Clemson basketball earns 7-seed in NCAA tournament, will face Rutgers in first round

CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson University men’s basketball earned an at-large bid into the 2021 NCAA Tournament as a No. 7 seed and will face the No. 10 seed Rutgers in the first round on Friday, Mar. 19 at a to-be-announced time, network and location. All games in the 2021 Tournament are being held in the Indianapolis area.

This marks the second time in the last four seasons that Head Coach Brad Brownell has the Tigers advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Overall, Brownell this will be Brownell’s sixth NCAA Tournament, and third at Clemson. The Tigers will be making their 13th appearance overall. All have taken place since 1980.

Clemson enters the first-round game with a 16-7 record, including a 10-6 mark in regular season ACC games. The 10 conference victories are tied for the second-most in program history, while the win percentage is tied for fourth best. The Tigers are 2-1 all-time against Rutgers with the last matchup coming in the 2015-16 season, a 76-58 victory in Las Vegas, Nev.

Clemson enters the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 41 in the NET, No. 21 in RPI, 24 in strength of schedule. It’s three Quad 1 wins rank second tied for second in the ACC. The Tigers are 10-6 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games and rank first in Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins.

The Tigers have four non-conference wins over Power 5 teams, the only ACC team that can make that claim. In average NET ranking of wins, the Tigers are tied for 10th with a score of 92. They are 3-0 against teams listed in the top 12 (Alabama, Purdue and Maryland).