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CLEMSON -- The first real transformation of Dabo Swinney's program was followed by a struggle to adapt to that transformation.
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The 2011 team started out 8-0 and was the story of college football. The weight of that celebrity was too much, and Swinney's third team dropped four of its last six games though it did make the landmark ACC title breakthrough.
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There are a lot of differences between what went on then in football and what is going on now with Brad Brownell's basketball team.
But hearing Brownell reflect after Wednesday's 54-50 win over Louisville, we couldn't help but think back to more than nine years ago.
"I think we thought it was going to be easier in some of the games," Brownell said. "We wanted it to be easier, and then when it was harder than we wanted it to be we didn't handle it well.
"We probably didn't handle being ranked high well. We didn't handle some of the success well. So our back has been against the wall here a little bit lately, and I'm just glad to see our guys respond. They've done a good job the last several days in practice, and we've gotten humbled the last week."
When a team follows a 9-1 start with three straight losses by 35, 18 and 19 points (and the 19 doesn't accurately indicate just how bad it was at Florida State), it doesn't matter how good the other teams might be. It doesn't matter that your rhythm was disrupted by a positive COVID test and a pause to team activities.
What matters most is trying to figure out if you'll ever get back what you had. Yeah, those three opponents played really well. But Clemson played really poorly, too.
For Aamir Simms, so much of the emphasis has been on exerting himself as a leader that he almost forgot to exert himself as a player.
Simms put up 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds (5 offensive) while dishing four assists in the gritty victory over Louisville.
Against Virginia and Florida State, Simms played a total of 50 minutes and produced seven points with 10 rebounds.
"I talked to him about it: 'Hey man, you're going to have to do more,'" Brownell said. "Sometimes he's trying to lead so much and talk, and that's great. But you need to lead by example first. I think sometimes he can get preoccupied. He's such a good kid, and he wants to help and he wants to do well. He's helping coach guys and this, that and the other, and I think sometimes his energy needs to be focused less on some of that and, like:
"'Hey man. Go play. Focus on your play. There's enough there, and we're asking you to do enough that your play needs to be where your energy and mind is. Let me and some of the other coaches coach some of the other guys and help them, and you can give them some pointers now and then. But your voice has gotten louder than your play. And your play needs to be louder than your voice.' So I think he took that to heart. We challenged him in some film sessions with some mistakes he's made recently."
Some of the message-board contingent sometimes accuses Brownell of making excuses and blaming others while seldom pointing the finger at himself, but that doesn't seem fair.
Brownell voluntarily scrutinized himself for the practice format he chose last week as the Tigers were trying to right the ship.
"We had a couple practices between Virginia and Georgia Tech to try to solve some things, then we turned the ball over 20 times against Georgia Tech. Then you flip right into the Florida State game, and I didn't make a good decision; we probably game-planned too much in that short amount of prep time.
"I went the other way (this week). We didn't do near as much Louisville prep as we normally do for a game. It was just a lot of basic drills that you do in September, and just kept doing it and doing it and doing it, trying to make sure our guys understood the value of that."
There are still some concerning things that need to be sorted out moving forward. Nick Honor has scored a grand total of 22 points in the past four games (including a goose egg Wednesday night) after his 21 points were the catalyst in a spirited victory over N.C. State.
John Newman had two points and four turnovers in 23 minutes against Louisville.
Al-Amir Dawes has battled a groin injury lately but provided a key spark Wednesday with 15 points and four 3-pointers on eight attempts.
But the rest of the team shot 3-of-27 from beyond the arc.
Jonathan Baehre has been nagged by a sore knee.
But the lesson that was reinforced this week: It all starts with defense.
Last week in Atlanta, the Tigers shot 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3 and still lost big.
This week, they shot 35 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3 and beat a ranked team.
Now they go to Duke, not as impressed with themselves and -- Brownell hopes -- more impressed by what it takes to win.
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