Clemson Tigers Banking On Poppie To Turn Women’s Basketball Around

The hiring of Shawn Poppie signals Clemson’s hope that he can return the program to its glory days under Jim Davis.

Shawn Poppie, Clemson University Tigers women's basketball coach speaks during a press conference introducing him at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C. Monday, April 2, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / USA Today Network / USA

There was a time when you couldn’t have the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament without the Clemson Tigers.

Now? The Tigers are an afterthought, and it’s Shawn Poppie’s job to change it.

When the Tigers fired Amanda Butler in March, they went after Poppie, then at Chattanooga, to replace her.

His resume is enticing, if not brief. Two seasons with the Mocs. Two Southern Conference Tournament titles. Two NCAA Tournament appearances. It was his first head-coaching job.

Clemson will be an entirely different beast. And he knows it. But that doesn’t mean he’s not optimistic about the future.

“With the resources in place and everyone moving in synergy together, I believe we can compete in the ACC, the best women’s basketball conference in the country,” he said when he was hired in March.

Butler finished 81-106 in her six seasons with Clemson. She led the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament her first season in 2018-19 with a 20-13 record. The Tigers even won a first-round game.

But Clemson never returned. The Tigers reached the WNIT twice but never got back to March Madness.

But at least Butler got Clemson there once. That appearance snapped a 16-year stretch without an NCAA Tournament appearance that went back to the program’s most successful coach, Jim Davis.

He took over the program in 1987-88 and immediately took them to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1981-82. In 18 seasons he led the Tigers to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including four Sweet 16 bids and an Elite Eight run in 1991.

The Tigers failed to make the NCAAs in Davis’s final three seasons, and after that Cristy McKinney, Itoro Coleman and Audra Smith all took their shots as head coach but none of them had a winning season before Butler took the reins.

Poppie executed a quick turnaround at Chattanooga. He took the Mocs from seven wins in the season before he arrived to 20 wins in his first season. Last season they won 28 games.

He also knows the ACC. Before Chattanooga he spent six seasons working for Kenny Brooks at Virginia Tech (Brooks is now at Kentucky). Poppie spent four seasons as an assistant coach and the final two seasons as the associate head coach.

Poppie has already gone to work. He’s brought in eight transfers, three of which followed him from Chattanooga and he managed to convince two of last year’s players to withdraw from the transfer portal.

It’s a start for a program looking for a spark.