CLEMSON -- Indiana is looking for a head coach to lead its once-storied basketball program.
Clemson has a successful coach, Brad Brownell, a native Hoosier who was high school teammates with IU legend Calbert Cheaney.
The connections between Brownell and his home state have been too strong to ignore amid the Tigers' unprecedented success, leading college basketball insiders to speculate he might be one of the Hoosiers' top candidates.
Ahead of the ACC tournament, Brownell was asked the obvious question: Would he be interested in being IU's next head coach?
He gave a somewhat obvious answer.
"I'm not going to talk about potential jobs. I have a great job, and I'm 100 percent focused on this team and what we've got ahead of us," Brownell said. "I'm trying to do everything I can to help us continue to win the next game."
Without expressing any interest or disinterest, Brownell admitted the speculation is flattering.
A little over a year ago, the Clemson coach was considered to be on the hot seat because of consecutive seasons where the Tigers missed the NCAA tournament.
In his first 13 seasons at Clemson, Brownell made March Madness only three times.
In his fourth trip to the Big Dance in 2024, however, the Tigers went on a run to the Elite Eight for only the second time in program history.
This season, Clemson is almost assuredly NCAA tournament-bound after winning a program-record 26 regular-season games and 18 ACC contests.
"You're grateful that you're doing good things, right? That's what's going to happen if you're doing the right things and you're winning enough games," Brownell said of IU speculation. "I've never been a self-promoter. And that's partly because of how much I really like Clemson."
Meanwhile, IU has been led by a former Hoosier legend, Mike Woodson for the last four seasons. The program hopes to make the NCAA tournament for a third time in his tenure, but just making the field isn't the expectation for a program that once won national titles under Bob Knight.
Brownell's former Harrison High teammate Cheaney, the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer, is currently IU's director of player development.
The connections are there, though it's unclear if Brownell, the Evansville, Ind., native, would want to throw himself into the pressure-cooker of Bloomington.
But it is clear how much he likes Clemson.
"I mean, obviously, I sent both daughters here and have been here 15 years," Brownell said. "This place is really a special place. Proud of what we've built."