Clemson’s men’s basketball team won for the ninth time in 10 games earlier this week. Yet Tigers coach Brad Brownell found himself expressing some frustration afterward when it comes to his team’s positioning in the NET rankings.
“I hate to say it like this, but if they don’t want you in the (NCAA Tournament), they’re going to find a reason why,” Brownell said. “Your NET ranking is good, but you don’t have enough Quad 1 wins. If you’ve got a Quad 4 loss, whatever it is, you don’t have enough this or that. There are so many factors, and it’s a hard job. It’s incredibly hard. I don’t know how you do it.”
Despite sitting in first place through the first half of the ACC schedule, Clemson is just the conference’s seventh-highest ranked team in the NET. The Tigers jumped three spots following their win over Georgia Tech on Tuesday but still sit outside the top 50.
If the NCAA Tournament started today, Brownell’s team would be in the 68-team field. But with more than a month of the regular season still to play, the numbers suggest Clemson isn’t a lock just yet.
There will be more opportunities for Clemson to strengthen its case for an at-large bid. There will also be landmines the Tigers will need to avoid to prevent further blemishes from popping up on their postseason resume.
Now that the first half of the conference slate is in the books, The Clemson Insider is taking a look at Clemson’s body of work to this point.
Record: 17-4, 9-1 ACC
ACC placement: first (1 1/2 games ahead of Virginia; two ahead of Miami, UNC and Pitt)
NET ranking: 56
Home record: 12-0
Road record: 3-2
Neutral-site record: 2-2
Record vs. winning teams: 9-2
Record vs. sub-.500 team: 8-2
Quad 1 record: 2-2
Quad 2 record: 5-0
Quad 3 record: 3-0
Quad 4 record: 7-2
Best wins: vs. Duke (NET 32), vs. NC State (41), at Virginia Tech (49), at Pitt (61)
Worst losses: at South Carolina (277), vs. Loyola-Chicago in Atlanta (271)
Bracket Matrix*
Current seed: 9
Highest projected seed: 6
Lowest projected seed: 11
*-bracketmatrix.com
Up next
At Florida State on Saturday, at Boston College on Tuesday
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