Clemson Basketball: 3 reasons why Tigers will miss the NCAA Tournament

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BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA – JANUARY 04: Members of the Clemson Tigers men’s basketball team huddle in the first half during a game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at Cassell Coliseum on January 04, 2023 in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan Hunt/Getty Images) /

1. Clemson’s poor numbers aren’t likely to get better

For a team that’s in first place in a power conference, you’d assume that Clemson’s metrics would have them in the 4-5 seed range at least. But the only program in the ACC that’s in that range is Virginia, which is ranked No. 6 in the country and with a top-15 NET ranking.

The Tigers are currently at 60, and this is before it was updated following the Boston College loss. I mentioned before that the Eagles are a Quad 3 defeat and that joins previous losses to both Loyola-Chicago and South Carolina in the non-conference, teams that are in last place of their respective conferences and are definite “Quad 4” setbacks.

Having just one loss in the Quad 4 is bad enough but two, along with the Boston College defeats are going to be very sore spots when the Selection Committee talks about them. The saving grace currently is the combined 7-2 record against Quad 1 and 2 opponents, which includes Duke and NC State.

But if those two are the “signature wins” on a resume, that’s going to eventually come back to haunt them. Those anchors of bad losses are going to have their NET ranking be around the 60 range going forward and if you want to feel good about your prospects, you want to be around the 40 range.

At 10-2 in ACC play, Clemson going 4-4 may be what needs to happen to get an at-large bid. But are they good enough to do that?