Columns, Your Phil of Hoops

Clemson shows promise and room for growth in loss at Boston College

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Brad Brownell’s body language said it all. The Clemson mentor watched Boston College miss two free throws and his team not hang on to the rebound, giving BC the ball back with a fresh shot clock while already having a ten-point lead late in the game. It was that kind of afternoon for the Tigers in their 75-68 loss to the Eagles, an afternoon that masks the potential this team has.

The Tigers never looked like you would expect a Brownell-coached team to and then seemed to lose their cool at times. They finally showed some life in the final ten minutes of the game, rallying to within one late, but they dug themselves too deep a hole to rally from. Perhaps this might just be a case of growing pains, something this team has had with only two upperclassmen on the roster.

“We didn’t come out ready to play, and it showed in the late run,” said freshman guard Jordan Roper. “It just wasn’t enough because it hurt us in the beginning of the game.”

The bigger story is that Clemson appears to have a better future in store from what can be seen right now. While the Tigers are trying to win now, as any team would, you can see the foundation being laid for future success with this current team. It helps that they have ten freshmen and sophomores and no juniors, but that only tells you they are relatively inexperienced right now. A closer look shows that there is reason for them to be optimistic going forward. In addition, the Tigers might be starting to go as their younger talents do.

Clemson will lose two of their top three scorers after this season in Milton Jennings and Devin Booker, and while both are good players they are not irreplaceable. Jennings was a McDonald’s All-American but has never maximized his talent in college despite some steady improvement. Booker has been good, but not as good as older brother Trevor, and although he had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, that obscured how poorly he played on Saturday. Not only was he ineffective for a lot of the game, but he picked up a dumb technical foul on an elbow he dished out after getting an offensive rebound.

Waiting in the wings is the guy who has been arguably their most consistent player this year in K.J. McDaniels. The sophomore wing is one of the ACC’s most improved players, having jumped his scoring average by 7.5 points per game from last season. McDaniels didn’t play his best on Saturday, not scoring until just over four minutes were left in the first half and affected by some foul trouble and finishing with just six points. He entered the game having scored 15 or more points in three straight games, the first time he has done that in his career.

“K.J. seemed frustrated at times,” said Browell. “He didn’t have as good a start as he would have liked and got into some foul trouble.

Quietly, Rod Hall has become a solid floor leader at the point this season. As point guards go, he’s built like a tank, and while he’s not jet-quick he’s getting better all the time at running the team. Roper said he has learned a lot from Hall, although not much of that came on Saturday as Hall struggled with four turnovers and just one assist after coming into the game with a 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. The hope is that he shakes this off since it wasn’t just his numbers that were bad.

“He didn’t play well, and emotionally it was not very good,” said Brownell. “He didn’t carry good body language.”

Brownell noted that freshmen brought them back in the game, and that’s another hopeful sign. Adonis Filer was quiet for much of the game but scored all 10 of his points in the final ten minutes and had four assists, while Roper scored eight of his 11 points in the second half and was 3-7 from long range.

Where Jennings’ and Booker’s production may be harder to replace in the immediate will be on the glass. The Tigers don’t have quite the same level of young talent up front ready to produce in an expanded role the way players like McDaniels and Hall are on the perimeter, especially when they have BYU transfer DeMarco Harrison and Filer and Roper behind them to go along with Devin Coleman, who is redshirting after a promising freshman season last year. Behind Jennings and Booker are the likes of sophomore Bernard Sullivan and freshmen Landry Nnoko and Josh Smith, who play about 11, seven and six minutes a game, respectively.

Frontcourt players are easier to replace than perimeter players, so for the Tigers to be more experienced in the backcourt will not be the worst situation. In addition, they’ll have some good established players returning, as opposed to the past couple of seasons where they have lost their top players from the prior season. There won’t be a question that McDaniels will be their go-to guy.

Clemson doesn’t need to simply get older. This team needs to develop some mental toughness and continuing improving from a production standpoint if they are to take steps forward. The Tigers have struggled to win on the road and fell to 0-4 away from Littlejohn Coliseum in the ACC, and they have had their chances. The only road loss where they were blown out was at Duke, but they were close at NC State and Florida State.

“We’ve had chances to break through with a road win and just haven’t been able to do it,” said Brownell. “In the first half, I thought we looked like a team that was searching and just not as ready to do some of the things we needed to do in this game.”

The Tigers’ slow start doomed them on Saturday. Their rally showed some of their potential down the road, and the entire game shows that Clemson has clear areas for growth if they are to move forward and approach the potential they appear to have.

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