The Clemson men’s basketball team earned an at-large bid into the 2026 NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed in the South Regional and will face ninth-seeded seed Iowa in Tampa, Fla. on Friday in the first round (6:50 p.m., TNT).

Before the Big Dance begins, ESPN predicted every game in the March Madness bracket.

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello predicted Clemson to beat Iowa, 64-62, and then fall to No. 1 seed Florida, 76-63, in the second round.

ESPN’s Myron Medcalf assessed all 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament and deemed Clemson’s “tournament ceiling” to be the Round of 32, which of course means winning only one game.

“Brad Brownell knows how to regroup after losing his best players,” Medcalf wrote. “Two offseasons ago, he had to hit the reset button after losing key pieces of 2023’s Elite Eight squad. Last offseason, he had to find a way to make up for losing the top five scorers from a 5-seed roster. He was successful, as he had Clemson playing a top-20 defense and forcing turnovers on 19% of ACC opponents’ possessions, per KenPom. The Tigers also won with depth more than star power. RJ Godfrey (11.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG), who played his first two seasons at Clemson before transferring to Georgia and returning this year, leads seven other players averaging at least 6.1 PPG.”

Meanwhile, The Sporting News gave its Clemson vs. Iowa prediction, and picked Iowa to win:

“This 8 vs. 9 matchup is an interesting battle between a defensive-minded team and a an all-around solid team.

“Clemson is a top defensive team, as Brad Brownell’s team has put together another stout team on that end of the floor. However, the Tigers don’t have a lot of offensive firepower, as Clemson doesn’t have a player avereging at least 12 points per game on the year, and that includes Carter Welling, who is out for the year.

“Iowa, on the other hand, has the best player on the floor in Bennett Stirtz, which should be the difference in this game. Stirtz has averaged 20 points per game this year and has big-game experience after winning a game in the NCAA Tournament last year with Drake.

“Ultimately, this game will come down to how much Clemson can contain Stirtz’s offense. The Hawkeyes, therefore, should be able to take this one on the back of Stirtz and a defense that can handle Clemson’s underwhelming offense.”

CBS Sports ranked every team playing in March Madness, and Clemson came in at No. 32 – one spot behind Iowa:

“There are a lot of schools that are dancing in their first seasons with a new coach. Iowa is among that group. Ben McCollum’s team plays through everything that whiz point guard Bennett Stirtz commands. Stirtz, who has taken the ride with McCollum from D-II to Drake to Iowa City, plays 37.5 minutes per game and is one of the five most valuable players to his team in college basketball.

“Brad Brownell has coached Clemson to a third straight NCAA Tournament — and with a single-digit seed in every trip, too. This group isn’t as good as the past two years, but it’s got a chance at some noise in the Dance so long as point guard Dillon Hunter is controlling the tempo. The team is most comfortable beating you in the mid-to-high 60s.”

This marks the third straight year Clemson has been selected as at-large in the NCAA Tournament, just the third time that has happened in the program’s history. Brownell becomes just the third coach in the history of the program to earn the Tigers three straight NCAA bids, joining Rick Barnes (1996,’97 and ’98) and Oliver Purnell (2008, ’09 and ’10).

Clemson will be making its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance under Brownell, more than any other coach in program history. This will be the program’s fifth appearance since 2018.

The Tigers are 6-5 in their NCAA Tournament games with Brownell as head coach, with his six wins already a record for a Clemson head coach. Brownell led the Tigers to the Sweet 16 in 2018 and to the Elite Eight in 2024.

Clemson enters the tournament with a 24-10 record, including a 12-6 mark in regular-season ACC games. Iowa comes in with a 21-12 overall record, including a 10-10 mark in Big Ten play.

Clemson is a 2.5-point favorite entering the matchup against Iowa, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.