My Two Cents: Happy for Clemson Coach Brad Brownell, Indiana Native on His Way to Elite 8

Brad Brownell has been the coach at Clemson for 14 years, and Thursday night the Evansville, Ind. native did something he's never done before. His Tigers upset Arizona to reach the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament, and he's making his home state proud

Clemson coach Brad Brownell smiles during a press conference after his Tigers beat No. 2 seed Arizona in the West Regional semifinals on Thursday night in Los Angeles. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Well, well, what a surprise. It's the second week of the NCAA Tournament, and I wasn't expecting to write ''Indiana'' and ''wins'' and ''Elite 8'' in the same sentence in the men's event.

The Indiana women, yes, but not in the men's tournament.

But, yes, here goes. ''Indiana'' native Brad Brownell, the head coach at Clemson, ''wins'' a regional semifinal game Thursday night, upsetting Arizona to advance to the ''Elite 8.''

Brownell, who played basketball with Hoosiers great Calbert Cheaney at Evansville Harrison back in the late 1980s, has been the head coach at Clemson for 14 years. He had a handful of good teams — this is his fourth NCAA Tournament appearance — but he's never really won anything. They've been a middling ACC team at best, never winning any regular season or tournament titles, and never finishing anything better than third in the league, which, granted, is usually pretty good.

But the Tigers have been the darlings of this NCAA Tournament so far. They got in as a No. 6 seed, but were a trendy upset pick against No. 11 seed New Mexcio. All the Tigers did was drill them by 21, despite being a 2.5-point underdog as the higher seed. Then in the second round, they upset No. 3 seed Baylor 72-64 as a 4.5-point underdog, raising their record to 23-11.

It was all supposed to end on Thursday night against Arizona, a No. 2 seed in the West Regional that's been picked to win it all by many, including the great Charles Barkley. With his parents in the stands — father Bob was an Indiana high school coach himself — Brownell and the Tigers knocked off mighty Arizona. It was the first time since 1980, a long 44 years ago, that a Clemson team had advanced that far.

That's pretty amazing for lil' ol' Clemson.

"That, obviously, was a huge win,'' Brownell said. "I'm just really happy for, obviously, my players, my staff, and really all of Clemson Nation. This was a big-time game by our guys and today was our day. We made enough plays to win, and I'm just super happy that these guys are going to get a chance to continue to play and we get to spend more time together. We've used the phrase 'we're built for this, we can handle this.' We have confidence in our team.''

In the past two weeks, we've learned a lot about two Clemson big men we didn't know before, Center P.J. Hall had scored nearly 1,700 points at Clemson in four years, but America doesn't know anything about him. They do now. Same with junior forward Ian Schieffelin — that's a triple-check last name — who's been great in the tournament.

Joe Girard played at Syracuse for four years before transferring to Clemson this year. He's been quiet in the tournament, but the Hunter boys — fifth-year senior Chase and sophomore Dillon — have picked up the slack. The Tigers are fun to watch, playing with a nice offensive style and diversity. they can beat you in a lot of ways.

Just the way Brownell likes it.

" I just think our guys have a lot of belief in each other, and I certainly have a lot of belief in my team. We're playing good basketball right now,'' Brownell said. "Anything can happen in these tournaments. You've got to have really good players. I have good players. When you have players, you try to do the best job you can as a coach to put them in positions to be successful. And when these guys capitalize like they have been, good things are going to happen.

"So we have a lot of confidence in our team. We've been through a lot together, especially these three guys. These guys are all -- Chase five years, Ian third year, and P.J. his fourth. We've been together for a long time. And so we know the ins and outs of each other and our personalities. I think that helps our team.''

The ACC had four teams reach the Sweet 16, a nice run for a league that's been criticized for not being very good the past few years. They prove otherwise in March, though No. 1 seed North Carolina did lose to Alabama on the same floor a few minutes later.

What that means for Brownell and his experienced team, though, is that they've been through all of this before. They know hostile environments — like at Duke or Carolina, or many other ACC spots. This stage hasn't been too big for them, for which Brownell deserves a lot of credit.

And it's nice to see. For the former DePauw players who was an assistant at Evansville and the University of Indianapolis before getting head coach jobs at UNC-Wilmington (2002-06) and Wright State (2006-10) that lead to the Clemson job.

"I've been in the league 14 years, so I've seen a lot. And I've coached against a bunch of Hall of Fame coaches and coached in the league when we had three No. 1 seeds. I just knew that this
year's league was much better than it was getting credit for. We easily had seven or eight teams that were NCAA Tournament-worthy in terms of talent, and a couple teams had some injuries early. We had a lot of young teams in our league that November and December were figuring themselves out. By the time they got to the conference they were beating some of the better teams in the league,
us included.

"And we've used the phrase 'we're built for this, we can handle this.' We have confidence in our team. We've won some big-time road games this year. We've played a very challenging schedule -- again, my point that the ACC is much better than everybody maybe assumes is bearing fruit again. And I just think the league prepares us for these kinds of games.''

This is an interesting time in the Clemson/ACC marriage. The school is suing the league to escape its commitment. The league is suing back. With the Big Ten and SEC growing like crazy — with both teams and billions in revenue — the ACC is getting left behind.

Clemson wants out. So does Florida State. The league's two best football schools feel like they're falling behind in the college football arms race. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Clemson and Florida State are the 19th and 20th Big Ten teams in the very near future.

If that happens, maybe Brownell will be back in the state of Indiana sooner rather than later. People don't coach 14 years at a school without winning a lot, and Brownell hasn't really done. Good, yes. Consistent, yes. But great? No way. Still, they've always had his back. Sure, it's a football school and basketball is very much second fiddle — think Penn State in the Big Ten — but Brownell is still there.

And now he's making his run for Clemson — 44 years in the making.

"In terms of administrative support, I've been lucky. I've had great support for 14 years,'' Brownell said. "I think we've had a consistent program. We'd like to have made the NCAA Tournament a couple more times. Last year was excruciatingly painful as we were one of the last teams left out. Happened to us in 2019 as well.

"But we have had some good teams. I've said this before, we're fifth in the ACC in wins over the last five to seven years. I don't think people would — that would be a great bar question, right? We would not be somebody that people would think that. But we've been very consistent. I think we have a lot of respect from the coaches in our league. Again, it's what do you do in March? This is the biggest time of year. So in '18 we went to the Sweet 16. To be able to come back here in '24, I think, again, there's not as many programs as you would think that have been to a couple in the last seven years. So we're moving the needle. We're continuing to try to push it forward. 'I'm extremely grateful for that and having had the opportunity as long as I have to be able to coach at a place I really enjoy.''

Next up for Clemson is a Saturday night date with Alabama, which sounds more like a BCS national championship football game than an Elite 8 matchup where a ticket to the Final Four gets punched.

Brownell will be ready.

So will lots of southern Indiana folks who've known of the Brownell family for years. We've got someone to root for, and I guess in the last days of March, that's a good thing.