If you're like Clark Kellogg and you had Clemson basketball making it to the national title game, you were probably punching the desk and kicking chairs at work while watching the Tigers get absolutely trounced by No. 12 seed McNeese on Thursday.
The game felt like it was heading in the wrong direction early on after the Tigers' 6-4 lead disappeared and McNeese went on a 19-3 run over the next few minutes and went into the half with a 31-13 lead. The second half wasn't much better for Clemson as McNeese just held the lead and thwarted every little run the Tigers pieced together.
Clemson made it somewhat interesting for a second in the second half when Viktor Lakhin hit an and-one and some full-court press drew the game closer than it had been for an entire half, but McNeese was able to fend off a huge late charge.
The Tigers would become the 56th 5-seed to lose to a 12-seed in tourney history.
Overall, this was the worst basketball Clemson played all season long which is shocking because the Cowboys were facing some distractions with their head coach taking the NC State job on Wednesday night. Brownell, on the other hand, is in the middle of a contract extension.
It felt like everything should've gone Clemson's way.
But that wasn't the case.
Lakhin's college career was ended early thanks to a questionable technical that fouled him out and it felt like that sucked all of the momentum out of the Tigers with just over five minutes left.
Clemson couldn't rebound it well, it didn't shoot well until the final minutes, and it found itself on the wrong end of the NCAA Tournament's biggest upset of the day (before 5 p.m.).
Hopefully Brownell can get back to another deep run next year.