The Clemson men’s basketball team’s 2024-25 season came to an end on March 20 in Providence, Rhode Island, after being upset by the McNeese State Cowboys in the first round. Despite the loss, the Tigers had a season that fans and students will never forget. Here are some takeaways from the season.
Paws up: Historical regular season
Twenty-seven wins. That’s the program record for wins in a season in Clemson history. The Tigers collected that amount of wins this season, breaking the program record and being the winningest team in a season, adding both regular season and postseason.
The team also broke a regular season win record, winning 26 games in the campaign.
Head coach Brad Brownell attributed this season’s success to “good players, good staff, good people that help you, but obviously because of how long it’s been and how long I’ve coached here. I’ve had some good years and some challenging years. I’m appreciative, not just of what we accomplished, but for having time to be here and do it.”
Two years ago, the team broke the record for most wins in conference play. This season, the Tigers broke it again, finishing with 18 wins against ACC opponents and only donning two losses, earning another program record.
Brownell and the team rallied down the stretch, ranking as high as the No. 10 team in the AP Poll. The Tigers haven’t cracked the top 10 in the poll in over 15 years. It was a regular season for the team to remember.
Paws down: Postseason play
Most of the time, you get remembered for how you finish, not how you start. That could be the case here for Brownell’s team.
The Tigers went 1-2 in postseason play, winning their first game of the ACC tournament against the SMU Mustangs. Then, the team would lose its game a day later against the Louisville Cardinals in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Most importantly, a factor that later hurt the team was the loss of guard Dillon Hunter. The junior broke his hand in the win against SMU, and his defensive presence was missed for the rest of the postseason.
Later that week, Clemson found it would face the No. 12 McNeese State Cowboys in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, where the team was adamant about making a similar run to that of last season when the squad made the Elite Eight for the second time in program history.
However, the Cowboys used a hot start to hold off the Tigers in the first half, limiting them to only 13 points in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Though Clemson would storm back late in the second frame, it was too late to save the season, and the team would see its season finish in a 2-point loss.
“We had a hard time getting any rhythm, and I think that’s what’s disappointing for me,” Brownell said. “I couldn’t help my guys get into any rhythm in the game.”
While the regular season was historical in all measures, the postseason play will be remembered vividly by many fans.
Paws up: Wins over top opponents
The regular season saw plenty of opponents that posed a threat to the Tigers. However, the team was able to secure wins over more than one top-10 opponent, showing that Clemson was a force to be reckoned with early on.
The first victory was a close battle with No. 4 Kentucky, handing newly-added head coach Mark Pope his first loss as the Wildcats’ head coach, 70-66. The victory was the highest-ranked nonconference win in program history, finishing the night with a Littlejohn Coliseum court storm.
However, perhaps the biggest win of the year came in February when the Tigers upset the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils at Littlejohn Coliseum for the highest-ranked win of the Brownell era.
Despite Clemson being down six at the break, the team used a 19-6 run in the middle of the second half to put the team in front. The Tigers would then use a 7-0 run in the last 38 seconds to steal the win away from the Blue Devils.
Following a win over the North Carolina Tar Heels two days later, the Tigers completed the blue-blood sweep.
Paws down: Graduates and transfers
As of April 1, Clemson only has one player who played significant minutes returning next season: Dillon Hunter.
With standouts Chase Hunter, Ian Schieffelin and Viktor Lakhin out of eligibility, as well as several players entering the transfer portal, only three players on scholarship last season are returning next year.
Now, all eyes will be on Brownell to make key pickups in the portal, filling almost every position to replicate the success of the last three seasons in Clemson. Whether the team will live up to it or not, fans will see when transfers are made through the portal — a strength of Brownell in recent years.
