Brad Brownell explains most frustrating part of Clemson being on NCAA Tournament bubble

As Clemson attempts to add a little bit more luster to its NCAA Tournament resume, the Tigers are having to contend with a cold reality.

Even with 21 wins and in the top five of the ACC standings the Tigers might still be on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology for ESPN has Clemson among the “First Four Out,” and Tuesday’s loss to Virginia was a missed opportunity to build some serious resume ammunition.

Clemson coach Brad Brownell is a little frustrated with the current perception that has the Tigers on the wrong side of the bubble.

“Now we have some bad losses,” Brownell said. “I can explain a couple of them. A couple guys were hurt. PJ Hall hasn’t really been right until about January. Nobody cares. It’s a really hard deal.”

That said, the Clemson coach absolutely thinks his team is worthy of inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.

“I certainly think we’re tournament worthy in terms of how we play and the nature of our team and all those kinds of things,” Brownell said. “I’m disappointed. I do think sometimes when Carolina and Duke are not in the top two or three in the league there’s a national narrative that means it’s Pitt or Clemson or Virginia Tech or somebody like that is at the top of the league or in the top three that the league must be down.”

NCAA Tournament bubble unkind to the ACC

Brownell’s been around enough that he seems to draw a correlation between a couple of the league’s traditional powers being down and the league as a whole getting less respect nationally.

“I get it. The hard part is, the frustrating part is in ’18-19, we were 35 in the NET and got left out because we had like a 1-8 or something Quad 1 record, and I get it,” Brownell said. “I think that was the year we had three No. 1 seeds, though. So I kept trying to tell everybody we’re not playing Quad 1 teams we’re playing like the super Quad 1 teams. It was like three of the top seeds in the tournament. Playing a No. 3 team is different than playing a regular team.”

Clemson this year, of course, doesn’t have as much resume ammo. The Tigers are 2-6 against Quad 1 opponents, 2-8 against Quad 2 opponents and 8-2 against Quad 3 opponents.

Not a lot of quality wins and a couple problematic losses.

“It’s a hard one. I get it,” Brownell said. “It’s a really hard situation, and it’s a little frustrating because they’re looking for reasons to keep you out and they will.”