The Clemson Tigers saw their season come to an end in the NCAA Tournament with a loss to Iowa.
The Clemson Tigers and head coach Brad Brownell put together another solid season during the 2025-26 campaign. After ending the regular season with a 24-11 record, they earned a No. 8 seed in the tournament and a matchup against the Iowa Hawkeyes out of the Big Ten.
Just two short years ago, Clemson made a run all the way to the Elite Eight. After losing to Iowa in the opening round of March Madness on Friday evening, the Tigers have now been bounced in the first round each of the last two years.
Despite putting up a valiant fight, Clemson lost to the Hawkeyes by a final score of 67-61.
Leading the Tigers was RJ Godfrey, who scored 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. Butta Johnson was the only other double-digit scorer with 11 points.
As a team, Clemson shot 41 percent from the floor and 35 percent from three-point range. They outshot Iowa, but that didn't end up going their way on the scoreboard.
One of the main stories of the game was the Hawkeyes out-rebounding the Tigers 40-27. Iowa grabbed 15 offensive rebounds throughout the contest.
On the other side of the court, the Hawkeyes saw Bennett Stirtz put up 16 points, even though he shot just 4-for-17 from the field. Kael Combs scored 15 points, while Alvaro Folgueiras came off the bench to chip in 14.
Following the game, Brownell spoke out and offered some brutal honesty about why his team came up short for the second year in a row in the first round.
“I’m anxious to watch the film and just see what happened," he said. "Certainly some long shots by them, long rebounds. I’m sure there’s a couple that just bounced their way, but there were others that we needed to win, 50-50 balls you have to get. We just weren’t quite as hungry as we needed to be to win those.”
Unfortunately, the season has come to an end for Clemson. The program will head into another offseason of disappointment and will try to come back next season ready to make another deep run.