Brad Brownell didn’t have to wait long to see what Chris Harriman could add to Clemson.
Less than 24 hours before the United States men’s national team played Australia in the 2026 World Cup, Brownell was running his basketball summer camp at Littlejohn Coliseum when “U.S.A.” chants started rolling through the building.
“I think my Australian assistant poked the bear with the campers,” he said.
That assistant is Harriman, a former College of Charleston staffer and one of four new assistants on Clemson’s men’s basketball staff for the 2026-27 season. And while he’s one piece of the overhaul, he may wind up being the most distinct. Brownell called him the “top of my list right away,” and the reason is pretty clear: Harriman brings a global recruiting background that Clemson plans to lean on.
Brownell has worked that lane before, but Harriman is expected to run it fully. At his previous stop, Charleston rosters were loaded with international talent.
Last season’s team had four international players, including two from Australia. The year before, seven of the Cougars’ 16 players came from abroad.
That’s the kind of footprint Clemson is betting on. Harriman has spent more than 20 years in coaching, with stops in California, New Mexico, Arkansas and Saint Louis before his time in the Upstate and Charleston. At Saint Louis from 2008-12, he helped the Billikens reach the NCAA Tournament in his final season in his first coaching job.
He’s also shown he can identify and help develop high-level talent from overseas. Former center Chol Machot, one of Harriman’s players, won CAA Defensive Player of the Year last season. At Nebraska, Harriman helped produce the program’s first First Team All-Big Ten selection in more than 15 years in former guard Terran Pettway, and two other Huskers earned all-conference honors during his tenure.
Clemson has already started to see how that kind of reach can work. Fans have embraced overseas players like Bas Leyte and Viktor Lakhin, and with Harriman in the fold, more could be on the way.
He wasted no time getting to work. Since being hired at the end of March, Harriman helped bring in wing Liutauras Lelevicius and Dutch forward David Fuchs, who transferred from TCU and San Francisco, respectively.
Still, Brownell made it clear Clemson won’t chase international prospects just for the sake of it.
“Obviously, we’ll look anywhere we can to find good players that fit our system, our style, high-character kids,” he said.
The timing fits a wider trend. International basketball has become a real recruiting edge across the ACC, where programs have found impact players from all over the world.
Duke had Italian wing Dame Sarr, who made an All-ACC defensive team. Virginia leaned on Belgian Thijs de Ridder and Nigerian center Ugonna Onyenso during its turnaround.
North Carolina got major production from Henri Veesaar, one of the nation’s best scoring bigs.
Brownell believes Harriman gives Clemson a better shot to keep up in that space.
“Chris has great experience in that area, and we’ll certainly continue to try to work that angle, for sure,” Brownell added.
There’s more to Harriman than recruiting, though. Brownell and former Charleston coach Chris Mack both praised the energy he brings every day. Mack called him “one of the most energetic and hardest-working assistant coaches I’ve ever been around,” adding, “He is a joy to work with daily.“
Brownell has seen that firsthand already, and he likes what it does for the whole staff.
“They bring great juice to practice, great energy to the office,” he said. “It’s actually been great.”
For Clemson, Harriman is more than a new assistant. He’s a doorway to a different kind of roster building, one with a wider view and a little more reach.
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