The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 140 is Clemson basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Clemson basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 2
- Sweet 16s: 5
- NCAA wins: 14
- Bids: 16
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 12.9
- Bids per season: 0.14
- AP Polls: 167
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 1
- NBA players drafted & played: 14
- Conference Players of the Year: 1
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 1
- Conference tournament titles: 1
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Clemson basketball
More and more Power 5 programs are starting to pop up, and we are sure there is going to be some debate on the Clemson Tigers at 140.
If you only look at the Brad Brownell era, Clemson basketball might even have a case for a top 50 program in that span. In 16 seasons on the sidelines, Brownell has won 316 games, led Clemson to six NCAA Tournaments, and has had them ranked in the AP Poll at different points in seven of the last nine seasons. In 2018, Brownell led Clemson to the Sweet 16 as a 5-seed, while in 2024, he took the 6-seed Tigers to the Elite 8. Over the past decade and a half, Brownell’s Tigers have arguably been in the second tier in the ACC, just behind the juggernauts of Duke and North Carolina. His teams have only had a losing record in conference play five times, with a remarkable 18-2 mark in 2024-25.
But before Brownell got to town, Oliver Purnell had set them up well. He went 138-88 in town, ending with three straight trips to the big dance himself. Purnell’s teams went 0-3 in March Madness, but he had started to prove something – that Clemson basketball could be a team to reckon with.
This isn’t to say Clemson hadn’t had success – it just hadn’t been sustained. Rick Barnes coached them from 1994-98, and posted four straight winning seasons and three trips to the tourney. In ’97, Barnes took the Tigers to the Sweet 16.
Cliff Ellis led the program before Barnes, going 179-129 between 1984-94. Ellis also took them to the NCAA Tournament a trio of times, which included a Sweet 16 birth in 1990. Led by Elden Campbell and Dale Davis, that team lost by just one point to 1-seed UConn, falling short of the Elite 8.
Before Ellis, Bill C Foster led the way and made history as the first coach to bring Clemson dancing, happening in 1980. Led by Larry Nance, that team made it all the way to the Elite 8 before losing to UCLA.
Over the past 45 years or so, Clemson has made great strides. You can see the progress of a big school finally getting decent at basketball, starting to sustain some more success, and now, staying consistently great. But for the decades before that, Clemson really struggled on the court. Sure, they had some good seasons here and there, but it just wasn’t a basketball school.
One underrated part about the Tigers is the quality of NBA players they have produced. Horace Grant is the most well-known, thanks to being a part of four of the Chicago Bulls’ championship teams. But other guys like Tree Rollins, Dale Davis, Larry Nance, Elden Campbell, and Trevor Booker went from starring in South Carolina to becoming NBA veterans. And it was different coaches helping to pave the way to the pros for them.
Admittedly, 140th seems a bit low for Clemson, but we continue to trust the metrics that we’ve used since the beginning. My eye test would probably put them in the top 100, but when you’ve only got one regular season conference championship and conference tournament title (each) to your name, that probably makes the difference.