Tuesday Top-5: Reasons Brownell, Clemson Make NCAA Tournament

Much will change over the course of the next month, but there are five legit reasons Clemson should make the NCAA tourney and not even have to sweat it out.

Sure, there's a ton of college basketball left (minus cancellations and postponements) this season. 

That doesn't mean, though, that we can't have an honest, healthy discussion about the NCAA tournament. As of this moment, Clemson is very, very likely in the field of 68 destined for Indianapolis. 

ESPN's "bracketology" has Brad Brownell's squad in as an 8-seed while CBS Sports projects the Tigers to be a 6-seed. Much will change over the course of the next month, but there are five legit reasons Clemson should make the NCAA tourney and not even have to sweat it out:

1. Big wins: Signature wins are important, like really important. Clemson has two very recognizable wins over No. 11 Alabama and No. 17 Florida State. The Crimson Tide are in position for a 2-seed if the tourney started today. The Seminoles, despite a COVID-19 hiatus, are built to make a deep run in March. The Tigers beat those teams by a combined 18 points. 

2. Number of Power 5 wins: The Tigers have beaten 10 teams from major conferences. That's more than any squad in the ACC, and it helps boost Clemson to 46th in the NCAA's Net Rankings, which are used to comprise the field of 68. Brownell's team is 3-5 in Quad 1 games and has eight combined wins between the first two quads. The first team higher than them with more of those victories is Creighton (9) at No. 32. For once, Clemson's non-conference schedule is actually HELPING this team.

3. Blowouts won't matter: Virginia smoked Clemson by 35. The Seminoles blasted the Tigers in a revenge game by 19. Duke crushed them by 27. Even Georgia Tech, Friday's opponent, hammered Clemson by 18 in Atlanta last month. Those losses didn't derail the season, as the Tigers bounced back with wins over UNC and Syracuse. Look around college basketball. Blowouts are happening every night to good teams, even really good ones. Michigan, Ohio State and Tennessee have all been destroyed this year. Those aren't season-ending losses.  

4. Lighter schedule down the stretch: A stretch of FSU, Louisville, Duke, UNC and Syracuse is over. The Tigers' remaining seven-schedule contests consists of all but one team sitting behind them in the ACC standings. Only three road games remain: Notre Dame, Pitt and Wake Forest. It's hard to see this team collapsing this month with that schedule.  

5. Chaos in the ACC: This is as weird a year as ever in the ACC. Neither North Carolina nor Duke is ranked. Louisville isn't either. Syracuse isn't even sniffing the top-25. It's a season ripe for upward movement for a team like Clemson in this conference, and despite the oddness of the standings, this will be a league that could still get half a dozen teams or more. The Tigers will be one of them.