The Clemson Tigers shocked a lot of people with how well they performed during the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
They made a run to the Elite Eight, where they were defeated by the Alabama Crimson Tide after defeating the New Mexico Lobos and pulling off upsets against the Baylor Bears and Arizona Wildcats.
That was tied for the deepest run in a tournament in program history, as they also reached the Elite Eight in 1980.
Despite that impressive run, many people thought the Tigers would be in the mix as a bubble team during the 2024-25 campaign.
While that may have been the case earlier in the season, especially after losses to the Memphis Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks to end their non-conference schedule, they have put to rest any doubts about their legitimacy.
Clemson is 22-5 overall and 14-2 in ACC play. Their only losses in conference are on the road to the Louisville Cardinals and at home to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, a defeat they bounced back from immediately to beat the Duke Blue Devils in their next game.
Steadily moving up the top 25 rankings at No. 13 right now, the Tigers are knocking on the door of a potential three or four seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
That would be quite an achievement for a program that has never been seeded better than No. 4 in the tournament, achieving that most recently in 1997.
Of course, when a team experiences as much success as Clemson has, keeping the band together gets more and more difficult.
This offseason, the school is likely going to face some pressure in retaining head coach Brad Brownell, who was listed by Jeff Borzello of ESPN (subscription required) as one of the high-profile coaching candidates to keep an eye on during this hiring cycle.
“Brownell was a mainstay in hot seat columns for years, but he continued to survive at Clemson and is now thriving after leading the Tigers to the Elite Eight last season and a top-20 ranking this season. It’s unclear where he could go, although he is an Indiana native,” wrote Borzello.
Brownell is in Year 15 as the head coach at Clemson, and the team is in the midst of arguably their best campaign under him. Their .815 winning percentage would shatter the previous best of .714 he produced in the 2017-18 campaign.
The Tigers are on pace for their best winning percentage this century, as they went 4-0 in 1911-12 and 15-3 during the 1934-35 season. Two more wins and they will set their single-season record for victories.
Leaving on such a high note would certainly be tough, but if the Indiana Hoosiers is a job he covets as a native of the state, his star may never be brighter to make the jump.
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