Clemson Men’s Basketball beginning to earn respect inch by inch

It’s not going to be an easy journey for Clemson Men’s Basketball.  No, this team will have to earn respect every step of the way.

At times the football team could be seen as benefiting from its past performance and championships.  Such is not the case with the basketball team, which has struggled over the years.

The losses to bad teams haven’t helped, but history plays a large role in the reluctance to believe in this team.

From a fan’s perspective, I get it.  The disappointment and heartbreak is palpable and as I watched Duke jump out to an 8-point lead twice yesterday, I’d be lying if I said a bit of doubt didn’t creep in.

But the Tigers didn’t fold and won their 7th consecutive game since that humiliating loss to Loyola Chicago on December 10.

When the new AP Top 25 is revealed, expect the Tigers to be in it. Barely, if voters like Gary Parrish have their way.

We’re in mid-January, the Tigers have won 7 straight, including road games at Virginia Tech and Pitt in the same week, followed up with a home win over Duke and they’re talking about games in December.

The computers don’t like the Tigers.

"With all of this in mind, the Tigers have entered Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings at No. 25 despite mostly shaky computer numbers and a resume featuring two Quadrant 4 losses. (Note: TCU is the only other team in the Top 25 And 1 with even one Q4 loss, and TCU’s Q4 loss came more than two months ago in a game in which two of its top three scorers did not play.)"

It’s understandable, heck I even brought it up last week.  There’s no getting around it, those are bad losses and they’ll be held against the Tigers all season long, especially by the computers.

How much so?

The Tigers barely moved in the KenPom rankings after beating Duke.

They did make a 6 spot jump in the Net Rankings from 57 to 51.

The computer rankings aren’t focused on one game or even one week.  They look at the season as a whole and those two losses are a weight around the Tigers rankings neck.

Big games ahead for Clemson Men’s Basketball, but maybe the games against the “also rans” are more important

In the end it probably won’t matter that much as Clemson has still has Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina State and Virginia on the schedule.

They’ll get their chances.

At this point though, it might be the other games – Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Florida State (2) and Louisville that matter more for both the humans and computers that are looking for a reason to doubt Brad Brownell’s Tigers.