With the regular season and ACC Tournament in the books, Clemson basketball has turned its focus to the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season and the Tigers are hoping to make a 2024-like run to the Elite Eight and maybe even the school's first-ever Final Four.
This excitement didn't come without some distractions, however.
The Tigers had to deal with some Brad Brownell coaching candidate rumors as the job at Indiana opened up when Mike Woodson announced he'd be stepping down. Brownell did his best to address without saying too much one way or another, but the worry is no longer there as he's signing an extension with Clemson and the Hoosiers found their guy.
But that is no longer a distraction. McNeese, on the other hand, is facing a massive distraction ahead of its first-round matchup with Clemson that gives the Tigers a huge advantage.
On Wednesday night, it was reported that McNeese head coach Will Wade had agreed to terms to become the next head coach at NC State.
With Wade taking the job at NC State, the players have to be completely distracted and you usually see this in college football when coaches leave right before bowl games -- the team that loses the coach usually looks pretty defeated and lifeless. We could very well see the same thing on Thursday afternoon with McNeese losing their coach right before the tournament.
There are small distractions and then there are completely earth-shattering, momentum-shifting distractions that can change the outlook of a game. This falls under the latter for McNeese.