LOS ANGELES — Back during the non-conference portion of the season, Clemson was 10-1 and nationally ranked.
But then the ACC schedule ramped up and the Tigers suffered some brutal one-possession losses and after a 66-65 loss at home to Virginia, Clemson was 4-6 in the ACC.
That prompted head coach Brad Brownell to have a frank discussion with his team.
“I said guys, we need to understand something. I think some of you guys think we are the 10-1 team, right now, we’re the 4-6 team and if we go 4-6 again, we won’t be playing in the NCAA Tournament,” Brownell said Wednesday at his NCAA Sweet Sixteen press conference.
“I said that would be a shame because of what you did in the first two months of the year but also because I think we’re good enough to go to the Final Four and that’s not something that I throw around easily,” Brownell said.
That talk must have worked because the very next game took place in Chapel Hill and the Tigers defeated then-#3 North Carolina for just the second victory all-time on the Tar Heels' home court.
That signature win would change the narrative concerning Clemson's NCAA resume and it would be for the better.
Although the Tigers suffered a 21-point loss to Boston College in the ACC Tournament, Clemson's body of work was long expected to be good enough to avoid the heartbreak from 2023 and that would be the case.
But instead of looking like a team that had dropped three of four coming in to the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers have looked like the team that started the season 10-1. They hope their current quality of play will be good enough to earn the first trip to the Elite 8 since 1980.