Hamilton: Tigers getting Brownell's best 15 years into run at Clemson

CLEMSON Has a lopsided win over North Carolina ever felt so blah? It sure did Monday night as No.

23 Clemson (20-5, 12-1 ACC) made short work of the Tar Heels, an almost color-by-numbers 85-65 rout that gave the Tigers a rare sweep of the four Tobacco Road schools.

It completed a two-wins-in-three-days trick during which Clemson sent the ACCs traditional standard bearers back to the Triangle with some soul-searching to do.

There wasnt a gratuitous court storming this time around, either.

The 8,704 folks jammed into Littlejohn Coliseum minded their manners and made orderly exits.

Perhaps they flushed the go-crazy juice out of their system when they went bonkers Saturday after beating then-No.

2 Duke.

The harsh truth is the Tar Heels (14-11, 7-6) are mediocre by 2025 ACC standards , dreadful by historical UNC standards.

Clemson did what it was supposed to do and seemed almost robotic in how it went about its business.

Thats the sign of a confident team trending in the right direction under confident leadership.

The Tar Heels were cooked well before halftime.

UNC coach Hubert Davis is safe for another season theres no way the school makes changes for both basketball and football within the same year.

But the wine-and-cheese crowd is restless .

We thought the Bill Belichick saga was intriguing; whatever transpires at UNC between now and March 2026 will be raging.

Its kind of ironic, too.

All of the things theyre saying in Chapel Hill about Davis (good guy, solid coach, has hit his ceiling, etc.) anchored conversations regarding Clemsons Brad Brownell not long ago.

He didnt embarrass the school, but he wasnt winning enough or winning enough a certain way to inspire the right folks.

Now hes about to become the dean of ACC coaches.

Leonard Hamilton announced last week hell be stepping down after 23 years at Florida State.

That leaves Brownell, in his 15th season at Clemson, as the longest-tenured ACC coach.

Brownell entered 2023 with three NCAA Tournament appearances and a few NIT berths in the 12 years that had a postseason (COVID-19 wrecked 2020).

And while Clemson has had the fifth-most ACC wins since making the Sweet 16 in 2018, most of the teams ahead of it have been national title winners or contenders.

All of that is good, though not really great.

Plenty of folks were waiting for him to similarly express what Hamilton said when he stepped down, that there comes a time when its time and for the school "to get someone to reenergize the program.

But, in a strange twist, Brownell is building more momentum now that at any point since he was hired in 2010.

Clemson has won five straight against top-five teams going back to 2019-20, the longest such streak in the country.

Three of its four losses have come in overtime; the others were Nov.

4 at Boise State (84-71) and Jan.

7 at Louisville (74-64).

And all of this following up the second Elite Eight appearance in school history and before that a 23-11 season two years ago that should have included an NCAA trip.

Its setting up to be the best three-year run of his 23-season career.

What gives? Brownell, 56, hasnt changed his modus operandi.

Hes the same coach now as he was during his nascent days at UNC-Wilmington and just a couple of years ago when so many people were ready to pull the plug.

The only difference is maybe a slightly broader waistline and higher hairline hes that notoriously consistent.

And notoriously modest.

Thats what made it so jarring last May when he pointed out how much sweat equity hes had with transforming Clemson basketball and its facilities .

Patting himself on the back isnt his style.

Yet, he was justified when he said I do deserve a lot of credit for that ...

a lot because it took a 14-year journey to get things to their current level.

A decade-plus of relentless fundraising doesnt happen without continuity and enough success to make people stroke checks.

The ACC is also no longer the beast that was annually sending seven or nine teams a year to the NCAA Tournament; its certainly not as top-heavy.

It could be due to the turnover of one of the greatest coaching rosters ever assembled.

The rest is simply because just about everybody everywhere is good now.

Pockets of college basketball either caught up or blew completely past the ACC altogether.

Still, the Tigers have kept pace.

Its also no coincidence these last three seasons coincide with that darn transfer portal really cranking up.

Brownell has been able to make it work better than most because hes not out chasing great whites.

What he does and how he does it isnt everyones flavor.

But the portal has enabled him to zero in on an archetype that fits his system and culture without wasting time or resources.

Again, not much different schematically or operationally than a decade ago.

Just a tool hes figured out and, until recently, been more willing to use than his football-coaching neighbor.

Brads stayed true to his core beliefs of non-negotiables, Seth Greenberg, a two-time ACC Coach of the Year at Virginia Tech and current ESPN analyst, said.

He never wavered on how he was going to build the Clemson program.

And you could say the portals a shortcut.

But not a lot of guys have gotten a return on investment.

They've gotten Clemson guys.

They've gotten tough-minded, winning players that are all about the good of the group, that play for each other.

Indiana would be wise to make an overture to a native son for its current opening.

Brownell would be equally wise to pass.

He might've been reared in Indiana, but he became a fully formed coach in the Palmetto State.

Besides, his style and personality are perfect for a Clemson places where the basketball coach pockets their ego in exchange for cooking undeterred in the shadow of football.

Thats the model the SEC has employed since it decided to be good at basketball , and look at how thats working out.

Brownell could operate under those conditions for the duration or at least until the five-year, $20 million contract he signed last year expires in 2029.

If nothing else, there are worse things than having ho-hum 20-point blowouts of a blue blood program..

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