March Madness: Ranking the remaining teams in the Midwest Region

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 08: Grayson Allen #3 celebrates with Marvin Bagley III #35 of the Duke Blue Devils after making a three point shot in the first half during the quarterfinals of the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 8, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

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SAN DIEGO, CA – MARCH 18: Elijah Thomas /

4. Clemson Tigers (5 seed)

Strength: Defense

When the Tigers lost their top frontcourt player and second-leading scorer Donte Grantham, the offense took a slight hit. The defense has remained top-notch, including holding rival Auburn (at least it is on the football field) to just 54 points in the Round of 32 matchups.

Considering the two teams at the top, Clemson will not be winning any shootouts with them. But they are capable of slowing them down just enough to have a shot at it in the final minutes.

Weakness: Familiarity

It’s obvious that there’s a gap between Duke and Villanova, Clemson and Syracuse. The so question is between the Tigers and Orange, who has the worst shot of advancing to the Final Four?

The answer is Clemson, because of Jim Boeheim and his team has already faced the juggernauts before this season. Yes, it’s true that none of them resulted in a close victory, but there’s at least tape for them to study. Brad Brownell and his staff don’t have that luxury.

Auburn also wasn’t the kind of team that could exploit the absence of Grantham, as they themselves were missing some guys down low. Duke and Kansas can – and will take advantage of it.

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