Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim admits he does not know much about how the NCAA Tournament selects its at-large teams, but he does know a good basketball team when he sees one.

Following Clemson’s 67-55 victory over the Orange on Saturday at Littlejohn Coliseum, Boeheim believes the Tigers are an NCAA Tournament team.

“I think they are a really good team and had a very tough schedule at the beginning, but I think they are a very good basketball team,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “It will be hard to figure out what is going to happen this year. The only thing I have seen about the NET rating is that if you have a terrible schedule you can have a great NET rating. So, I don’t know how that helps in anything. It goes against the exact opposite of what we have done for the last twenty or thirty years. It’s rewards people for playing nobody and having good efficiency against them, which makes no sense to me.”

The NET rankings are one of the new components the NCAA selection committee is using to help select its 36 at-large teams for this year’s NCAA Tournament. The NCAA will no longer use the RPI as a way to compare one team to another in the selection process.

Clemson, who improved to 9-9 in the ACC and is 19-12 overall, is currently ranked No. 40 in the NET, while Syracuse is No. 42.

NET rakings aside, Boeheim, like North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said last week, does not need to look at ratings and RPIs to see if Clemson is a tournament team or not.

“Clemson is a veteran team. They were in the tournament last year. To me, obviously, they look like a tournament team,” he said. “From what I have seen against North Carolina and then here, I think they are a good basketball team. But figuring out how (the selection) is going to happen this year, that’s puzzling.”

Clemson head coach Brad Brownell admits he has no idea, either, as to what could happen on selection Sunday next week. However, he feels like his team looks like an NCAA Tournament team.

“Going 9-9 in our league with four losses that are (a combined) six points or five points, something ridiculous,” he said. “So that very easily could have gone our way in any way in what I think is still the best league in the country.”

Brownell also brought up the fact Clemson has wins over Lipscomb, Radford and Sam Houston State in non-conference play, three teams that are either tied for first place or will win their league championships.

“It is just hard because you are comparing mid-majors to majors and we don’t all have the same things,” Brownell said. “But I think if you watch our team play, even in some of our losses—UNC, at Louisville, at NC State—we look like a team that is good enough to be in the tournament and can do a lot of damage.”

The Tigers still have some work to do before the selection committee completes its NCAA field. It starts Wednesday in Charlotte when it plays NC State in the ACC Tournament. Clemson is the No. 9 seed in the tournament, while NC State is the No. 8 seed.

The game is scheduled to tip off at noon.