Ranked No. 22 in the country, Clemson basketball is tearing up the hardwood. At 15-3, the Tigers are riding an electric 5-0 start to conference play.

The nets are swishing, and the shoes are squeaking just right. And yet the only man on the floor who isn’t wearing basketball shoes is the primary source for all the success.

“Clemson Basketball to me is Brad Brownell. Tough, gritty, incredibly prepared, ready for the next challenge,” Debbie Antonelli, an ESPN college basketball analyst, said.

This season’s team is just that. It’s a unit. But that is nothing new. This is what Brownell does.

Clemson is 75-30 in the last three years, which is the highest win total in such a span since a stretch from 2006-07 and 2008-09. Clemson is no longer just winning, however. They are winning in one of the best conferences in college basketball.

Since the 2022-23 season, the Tigers’ 89 wins are second in the ACC. Behind only Duke, Clemson has outperformed historically strong teams like UNC and Virginia in recent years.

After defeating Notre Dame by 15 points on the road, Clemson added an 11th straight ACC road win. The only team in the country with a longer conference win streak on the road is Houston, with 15 straight wins in the Big 12.

So let’s go all the way back to the last time Clemson lost on the road: Jan. 7, 2025, vs. Louisville. In that same season, Brownell made history. He earned career highs in total wins, 27, and ACC wins, 18, in a season.

Let’s keep going. Almost exactly a year ago, on Jan. 14, the Clemson Tigers were 14-4 and 6-1 in the ACC. This year, with the same number of games played, Brownell’s team sits 15-3, 5-0.

Brownell is outperforming last year’s record-setting season. Not to mention, Brownell had to replace his top five per-game scorers and rebounders from a season ago — Chase Hunter, Ian Schieffelin, Jaeden Zackery, Viktor Lakhin and Chauncey Wiggins — all of whom departed in the offseason. That’s grit.

This season, seven different players have finished games as Clemson’s leading scorer. That is what makes this lineup a little different. Last season, Chase Hunter, Ian Schieffelin and Jaeden Zackery all averaged more than 33 minutes a game. Dillon Hunter is averaging a team-high 27.6 minutes a game. But nine players are averaging more than 15 minutes per game, compared to only six players a year ago.

The scoring is dispersed, and anyone can score. Brad Brownell is putting on a masterclass in management. No matter the situation, the opponent or the time left on the clock, he knows best how to manage his lineup.

Only Duke and Clemson are sitting undefeated against ACC opponents, with Clemson having won five games straight and Duke having won four straight in conference play. But on Valentine’s Day, everything could change for the Tigers. A Feb. 14 matchup with Duke is high on the horizon.

But slow down and take this one step at a time — something Brownell is surely echoing in the locker room. Before liftoff, the Tigers are tasked with a runway that goes through Miami, NC State, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Stanford and California.

Then, at the end of that runway, the Tigers can take flight.