The NCAA Tournament Selection Committed viewed a 23-win Clemson team that finished 3rd in the ACC standings as the #72 team in their ranking for their 68 team field. With the Tigers available for their tournament, the NIT Selection Committee viewed them as one of the top teams available.
The Tigers were branded a #1 seed for the NIT Sunday night and will host Morehead State Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. The winner of that game will face the winner from Southern Miss at #4 seed UAB game. Michigan is the #2 seed and Vanderbilt the #3 seed in Clemson’s quarter of the bracket.
The other top seeds in the 32-team field are Oklahoma State, Rutgers and Oregon. Games will be played on home courts until the sei-finals which will be played this year in Las Vegas instead of the tournament’s traditional home of Madison Square Garden in New York.
This will be Clemson’s first NIT appearance since 2019 when they defeated Wright State and lost to Wichita State. The Tigers are 19-17 all-time in NIT play. They have reached the final four three times and played for the championship twice losing to Cal in 1999 and West Virginia in 2007.
This will be the seventh postseason appearance for Clemson in 13 seasons under Brad Brownell, the fourth in the NIT He took the Tigers to the semi-finals in 2014.
