Clemson Basketball: Recruiting paints clear picture for disappointments
The Clemson basketball program has had its fair share of disappointments over the last decade, but there’s a clear picture for why.
Though the Clemson basketball program had a run to the Sweet-16 a couple of years ago, that success seems as if it were lightyears ago.
The Tigers are currently sitting near the bottom of the ACC standings yet again and are on the verge of missing not just the NCAA Tournament, but the NIT Tournament as well.
The Clemson basketball program has had its fair share of disappointments, but the truth is pretty simple: Recruiting tells the whole story.
Here’s a look at the Tigers’ recruiting classes over the past five years and how it ranks in terms of the ACC (according to 247 Sports).
- 2015: No. 82 nationally, 14th in the ACC
- 2016: No. 116 nationally, 15th in the ACC.
- 2017: No. 46 nationally, 9th in the ACC.
- 2018: No. 62 nationally, 10th in the ACC.
- 2019: No. 43 nationally, 9th in the ACC.
It should be pointed out that the 2020 class is ranked No. 34 nationally and 8th in the ACC, which will be the best in quite some time.
When you look at these past recruiting rankings, though- and I understand that star-ratings don’t always tell the full story- you can see why Clemson basketball is consistently near the bottom of the conference.
The Tigers’ best recruiting year in the past half-decade was last year where they finished No. 9 in the ACC. I understand that there is ‘under the table recruiting’ happening in College Basketball, but there’s no reason Clemson can’t recruit with the new facilities and overall growth and success of the University as a whole over the past few years.
When you recruit as the 10th-best team in the conference on average, you’re going to finish right around 10th in the conference. In many ways, the Tigers are actually outperforming their talent level.
Next. Elite basketball can exist at 'football school'. dark
Either way you look at it, the reason Clemson basketball is faltering is pretty simple: The Tigers aren’t recruiting and they aren’t getting talent. You can have all the X’s and O’s knowledge on the planet, it’s not going to do any good when other programs are just flat-out more talented than you most nights.
There are exceptions, but the overall talent level of the program has to be brought up if Clemson ever wants to compete consistently.