Clemson Basketball: The No Fun Zone

Clemson's Offensive Points Per Possession

I figured this blog may have more impact coming off of a win than a loss, so I decided to go ahead and write after Clemson's recent win over Georgia Tech instead of after their matchup tonight against #1 Syracuse.

Clemson basketball, woof. It is just not fun to watch. Even when they win, it's not fun. I called a buddy of mine after the game the other day and I told him, "Man, that was terrible. I got absolutely no joy from that, even though we won. That was not fun at all."

The Tigers just don't play good basketball. There can be a difference in being fun to watch, and playing good basketball, and Clemson is neither. I'm going to use a football analogy to try an explain this. In college football, teams like Stanford and Wisconsin aren't very fun to watch because they run the ball and grind it out, but they're still playing good football, so it's definitely watchable. The Clemson basketball team isn't fun to watch, and they don't even play good basketball, especially on the offensive end. The Tigers sport a 41.8% offensive efficiency, which needless to say is not stellar. Just take a look at the last two games, a 53-49 win over Florida State on the road and a 45-41 win over Georgia Tech at home. Those two games were horrible to watch. Clemson did absolutely nothing offensively. I received no joy from watching those games, even though the team I was cheering for won. The offense just has no identity, no scorers, and even the sets look terrible.

I just want Clemson to have one decent offensive player. Somebody who can get a bucket when needed. Brad Brownell has not done a good job on the offensive end, and it did not help that the player with the best offensive game, Devin Coleman, transferred from the team early in the season. What Brownell did with Coleman made no sense, he would play 30 minutes one game and then not get off the bench in the other. If I was Coleman, I would have been upset too. When he transferred, everybody said, "oh well he didn't get to play because he didn't play defense and didn't buy in on that end of the floor." Oh yeah? Well, I do not care how bad he was on defense, he scored enough on offense to make up for his supposed lack of defense. You have to have a few guys on your team who can get you a basket when needed, someone who can drive and pull-up and mid-range jumper, someone who can kickstart your team/offense. Clemson has approximately ZERO of those right now.

Attendance Average for the Past Ten Seasons

To wrap this up, Clemson has to get better offensively. That includes getting better offensive players and running better sets. The administration, athletic department, and coaches cannot get upset about attendance, and student attendance in particular, when the product on the floor is not great and is definitely not fun to watch. Attendance has declined in each of Brownell's seasons so far, and the product on the floor is the reason for that. 

Oliver Purnell calling the "Double Fist"

Sometimes I wish we could go back to the Oliver Purnell days when he was calling the 'ol "Double Fist," and Clemson was full-court pressing and getting up and down the court. Do not get me wrong, I think Brownell can be a good coach, but I am not completely sold on him just yet. He has to improve the Tigers on the offensive end, and hopefully he can figure out how to do that rather quickly. In the new look ACC, every game will be tough, and you have to have some scorers.


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