Tournament time for Tigers: Where Clemson is headed for March Madness

Welcome to March Madness, Clemson.

The Tigers men’s basketball team will be a No. 6 seed in the West Region and play No. 11 seed New Mexico State on Friday in Memphis in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, it was announced Sunday night.

The Tigers will be making their second NCAA Tournament appearance in four years and first since the 2020-21 season. It’s also the fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in 14 years for coach Brad Brownell, who’s been at Clemson since 2010.

A year after being among the first four teams left out of the tournament, Clemson took care of business this season with an excellent non-conference schedule (and an excellent non-conference performance) and picked up some marquee wins in conference play to cobble together a tournament-worthy résumé.

Even as the Tigers struggled down the stretch and lost three of their last four games, including a 21-point loss to Boston College in their first ACC Tournament game, their March Madness status didn’t waver. Clemson entered Sunday night as the No. 36 team in the NET rankings and had five Quadrant 1 wins, with four of those coming either on the road or at neutral sites.

Clemson’s leading scorers are first team All-ACC center PJ Hall (18.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg); Syracuse transfer guard Joe Girard III (15.7 ppg, 42.5% on 3-pointers); and veteran guard Chase Hunter (12.3 ppg, 2.9 apg). Starting forward Ian Schieffelin (9.6 ppg, 9.5 rpg) won the ACC’s most improved player award this year, and NC State transfer forward Jack Clark, an impactful defender, rounds out the starting five.

The 2024 tournament will mark Clemson’s 14th overall NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tigers are 11-13 all time in NCAA play and, in their most recent game, lost 60-56 to No. 10 seed Rutgers as a No. 7 seed in the first round of the 2021 tournament. Clemson’s last NCAA win came in the round of 32 against Auburn during the 2018 tournament. The program’s best finish is an Elite Eight in 1980.

This is a developing story and will be updated.