What a season Clemson basketball had.
The Tigers finished 27-7, earned a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and nearly upended Duke in the ACC standings and were the only team to take down the Blue Devils in conference play. That's right, outside of their loss to Houston in the Final Four, Duke's only loss since November was to Clemson. That's an impressive feat for Brad Brownell and Co.
And yet all that led to a first-round upset loss to McNeese, nearly voiding one of the best seasons in school history. But upsets happen, and you can't focus too much on the negatives, especially when a Final Four run was unlikely with arguably the most loaded national semifinal field in the sport's history.
Clemson still finished the season with the most single-season wins in program history and Brownell pieced together a lineup that should've made a deeper run -- it played its worst game at the worst time.
Heading into the tournament, Clemson was ranked No. 10 in the country which made the 5-seed a little head-scratching, but the Tigers' loss to McNeese kind of calmed that chatter.
Despite that shocking loss to 12th-seeded McNeese, Clemson finishes ranked No. 22 in the final AP Top 25 of the year after Florida won the national championship on Monday night.
This is the second time in program history that Clemson has finished in the AP Poll in consecutive seasons.
Second time in program history we’ve been ranked in the final AP Poll of the season in consecutive years. pic.twitter.com/xa2eSUDuxW
— Clemson Basketball (@ClemsonMBB) April 8, 2025
What a feat for a special team. Brownell had the guys and the team felt like it had the juice to make a run after what was one of the best regular seasons in program history, but it just ran out of gas against McNeese.
The Tigers will have a chance to make the AP Top 25 for a third straight year despite losing eight guys this offseason. The transfer portal has been kind to the Tigers so far and there's still work to do.