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Former DePauw standout Brownell tops pair of Hall of Famers
CLEMSON, S.C. -- With opponents only winning 20 percent of games during Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski's career at Duke University, any win over the Blue Devils is reason to celebrate.
What coach Brad Brownell and Clemson University did on Wednesday with their 68-63 win over No. 9 Duke on Wednesday was even more impressive.
The victory was the Tigers' second straight over a coach in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. On Sunday, Clemson defeated No. 16 Louisville and coach Rick Pitino by a score of 66-62.
The big wins have the Tigers in perhaps their best position all season. A four-game win streak has Clemson sitting third in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 4-1 league mark and 11-6 overall record.
It has been a marked turnaround for Clemson, which was languishing at 7-6 before the new year.
Incidentally, Brownell would have had a shot at three straight Hall of Famers had Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim not been serving an NCAA suspension for the two teams' Jan. 5 matchup.
Now in his sixth year at Clemson, Brownell and the Tigers are seeking their first NCAA Tournament berth since the coach's first season in 2011.
The 1991 DePauw graduate is 101-79 at Clemson. Having coached four years each at UNC Wilmington and Wright State, Brownell has a 268-164 career mark.
Brownell is trying to bring the kind of success to Clemson that DePauw teams had in his time in Greencastle. As a junior, Brownell was a starting guard for the best men's basketball team in DePauw history.
That 1989-90 squad went 24-7, losing 43-42 to Rochester in the NCAA Division III national finals. Brownell was a coach on the floor for the Tigers, leading them in assists and steals.
The three-time letterman led the team in assists in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and sits seventh in school history with 332 career assists.
His .889 mark from the free-throw line in 1988-89 is the second-best in school history.
After graduating from DePauw in 1991, Brownell completed his master's degree at the University of Indianapolis in 1994. He is a graduate of Harrison High School in Evansville, where he was a high school teammate of Calbert Cheaney, who later became the National Player of the Year in 1993 at Indiana.
Brownell and his wife Paula have two daughters, Abby and Kate.