Clemson Tigers say ACC prepared them to reach Sweet 16 showdown with Arizona Wildcats

If there’s one upside to the Pac-12’s demise cited most frequently around the Arizona basketball program, it’s that the Big 12 will beat up and prepare the Wildcats for the rigors of the NCAA Tournament every season.

But if the tournament’s first weekend this season was any indication, well, let’s just say that Cal and Stanford might be getting a few more bruises over in the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

Given just five NCAA Tournament bids, the ACC put four teams into Sweet 16, including No. 6 seed Clemson, which held off the Big 12’s third-place finisher, Baylor, to reach a Sweet 16 game with second-seeded Arizona on Thursday in Los Angeles.

The Big 12 wound up with just two Sweet 16 teams — regular-season champ Houston and conference tournament champ Iowa State — despite receiving eight bids and being the top-rated conference in college basketball.

“I’m not surprised,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said of the ACC’s success. “I think we have a terrific league. I’ve been outspoken about disagreeing with some of the metrics and how the way teams are judged. I don’t know the best way to do it.”

In what is all too familiar to the Pac-12, the ACC appeared to suffer from its collective nonconference performances — with Louisville’s 5-8 nonconference record serving as an anchor — and some weak nonconference scheduling

While Clemson did its part by putting together a nonconference schedule Kenpom rates No. 70 overall, Duke (198), Virginia (230), Wake Forest (254) and Pittsburgh (340) all had below-average nonconference schedules that dragged the conference down.

Those metrics effectively locked the ACC into what Kenpom rates the No. 5 conference this season, just one spot ahead of the Pac-12. The Big 12 ranks first, followed by the Big East, Big Ten and SEC.

Then, when you lose nine games in conference play as Clemson did this season, the metrics take notice. The Tigers started the season 9-0, including an eight-point win at Alabama, but lost six of their first 10 ACC games. By the time they lost 76-55 to Boston College in their first ACC Tournament game, they had a NET ranking of just 35th.

They were given a No. 6 NCAA Tournament seed and shipped to the West Region as a result, having to play first-weekend games in Memphis before reaching Los Angeles this week.

But a closer look at Clemson’s six early ACC losses shows three were at Duke, Virginia Tech and Miami, while the home losses included ones against North Carolina and a confounding Virginia team.

“It might seem like we’re beating up on each other throughout the year,” guard Joseph Girard II said after the Tigers beat Baylor on Sunday. “That’s why we did have some bumps in the road because the teams are so good. But it prepares us for March.

“I think just the way that the league is set up, the way the league has so much talent, so many great coaches, it’s going to prepare you for moments like these.”

Clemson recovered to win six of seven games over most of February, but the Tigers then received some final lessons. They lost on March 2 at Notre Dame, which finished just 13-20, lost their regular-season finale at Wake Forest and were smoked by Boston College.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The Tigers became a trendy pick to lose their first-round game to 11th-seeded New Mexico.

“I said this before the tournament that we aren’t playing as bad as everybody thinks we are, and that’s why everybody picked us to lose,” Brownell said. “You’ve got to dig a little deeper. Conference play is different. It’s hard because everybody knows each other. Coach (Earl) Grant at Boston College, one of my former assistants, we have no secrets with those guys, and they just pounded us. They beat us, and we weren’t ready to go.

“But the Wake Forest game, we played really well … We were confident. We didn’t feel like we were on a skid. We had a quiet confidence about us coming here.”

Similar to the way Arizona players have cited their Pac-12 Tournament semifinal loss to Oregon as motivation, Brownell said the Boston College loss “probably helped a little bit” in getting his players’ attention. The Tigers lost on March 13, giving them three full days off before Selection Sunday.

“We had some very challenging practices on Saturday and Sunday leading into the tournament,” Brownell said. “From that, I think our team just played very well.

They put away the Lobos 77-56 in the first round Friday before holding on to upset third-seeded Baylor on Sunday. The Bears trimmed Clemson’s 15-point second-half lead to just two points twice in the final three minutes before the Tigers hit 6 of 6 free throws in the final 29 seconds.

Baylor shot just 38.9%.

“Super happy for my players,” Brownell said. “Couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to coach. They’ve been just fantastic.

“We obviously had a hot start to the year. Like most teams, had a couple of bumps in the road, but these guys never doubted it. We never quit. We just kept working. And we came into this tournament pretty determined and pretty confident. Just glad to see it paid off.”

Rim shots

The Wildcats are receiving another schedule advantage this week. While they were able to return to Tucson by 6 p.m. on Saturday after their midday second-round game with Dayton, taking an Allegiant Air jet painted with the Raiders logo, the Tigers weren’t able to return to Clemson until the early morning hours Monday. Both teams will travel to Los Angeles on Tuesday to hold open shootarounds and media interviews on Wednesday.

The NCAA said 8.5 million viewers watched Thursday’s opening-round games, the most since 2015, and Saturday’s games attracted 10.8 million viewers, the most-watched first day of the second round ever.

Arizona opened as 7.5-point favorite over Clemson.