Game 3 for Brad Brownell’s Exciting New Squad
When: Tuesday, Nov 11 – 7:00pm
Where: Littlejohn Coliseum
TV: ACCNX
It will be a bit before we truly know what this 2025-2026 Clemson men’s basketball squad can accomplish, but for a team with an almost entirely new roster, the engine has been humming relatively well to this point. The Tigers easily dispatched New Hampshire and Gardner-Webb to get the season going. Blowouts against overmatched non-power league teams are expected, but it has been impressive just how easily the Tigers have made things look to this point. It wasn’t all that long ago that those types of games would hover around 10-15 point margins before ending in a score like 61-47. Clemson has scored 88 and 97 points while playing 10 guys with at least a 37% minute share so far. They are going to find tougher sledding soon enough, but it is a very promising start to what Coach Brownell and his staff have tried to put together to build on a strong 3 year run of at least 23 wins.
Last year’s team did some incredible things, in particular going 18-2 in ACC play and being the only team to beat the Duke Blue Devils in the league. Unfortunately, their lack of depth eventually got exposed in March. There wasn’t enough athleticism up front and the outside shooting faded as the minutes piled up on the primary options like Chase Hunter. Dillon Hunter’s late season injury simply could not be overcome, and the Tigers were upset by a smaller but more athletic McNeese State squad in the NCAA tournament.
While this team lacks a guy like Chase Hunter who could go for 20+ in any game, it already feels like a team that can be harder to get a defensive read on in terms of who to really focus on. Dillon Hunter is the lone returning contributor from 2024-2025, yet has been a relative afterthought in terms of offensive production to this point. Brownell’s teams have typically been frontcourt driven, and this team appears to also feature some nice options for post scoring as well as inside/out offense. Clemson also has much more firepower off the bench compared to a season ago. Ace Buckner led the team with 18 in game one off the bench, and then both he and Carter Welling scored double figures off the bench in game two.
Last year’s team also was not as much a vintage Brownell team defensively despite its strong season overall. Things got very dicey if Viktor Lahkin was off the floor, and it became nearly impossible to give Jaeden Zachary or Chase Hunter much of a break at all against quality competition. This year’s team has multiple guys who can apply good ball pressure and improved athleticism around the rim with the return of R.J. Godfrey and rangy Utah transfer Jake Wahlin. While there might not be a K.J. McDaniels type eraser on this team, the depth gives Brownell and his staff a lot more flexibility as to how to match up and attack than last year’s team could provide.
Morehead State comes to town having already played two power conference teams. They dropped games to Wake Forest (81-65) and Georgia (120-81) ahead of this contest. The UGA score indicates a track meet where Morehead simply couldn’t keep up. They were much more competitive throughout in that game vs. Wake. This should be better competition than New Hampshire and Gardner-Webb, and Morehead State is indeed ranked over 40 spots higher by KenPom than the teams Clemson has beaten so far. Still, this is not a game that should give Clemson any real stress, and if that does occur, it would be an early red flag to be sure. This team is far from what it will be based on all the new pieces, particularly three true or redshirt freshmen who are significant parts of the rotation. Some growing pains are to be expected and might show up at times on Tuesday like they did during the latter part of the first half vs. Gardner-Webb.
Clemson has already faced a team looking to push the pace and another who tried to zone up. Morehead State has better size than both New Hampshire and Gardner-Webb, but still are not built to match up with Clemson’s front court that features multiple 6’8”-6’10” players as well as long and athletic guards. Clemson has dominated the glass in the first two games, and that was one of the shortcomings of last year’s team, but until the Tigers face equal to better size and length, the true rebounding prowess of this year’s team is TBD.
Morehead State is led by senior George Marshall who is averaging 16 points a game so far and has already gone 7-19 from 3 over their 3 games. He dropped 26 in the game at Wake and if this is going to be a competitive game, Marshall will likely have to deliver a similar performance. He no doubt would have drawn Jaeden Zachary last year, but this year he is likely to see a rotation of guys pressuring him all over the court from Dillon Hunter to Ace Buckner to Zac Foster to Butta Johnson. Josiah Legree and Jon Carroll are the other two averaging double-figures, but it feels like this year’s Eagles squad will go as Marshall goes. Brad Brownell has a long history of making life miserable for opposing primary scorers, but that sometimes has led to a role player or two having a breakout game.
This game is really about gathering more data on this year’s squad and learning all these new faces. My college years coincided with Greg Buckner’s at Clemson, so I have already developed a strong affinity for his son, Ace Buckner, and something just feels right to see the team use the 90’s era uniform design and see that #21 out there once again.
KenPom calls for a 86-61 win, but it is hard to see Clemson not hitting 90 based on how the Eagles have tried to play with pace so far this year. As long as Clemson keeps sharing the ball the way we saw against Gardner-Webb (25 assists!), the points are going to come and Clemson will avenge their 2023 NIT loss to Morehead State.
