PM game at Duke.
Regular-season college basketball simply doesn't bring the gravity or magnitude of college football, and we certainly don't want to attach any do-or-die stakes to this trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium.
But it will, or should, tell us something important one way or the other.
Back when the Tigers went to the wire in Memphis before suffering their first loss of the season, the setting and the performance felt like a Round of 16 game.
Brownell's team had the goods that day and on days before it. The skill, the camaraderie and the mental toughness were going to serve this team well in ACC play in some of the more difficult situations.
Well, Saturday afternoon would be precisely one of those situations.
Where at FSU the Tigers could shift to a zone and bait the Seminoles into missing 3-pointers, Duke will be much more dangerous from beyond the arc and thus have much better spacing.
The Tigers also have to deal with Kyle Filipowski, who in addition to averaging 18.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game is shooting 42 percent from 3 and is an excellent passer.
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Let's just say PJ Hall has to not only bring his best, but bring his smartest as he tries to avoid fouls whose cost would be magnified greatly in this matchup.
This game also figures to have the Blue Devils' full attention after Pitt walked out of Cameron with a victory last week.
Though it's not realistic to think Clark will get back to full strength anytime soon, the Florida State game showed it's not all gloom and doom. The N.C. State transfer brings size, versatility and poise.
He's a good rebounder, and against the Seminoles he got back in transition to contest a layup that probably wouldn't have been contested without him.
He's good enough to bring a new variable to the equation.
An equation that has taken some time for Brownell to solve.
He and everyone else learn more Saturday.
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