Clemson ranks No. 56 in NET

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Clemson men’s basketball is continuing to flex in the ACC. The Tigers picked up their 17th win on the season and ninth in the ACC Tuesday night, defeating Georgia Tech by 21-points.

The Tigers have a firm grip on the top spot in the ACC but what that really means is up for debate when you take into consideration the NCAA Evaluation Tool or NET.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings replaced the RPI prior to the 2018-19 season as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams. The system went through a further revamp in May 2020, the NCAA announced changes made to increase accuracy and simplify it by reducing a five-component metric to just two.

The remaining factors include the Team Value Index (TVI), which is a result-based feature that rewards teams for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home, as well as an adjusted net efficiency rating. The adjusted efficiency is a team’s net efficiency, adjusted for strength of opponent and location (home/away/neutral) across all games played. For example, a given efficiency value (net points per 100 possessions) against stronger opposition rates higher than the same efficiency against lesser opponents and having a certain efficiency on the road rates higher than the same efficiency at home.

While Clemson is 9-1 in the ACC they rank sixth in ACC teams in the NET rankings. Behind (No. 15) Virginia, (No. 31) North Carolina, (No. 32) Duke, (No. 37) Miami, (No. 41) NC State, and (No. 49) Virginia Tech. Clemson is No. 56.

The Tigers are behind teams they have better records than, teams they have a better conference record than, team they have beaten and even a team they’ve beaten twice in Virginia Tech.

Clemson has a chance to surge up the rankings with six road games over the next month and a half, three of them against teams currently ranking hire than them.

Using the quadrant system, which was in its fourth season in 2020-21, the quality of wins and losses will be organized based on game location and the opponent’s NET ranking.

Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

The number of Quadrant 1 wins and Quadrant 3/4 losses will be incredibly important when it comes time for NCAA tournament selection and seeding.