Duke Win was Big, but There's More Clemson Wants to Accomplish

Tigers not satisfied with beating the Blue Devils

USA Today Sports

CLEMSON, S.C. — Brad Brownell was not surprised to see Clemson’s student body rush the court following Saturday’s 72-64 victory over No. 24 Duke.

He just wants them to understand there are bigger things to accomplish this season than just beating the Blue Devils.

“It was fine. If that is what they want to do, that is great,” the Tigers’ head coach said. “I want our students to have a great experience at Clemson and enjoy everything about it. I rather wait until we do something bigger. But that was fine. It was good.”

The something bigger is an ACC Regular Season Championship, something Clemson has not won since the 1989-’90 season, the only ACC championship in the program’s history.

But after seven conference games, the Tigers (15-3, 7-0 ACC) find themselves not only in the mix in the ACC standings, but firmly in first place with a two-game lead--which has their current odds of winning the ACC at +450, according to Fanduel. The win over Duke was Clemson’s 11th straight ACC win in regular season play, it’s seventh overall and its 10th in the last 11 games.

“Beating Duke is a big deal. Obviously, it is a storied program… This was a big win for us. Absolutely! There are a lot of good teams in our league, and we do not storm the court for all of them,” Brownell said. “Obviously, we are trying to get to that next level as a program. The next level for us is to continue to do those things.

“We have to see ourselves in a different light. In trying to do that, you have to view yourself coming more equal with your peers.”

Brownell pointed out the Tigers have made strides in the last five years, ranking fifth amongst ACC team in terms of wins.

“We are a better program than people have given us credit for,” he said. “We are fifth in wins in the ACC in the last five and a half years. That’s pretty good. Most people would not guess that, I guarantee you most of you would not have guest it. Right?

“We don’t get a lot of credit. That’s fine. We don’t go to the tournament every year, but very few people do. But we are usually somewhere in the middle and I think we get respect from coaches and program’s in this league because when you play us, you feel us.”

Clemson is not done. It wants to do better, and that is something the Tigers are doing this season. They definitely did it against Duke Saturday afternoon at Littlejohn Coliseum.

“We are trying to get to that point. We are building, but we have to earn that as a program. I have to do good as a coach and try to get to those points.,” Brownell said. “But if we our going to see ourselves as equal, we cannot be that excited about beating one team. It has to be about beating all 14 or 15 and that’s hard.”  

Jon Rothstein currently has the Tigers in the NCAA Tournament as the automatic qualifier on The Duel.

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