Clemson basketball unfortunately has the most “cursed” seed in the NCAA Tournament
While doing some NCAA Tournament research for Clemson basketball, looking at first-round opponent McNeese, I stumbled across a video explaining some trends over the years.
While I can’t seem to find the video anymore in order to share here, one thing stood out to me that seemed very relevant for this year’s Clemson team in the tourney: the 5-seed is cursed.
Since the NCAA Tournament field expanded in 1985, according to NCAA.com, there have been 55 upsets of a 12-seed beating a 5-seed. That’s good for a 35.3% win rate which is incredibly high, but not quite as high as the No. 11 seeds beating the No. 6 seeds all time. Still, the 5-seed seems to be the only one that is truly cursed, and here’s why: a 5-seed has never won the NCAA Tournament.
That’s right, every single seed from 1-7 has won a national title outside of a 5-seed. So we’ve seen 6-seeds and 7-seeds win the title but we have yet to see a 5-seed do so.
In the history of the NCAA Tournament.
Let that sink in for a second.
In the history of the NCAA Tournament that has seen some crazy things happen, no 5-seed has ever won the whole thing. Could Clemson be the first? Sure, but the odds are stacked against the Tigers and their path to the Final Four won’t be an easy one with Houston, Tennessee, Gonzaga, Kentucky, Purdue, UCLA, and Illinois in the region. This is just a loaded Midwest.
But it could happen. If Clemson is able to get past a tough first-round matchup against McNeese and beat a team like Purdue in round two, a Final Four would not be a surprise.
There’s a lot of work to be done if Clemson wants to buck the trend and become the first-ever 5-seed to be a national champion.
