PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Reflecting on the outcome of a season various from year to year.

In other words, how do we know if a season is good or great?

To me, a season is great based on how well a team competes on the national stage.

For instance, Clemson Football had a good season in 2024. The Tigers won an ACC Championship and qualified for the College Football Playoff.

The Tigers lost to Texas in the first round, and let’s be honest, none of us really expected Clemson to go on a run and compete for the national championship. However, most Clemson fans deemed the 2024 football season as a good season, not a great season.

How do we reflect on the 2024-’25 men’s basketball season, fresh of Thursday’s loss to McNeese State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament?

Before I answer that, let’s try to put some perspective on things.

Clemson earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season, and that is to be celebrated.

Why?

Because going to the tournament in the first place is not a birthright for Clemson basketball fans. Going to one NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is a big deal at Clemson, going in back-to-back years is an anomaly.

Clemson has earned an at-large bid to the tournament just 15 times since the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 1939. If you do the math, in 86 years, Clemson has played in this tournament just 17.4 percent of the time.

Does this mean Clemson had a good season in 2024-’25?

Yes.

Does this mean Clemson had a great season?

No.

Again, the Tigers ultimately did not come close to competing for a national championship. Like the football team did this year, they got the opportunity to compete for one.

However, what is disappointing about the way this basketball season ended is our expectations, and theirs, was much higher than a first-round exit.

A few weeks back, Clemson was mentioned as one of eight teams, according to KenPom’s metrics, as a serious Final Four contender.

Granted, the injury to guard Dillon Hunter changed those expectations somewhat, but most Clemson fans, and those of us in the media, felt the Tigers were at least a Sweet 16 team.

Clemson got what most people felt was a favorable draw, too.  But we saw that was not the case.

Instead, the Tigers became the first high seed to go down in the first round of the tournament.

When guard Chase Hunter and forward Ian Schieffelin decided to return for one more season after last year’s Elite Eight run, expectations for the Tigers to make back-to-back NCAA Tournament runs were set.

When Clemson pulled Viktor Lakhin and Jaeden Zackery out of the transfer portal, expectations creeped up a little higher.

When Clemson went on a run of 18 wins in 20 games, stretching from the end of December to mid-March, expectations increased.

When Clemson won 18 of its 20 ACC regular season games, expectations rose a little higher.

When Clemson won 14 of those 18 conference games by 10 or more points, expectations rose higher and higher.

After posting a 27-5 regular season, the greatest regular season in the program’s 112-year history, the expectation, at the very least, was a second consecutive Elite Eight appearance and then who knows. Maybe KenPom had it right. Maybe Clemson did have a Final Four team.

However, none of that happened.

As this writer feared, Dillon Hunter’s injury was bigger than people realized. The Tigers flamed out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson finished the 2024-’25 season with the most wins in a season (27), most wins in a regular season (27), most ACC wins in a season (18) and the most ACC road wins in a season (9).

However, what this year’s team ultimately will not be able to do its lift a new banner in the rafters inside Littlejohn Coliseum.

Unlike football, there was no conference championship. They did not go the Elite Eight or the Sweet 16 for that matter.

They had a very good season. Unfortunately, it was not a great season.

—photo by Eric Canha / Imagn Images