Brad Brownell says signing consecutive 5-man recruiting classes 'wasn't part of my grand scheme'

On Tuesday, Brad Brownell described his current team – comprised of six upperclassmen and five first-year freshmen - as almost certainly the youngest of his coaching career.

On Wednesday, he added five more current high-schoolers to the mix.

Brownell can do the math, but he just might procrastinate in considering the implications.

“I don’t want to even think about next year – 10 freshmen and sophomores and just two upperclassmen?” Brownell said. “That will be difficult. That’s something we’ll have to think about. By then we’ll have a better feel for our freshmen.

“But believe me, when I took over the job this wasn’t part of my grand scheme - to get to my third year with 10 freshmen and sophomores.”

Attrition is largely to blame.

The Tigers’ 2008-09 recruiting class, which was touted as one of the best in school history, was cut in half when Donte Hill and Noel Johnson left the program last fall.

Then, following the 2010-11 season, freshman guard Cory Stanton opted to transfer.

The coming and going of players is common after a coaching change, but Brownell said attrition typically affects recruiting and team makeup most heavily in the first and second year.

“Normally that’s what happens when you take over a program – if there’s a big cleaning-of-house or guys leaving, it typically doesn’t happen in year-three,” he said. “But that’s just part of it, and we’ll be fine – we’ll adjust.”

Part of the adjusting has already taken place on the recruiting front. On the heels of the Tigers’ current freshman class, which is made up of a forward (Bernard Sullivan), a wing (K.J. McDaniels) and three guards (T.J. Sapp, Devin Coleman and Rod Hall), Brownell and his staff set out on the 2012 recruiting trail with a clear idea of what they wanted.

“We recruited with the idea of signing five,” Brownell said. “We knew we wanted two guards, we knew we needed two post players, and we’ve had (wing forward) Jaron (Blossomgame) committed for a long time.”

He likes the result of the well-executed blueprint.

“We needed to add some ball-handling,” Brownell said. “Losing Andre (Young) is going to be a major loss, and even Tanner (Smith) for that matter, and his decision-making, experience and poise. That’s hard to replace.

“We have some guards in the program, but really Rod (Hall) is the only guy who’s kind of a point guard – though he’s probably not a true point guard all the way yet.”

Brownell said that signees Jordan Roper and Adonis Filer bring different body types, skills and mentalities to the point guard position.

“We don’t always worry about having a 1-2-3-4 and all the different positions, but we do want guys who can do different things,” said Brownell. “Jordan, even though he’s a point guard, has more of scoring mentality. Adonis can do a little bit of both. He can distribute and run the team. And Rod is more a distributing type player with the mentality to be a passer, even though he scored a lot of points in his high school. His mentality is to pass and find guys.

“We want to make sure we recruited a couple of guys who could do those things.”

Brownell said that Blossomgame fills the need for a second wing forward to complement McDaniels.

“In Jaron, we just wanted another big wing, again because of losing Tanner,” he said. “They’re a little bit different in terms of skill sets. Obviously, he won’t have Tanner’s seasoning or poise or ball-handling, but the athleticism is there.”

In 6-11, 240-pound Landry Nnoko and 6-8, 250-pound Josh Smith, Brownell got the physical inside presence that he values.

“We needed two physical bodies inside to solidify our post, and we really like those these guys,” Brownell said. “We hope that Devin (Booker) and Milt (Jennings) will have good years as seniors, and that will give an opportunity for Landry and Josh and Bernard to continue to learn from them.”

Clemson still has one scholarship available, and Brownell said he’s uncertain whether he’ll use it in the spring or save it for 2013.

“We could add one more,” he said. “We knew that we wanted to get five, and the sixth one has been like ‘hey, we’ll see what happens.’ So whatever happens is fine. Basically, you’ve got a starting five if you need one. You could figure some things out.

“Looking ahead, even to 2013, it’s never easy recruiting kids on top of kids. There are going to be two good classes of 10 guys ahead of you. That’s not as appealing to recruits as open spaces. That’s basically where we’re coming from.

“If we hold it for 2013, that’s great because it gives us a third scholarship. But if there’s somebody that we watch through the course of this year and we really like, then we could use it.”