Nick Davidson’s Longtime ACC Dream Comes True at Clemson

In seventh grade, Clemson transfer forward Nick Davidson wrote out his goals on a piece of paper for both high school and college achievements.

Now, he prepares to lead the Clemson Tigers' men's basketball team as the team's top transfer, looking to make a strong run at the NCAA Tournament.

Even if Clemson's exhibition against Presbyterian last Friday wasn't official, Davidson has already crossed off one of his goals that he wrote down 11 years ago.

"It’s been a goal of mine to play ACC basketball since I was in seventh grade," he said. "I wrote that down on a piece of paper and cool to fulfill that, even though the season hasn’t started yet.”

Every NCAA Tournament, Davidson was enamored by the ACC teams that played, saying he "felt like those were the best teams" in the Big Dance. After that first goal was checked off, one of the bigger ones in the future is making it there.

The Tigers are fresh off of back-to-back appearances to March Madness, and the Mission Viejo, California, native will do anything to get them back there.

“So far, I haven’t made a tournament run, and I’d love to do that here," Davidson said. "I think we have the team to do that, and just got to keep working and getting better."

The Nevada transfer is an intellectual on the court, using smart decisions to earn an All-Mountain West Third Team appearance in the 2023-24 season. However, the 23-year-old gave credit to head coach Brad Brownell's coaching, commemorating how much he teaches in practice.

“This is my fifth year in college basketball, fourth year playing, and I never thought I’d still keep learning stuff every day," Davidson said. "I’m definitely a thinker when I’m a player, so having a coach that really values intellect and teaches the game, I look at him as a very good teacher. So, it’s awesome to get that perspective from a new place."

As for the team itself, six transfers joined Clemson in the offseason in a roster overhaul. Despite assumptions of a lack of team chemistry with so many new faces, Davidson said that the team already has more chemistry than many people think.

"We got a bunch of guys who can really play, and, more importantly, I think we play well off each other and with each other," he said, "so I think we got the good chemistry, just got to keep working."

Clemson tips off its season against New Hampshire on Nov. 3, and Davidson is looking forward to checking more boxes of the goals that he had when he was in middle school. With intentions of a successful ACC campaign and a deep March Madness run, the team has the players and coaches to achieve them.

"I didn’t really get my high school goals, but college is chipping away.” the forward said.