Brownell asks fans to show up for ‘Basketball Brunch’ at Littlejohn

After beating no. 5 at Kentucky last week and went on the road and beat Miami last weekend, the Clemson basketball team now finds itself at No. 16 in the AP Poll.

Since defeating the Hurricanes, the Tigers (9-1) had the week off and will now get ready for another tough test when Memphis (7-2) visits Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday. The other Tigers are currently just outside the Top 25.

Making this matchup a bit more challenging is the fact that it tips off at 11. This means the foreplay starts bright and early.

“I don’t know that I’ve played at 11 o’clock. I’ve played at noon, but 11 o’clock is early,” head coach Brad Brownell said. “Pregame is at eight o’clock and we’ll probably have a very short meeting and that’s about all you have to do. You get most of your work in on Thursday and Friday. Obviously, you have to pay attention to your guys and see how they’re feeling right away.”

These two teams met in Memphis last December, with Brownell’s Tigers losing a close game 79-77. There was a raucous crowd inside the Fed-Ex Forum that day, and Brownell hopes the Clemson fan base can return the favor Saturday.

“You hope there’s energy in the building,” he said. “The fans can really help us. I know when we played in Memphis last year they had a white-out and it was electric. It was a tough place to play. We need to have a similar atmosphere here to help to give our guys juice and energy. So I’m optimistic we’ll have a basketball brunch in Littlejohn.”

Another challenge will be slowing down the Memphis offense. The team currently has four different players averaging double figures in scoring, led by guard PJ Haggerty, who is scoring 23 points per game. game while shooting 44% from beyond the arc.

“They have a really good guard game,” Brownell said. “Shooting, the ability to drive it. Haggerty, he’s great. Can lead the country in fouling guards. He gets in the paint, lives in the paint. He can make plays for himself, his teammates. Super dynamic in the form of a -to-a game, pick and rolls.”

This will mark one of Clemson’s final non-conference games before becoming fully entrenched in ACC play. On Tuesday, Brownell’s Tigers travel to Columbia to face the rival Gamecocks, ending what has been one of the toughest conferences in the country.

“That’s how you challenge yourself, that’s how you figure things out,” Brownell said. “We definitely learned from our Boise game. We learned from our tournament with San Francisco and Penn State, Kentucky, Miami the other day. When you play good competition, you’re forced to figure things out along the way. Different styles of play. Memphis is a team that likes to mix up their defense. There’s a ceiling of things they do and we’ve seen some of that before.”

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