Clemson Men’s Basketball: Road ahead gets tougher for Tigers

The loss Clemson Men’s Basketball suffered at the hands of Boston College Tuesday hurt in more than just the won/loss column and the NET Rankings.

While the ACC is not the best it’s ever been this season, the road ahead definitely gets tougher for Brad Brownell’s team and if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s likely a game most counted as a win when looking at the schedule.

Up next for the Tigers are the Miami Hurricanes, who are 17-5 overall and 8-4 in the ACC.

For what it’s worth the Hurricanes are rated higher than the Tigers in the KenPom.com rankings (36th) and the NET Rankings (40th), and so is North Carolina, the team that comes after Miami on Clemson’s schedule.

The Tigers will likely be a very short favorite against Miami, or perhaps the game may even be a pick.  Whatever the case, it’s bound to be a toss-up or close to it.

After that, the Tigers are off until next Saturday, February 11 when they travel to Chapel Hill to take on the Tar Heels.

There’s no need to go into Clemson’s history in that city, but suffice it to say Clemson won’t be favored in that game.

Two winnable games follow thos: Florida State at Littlejohn (February 15) and Louisville on the road (February 18).

Clemson has beaten both teams, of course, but neither was comfortable,  though the win over the Cardinals ended up being a 13-point margin.

From my point of view, the Tigers need a split with Miami and North Carolina and can’t afford to lose to either Florida State or Louisville.

I’ve just about given up on caring about the NET Rankings, but there’s little doubt the metric will impact Clemson’s post-season fate.

In the weird world that is the NET Rankings a home win over Miami would be a Quad 2 win and a road win over North Carolina would be a Quad 1 win, at least as they’re ranked today.

If you had to win just one, it’d be preferable to win in Chapel Hill and lose at home to Miami.  Only the NET Rankings could invert the importance of winning at home.

But you really can’t afford a loss to either Florida State or Louisville.

Clemson Men’s Basketball opens an important 4 game stretch Saturday in Littlejohn Coliseum

One could argue that this four game stretch sets up fairly well for the Tigers with the first game at home, then a week of rest before the North Carolina game, followed by two they “should” win.

Until Tuesday, I was fairly confident of what we would see from this squad every time they took the court, but now that’s an uncomfortable, but familiar, question that has plagued the Tigers during the Brownell era and even before then.

Was Tuesday a one off or the symptom of a larger problem?

We begin to get the answer on Saturday, but it may be a couple of weeks before we know for sure.