On Saturday afternoon, one of the best stories of the 2025-26 women’s college basketball season came to an end in heartbreaking fashion when No. 8 seed Clemson fell to No. 9 USC in overtime, 71-67, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers actually celebrated the victory at the end of regulation when Mia Moore hit a running 3-point shot at the buzzer. But the game went to overtime after officials waved off the basket and ruled that both the shot and the foul that occurred on the play were whistled after time expired. In the extra frame, the Tigers simply had no answer for Big Ten Freshman of the Year Jazzy Davidson, who had 31 points in the game.

“It was a tough, tough day for Tigers,” Clemson coach Shawn Poppie said after the game. “Sad locker room in there, but nothing to hang your head on. I couldn’t be more proud of the group we have. They fought their butts off. Unfortunately, today, Southern Cal was one possession or 0.1 second better than us.”

It was a crushing loss any way you look at it. The Tigers were in control for most of the game, were the higher seed — though just barely — and were playing just a couple of hours from home at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. But mainly it was disappointing because it was the end of the road for a group that exceeded even their own expectations and put Clemson back on the map — a place Poppie plans to keep the Tigers for good.

How a transition year became transformational for Clemson

Poppie took over for Clemson just two years ago. After finding success as an assistant coach under Kenny Brooks at Virginia Tech, Poppie got his first head coaching job at Chattanooga in 2022, but the ACC came calling again just two seasons later after he led the Mocs to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. 

Back in 2016, when Brooks was trying to get Poppie to join his staff in Blacksburg, Brooks referred to Virginia Tech as a “sleeping giant.” That’s exactly what Poppie felt about Clemson when he got the call.

At the time, Clemson was close to a non-factor in women’s basketball with only one NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. But Poppie believed that the administration would give him the resources necessary to compete and that his culture-building prowess would turn that competitiveness into success. In his first year, he had to hit the portal hard, bringing in 10 transfers in 2024 and six more in 2025. He’s been busy — and productive — on the recruiting trail, too. 

Next year, Clemson’s freshman class is ranked No. 4 in the nation, according to 247Sports. With that in mind, it would have been understandable to treat this as a transitional year. Instead, it became a transformational one.

The Tigers won 21 regular-season games, the most since 2000, and 11 ACC games, the most since 1998. They ended then-No. 9 Duke’s 17-game winning streak in February with a 53-51 victory and made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed. 

Poppie spoke passionately to CBS Sports in February about his philosophy of radical honesty and personal connections.

“I do feel like there’s been a lot of programs that have switched their mindset to just transactional thinking,” Poppie said. “And I feel like with the staff I put in place, we are fully invested into the relationship piece more than anything else. When you do that, kids feel the care and the love on a daily basis, outside of just how many points you scored and how much you’re getting paid, right? It’s more so the life lessons and in the relationships of being able to coach them hard.”

There are no elephants in Poppie’s locker room; he addresses things head-on. This season, that meant talking openly about what they needed to do to get into the Big Dance, bringing up the need for Quad-1 wins and other resume builders.

“Some people may think it adds pressure. I think it relieves pressure, because you just have an open and honest conversation,” he said.

He was also frank about his team’s talent level heading into the season.

“On paper, we weren’t going to be the most talented. That’s something we talk about,” Poppie told CBS Sports. “We’re not going to beat people by just rolling the balls out. When you think about talent, size, length, athleticism, we have no elite defenders. We don’t have any elite scorers. But I think that if we buy into each other, that we will have a chance as a team to get where we all want to get to.”

‘There’s just something about him’

Such directness can be off-putting for some, but that’s where the other part of his philosophy kicks in — he is able to build relationships that are strong enough to not just tolerate hard truths, but thrive because of them.

One of the first players he called when he got the job at Clemson was Moore, who spent two injury-laden years at Mississippi State before finding success at UAB for one season. Poppie had actually recruited her twice, back when she was in high school and again when she was transferring out of Mississippi State. The third time was the charm.

While Moore hadn’t felt Poppie’s previous stops were a right fit for her, she had very fond memories of their recruiting conversations.

“I feel like every other coach would just be like, ‘How many shots did you get up today?’ But he just cared about me as a person, and to this day, he still cares about me as a person, not just a player,” Moore told CBS Sports. “And I feel like that’s why I can compete for him on the court, because there’s just something about him that just makes me want to play harder.”

Moore excelled this season, averaging 13.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists en route to second-team All-ACC honors. She struggled mightily on offense in the game against USC, going scoreless until midway through the fourth. But you could see Poppie coaching her hard during timeouts, pulling out the best in her, encouraging her to keep fighting and shooting and remembering who she is. And she ended up with nine points, six rebounds, six assists and was milliseconds from a March moment for the ages.

Poppie and the Clemson staff are trying to get Moore another year of eligibility because of how little she played at Mississippi State due to her injuries. But if it’s unsuccessful, and this is the last moment of her collegiate career, she’s still walking away with a smile on her face.

“It’s definitely meant the most to me,” she said when asked about her time with the Tigers. “I haven’t had the best college career, just dealing with injuries. Coach Poppie welcomed me with open arms. He’s allowed me to just be who I am. He never changed my game. He never said I had to do this or that. He just allowed me to be me, and he really didn’t just grow me as a player. He really grew me as a person. He taught me a lot of life lessons, and that’s something I’ll take with me forever.”

Setting the standard for Clemson’s future

While the outcome wasn’t what Clemson wanted on Saturday, there is no doubt that the future is bright, and this team is proud to be a part of that story.

“I think the country learned that we’re a really good basketball team. Not just the team we have now. Upcoming years, I think we set the standard, and I feel like the teams he’s going to coach is going to live up to it,” senior forward Raven Thompson said after the game.

“I feel like we definitely shocked the world this season,” Moore added. “A lot of people had their doubts about us, but like Ray-Ray said, we set the standard, and this is who Clemson is going to be moving forward.”