Battle for the double-bye continues for Clemson Men’s Basketball against Pittsburgh

Clemson Men’s Basketball has won five of their last six games and has four regular season contests left before the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament begins in Washington, DC.

Right now, the Tigers are tied with Pittsburgh and NC State for fifth place in the ACC standings, all one game behind fourth-place Wake Forest. Syracuse lurks a half-game behind them.

The Tigers control their destiny with games remaining against three of the teams they are competing with for the fourth and final double-bye in the ACC Tournament. They begin that stretch of games in Littlejohn Coliseum tonight against the Panthers.

PJ Hall continues to lead the team in scoring with 18.7 points per game, but both Joe Girard (15.8 points) and Chase Hunter (12.5 points) have been creeping up on him. Ian Schieffelin continues to lead with 9.3 rebounds per game. Hunter now leads in assists per game at 3.1, one-tenth of an assist ahead of Girard at 3.0.

Clemson won the first matchup with the Panthers in Pittsburgh on December 3rd 79-70. Not only would a win tonight put Clemson ahead of Pitt in the standings but it would also lock in the tiebreaker in favor of the Tigers.

The Panthers are merely Clemson's first test if they want to grab the double-bye in the ACC tournament

Blake Hinson leads the Panthers with 18.9 points per game. He scored 27 points against Clemson in December. Guard Ishmael Leggett leads with 5.3 rebounds per game and Carlton Carrington leads in assists with 4.2 per game.

Following this game, the Tigers will have a road trip to Notre Dame before hosting Syracuse and then visiting the Deacons. Wake does not have a challenging schedule between now and then, so the Tigers will likely need to run the table and win the tiebreaker with Wake to jump into the fourth seed for the tournament.