Clemson Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Tigers

By Joey Loose | Oct 10, 2021

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MARCH 19: Al-Amir Dawes #2, Nick Honor #4, Clyde Trapp #0, Aamir Simms #25 and Hunter Tyson #5 of the Clemson Tigers walk up court in the second half against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the first round game of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 19, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

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Aamir Simms Clemson Basketball (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

For a program not exactly revered as a power in college basketball, it was a pretty solid season for Clemson Basketball last year. In his 11th season leading the Tigers, coach Brad Brownell got Clemson back to the NCAA Tournament, his third team leading the program.

Clemson got the season off to a hot start, picking up wins over Purdue, Maryland, Alabama, and Florida State early, rising as high as #12 in the Top 25. They eventually finished 5th in the ACC, with struggles near the end of their campaign and a first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.

Winning in the ACC is no easy matter, and even a top 5 finish deserves to be celebrated, especially when you finish above Duke, Louisville, and Syracuse in the standings. Brownell had led the Tigers to the Sweet Sixteen back in 2018, but this campaign seemed to be the bounce-back effort after two decent, but not great, seasons since then. The national pandemic did affect the Tigers this year, as several of their games were canceled, including their road tilts against North Carolina and South Carolina, but they made the most of their season.

Moving forward, things don’t exactly get easier for Clemson, especially as the other ACC teams look to rebuild and rebound. You expect to see programs like Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia atop the standings; nobody really expects to see Clemson fighting for league titles on a regular basis. This football school has had some decent success these last few seasons under Brownell, but this next season could be quite the transition, at least initially.

Clemson returns without their best player, losing Aamir Simms to graduation. There’s also a flurry of players who have transferred out, though a few new freshmen and transfers will try to take their place on the roster. Throw in a new assistant coach in former UMKC head coach Kareem Richardson and there’s change in the air in Clemson all around. Nothing about this is unusual, especially to a program like Clemson, and it’ll be interesting to see how these new pieces come together, pieces we will detail very shortly.

You never really know what could happen in college basketball; teams have a tendency to come out of nowhere, especially when the calendar hits March. Trapped in a tough ACC, we’ll take a closer look at what to expect from Clemson this season and who you’ll see starring on the court for the Tigers.