McNeese scripts 'biggest day' in upset of Clemson

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- McNeese State president Dr. Wade Rousse said school officials had discussed adding extra support for its website if its 12th-seeded men's basketball team upset No. 5 Clemson in the NCAA tournament Thursday.

The Cowboys delivered with a 69-67 win. Then the website crashed anyway.

"It's a wonderful thing for us," Rousse said after the Cowboys opened a 31-13 lead at halftime and then held on after Clemson made a charge in the final two minutes. "Biggest day in our school history, or one of them, for sure.

"We've heard all the stories about other teams, that they get an upset and their website crashes because there's so much interest in the school. We were trying to be proactive before we left. We put the IT team on standby: 'Hey, be there, just in case.'"

It was the first NCAA tournament victory for McNeese State, which is located in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The Cowboys earned a tournament berth for the second straight year as champion of the Southland Conference. But unlike last year, when coach Will Wade said they treated the tournament like a "field trip" because they were happy to be there, this was more business-like -- in more ways than one.

Wade is departing whenever the Cowboys' tournament run ends to become head coach at NC State, and he had been transparent about his interest in other jobs with players leading into the tournament.

"Whatever else is happening, that's of no distraction to us. I know everybody else thinks there's distractions and stuff, [but] we operate the same way all the time," he said. "We have broken every record in the book. This was the last one to get."

The moment marks another step in the career revival of Wade, who was fired in 2022 the wake of a three-year NCAA investigation into violations during his tenure at LSU. He was fired in March 2022, just before the NCAA tournament after an NCAA Notice of Allegations that included seven Level I allegations tied to LSU men's basketball.

Senior forward Christian Shumate, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds against Clemson, acknowledged Wade's approach and how it resonated with players.

"When you're in the loop, and both ends are transparent about things, there's not too much room for conflict. There's a clear understanding," he said. "We'll worry about all of that stuff later. We're just focused on winning these games."

McNeese (28-6) surprised Clemson by playing a 2-3 zone for the first time this season, which seemed to rattle the Tigers, who shot 20.8% in the first half.

"Our first half was pretty flawless. We've been saving that zone; we haven't played the 2-3 zone all year," Wade said. "We put it in for the conference tournament and never used it. We thought this would be a good time to pull it out. The guys did a great job executing."

Clemson's 13 points at halftime nearly set a record. In the shot clock era, the fewest points in the first half of a tournament game is 10 -- by Wake Forest against Butler in 2001 and Kent State against UNLV in 2008.

According to ESPN Research, since seeding began in 1979, only two teams had worse scoring halves when seeded No. 5 or better -- the 1984 Kentucky team (11 in second half of a Final Four game against Georgetown) and the 1999 Wisconsin team (12 in first half against Missouri State).

"We picked a tough day not to play our best," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "Certainly they had a lot to do with it. I didn't do a very good job with my guys; we weren't really prepared for the zone to man. We haven't seen a lot of that this year, maybe a little bit with Stanford. And it bothered us."