Clemson Tigers Need ACC Victory to Enhance NCAA Tournament Credentials
The result of Clemson’s 67-60 loss to Virginia earlier this week became clear when ESPN dropped its latest Bracketology update on Friday — the Tigers are on the bubble.
Charlie Crème’s latest update of the 68-team women’s field had the ACC with a whopping 11 seeds, befitting one of the toughest conferences in women’s college basketball.
But Clemson (10-6, 3-2 ACC) wasn’t among those teams as it prepares for Sunday’s game with No. 3 Notre Dame.
The Tigers are not only a bubble team, but they suffered the inglorious distinction of being the first team left out of the field. If the tournament started now, the Tigers would be a top seed in the WBIT, the NCAA’s off-shoot event that is challenging the WNIT for second-tier postseason supremacy.
First-year coach Shawn Poppie has made plenty of progress so far this season. But the Tigers clearly need to get back on the winning side, though the Fighting Irish (13-2, 4-0) will be a steep challenge when the two teams square off at 2 p.m. eastern on Sunday on the CW.
Notre Dame’s only losses this year have come to Big 12 teams — TCU and Utah, both of which are currently ranked in the Top 25 (TCU was No. 17 at the time that the Horned Frogs beat the Fighting Irish).
Clemson and Notre Dame already have a common opponent in ACC action — Virginia. While the Cavaliers defeated the Tigers by seven points, the Irish blew away the Cavaliers, 95-54.
That’s the gap the Tigers must find a way to make up in South Bend.
Virginia gave Notre Dame a blueprint for beating Clemson and that is to slow down Tigers star Loyal McQueen.
McQueen is the team’s leading scorer (14.0 ppg) and passer (5.3 apg), along with grabbing 3.5 rebounds per game. She is actually a better 3-point shooter (46.7%) than a field goal shooter (43.5%).
That’s why her performance against Virginia was so unexpected. The Cavs slowed her down. McQueen had just six points after she averaged 22 points in two games the previous week. She was 2-for-7 from the floor in 26 minutes and had just two rebounds and two assists.
Clemson will be counting on more from her against the Irish.
More of the scoring load fell to Mia Moore and she responded with 20 points, including four 3-pointers. That pushed her season average to 11.5 points. She also averages 5.6 rebounds.
There is plenty of runway for the Tigers to get off the tournament bubble. But it’s easy to see how one loss can make or break tournament hopes.