Michael Lev: No tradition, no history, no problem? Don’t assume Arizona will roll past Clemson

I’m not ashamed to admit it: Before watching Sunday’s game and researching this column, I didn’t know a thing about Clemson basketball besides the fact that the Tigers play in the ACC.

Even then, they’re basically the conference’s version of Andy Dufresne’s shoes.

How often do you really look at Clemson basketball?

Clemson isn’t Duke or North Carolina or Virginia or Pitt. It isn’t Syracuse or Wake Forest or NC State or Louisville.

What the Tigers are is dangerous.

If recent Arizona and NCAA Tournament history have taught us anything, it’s this: Overlooking anyone is risky business.

Many UA fans rejoiced when Clemson upset Baylor on Sunday to push the Tigers into the Sweet 16 for just the second time this century and the fifth time ever. Arizona and Clemson will square off Thursday in Los Angeles.

Clemson has reached the Elite Eight once, in 1980, led by Larry Nance. How long ago was that? Well, Nance’s son, Larry Nance Jr., is in his ninth season in the NBA.

The Tigers have never made a Final Four … in basketball. Clemson appeared in the four-team College Football Playoff six times, winning it twice. It is a football school through and through.

Per Mark Adams of ESPN, Clemson has the second-smallest operating budget for men’s basketball among the Sweet 16 participants at $8 million, ahead of only San Diego State ($7.2 million). Clemson spent approximately $55 million on its football facility, which includes, among other amenities, a cryotherapy chamber, a sensory deprivation float tank, infrared hyperthermic Cocoon Pods, photobiomodulation therapy beds, a nine-hole miniature golf course, a Wiffle ball diamond, sand-volleyball and pickle-ball courts and a horseshoe pit.

(How many of those things did I make up? None.)

Well, that football school, seeded sixth in the West Region, just knocked off third-seeded Baylor despite being a 4.5-point underdog. Clemson is a 7.5-point ’dog against No. 2 seed Arizona.

Don’t make weekend dinner reservations in L.A. just yet.

As you know — from personal, painful experience — Arizona has lost to lesser teams than Clemson in the NCAA Tournament. Princeton, Buffalo, Wichita State, Oklahoma, Miami (Ohio), Santa Clara, East Tennessee State. They were all double-digit seeds. All it takes in this tournament we love (and sometimes hate) is one off night, one hot opponent, one bad call.

This UA team is hardly infallible. It isn’t Tommy Lloyd’s most talented squad (that would be the 2021-22 team, by a mile), and we’ve seen these Wildcats wobble in games they were supposed to win with ease. Losses to the likes of Stanford, Oregon State and USC — none of which made the NCAA Tournament — had many questioning the Cats entering the Big Dance.

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Arizona proved superior to Long Beach State and showed its toughness against Dayton, holding firm against the Flyers’ flurry that began late in the first half and extended into the second. Additionally, there’s very little chance Arizona will take Clemson lightly knowing what’s at stake. This isn’t a regular-season game at sleepy Stanford or cold Corvallis. This is the Sweet 16 opener in the house that Shaq and Kobe built.

It’s as tempting as the No. 3 at Roscoe’s for us — media and fans — to look past Clemson. Arizona vs. North Carolina or Alabama promises storylines galore.

A Wildcats-Tar Heels matchup would be the bluest of blue-blood battles and the first UA-UNC meeting in the NCAA Tournament since 1997. (We know how that ended!) It also would pit Caleb Love against his former school.

Wildcats-Crimson Tide would offer a similar dynamic — Jaden Bradley vs. his ex-teammates. Even better: A chance to send Nate Oats packing six years after Buffalo 89, Arizona 68. (In the sports-revenge business, this is what’s known as playing the long game.)

Don’t succumb to temptation. Don’t look ahead. The Wildcats will need all the help they can get just to get through Thursday.

Clemson is better than its record and seed suggest — and has shown it by blowing out New Mexico and besting Baylor.

How many of you had the Lobos beating the Tigers in one of those 11-6 “upsets” that have become commonplace in recent NCAA tourneys? How many of you thought the ACC’s sixth-place team would then turn around and eliminate the Big 12’s third-place squad?

Clemson ended the regular season on a slide, a la Arizona. The Tigers lost three of their final four games, including a 21-point defeat to a Boston College club that went 8-12 in ACC play. Clemson had 11 losses in all entering the NCAA Tournament.

But not all setbacks are created equal. Five of them — nearly half — were by three points or fewer, including three one-point losses (one of those at Duke) and a double-overtime defeat.

Clemson center PJ Hall made first-team All-ACC and presents the type of matchup challenge that has proved problematic for Arizona at times this year — the big man who can step out and make 3-pointers (50 of 156 this season).

Guard Chase Hunter, another senior, is playing the best ball of his life, averaging 20.5 points (on 50% shooting), six assists and two steals in two NCAA Tournament games.

This year’s tournament has been chalkier than last year’s — all the No. 1 and 2 seeds are still alive, and only one double-digit seed (NC State) has made it this far — and it remains to be seen whether the ’23 Final Four was an aberration or the start of a trend in the NIL/transfer-portal era.

The seeds were a 4, two 5s and a 9. There were more Clemson-like upstarts (San Diego State, Miami, FAU) than Arizona-esque juggernauts (UConn).

I don’t think Clemson is going to follow that path and beat Arizona. But I’m not assuming Arizona will beat Clemson just because of the names on the front of their jerseys.