The Clemson basketball team came away with a much-needed win against Syracuse Saturday afternoon to close out the regular season. Here’s the latest bracketology for the Tigers.
The Clemson basketball team did exactly what it needed to do to put itself in the conversation for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers needed to close the season 4-1 and they did just that, with the only loss coming to North Carolina, a top five team in the nation, by two points.
Clemson earned the No. 9 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament and the Tigers will take on the No. 8 seed NC State Wednesday afternoon for a chance to advance to the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.
Here’s a look at the bracketology updates heading into the conference tournament.
Bracketology:
According to Joe Lunardi’s latest projected bracket, both Clemson basketball and NC State are part of the “last four in” group.
The Tigers and the Wolfpack, according to Lunardi, would play in the play-in round of the NCAA Tournament. Right now, he has Clemson playing TCU and NC State playing Ohio State.
Both of those play-in games are for 12 seeds in the tournament. If the Tigers were to win, they’d take on Auburn in the next round of the big dance.
I understand Clemson being on the bubble, but I don’t understand how you can have Texas, TCU, St. John’s or even Florida ahead of the Tigers right now. Texas doesn’t even have a winning record in league play. Florida is 17-14 overall and 8th in the SEC. St. John’s plays in a down Big East and still finished seventh.
The main thing hurting the Tigers is that they don’t have very many Quadrant 1 wins, but I still think they should be higher than what Lunardi has them right now.
But, the good thing is this: Clemson basketball practically controls its own destiny.
If the Tigers beat NC State on Wednesday, they will be firmly in the tournament. It’s a case of ‘win and you’re in.’ It also could be a case of ‘lose and you’re out’—for both teams.
In the end, it’s not worth arguing too much with the projected bracket because the Tigers had a chance to win a couple more games this season and just couldn’t get the job done.