TAMPA, Fla. — Going to the NCAA Tournament has never been a regularity for Clemson basketball.

When the Tigers, the No. 8 seed, play No. 9 Iowa Friday night in the First Round of the South Regional from Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Fla., it will be just the 16th tournament appearance for a program that has played for 115 years. Granted, the tournament did not allow at-large bids until 1975, but even when the field expanded to 48 teams in 1980, the program has not played in the Big Dance with regularity.

But maybe that is changing at Clemson. Under Brownell’s leadership, now in its 16th season, the program is making its sixth tournament appearance. It’s fifth since 2018 and its third straight, which one can argue should be four after the Tigers were a 23-win team in 2023 that finished third in the ACC with a 14-6 record.

“I am really proud of it. It speaks to the consistency we have had here the last several years,” Brownell said. “It is not easy to do. It is not easy to make it. It is not easy to make it a couple of years in a row, obviously.”

But here the Tigers (24-10) are. Once again, they are back in the tournament.

This season is extremely impressive considering Clemson lost 95 percent of its scoring from last year’s 27-win team, including Chase Hunter, who has led the Tigers in scoring and was one of the program’s best scorers the previous three seasons.

However, Brownell was able to bring in transfers such as Nick Davidson, Carter Welling, Butta Johnson and Jake Wahlin. He also got R.J. Godfrey back, who left Clemson for Georgia the year before, but missed Clemson so much he asked Brownell if he could come back.

“We do not have anything to prove outside the program, but it is kind of like giving it all you got right now,” Godfrey said. “Obviously, it is every kids’ dream to make a deep tournament run and win a national championship.

“We are focused on ourselves. We want to maximize our potential and the potential of this team. I do not think we have one thing to prove, we are just trying to maximize what we have.”

For several guys, like Johnson, this is the reason why they came to Clemson in the first place.

“I wanted to be here on this stage and make this run,” Johnson said. “We want to put the world on notice that Clemson can be a basketball school too.”

Johnson has a point. Clemson is becoming a basketball school.

Besides making the tournament for the fifth time since 2018, they have also had success in the tournament. Under Brownell, the Tigers are 6-5 in the tournament, with two Sweet 16 and one Elite 8 appearance.

But do not think he is taking it for granted.