Selection Sunday is finally here and after a two-day break from action following Clemson basketball's disappointing loss to Louisville, it's time to find out who the Tigers will play in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
For the second straight year, Brad Brownell and the Tigers will earn a top-six seed in the tournament following a successful regular season that saw Clemson upset top-ranked Duke. The Tigers did have a couple of bad losses this season to South Carolina and Georgia Tech, but they took care of teams like Kentucky, North Carolina, and the aforementioned Blue Devils.
The resume could probably afford a couple more Quad 1 wins, but Clemson is going to be in regardless with that 27-6 overall record and second-place finish in the ACC.
While we won't know until around 6 p.m. ET who Clemson will face in the first round, there has been some chatter about what seed the Tigers deserve.
Clemson was ranked No. 10 in the country heading into the ACC Tournament and they advanced to the conference tourney semifinals before losing to the only other team in the league with a pulse (Louisville). That would've been a nice win to secure heading into March Madness, but the Tigers will have to settle for a semifinal appearance and 27-6 overall record.
So what seed will that lead to in the NCAA Tournament? After looking through all the bracketologists' predictions, I think it's fairly safe to say that Clemson will be a 5-seed.
The Tigers are ranked No. 10 which, if you do the quick math, would mean a 3-seed to an average college basketball follower, there are more factors that go into it than the AP Top 25. Clemson is just No. 22 in the NET and it has just five Quad 1 wins and three losses in Quads 2 and 3. That's not a great resume, but they did beat Duke which will improve that outlook a bit.
I've seen some experts give Clemson a 4-seed projection, most have said 5-seed lock, and very few have slid the Tigers down to a 6-seed.
So with that, I'm going to say Clemson will earn one of the 5-seeds in the tourney.