The No. 12 McNeese State Cowboys were able to narrowly beat the No. 5 Clemson Tigers 69-67 in the first round of the 2025 men’s college basketball tournament. The Underdogs, coming in, ended the first half with a 31-13 lead, and though they were outscored by 16 points in the second, they finished victorious. Coming off the bench, Brandon Murray led the Cowboys with 21 points, four rebounds, three assists, and three steals. It was McNeese’s first win in the March Madness tournament after going 0-3 in previous appearances.
McNeese State started the game nearly perfect on both sides of the floor, as by halftime, they had an 18-point advantage while holding Clemson to their lowest-scoring half of the year. A key moment of the first came in the form of a ten-minute run in which the Tigers scored two points compared to the Cowboys’ 19. Clemson again started slow to open the second, but slowly, they managed to get the lead down to ten with three minutes to go. Despite multiple threes in the final stretch from the Tigers, McNeese State made their free throws and secured the win.
Though the 69-67 game looks close on paper, McNeese State held the lead for 35 minutes. Both teams combined for only ten points in the first five minutes but scored 32 in the last three minutes. The Tigers tried everything, but the first-half Cowboys lead was just enough to advance them to the second round.
It seems like just about every year of March Madness sees a No.5 seed lose to a No. 12 seed. To be precise, at least once in all but six of the last 39 tournaments, the underdog No. 12 seed has gone on to win in the opening-round matchup. The only years that featured a tournament without this upset came in 1988, 2000, 2007, 2015, 2018, and 2023. It happened twice last year, with Grand Canyon beating St. Mary’s and James Madison beating Wisconsin.
With the Cowboys’ first-round win, they’ll now go on to face Purdue after they beat High Point University by 12 points on Thursday. The Boilermakers have a history of losing in the tournament as favorites, being the only No. 1 seed to lose in the first round, falling to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023. A win against Purdue would likely mean a meeting against the No. 1 seeded Houston Cougars.
In what might be possibly fueling the McNeese squad, it was announced just days ago that head coach Will Wade would be moving on from the program. Wade accepted the head coach position at North Carolina State, meaning that this run with the Cowboys will be the last time he coaches this team. Wade has the high-flying and sharp-shooting squad to back-to-back tournament appearances and Southland Conference championships.
McNeese’s viral sensation team manager Amir Khan could be seen rooting on the Cowboys right behind the team’s bench. Khan became the first team manager in NCAA history to sign an NIL deal, just another reason why McNeese is the perfect definition of a March Madness Cinderella story.
Heading into this game, it didn’t look like McNeese would be the one to pull off the upset. With their team manager, they had the media attention, but Clemson had a great regular season. The Tigers finished with only two conference losses and ended with the most wins in program history. However, the underdog pulled it off and McNeese moved on, most likely acquiring fans around the country in the process.
Seeing a small school from a relatively unknown conference beat a Power Four conference team is always great, and it is a perfect reason why March Madness is so great. The road is only going to get tougher for McNeese, but as things stand now, they just got their first NCAA tournament win in school history.
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