PROVIDENCE, R.I. — While Clemson was getting set to watch Sunday’s Selection Show on CBS, center Viktor Lakhin could not stop smiling.

He was smiling from ear-to-ear, while laughing and joking around with his teammates.

This is why he came to Clemson. He wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. The same could be said for guard Jaeden Zackery.

Both transferred to Clemson last spring after watching the Tigers march on to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, while they watched from their couches at home.

“It was fun. Those guys were happy to be in that moment,” graduate Chase Hunter said. “It was just a lot of laughs and just joking. They are going to be ready to play.”

To watch Lakhin and Zackery light up the way they did this past Sunday, shows how much playing in the NCAA Tournament means to a veteran player.

“The older guys understand it more than the younger guys, who clearly don’t,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said.

Brownell’s point is Clemson has not won, historically, like the Tigers have done over the last three seasons. Clemson posted 23 wins in 2023, 24 wins in 2024 and a school-record 27 wins heading into the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.

“Del Jones is on a team that wins the most games in Clemson history. This isn’t the norm every year that you are going to win 27 games,” Brownell said. “Guys that have been through the wars over the years, appreciate it because they do know how hard it is and how hard they have worked.

“As you get older and your role and the program becomes bigger there is a responsibility you fill, especially with our recent success to keep producing for the program.”

As the fifth-seeded Tigers get set for Thursday’s first-round game against No. 12 McNeese State in the Midwest Regional, Brownell knows Hunter, along with forward Ian Schieffelin will be leading the team on and off the floor, hoping this year can match the run the Tigers went on last year.

“I think you see that in Chase and Ian, and I am really proud of those guys for that because that is not easy,” Brownell said. “I kind of told them at the beginning of the year. ‘You were a huge part of our Elite Eight team, but there are a lot of people when they think of the Elite Eight, they think of P.J. Hall first, right? P.J. earned that, he gave us four great years of playing hurt a lot, with a competitive spirit, a will to win and fighting for our program. Now as seniors, this is your legacy team.’

“And those guys have left a hell of a legacy with 27 wins. Obviously, they want to do what we did in the tournament last year because of how fun it was. Those are life-long memories that those guys have, and they would like to do it with these guys too.”