Shawn Poppie is trying to turn Clemson back into a winner. An ACC Tournament victory over Stanford could be a good sign for things to come.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — On a dry-erase board inside a locker room in the historic Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday evening, first-year Clemson coach Shawn Poppie didn’t scribble on it top-to-bottom with gameplans, reminders, defensive assignments or statistics. He wrote just two short but powerful questions directed at his players.
What is your why?
What is your choice?
“I don’t need to put anything else up there,” Poppie said. “If they answer those two things
right, we will be a really good basketball team.”
In the final game of the ACC Tournament’s opening round, Clemson had answers. Stanford did not.
From nearly start to finish, the underdog Tigers controlled the game against the revered and respected Cardinal. Clemson led for nearly 31 minutes and held Stanford to its second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, 31.5 percent. Behind 17 points and eight rebounds from Loyal McQueen, 12 points and eight boards from Anya Poole, and 14 points from Mia Moore, Clemson beat Stanford convincingly, 63-56.
Stanford, which was fighting to keep its streak of 36 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances alive, will fly back to Palo Alto, California, disappointed after a brief stay at its first ACC Tournament. Clemson, meanwhile, gets to extend its residence in Greensboro and gets to fight another day.
“We have a lot of seniors on this roster, and so I just wanted to be able to not leave any regrets, and now we’re moving on,” said Moore, a junior who came to Clemson after stops at UAB and Mississippi State. “I just wanted to be able to give them that chance to go out with a bang.”
But this victory is more than just another tally on the Tigers’ overall record this season. No matter what happens in their second-round game against sixth-seeded Louisville on Thursday night, this win means something for Clemson.
It’s proof of concept. It’s a building block for Poppie. It’s symbolic of the work he and his team have put in to try to restore a once proud program that had become downtrodden. And it’s a sign of where the program could be headed under his direction in years to come.
“Not only that, but did you see that crowd we had behind us? For a team that came in 13-16 and the No. 14 seed, we got people believing in Clemson,” Poppie said. “Although we’ve not had all the results, we’ve continued to fight and stay the course… We’ve been in every dang game.”
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Last season, the Tigers ranked last in attendance in the ACC, drawing less than 900 fans per game. This year, as excitement around Poppie, his team and his engaging personality built, that number more than doubled. While the ACC added three teams, Clemson finished 12th in attendance, bringing in 2,275 fans into Littlejohn Coliseum per game – an increase of 91 percent.
In an example of real boots-on-the-ground, grassroots fan engagement, Poole said it’s not uncommon to see Poppie and the team handing out pizzas and other goodies around campus to get fans to check them out.
“I think that stat right there shows a lot of what we’re talking about when it comes to doing things the right way and building things,” Poppie said earlier this week.
It’s easy to dismiss the Tigers’ overall record of 14-16 and say that they haven’t made real progress in Poppie’s first season. But consider that attendance increase, which is a sign that the culture around the program is blossoming. Consider that they have an assist-turnover ratio of 1.08, their best in 15 seasons, and a mark of a team that takes care of the ball and plays together. And consider that three of their wins — against Hawaii, Cal and Georgia Tech — came against teams likely to make the NCAA Tournament. Consider that the Tigers didn’t win an ACC Tournament game last year.
And consider that they beat Stanford — one of the signature programs in women’s college basketball – not once, but twice this season, ending any hope the Cardinal had of keeping its iconic streak alive.
“I thought they really just kind of punched us in the mouth,” Stanford coach Kate Paye said. “It was just not our day.”
Poppie knows what it takes to build up a program in the ACC. From 2016 through 2022, he was Kenny Brooks’ top lieutenant as Virginia Tech transformed from a mediocre, middle-of-the pack program to legitimate contenders. The season that Poppie left Blacksburg to take the reins at Chattanooga, Virginia Tech won the ACC Tournament and then went to the Final Four – both first for the program.
Fittingly, Poppie’s own success brought him back to Blacksburg that season. In his first year as the head coach of the Mocs, he led Chattanooga to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in six seasons. They were a 16-seed in the Big Dance, matched up with Brooks’ Hokies. The Mocs were even better the next season, sweeping the regular season and tournament titles in the SoCon to appear in March Madness again.
Poppie’s seemingly instant success at Chattanooga, his experience with program-building in the ACC, and his familiarity with South Carolina – he played at Division II Limestone in the Palmetto State, and got his coaching start at USC Upstate and Furman – put him on Clemson’s radar. He’s been a natural fit ever since.
The way he described it in the preseason, from Poppie’s point of view, Clemson isn’t all that different from Virginia Tech. And so, he believes the same can be accomplished.
“When we took that program over, up in Blacksburg, you looked at the totality of the athletic department and there was a lot of success. Small college town, a little bit of a military background – that’s really what we are at Clemson,” Poppie said months ago. “For me, just like Kenny did at Virginia Tech, (the question was) do we have the resources and people in place to actually be successful? … The blueprint of what (Brooks) taught me is not changing.”
Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images
When Anya Poole entered the transfer portal last spring after four years at North Carolina, she wasn’t initially sure what to think of Clemson when she got a call from Poppie. All she really knew about Clemson was what she had seen from her perspective as a Tar Heel: a not-so-good team playing in a mostly empty arena.
But then Poole heard who else was joining Poppie at Clemson. Poole was one of 10 transfers he brought in and 11 newcomers overall. He completely revamped the roster and made the transfers he recruited buy into his longterm dream of making the Tigers into a winning program. And it was easy for Poole to remember what Poppie had helped construct at Virginia Tech. In her time as a Tar Heel, UNC went 2-8 against the Hokies.
“I knew that he was good people and he was going to help us,” Poole said of Poppie. “And that he was going to help us get people out here. It’s our first year, but we’re trying to make something happen here – we just need people to have our backs.”
For Poole, a veteran fifth-year senior who is aiming to obtain her master’s degree in Youth Development Leadership, this lone season for her at Clemson felt like some of her early days at North Carolina. She was a freshman in Courtney Banghart’s second season at the helm, and during Poole’s four years there the Tar Heels slowly but surely began to attract fans and win meaningful games. Eventually, UNC became NCAA Tournament regulars again.
That’s the next target for Clemson. In the past 23 seasons, the Tigers have gone dancing in March Madness just once. The program Poppie inherited wasn’t what Clemson always was in women’s college basketball through. Proof exists that the Tigers can be winners. Under Jim Davis from 1988 to 2002, they went to 14 NCAA Tournaments in 15 years and won two ACC titles.
Recreating that sort of consistency isn’t impossible, but the Tigers are taking it slow, one step at a time.
For Poole, the transformation she’s seen in the team’s chemistry and ability from when she arrived in upstate South Carolina last spring to Wednesday night in Greensboro has been like night and day.
“It has exceeded my expectations,” Poole said. “It’s really insane the way we’ve gelled together. We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve always figured out how to get ourselves through it together.”
After beating Stanford, Clemson’s players ran over to the corner of the court opposite their bench and celebrated with the band and cheerleaders. They then danced back over to their sideline, waving at the sizable group of Tigers’ fans who made the drive to Greensboro.
“It’s really fun celebrating with those people that travel to the games. Some people are coming from God knows where, so far away, but they came for one reason: to support Clemson,” Poole said. “You’ve always got to thank those people because they’re spending their time, their money… I just fought for 40 minutes with these people.”
Poppie added: “You can feel it from the band, the cheerleaders. They’re not just here. They’re not just showing up because it’s a tournament. There’s a genuine love and support over there, and our kids feel that, too. It’s what we’re trying to build of who Clemson women’s basketball will be, and they’ve done an unbelievable job of laying that foundation.”
Indeed, the vibes are good in Clemson. Beating Stanford on a big stage made them even better.
It’s Poppie’s goal to make that feeling last.
