Tougher schedule and consistent play pays off for Clemson Men’s Basketball, debuts at No. 18 in the NET Ranking

Clemson Men’s Basketball has begun the 2023-24 season with a seven-game winning streak. Two of those victories were on the road against Alabama and Pittsburgh.

Clemson has been slowly climbing the KenPom rankings as they have accumulated more credit. The win over Pittsburgh on Sunday moved them up to 28th in that ranking.

Two more surprises awaited the Tigers on Monday, as the first NET ranking of the new season was released.

To the surprise of some and the shock of others, Clemson was ranked 18th in the initial ranking.

Clemson was the highest-ranked Atlantic Coast Conference program, followed by Virginia at No. 27.

The new AP Poll followed later in the day, and the Tigers made their debut there at No. 24.

The Tigers struggled to gain ground in the NET rankings in 2022-23, despite an overall good record, which led to frustration for fans who thought the team deserved more respect. The problems could be attributed to two reasons:

• The Tigers dropped games to competition that was ranked very low, like South Carolina and Loyola Chicago
• The Tigers overall schedule, particularly the non-conference, didn’t feature enough tough opponents

Clemson made the effort to add some teeth to the non-conference schedule this season, and they have made the most of those opportunities. They have also avoided the head-scratching upsets.

The Tigers have five more non-conference opponents, including South Carolina, TCU, and Memphis, before returning to the rest of their ACC slate.

PJ Hall is leading the Tigers in scoring with 21.4 points per game. Joe Girard and Chase Hunter are also averaging double-digit points per game.

Ian Schieffelin has upped his game on the glass with 9.4 rebounds per game to lead the Tigers. Hall is pulling down 7.6 per game as well.

Hunter leads with 3.4 assists per game, and Girard is close behind at 3.4.