Re: TNET: Duke game could add to growing Clemson program perception

TNET: Duke game could add to growing Clemson program perception

Go in with the mindset

Re: Go in with the mindset

mpercy®

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Feb 7, 2025, 1:55 PM

"More or less, that consistency has stuck." except for those fumbled chances against SCAR and Ga Tech (a quad 3 loss). At least so far this season we've not lost to any Quad 4 teams. Things have gotten better in that regard.

"Clemson’s NCAA Tournament chances didn’t take any drastic hit with the loss to the Yellow Jackets, but an opportunity to remind the country how this program has grown is slowly approaching

The picture of the program at this point is more like "Clemson can be pretty good, except that every time they get ranked, they blow it."

E.g., Clemson cried and cried and cried about being "snubbed" by the NCAAT a few years ago, then shot themselves in the face by losing to Morehead State on Clemson's home floor in the NIT. E.g., we beat Kentucky, got ranked at 16th in both polls, then lost to SCAR (and Memphis). Clawed back into the rankings, then lost to Ga Tech.

And while the run in last year's NCAAT was fantastic, the ACCT reputation for Clemson is "one-and-done".

We've (NET #33) got 8 regular season games left

Duke (NET #2, quad 1)
UNC (45, quad 2)
at FSU (86, quad 2 due to away game)
at SMU (40, quad 1 due to away game)
ND (93, quad 3)
at UVA (112, quad 2 due to away game)
at BC (220, quad 3 due to away game)
Va Tech (162, quad 4)

On paper we should be favored against all of these except Duke, and losing to UNC or SMU would not be "bad losses". But dropping any of those last 4 games would be a huge black eye and cost NCAAT seeding big time (with @ Virginia being the least harmful).

Let's hope the pattern of "get ranked, then lose to a bad team" does NOT hold sway for the rest of the year.