It was a huge week for Clemson Men’s Basketball last week, with two road ACC wins over quality teams to take sole possession of first place in the ACC.
The Tigers are sitting at 13-3 and 5-0 in the ACC would seem to be in a pretty good spot as far as the NCAA Tournament goes.
You might be wrong.
I was intrigued by the horrible announcers for Saturday’s game saying the winner of that game would not only be in first place in the ACC, but they would likely be ranked come Monday (today).
They went on to further explain that Pittsburgh was in the field of 68 per Joe Lunardi, but the Tigers were not.
In doing the research it’s pretty easy to see why: Two bad losses, one to South Carolina and one to Loyola Chicago.
Those losses could come back to haunt the Tigers in March.
The good news is Clemson is that there are winnable games immediately ahead and in fact, KenPom.com shows the Tigers winning their next 8 games, including next Saturday over Duke and the February 4 matchup with Miami, both of which are in Littlejohn Coliseum.
Those are big games and winning both, or even splitting, would be a huge boost for the Tigers chances in March.
But looking at the schedule there are seven games remaining with opponents ranked outside of the top 127 in the nation and another ranked at 90th.
These are games Clemson must win, not Duke and/or Miami, though obviously, those would be a nice touch.
A quick look at the Net Rankings, which are used in deciding NCAA Tournament births, shows the precarious position the Tigers are in heading into the second half of the season.
Clemson Men’s Basketball is one of two teams in the top 79 of the Net Rankings with two Quad 4 losses
While the Tigers are 3-1 against Quad 1 teams, they are only 5-2 against Quad 4 teams and there’s only one other team in the top 79 of the Net Rankings with 2 losses to Quad 4 teams (Utah State).
For all their big wins and well-played games, two games in December could haunt the Tigers come Selection Sunday.