Poppie saw a 3-point attempt rim out by sharpshooter Hannah Kohn with under 30 seconds to go to take the lead. Despite a second chance with 8 seconds to go, an inbound pass was tipped by a Tar Heel defender to end the hope.
However, after that game, it wasn’t the game that stood out to Clemson fans: it was the jacket. Poppie received so many compliments about the sports coat that he decided to keep a good thing going.
“I thought, maybe I should bring a jacket back, and so that’s where the jacket started,” he said.
Then, winning began.
Poppie wore another suit in the next game, this time, a blue one. The game ended in a 68-61 victory over No. 19 Georgia Tech at home, being Clemson’s second ranked win of his tenure in just his debut season.
In the Tigers’ first ACC Tournament game that season, they picked up an upset win against Stanford for the program’s first postseason win under Poppie. Once again, he donned a suit.
However, when he was being styled for the original orange jacket, there was a part that he didn’t wear that the M.H. Frank staff believed would add more to the style.
“‘Well, you should try on this hoodie with it,’” Poppie recalled. “So I did.”
The third-year head coach does it because “whether you like it or not, it starts conversation.” He also gets some help from his wife, Regina, saying that she enjoys the style, depending on which sports coat and hoodie he decides to match it with for that given game.
“She hasn’t told me no quite yet, but she’s definitely said, ‘Let’s try a new one,’” Poppie said.
Now, he even has a navy sports jacket stitched with a hood on it. Poppie flashed it in Clemson’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal game against top-seeded Duke this past March.
The mixture of sports coats and hoodies has become as much a part of Poppie’s identity as the program he’s building.
Since that February day, the Tigers have been winning games, and the program is bringing in money to compete with the rest of the ACC, as well as the country. Clemson is showing on the court, too, with a 21-12 record that saw it make its first NCAA Tournament appearance in seven seasons.