Clemson basketball: How far you should take Tigers in your bracket

How far you should take Clemson basketball in your NCAA Tournament bracket

The Clemson basketball team will be appearing in the NCAA Tournament for just the 13th time in program history when the Tigers take on the 10th-seeded Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Friday night in the first-round.

Clemson, the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region, is 16-7 overall and finished the season with a 10-6 record in the ACC. The Tigers’ opponent- Rutgers- finished its season 15-11 overall and 10-10 in the Big Ten, good enough for seventh in the conference.

As March Madness heats up and we begin to fill out brackets for longshots at cash and grand prizes, as well as epic bragging rights among friend, family & co-worker groups, it begs an intriguing question: Just how far should you take Clemson basketball in your bracket?

The tournament run for Clemson basketball depends on the offensive efficiency

Can Clemson make it to the Sweet-16, Elite 8 or potentially even the Final 4? Yes.

Could the Tigers be eliminated in the first-round by a hit-or-miss Rutgers team that plays decent defense? Yes.

We’ve seen the Tigers play at their best and beat teams like Florida State and Alabama, and we’ve also seen them at their worst when they’re losing by 30 points to a tournament team or getting beat by a bad Miami team in the ACC Tournament just last week.

So, how should you look at Clemson when it comes to analyzing the Tigers in their bracket?

You have to make an individual decision on which Tiger team you’ll think we’ll see. Clemson has played solid defense all year long and that’s not going to change. The Tigers will give effort defensively and as long as they grab rebounds (that has been a problem at times), they’ll be just fine on that end of the floor.

The place that you need to look is at the offensive end. Do you think Clemson is going to have an offensive night like what we saw for most of the month of February? Or do you think we’ll see shots continue to rim in-and-out?

It’s going to be a popular ’10 over 7′ pick to take Rutgers over Clemson, but if you want our advice, we’d say to give the Tigers the nod.

After that point, it will come down to offensive output. Can Clemson basketball outscore a really good Houston team? If they did, could they beat a West Virginia or a San Diego State in the Sweet 16?

The safe bet is to go chalk. Take Clemson to win in the first-round and then lose to Houston in Round 2, however, something tells us this might be ‘all or nothing’ for the Tigers.

It’s been that kind of a season for them and, at their best, they can compete with anybody. At their worst, well let’s just hope we don’t see their worst.

If they get past Rutgers, an Elite 8 berth just might be on the table because of the streakiness of this team. Then again, the Scarlet Knights could take care of them before they even get out of their first night in the tournament.

Clear as mud? Yeah, we thought so.

Safest Bet: Go Chalk

Living on the edge: Ride them until the Elite 8

Realistic Debbie Downer: First-round elimination

Any of these three could be the choice, but you’ve got to decide who you’ll be.