It’s Clemson vs. Alabama again.
Fans of college sports are accustomed to seeing the Tigers and Crimson Tide square off against one another under the bright lights in the postseason.
There’s just one thing different this time around.
Instead of Alabama and Clemson meeting on the gridiron to decide postseason glory, they’ll meet on the basketball court at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament Saturday.
Alabama coach Nate Oats called it “the basketball Rose Bowl” Friday.
Neither Clemson nor Alabama have ever reached the Final Four, and both Oats and Tigers coach Brad Brownell want to be the first to add their names to their schools’ respective history books.
It doesn’t escape either Oats or Brownell that both men are coaching at schools that are most associated with success on the football field. Alabama and Clemson met four consecutive years in the four-team College Football Playoff between 2015-2018, three of which occurred in the national championship game.
In basketball, the schools met in this season’s ACC-SEC Challenge back on November 28 in Tuscaloosa, an 85-77 Tigers victory.
“We’ve won a lot, but we’ve never been to a Final Four,” Oats noted. “So making a Final Four would be very big for the program, would show that we’re competing with all of the best programs in the country for the biggest thing. You’re trying to win a national championship. Final Four is that step right before winning a national championship, and we haven’t been to a Final Four yet.”
Before Thursday’s 89-87 victory over No. 1 seed North Carolina, Alabama hadn’t reached the Elite Eight since 2004.
Clemson’s last trip to the Elite Eight was even further back — in 1980. Some 44 years later, the Tigers are back after beating No. 2 seed Arizona 77-72 on Thursday.
Brownell was asked the same question about his program relative to the university’s success on the gridiron. Brownell was quick to say that Clemson would always be known as a football school.
“The first thing you better realize, and I’m sure Nate feels the same way, if you’re the head basketball coach at Clemson or Alabama, you’re not going to become a basketball school. You’re going to be a football school,” Brownell told reporters Friday. “You better embrace that early on. That’s OK with me. I’m great with that. I have a great relationship with Coach Swinney. I want us to be great at everything, and we’re really good at a lot of sports at Clemson.”
Brownell noted that Clemson men’s soccer has won two of the past three national championships in that sport. The school also features a baseball team that entered this weekend 22-2 overall and ranked No. 2 in the country. Tigers softball is ranked in the Top 25, as well.
“We’ve got a great group of coaches in our athletic department,” Brownell said. “Certainly we’re known as a football school and will be one forever and we’re all really proud of that. But I’m just doing the best I can to make our program as good as it can be, and I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish the last 14 years. Certainly this year has been really special.”
Tipoff for Saturday’s Clemson-Alabama game is scheduled for 8:49 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast on TBS and truTV.