Clemson took care of business on Wednesday night in the ACC Tournament, defeating Wake Forest 71-62 to move to the quarterfinals. In the game, Carter Welling was injured and may miss some time.
After the game, head coach Brad Brownell spoke about Welling, but also a switch he made in the game, moving to an old-school platoon substitution style, per Jon Blau of The Post and Courier.
“I thought we needed a jolt coming into the tournament,” Brownell said.
Instead of the substitution style of one or a few players at a time, Clemson switched to using their depth to keep players fresh, subbing out all five players, and putting in a brand new group of five. This was something done in days gone by, but not something seen commonly in the modern game.
This is not the first time that Brownell has used mass substitutions this year. Earlier in the season, Clemson employed this strategy, and forward Jake Wahlin spoke of why it was effective.
“It allows us to go out and give it everything we have until that media (timeout) or however long we're in for,” said Wahlin of Brownell’s mass substitutions. “It's really hard for the other teams, especially when the second half comes around. They start to wear down with our full-court pressure. It's a nightmare, I think.”
Keeping players fresh and giving their all when on the court has been a trademark for Brownell this year. Dillon Hunter leads the team with 28.4 minutes per game, while ten players average over 18.5 minutes per game this year. Brownell believes his second group can perform at the same level as the first.
“The second group plays very well against the starters most of the time, and so we don't feel like there's a major drop-off,” Brownell said. “That's not to disparage the guys that are starting right now.”
Clemson is looking to make it to the NCAA tournament for a third straight season, something they have not done since going four straight years from 2008 through 2011. They have a tough test on Thursday night, facing North Carolina in the quarterfinals.
