No doubt: Clemson opens March Madness with convincing win over New Mexico

Well, that was easy.

A lot easier than most expected.

This Clemson men’s basketball entered the NCAA Tournament as a betting underdog and one of the trendier choices to get upset in the first round.

But in a 77-56 win over No. 11 seed New Mexico in Memphis, the No. 6 seed Tigers took care of business and reminded the country how they dangerous they can be when they’re firing on all cylinders, like they were Friday at the FedExForum.

Guard Chase Hunter had a team-high 21 points in a bounce-back game, and big men PJ Hall and Ian Schieffelin also scored in double digits as Clemson cruised past UNM by 21 points for its first NCAA Tournament win since 2018.

The Tigers advance to a second round game against No. 3 Baylor, which defeated No. 14 Colgate, 92-67, earlier Friday in Memphis. Game time and TV channel are TBD.

Clemson (22-11) and coach Brad Brownell entered the game as a 1.5-point betting underdog and one of the top picks nationally get upset by a lower seed.

But the Tigers on Friday looked a lot more like the team that went 10-1 in non-conference play, ranked as high as No. 13 in the AP Top 25 and earned the NCAA Tournament’s No. 22 overall seed last week than they did the team that entered the Big Dance 1-3 in its last four games.

Even with Hall, Clemson’s first team All-ACC center, spending a good portion of the afternoon in foul trouble, the Tigers took care of business. They didn’t trail once past the opening 30 seconds of the game and led by as many as 23 points.

In a bracket pairing that’s proven pesky so far this tournament — No. 6 seeds were 0-2 versus No. 11 seeds before Clemson’s game, with South Carolina, BYU and Texas Tech all losing Thursday — the Tigers struck the perfect note against a Lobos team that entered having won four conference tournament games in four days to secure the Mountain West auto-bid.