One year after being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, Clemson made sure it had a bid well locked up before the regular season ended in 2023-24. And the Tigers went on a remarkable run in the NCAA Tournament.
First Clemson took down 11-seed New Mexico State, then the Tigers topped a pair of higher-ranked teams in 3-seed Baylor and 2-seed Arizona.
All that made for an Elite Eight appearance and memories of a lifetime.
“I mean just all the feelings you had celebrating with the kids, with your guys,” said coach Brad Brownell, asked what he would remember. “The folks that traveled with us to LA and to Memphis, going into hotel lobbies and just seeing all different kinds of people that traveled to support us.
“When we beat Arizona and I think it was Chase (Hunter) was running over to the fanbase and he’s kind of stealing the ball, just like obviously just the hugs and the special moments you have with kids. Those are different types of things that you don’t experience in anything else, really. Or rarely doing any other occupation.”
Clemson ultimately fell victim to 1-seed Alabama in the Elite Eight, coming up just a little shy of a Final Four run. But it was a season that few at Clemson will forget any time soon.
It had big wins. It had ebbs and flows. Through it all, the Tigers remained a tight-knit team.
Brownell said his squad got to experience something truly special at year’s end, when the reality of a potential Final Four trip set in late in the process.
“Your highs are really high as a coach, your lows are really low. And when you get one of those highs, it’s unbelievable,” Brownell said. “And everybody drops their guard a little bit, we become way more human and that is a good thing for all of us. I wish we could do that a little more often in other situations.”
Clemson certainly earned the right to feel pretty good about itself.
The Tigers finished the season 24-12 overall, reaching the Elite Eight and putting on a respectable show in the NCAA Tournament. It matched the deepest run in school history, matching a 1980 Elite Eight appearance.
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