Tournament time for Tigers: Where Clemson is headed for March Madness

Welcome to March Madness, Clemson.

The Tigers men’s basketball team will be a No. 6 seed in the West Region and play No. 11 seed New Mexico on Friday in Memphis, Tennessee, in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, it was announced Sunday night.

The game will be played at 3:10 p.m. Friday on truTV.

The winner of Friday’s Clemson-New Mexico game will play either No. 3 Baylor or No. 14 Colgate in a second-round game next Sunday March 24 at FedExForum, home of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.

The Tigers (21-11) will be making their second NCAA Tournament appearance in four years and first since the 2020-21 season. It’s also the fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in 14 years for coach Brad Brownell, who’s been at Clemson since 2010.

“It’s a great day for Clemson basketball,” Brownell said.

A year after being among the first four teams left out of the tournament, Clemson took care of business this season with an excellent non-conference schedule (and an excellent non-conference performance) and picked up some marquee wins in conference play to cobble together a tournament-worthy résumé.

Even as the Tigers struggled down the stretch and lost three of their last four games, including a 21-point loss to Boston College in their first ACC Tournament game, their March Madness status didn’t waver. Clemson entered Sunday night as the No. 36 team in the NET rankings and had five Quadrant 1 wins, with four of those coming either on the road or at neutral sites.

Clemson center PJ Hall joked that as the Tigers’ wait to see their placement Sunday night dragged, he and guard Chase Hunter “had PTSD” from last season, when the team was 23-11 and 14-6 (tied for third) in the ACC but was among the first four teams out of the field because of some poor Quadrant 3 and Quadrant 4 losses.

But even though Clemson did have to wait until the final segment of the CBS broadcast to see its spot in the West Region, the team didn’t go empty-handed this time around and celebrated as such during a watch party at Littlejohn Coliseum.

“It’s definitely a dream come true,” Hunter said. “Something that as a kid you watch it and now to be in it and living in it, it’s crazy. It was nerve-wracking seeing all those names pop up and not seeing ours, but once we saw ours, we were excited, man. We’re ready to roll.”

Added Hall: “It was one of the goals this year, but it was a checkpoint. We were looking to get there all year and continue to advance. ... As we’re prepping for these games, we’re not just looking to get there. We’re looking to continue to make a run and further our season.”

Clemson basketball’s journey

According to a seed list released by the NCAA selection committee, Clemson was the tournament’s No. 22 overall seed (or the highest ranked No. 6 seed, ahead of Texas Tech, rival South Carolina and Florida).

The Tigers were also one of five ACC teams to qualify, along with No. 1 seed UNC, No. 4 Duke, No. 10 Virginia and No. 11 NC State (which got an auto-bid as the improbable ACC tournament champion).

Clemson’s leading scorers are first-team All-ACC center Hall (18.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg); Syracuse transfer guard Joe Girard III (15.7 ppg, 42.5% on 3-pointers); and veteran guard Hunter (12.3 ppg, 2.9 apg). Starting forward Ian Schieffelin (9.6 ppg, 9.5 rpg) won the ACC’s Most Improved Player award this year, and NC State transfer forward Jack Clark, an impactful defender, rounds out the starting five.

That group isn’t lacking in star power but, in the words of Hall, laid an egg against Boston College in the second round of its conference tournament and needs to rebound soon if it wants any chance of advancing in the tournament.

“At the end of the day, you have to perform,” Brownell said. “To win games against good teams and in tournament settings, a lot of guys have to perform. You can’t have one or two guys perform. That’s kind of what happened to us in the ACC Tournament is we didn’t have very many guys perform.”

The 2024 tournament will mark Clemson’s 14th overall NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tigers are 11-13 all-time in NCAA play and, in their most recent game, lost 60-56 to No. 10 seed Rutgers as a No. 7 seed in the first round of the 2021 tournament. Clemson’s last NCAA win came in the round of 32 against Auburn during the 2018 tournament. The program’s best finish is an Elite Eight in 1980.

Clemson’s opponent, New Mexico, enters the tournament at 26-9 as the Mountain West Conference automatic bid. The Lobos, coached by Richard Pitino (Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino’s son), became the first team in Mountain West history to win four games in four days to win the tournament championship.

New Mexico was the No. 6 seed in the tournament but beat Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State (in the championship game) for its fifth conference tournament title. Guard Jaelen House (16.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 3.5 apg) was named the tournament MVP.

The top two seeds in Clemson’s regions are No. 1 seed North Carolina and No. 2 seed Arizona. The earliest Clemson could meet Arizona would be in the Sweet 16, and the earliest it could meet UNC (a team it upset on the road this season) is the Elite Eight.

This year’s West Regional will be played at Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles with games on March 28 and March 30.

“I’m just really happy for our players,” Brownell said. “The guys that have worked so hard, and especially the older guys that, last year, this time was gut wrenching and heartbreaking. For them to rally and to have a really good season — for a lot of them in their last year — this is a nice reward for them. So, looking forward to the tournament and excited for the Clemson fan base that we’re going to be playing.”

How to watch Clemson basketball in NCAA Tournament

• Who: No. 6 Clemson (21-11) vs. No. 11 New Mexico (26-9)

• When: 3:10 p.m. Friday

• TV: truTV

• Stream: Via truTv.com

• TV announcers: Spero Dedes, Jim Spanarkel, Jon Rothstein

• Betting line: New Mexico by 1.5 points