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CLEMSON -- The first test of Brad Brownell's we-too-deep experiment might've come in the first half Wednesday night against Maryland.
Everything was going great on the scoreboard. Clemson jumped all over the Terrapins, led by as many as 25 in the first half, and was up 38-15 at halftime.
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To Brownell, it was a thing of beauty. To all the fans who are traditionally accustomed to -- how to say this -- a less-than-artistic brand of basketball, it was a blissful, almost out-of-body experience.
To Al-Amir Dawes, it kind of sucked.
Dawes played almost 30 minutes a game last year as a freshman because Brownell didn't have any other options at point guard.
Dawes played seven minutes in the first half against Maryland because Brownell has a really good option at point guard in Nick Honor.
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Don't misunderstand: We're not saying, and Brownell wasn't saying, that Dawes was being selfish and was disappointed in the result because he didn't play enough.
But almost every one of these players is ravenously competitive and believes supremely in his own abilities. Quite a few have aspirations of playing professionally, and typically the best way to make that case is through individual accomplishments.
And therein lies the challenge of playing all these guys.
Without question, this approach makes this team better. But there's also no question that it can be a delicate situation.
Talent alone didn't get these players to the level of playing major college basketball. Consummate self-confidence is also a part of the equation. Just call it ego. And just call it a remarkable accomplishment if a coach is able to successfully overcome those individual desires with a total team buy-in.
Dawes ended up playing a major role in helping the Tigers pull away late after the Terps caused some havoc with their press and trimmed the deficit to 14 points.
He scored all 12 of his points in the second half. He looked fresh and explosive.
You could make a strong case that he wouldn't have been that fresh and explosive had he shouldered the workload he did last year.
Brownell said he was going to make that precise case to Dawes, using it as a glowing affirmation of how the Tigers' rare depth can wear teams down over the course of the game.
Honor finished with 10 points in 28 minutes and was an energetic spark plug in his own right.
Brownell: "I kind of mentioned to (Dawes) on the bench midway through the second half: 'Hey, get ready, You're getting ready to go back in. It's going to be a little bit more crunch time, and I need you. This is when I trust you.' And obviously he went out there and made some big-time plays."
In its opening win over Mississippi State, this team got an early lesson on how much its depth can mean. Star Aamir Simms sat most of the first half of that game in foul trouble, but the Tigers still played well.
You could make a strong argument that this is Clemson's deepest collection of skilled players in decades. They don't have a Marcquise Reed type who can take the ball and create his own shots in crucial situations, but they make up for that with their depth and their commitment to defending the crap out of you.
Ten players played 7:42 or more in Wednesday's victory. Olivier-Maxence prosper doesn't look far away from providing an 11th body who can play significant minutes.
The Tigers held Maryland to 26.1 percent shooting in the first half and forced 15 turnovers on the game.
Last year, John Newman III elevated to a starting role and increased his production to 9.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while attempting 84 free throws and handing out 68 assists.
The natural progression for him entering his junior year is to make more significant gains and handle a greater share of the scoring.
Newman averaged 31.5 minutes per game last year. He played 23 against Maryland, scoring 12 crafty points.
It's easy for fans to say Newman and others should just gloss over individual pursuits for collective gain. In reality the process is much more difficult to pull off.
"Everyone's family and friends back home have a lot of expectations for us as individuals," Newman said. "But one thing I always told people back home, and my family, is this year is going to be a year of sacrifice. I played a lot of minutes last year. I had a big role. A lot was asked of me.
"This year coming into it, I knew we had a lot of good guys, a lot of guys sitting out last year that are talented, a lot of talented young guys coming in. So I just knew this was the year I was going to have to sacrifice some things. And I'm fine with that. My high school, I came from a coach that was about sacrifice and hard work. So it wasn't too much of a difficult transition for me. I was kind of ready to sacrifice to win."
Brownell doesn't have any illusions: He's going to have to continue to sell this approach to his players. Winning is a great sales pitch, though.
"That's something we're going to have to juggle all year," he said. "I talked about it with our team again postgame. Just, there's going to be a lot of guys on the team that played more minutes last year than they're going to play this year. And we have to be OK with that because that gives us the best chance to win. What we're doing, the way we're playing, gives our team this year the best chance to win.
"It doesn't mean we're going to win all the time playing that way. We're not going to play good all the time. But you're going to have to sacrifice some minutes. We need to keep fresh bodies out there. We need to rotate guys in certain situations, certain matchups are better than others."
A devotion to the greater good could end up producing the greatest Clemson basketball team in a long time.
Later today Tigerillustrated.com will release its late-week Football Recruiting Insider.
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