Dancing Again: Clemson back in the NCAA Tournament

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Grab your dancing shoes because the Clemson Tigers are back in the NCAA tournament. During the NCAA Tournament Selection Show Clemson found out they are a No. 5 seed, facing the No. 12 seed New Mexico State Aggies in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

"Certainly excited about what’ s next," head coach Brad Brownell said. "Really, as much as anything just really proud of our players and what they’ve accomplished this season and obviously what that's afforded us is more basketball."

The Tigers will take on the Aggies in San Diego on Friday in Midwest Region. New Mexico State finished the season 28-5 and enters the tournament after winning the WAC for a 5th consecutive season.

"Obviously, they’ve won 28 games," Brownell said of the Aggies. "That’s hard to do in college basketball with the parity we have to win that many games. So, we’ll have a challenge, but we’re looking forward to it."

If Clemson wins their opening round matchup, they will take on the winner of No. 4 seed Auburn and No. 13 seed College of Charleston for the right to get into the Sweet 16.

If Clemson and College of Charleston both win, it would set up a Second Round matchup between Brad Brownell and his former assistant coach Earl Grant.

Clemson comes into the NCAA tournament following a 23-9 season after losing to No. 1 Virginia in a hard-fought game in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals Saturday, 64-58. The Tigers finished 11-7 in the ACC and tied for 3rd after being predicted to finish 13th by the media.

This is Clemson's twelfth trip to the NCAA tournament and the first visit since 2011. The Tigers haven't won a First Round game since 1997. The Tigers were beaten as the higher seed in all three of Oliver Purnell's trips to the NCAA tournament in 2008, 2009, and 2010.

"(We are) very dangerous," senior Donte Grantham said. "Even when I was playing, nobody believed that we were a good team. Only we believed because we've seen how hard we work, we've seen how played together in Spain, we've seen how connected we are.

"We've always been slept on and we are going to continue to get slept on because nobody really has seen Clemson basketball be successful like we have been this year... that just throws wood in the fire for us."

Brad Brownell coached Clemson's single NCAA Tournament win since that 1997 season when he took his first Clemson team into the "First Four" play-in game and defeated UAB. The Tigers then lost as the No. 12 seed to the No. 5 seed West Virginia Mountaineers.

In their history, Clemson has made it into the Elite Eight just once. That run was made by Clemson's first-ever NCAA tournament team in 1980.

"We’ve kind of known for a while so it’s a little bit different feeling, but it’s obviously very rewarding," Brownell said on his reaction to getting into the field of 64. "I’m just happy for our players. Our players deserve this with everything they’ve dealt with all season and the way they've played, the way they’ve handled things, they’ve been great."

The Tigers have ventured into the Sweet Sixteen just three times pulling off the feat in 1980, 1990, and 1997. Clemson is 9-11 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

"It’s a business trip," Grantham said. "SanDiego'ss great but we came there to win games."

We will have full coverage from Clemson, plus comment from Brad Brownell and players coming for you later this afternoon.

You can see the entire bracket here.

Clemson’s NCAA Tournament History: