ESPN's Way-Too-Early Rankings Provide Recurring Theme About Clemson Basketball

Over the last four seasons, there haven’t been more coaches who have been as steady as Clemson basketball’s head coach, Brad Brownell.

However, the national media still hasn’t picked up on it.

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello released his top 25 rankings ahead of the summer, and names like Florida, Duke and Michigan, of course, topped the rankings. Going down the list, schools like Louisville, Virginia, Miami and North Carolina feature all of the ACC teams that made the early list.

Not the Tigers. However, if one thing is true about Brownell, that ranking is useless after the first two weeks of the season.

Clemson typically overachieves when it comes to the regular season, especially in conference play. The Tigers have been a top six seed at the end of the year in the ACC in each of the last four seasons. Three of those four years have ended with a NCAA Tournament appearance, and in 2024, the program reached an Elite Eight for the first time since the 1980 tournament.

Not to mention that Brownell reached the ACC Tournament semifinals in back-to-back seasons for the first time in his tenure. He’s also coming off of a 2026 postseason tournament with two wins, the first time that he’s done so.

The question going into 2026-27 will be the same: can Clemson continue that trajectory? The roster that is presented proves that it could certainly do so.

It starts with the key returners for the Tigers. Brownell has his starting backcourt in redshirt sophomore Ace Buckner and sophomore Zac Foster give the program more explosiveness than it did last season. Both should take another step in their respective games, and if either develops as a first-option scorer, an All-ACC push could be had.

In the frontcourt, Chase Thompson will use a freshman season filled with learning experiences to polish up his skillset. Trent Steinour will see more minutes as well in his second full season, while wing Dallas Thomas will continue to develop as a defender.

The redshirt sophomore led the team in three-point percentage last season, something that the team was one of the worst in the ACC at doing.

We also can’t forget about center Carter Welling, who should be back for Clemson’s most important stretch of the season when conference play opens back up in January. However, there’s no timetable for when his official return will be just yet.

As for the transfers, Brownell added plenty of what the Tigers struggled with at times in 2025-26: scoring.

The first was Notre Dame wing Cole Certa, who had two games of 30 or more points in conference play in February. The sharpshooter also had five games with five threes or more, and the Fighting Irish won all but one of those games, which was a double overtime loss to Virginia.

TCU forward Liutauras Lelevicius had five games of 10 points or more in the Horned Frogs’ last seven games against Big 12 opponents. His size and athleticism will help the Tigers on both ends of the floor, while adding a 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward who can have Brownell play bigger lineups than usual at times.

While Welling heals, Brownell will have San Francisco transfer David Fuchs and Sanford big Dylan Faulkner. Both received all-conference honors in their last seasons with their respective programs.

The Tigers also have a trio of freshmen, Harris Reynolds, Amare James and Will Stevens, who could break into the rotation. All three bring plenty of upside to a group where, if there’s more depth, that’s how Brownell teams have gotten better in the past.

Overall, Clemson filled needs at scoring while beefing up defensively with more length. The ACC will be difficult with the likes of Duke, Louisville and Virginia having strong transfer classes as well, but one thing is for certain with Brownell.

He overachieves with the teams that he has, and it does it almost every season.

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