Clemson the higher NCAA seed with plenty of quality wins. So why are they underdogs?
Clemson shouldn’t need much motivation going into its first-round game in the NCAA tournament. But oddsmakers and college basketball analysts are providing some fuel.
The seventh-seeded Tigers are 1.5-point underdogs heading into Friday’s matchup with No. 10 Rutgers, according to VegasInsider. Clemson is the only higher seed that’s an underdog in this year’s NCAA tournament’s first-round games. The only other first-round game that is closer is a “pick ’em” between No. 7 Florida and No. 10 Virginia Tech.
The analytic site FiveThirtyEight.com gives Rutgers 58% chance of winning. On top of that, college basketball national analysts such as Andy Katz and ESPN’s Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg are all picking the Scarlet Knights to win. Katz and Greenberg both have Rutgers advancing to the Sweet 16.
“I think Rutgers is gonna go on a mini-run here. Experienced team,” said Katz, who now works for Big Ten Network, on his YouTube video predicting his bracket. “Geo Baker, Ron Harper Jr., money players. Myles Johnson is a great big inside. I like Rutgers to upset Houston, and advance to the Sweet 16.”
Katz and others like the fact the Scarlet Knights’ best players are juniors or seniors. Rutgers also has a win this year over No. 1 seed Illinois.
Katz compared Rutgers to the 2017 Northwestern team that made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 77 years of the school that year. The Wildcats defeated Vanderbilt in the first round before losing to eventual national runner-up Gonzaga.
Rutgers’ drought isn’t as long as Northwestern’s, but the team is making its first NCAA tournament appearance in 21 years.
“I think they are going to be so hungry like Northwestern. I think Rutgers gets Clemson,” Katz said.
Clemson senior Aamir Simms isn’t surprised the Tigers are viewed as underdogs. In fact, he thought that would be the case when he talked with reporters after Clemson’s selection was announced Sunday night.
“Honestly speaking, I kind of take a Michael Jordan approach to it,” Simms said. “You have to find something that is going to get you going, even if you have to make something up in your head.”
Jordan was master at finding motivation in the smallest things to get ready for an opponent, even if something isn’t there. Simms on Wednesday said the Tigers were aware of what the analysts were saying.
But Simms remembers hearing the same things the last time the Tigers were in the tournament when he was a freshman in 2018. Clemson was a No. 5 seed, and there were some who had them losing to New Mexico State in the first round.
The Tigers won that game and knocked off No. 4 Auburn before losing to Kansas in the Sweet 16.
This year’s Clemson team has some impressive regular-season wins, including over second-seeded Alabama and NCAA tournament teams Purdue, Maryland, Florida State, North Carolina, Syracuse and Georgia Tech.
“Sometimes being the underdog is good. The pressure is not really on you. The pressure is on the other team,” Simms said. “It is nothing to us. We don’t take it personally that people are saying that. It is just another day being a Clemson Tiger, honestly speaking. We are perfectly fine with that.
“We are just going to play our game. To each his own. Everyone can say what they want. We know what we represent and we know what we can bring to the table. That is all we are focusing on.”
NCAA tournament: Clemson vs. Rutgers game info, betting odds
Who: No. 7 Clemson (16-7) vs. No. 10 Rutgers (15-11)
Region: Midwest
Game location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
When: 9:20 p.m. Friday
TV: TBS
Line: Rutgers by 1.5
