What Brad Brownell said after Clemson’s latest first-round March Madness exit
Clemson men’s basketball’s NCAA Tournament losing streak hit two years after Friday’s 67-61 loss to Iowa in Tampa, Florida.
Here’s what coach Brad Brownell had to say after the Tigers’ loss, which ended their season at 24-11 and marked the second straight season Clemson has failed to advance out of the first round (both times as the higher seed).
Brad Brownell’s opening statement
“Congratulations to Iowa. I thought their kids played really well. Really physical team. Nothing that we didn’t expect.”
“I thought our kids just early in the game, I don’t know, for whatever reason, we just didn’t seem really comfortable. I thought we missed some shots around the rim that we probably normally make. Give their kids credit, they made some threes early, which gave them a bunch of juice.”
“I thought we stayed with our plan and hung in there reasonably well defensively, but the defensive rebounding was a problem, and obviously the fouling with the free throws, that was the big difference in the game.”
“We couldn’t get some defensive stops when we needed them and had a couple opportunities when we tightened the game up and made a couple plays that just were poor. Credit to them.”
On Clemson’s offensive rebounding struggles
“ I’m anxious to watch the film and just see what happened. Certainly some long shots by them, long rebounds. I’m sure there’s a couple that just bounced their way, but there were others that we needed to win, 50-50 balls you have to get. We just weren’t quite as hungry as we needed to be to win those.”
“What makes that doubly hard is then you don’t get to start your break, and you don’t get any easy baskets, so we were constantly playing against their set defense all night. That became a problem, as well.”
On senior players Dillon Hunter and RJ Godfrey
“It’s really hard because we’re with these guys so much. Blood, sweat and tears, and we have all of it, right? Throughout our careers, and even these seasons.”
“When you have guys who lead like they do and are unbelievable examples, you just want the best for them. They’re phenomenal young men. Proud of them. So proud I got to coach them and grateful for that.”
“I think if you just listen to them, it speaks to our university, our Clemson community. It speaks to the culture of our basketball program, the type of people that we have. These two guys will fall in that line of great Clemson basketball leaders.”
On never being able to get within a possession of Iowa
“We had a couple of times when we got it close. We fouled a 3-point shooter. Just an awful foul. Then we missed the front end of a one-and-one and we needed a stop or two and just didn’t quite get them. Fouled them a couple times, and they made free throws.”
“That’s what’s going to be haunting with this loss is you had a chance — I told the guys at halftime, we’re in a good position to win the game. We really are. We haven’t played great. They’ve got a little bit of a lead. You’re kind of right where you want to be when you’re a team that maybe played a little better the last part of the first half, built a little momentum. If we can just get off to a good start in the second half we can really make a shot at winning the game. There’s plenty of time left.”
“We just didn’t quite have it tonight. We just couldn’t quite make the timely play.”
On the lack of a big-time scorer on this year’s team
“Elite offensive guys, there aren’t as many of those as people think. Iowa has one (Bennett Stirtz), so there was really only one guy on the floor that was probably separating himself from others.”
“But yeah, it takes pressure off your team when there’s a guy that you can rely on to either go score, go get fouled or create a double-team, and it just makes life for the other players easier.”
“We’ve had those guys in the past. Love to have one in the future. This year’s team, maybe we just weren’t quite wired that way. But again, I give a lot of credit to our staff and to our players for finding different ways to win this year.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 10:06 PM with the headline "What Brad Brownell said after Clemson’s latest first-round March Madness exit."
