Bracket Watch: Latest Clemson NCAA Tournament projections |
In less than a week, Clemson will make its return to the NCAA Tournament. Now, it’s just a matter of what seed they earn.
Depending on the metric, the Tigers’ resume could be an interesting one for the NCAA selection committee. By KenPom’s efficiency rankings, Brad Brownell’s group owns eight wins over top-50 teams - six in the top-35 - in addition to an RPI of 11. In the NCAA Committee’s new RPI grouping, however, Clemson is 4-7 against its top-tier group (home versus teams 1-30; neutral-site versus 1-50; away versus 1-75), but holding only one loss against the other three groups (Temple, RPI 51, neutral-site loss). A chance at another RPI Group 1 win likely wouldn’t come until the ACC semifinals this week, with potential Thursday opponent NC State outside of the top-50 (55). On the flip side, the Wolfpack is rated No. 41 by KenPom. CBS Sports' bracket projection moved Clemson down to a 5-seed in the East Region late Sunday, versus projected Summit League champ South Dakota State and opposite (4) West Virginia/(13) Murray State in a Boise, Idaho pod. ESPN sends Clemson to the Midwest as a 5-seed also to Boise, facing Missouri Valley champion Loyola-Chicago in a pod with (4) Wichita State/(13) Vermont. For comparison, projected 4-seeds by CBS have seven (West Virginia) and six RPI Group 1 wins (Michigan) and also four like Clemson (Wichita State and Arizona). At ESPN, four seeds have seven (West Virginia), five (Texas Tech) and four (Wichita State and Arizona). In terms of the NCAA bubble, ACC teams playing for a Big Dance invite this week include Syracuse (Last four in on CBS/next four out on ESPN), Louisville (first four out on both sites) and Notre Dame (first four out on ESPN/not mentioned on CBS). Clemson NCAA Tournament profile Record: 22-8 (11-7 ACC) RPI: 11 Metrics average*: 18.3 Strength of Schedule: 17 Record v. RPI Group 1: 4-7 Average RPI of Wins: 119 Average RPI of Losses: 31 Bad losses (150+ RPI): None Road/neutral record: 7-7 Record v. current KenPom top-50 (current ranking): 8-5 Top-25 ranked wins (at the time): No. 22 Florida (71-69 at neutral site), No. 18 Miami (72-63), No. 19 UNC (82-78). Last 10: 6-4 * NCAA Tournament Selection Committee average of result-based metrics RPI, KPI, and ESPN Strength of record plus predictive-based metrics of ESPN BPI, KenPom and Sagarin. (Profile per WarrenNolan.com, KenPom and ESPN) 2018 ACC Tournament matchups (In Brooklyn’s Barclays Center) March 6 (Tuesday) Noon ET - (12) Boston College vs. (13) Georgia Tech; 2 p.m. - (10) Notre Dame vs. (15) Pittsburgh; 7 p.m. - (11) Syracuse vs. (14) Wake Forest. March 7 (Wednesday) Noon - (8) Florida State vs. (9) Louisville; 2 p.m. - (5) NC State vs. (12) Boston College/(13) Georgia Tech; 7 p.m. - (7) Virginia Tech vs. (10) Notre Dame/(15) Pittsburgh; 9 p.m. - (6) North Carolina vs. (11) Syracuse/(14) Wake Forest. March 8 (Thursday) Noon - (1) Virginia vs. Wednesday noon game winner; 2 p.m. - (4) Clemson vs. Wed. 2 p.m. winner; 7 p.m. - (2) Duke vs. Wed. 7 p.m. winner; 9 p.m. - (3) Miami vs. Wed. 9 p.m. winner. March 9 (Friday) 7 p.m. - Thursday afternoon session game winners; 9 p.m. - Thursday evening game winners. March 10 (Saturday) 8:30 p.m. - ACC Championship (Games will be on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and also ACC Network; times are approximate).
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