If you blindly looked at Clemson’s schedule last week, you would have thought there were two NCAA Tournament games this past weekend.
That’s how head coach Brad Brownell viewed the stretch for his team: a tournament weekend. With two games over the course of three days, the weekend had a lot of stake. How would the public eye view Clemson, especially with both games being played at Littlejohn Coliseum?
There’s a lot more scrutiny when the two opponents are Duke and North Carolina as well, with Brownell’s squad coming off of a triple overtime loss to Georgia Tech the Tuesday night before.
But the Tigers were ready and defended home court successfully. A close victory over the No. 2 Blue Devils and a 20-point victory over the Tar Heels were the final results, concluding one of the greatest stretches at Littlejohn Coliseum in program history.
Brownell says that he wanted the team to treat the game “like a NCAA Tournament weekend.”
“You win a good game, and now you have a second one 48 hours later,” Brownell said after Duke. “Obviously, it’s a big game for us. We got to keep doing what we are doing. We need to validate tonight’s win, so we’re going to have a team meeting at 11 a.m. tomorrow. We are going to meet a couple of times.”
The two-game stretch provided plenty of history for the Tigers. It’s only the third time in 50 years that the team has beaten North Carolina and Duke in the same season. It’s the second time in program history that the Tigers have beaten them both in back-to-back games at Littlejohn Coliseum. The only other time was in the 1989-90 season.
Clemson took care of business this Monday night, defeating North Carolina to tie its largest margin of a win against the Tar Heels.
“It was different and quick and we were very business-like in our approach the last two days,” Brownell said after the North Carolina win. “We spent a lot of time with our guys to try to get this right and our guys responded very well, so I’m proud of them for that.”
Most of the team is familiar with success in a short amount of time against opponents, as the Tigers’ Elite Eight run featured two weekends of two games each. However, the Clemson players who made some of the most impact in the last two games came from players who came to the school for the exact reason: to make the NCAA Tournament.
Take Viktor Lakhin, a redshirt senior who transferred from Cincinnati, for example. The Russian center stole the show at Littlejohn Coliseum over this stretch, scoring 22 points in both games, which led the Tigers in both contests.
“That’s why we came here, because of the team success last year, the momentum,” Lakhin said after North Carolina. “We just joined it and kept going, and yeah, trying to hang a banner, trying to do something that will last forever.”
Jaeden Zackery is another, transferring from Boston College and never playing in a NCAA Tournament game. He hopes that this year will be different, and it should, as the Tigers have a 99% chance to make the Big Dance, according to TeamRankings.
The team has been put in many fans’ hearts already, with three statement wins in Littlejohn Coliseum. On Dec. 3, 2024, Clemson took down No. 4 Kentucky. Combined with the past two wins, the team is now the first in over 20 years to take down North Carolina, Duke and Wildcats all in the same season.
“I guess we are blue bloods too now,” Lakhin said jokingly.
The Tigers did a complete 180, going from a disappointing triple overtime loss to going 2-of-2 of the most anticipated part of the team’s schedule. Chase Hunter says that it comes from the experience and the age of the team that he leads.
“We’ve got an older group of guys that have been through a lot of games, a lot of losses, just a lot of different things, a lot of adversity,” Hunter said. “I think that it shows out there when we play, we play with a lot of grit and a lot of toughness.”
While Lakhin stole the show, Hunter made one of the bigger plays from the games, stuffing Duke’s Tyrese Proctor’s shot in the dying seconds of the game to seal the win.
The senior guard, who later said that “this was No. 1” with where the game ranks on his all-time playing list, pumped his fist and showed emotion, something that is uncommon of a usual calm, stoic Hunter.
“I think I have a good amount of athleticism where I can do things like that to help the team,” he said, “so that’s something that I want to do: keep playing tough.”
The Tigers have won eight of their last nine games, all in ACC play. The team is in the top three of the ACC, only a game behind Duke and tied with Louisville in second place. With a favorable final six games of the season, a regular-season championship is still on the table for the team. If the team manages to win the ACC, it will join the 1989-90 team — the only Clemson team to win the ACC Championship.
Brownell and the team continue to climb, with a three-year stint of consistency and hopes of having back-to-back seasons with NCAA Tournament appearances. However, the Clemson head coach is simply proud and excited for the fans.
“We’ve been a pretty good program in the league the last seven or eight years, I mean really good in a lot of ways,” Brownell said. “So I think we’ve been very consistent, but they’re hard programs to beat and certainly hard to beat twice in a year, so I’m just happy for our fanbase and proud of our team.”
Clemson will be back in action this weekend, hitting the road to face the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee, Florida, at noon.
