Clemson's NCAA Tournament streak appears in jeopardy

CLEMSON — When you look at Clemson’s men’s basketball team, the view seems awful familiar.

As final exams arrive, the Tigers are struggling. They’re 4-4, trying to find ways to score and learn Brad Brownell’s offensive and defensive systems.

You remember what happened a year ago: Clemson shook off a 5-4 start and rallied to finish fourth in the ACC, make the NCAA Tournament and bag the program’s first NCAA win since 1997, finishing 24-12.

So what’s different this year? Two things.

No.1: Demontez Stitt is in Israel.

No.2: Jerai Grant is in Australia.

Without those graduated seniors – keys to last season’s turnaround – the Tigers have struggled to score inside and penetrate. Unless that changes soon, Clemson’s streak of four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, a program high, could end in March.

This team will defend: that’s a constant. But on nights when senior guard Andre Young struggles – and even sometimes when he shines – it will struggle to score.

Saturday, Clemson shot 32 percent from the field in a grinding 63-47 loss at Arizona. Inside, the Tigers missed seemingly countless opportunities at close range, and were outscored 34-24.

Last spring, Brownell said one of the keys to the season would be junior forwards Devin Booker and Milton Jennings developing and picking up the slack left by Grant’s departure.

So far, neither have done so.

Jennings had a breakout game against Furman, scoring 22 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, both career highs. It looked like a breakout.

In his last three games, he has scored 14 points, combined.

Both he and Booker look tentative at times around the basket, unable to finish close looks.

Stitt is sorely missed, as well. Young is a dead-eye 3-point shooter, but at a listed 5-foot-9, he has a hard time driving and finishing at the rim.

Saturday, Clemson shot five, count ‘em, five free throws. That’s nowhere near enough.

Freshman guards T.J. Sapp and Rod Hall have both shown flashes of excellence early on, and athletic freshman K.J. McDaniels had his best game Saturday, scoring a career-high seven points.

But they need to get more from freshman forward Bernard Sullivan. A top-100 national prospect, Sullivan has been limited by exercise-induced asthma, which the coaching staff has only recently brought under control.

The freshmen should develop as the season rolls on; that’s reasonable, but right now, Brownell lacks a second go-to scorer behind Young.

The lost recruiting class caused by Oliver Purnell’s sudden departure (he had only forward Marcus Thornton, now at Georgia, signed before he bolted to DePaul) is showing up.

Brownell proved last winter that he is a talented coach, taking a limited team and developing it into one the ACC’s best, capable of going toe-to-toe with anyone by early March.

However, he can only work so many miracles with a roster that lacks inside presence and a go-to scorer.

Unless some fresh talent emerges – and quickly – it could be a long winter in Littlejohn Coliseum.