On Tuesday, the ACC’s Clemson Tigers took down Penn State to take home an MTE title.
Clemson, like Pitt, now sits at 6-1 on the season after beating the Nittany Lions. With the 75-67 win over Penn State, Clemson took home the Sunshine Slam title. For the Tigers, Ian Schieffelin led the way, scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the winning effort. Chase Hunter added 17 points, while Chauncey Wiggins had 14 and Del Jones 10.
Clemson, along with Pitt, Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest, is predicted to make this year’s NCAA Tournament. In Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracket prediction, he had Clemson as one of the last four byes in the field. He has Clemson as a No. 10 seed.
This offseason, the NCAA added two new metrics to consideration for the NCAA Tournament field.
The two metrics — Bart Torvik’s “T-Rank” and Wins Above Bubble — will be considered when the committee is weighing prospective NCAA Tournament teams.
“The committee has always valued different data points and metrics to assist with its evaluation process, and these two metrics have increasingly been referenced by members in recent years,” NCAA Senior VP of Basketball Dan Gavitt said in a press release. “Adding them to the team sheet ensures that all 12 members easily have access to this data. The Torvik rankings, along with BPI and KenPom, give the committee three predictive ratings, while the WAB, Strength of Record and KPI give them three results-based metrics, all of which, in addition to the NET, will be beneficial to the team evaluation process.”
The NCAA announced this addition to the selection committee’s team sheet at its summer meetings. It also announced that the 2026 Division II and III men’s basketball championships and the NIT semifinals and finals will take place in Indianapolis the same weekend as the Division I Final Four. Here is more information on the new metrics in consideration.
“The committee has always valued different data points and metrics to assist with its evaluation process, and these two metrics have increasingly been referenced by members in recent years,” Gavitt added. “Adding them to the team sheet ensures that all 12 members easily have access to this data. The Torvik rankings, along with BPI and KenPom, give the committee three predictive ratings, while the WAB, Strength of Record and KPI give them three results-based metrics, all of which, in addition to the NET, will be beneficial to the team evaluation process.”
The Tigers will travel to the Steel City to take on Pitt on Jan. 18 at 12 p.m. est.
