Clemson Basketball’s Intriguing Record in ACC Play Revealed
The Clemson Tigers men’s basketball team is coming off a run to the Elite Eight and is in the running for a four-star guard that will reveal his college home next week.
While this recent run is helping the Tigers on the recruiting trail, their recent ACC record has kept them among the best teams in the league.
College Basketball Report compiled the record of all power conference teams in league play in its last 200 games. For the ACC, considering an 18-game league slate, that’s a sample size of approximately 11 seasons.
While it’s logical to assume that Duke would lead in those standings, the Tigers are not far away from being fourth by themselves.
Clemson is 121-79 with a .605 winning percentage. That puts the Tigers in a tie with Virginia Tech and one game behind Florida State, which was 122-78 in the same time frame.
A couple of extra wins and the Tigers would be right behind North Carolina (133-67) in fourth place.
The Tar Heels were third, with only Duke (152-48) and Virginia (149-51) ahead of them.
Within that time frame, Duke won the 2015 national title, North Carolina won the 2017 national title and Virginia won the 2019 national title.
The Blue Devils and the Tar Heels both reached the 2022 Final Four, with UNC beating Duke to reach the national title game before losing to Kansas.
In the same time frame the Tigers have reached the NCAA Tournament three times — 2018, 2021 and 2024.
Clemson is coming off its biggest season on the hardwood since 1980, the last time they reached the Elite Eight. This March, Clemson was a No. 6 seed and defeated No. 11 New Mexico, No. 3 Baylor and No. 2 Arizona before falling to No. 4 Alabama one step away from the Final Four.
Coach Brad Brownell has led the Tigers since 2010 and in that span he’s won 265 games. Since the 2017-18 season he’s led the Tigers to 20 or more wins four times, three NCAA Tournament bids and two NIT bids.
For next season, Clemson has started putting together its non-conference slate. The Tigers already have home games set up with Charleston Southern, Eastern Kentucky, Florida A&M, Kentucky, Memphis and Radford.
Clemson’s two true road games look like Boise State and in-state rival South Carolina, while they’re scheduled to participate in a Thanksgiving MTE in Daytona Beach, Fla.
While Clemson is losing star forward P.J. Hall to the NBA Draft, Brownell and his staff have retained talent and brought in a host of transfers they hope will allow them to take that next step in 2024-25 and challenge for the program’s first berth in the Final Four.
MATT POSTINS