Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell targets 'poor' and 'ridiculous' calls after Duke loss

Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell seldom if ever weighs in on officiating, but Saturday’s 72-71 defeat against No. 12 Duke at the Blue Devils’ Cameron Indoor Stadium proved a bit more than he could quietly accept.

Several questionable calls were bothersome for Brownell and perhaps a few Clemson players. Guard Joseph Girard III appeared to have to be restrained from approaching an official after the game by Brownell and a couple of Clemson assistants.

“It’s hard to win here for a lot of reasons, it really is, and tonight was an example of that,” Brownell said. “I think a lot of people in the room, on the court, get caught up in the emotion of the game, and I thought that happened tonight. Really disappointed with how it ended.”

Clemson was called for a foul against Duke’s Tyrese Proctor with less than one second remaining and Clemson clinging to a 71-70 lead. Proctor appeared to travel before the whistle blew.

“Give the Duke kid credit for being aggressive and taking it to the basket, but that’s really poor,” Brownell said. “That’s poor.”

Brownell also described a technical foul call against the Jack Clark with 11:45 left in the first half “ridiculous.” Clark tossed the ball to a Duke player out of bounds after a made shot by the Tigers, but was whistled for a technical and Duke's Jeremy Roach made one of two free throws.

“They said he shoved the ball into him,” Brownell said. “I watched it on film myself because obviously we don’t condone that kind of behavior here. When I saw it, it didn’t look like much. To be given a technical on that is ridiculous. That’s again the emotion of the building affecting the officials and creating stuff that’s not even there.”

Clemson hasn’t won a game at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1995 and Saturday’s defeat was its 21^st in a row there. Brownell is 0-8 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, with three of those losses coming by two points or less.

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ScottKeepfer

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson basketball's Brad Brownell questions officiating in loss to Duke