With the March Madness field expanding from 68 to 76 teams, Brad Brownell's Clemson Tigers will need to be part of this year's NCAA Tournament for it to be deemed a success. Clemson may have to navigate some major shake-ups to its roster, but the Tigers are still widely viewed as a top-six or seven team in the ACC. Of course, it is all about the matchups once a team qualifies for the tourney.
In Joe Lunardi's final Bracketology update before the regular season starts, the noted ESPN college basketball analyst has the Tigers earning a No. 11 seed. They are slated to play the Providence Friars out of the Big East in their first game of the tournament. Whoever wins that "First 12?" game would take on No. 6 Kentucky in Louisville as part of the Midwest Regional running through Kansas City.
The good news is Lunardi has Clemson comfortably into the field. The Tigers are not among the Last Four In (Providence, Utah State, Creighton, and New Mexico). The bad news is they still have to be one of the 24 teams taking part in the opening round of the recently expanded tournament. Having to play another game may undermine the depth issues that are hurting Clemson, especially in the backcourt.
Clemson must do everything in its power to get out of the opening round
Throughout the offseason, Clemson has oscillated between being a No. 10 to a No. 12 seed. The Tigers have been slotted in as a No. 11 seed in each of the last three monthly Bracketology updates. This tells us that while Clemson will comfortably be in the tournament as one of six or seven ACC teams --six as of the most recent update--, avoiding the opening round is not going to be easy.
While one would think getting to at least a No. 10 seed should do the trick, that is not the case in this expanded bracket. Four projected No. 10 seeds will be taking part in opening-round games after this latest update: Georgia versus Iowa, and TCU taking on VCU. Clemson will need to be a top-36 team (No. 9 seed or better) to make sure it will not have to play an extra game in this tournament.
If there is any good news, it is that maybe this expanded 76-team field could create a new interesting wrinkle for the rest of the sport to sort out. There have been First Four teams that have gone on to do great things in recent tournaments. Look no further than Sean Miller's Texas Longhorns from a year ago. They beat NC State in the First Four before bowing out in the Sweet 16 to Purdue by two points.
Because this will be a new bracket, what we claim we think we know only goes to show that we really have no idea at all. Being a No. 11 seed as recent as last year meant a team was on the bubble. That no longer looks to be the case. Regardless, Clemson will need to take advantage of the slightest wiggle room it has to improve its overall resume in the eyes of the Selection Committee.
It all starts by taking care of business when the Stetson Hatters venture into Littlejohn on Monday.
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