All You Have To Do Is Hold On

Del Jones drove into the lane and picked up his dribble. He was quickly surrounded by three McNeese State defenders, but moved the ball around his body, spun toward the basket, and threw up a layup. It bounced around before falling through. With that, the fifth-seeded Clemson Tigers trailed 12th-seeded McNeese State by four. It was halfway through the first half, and the Tigers would be trailing by a lot more by the time they hit another shot.

When Chauncey Wiggins hit a three about five minutes later, it cut the Cowboys’ lead to 12. Things did not get much better from there. Clemson managed just one more field goal in the first half, and had only four at halftime. After shooting 37.2 percent on threes during the season, the Tigers proceeded to go 1-for-13 from distance in the first half Thursday. McNeese led 31-13 at the break, not merely doubling up Clemson but Going Palindromic on them. Per Kenpom, Clemson had the 24th-best offensive efficiency in the country coming into the tournament. And then the Cowboys put a lid on the bucket.