Clemson Men's Basketball: Tigers try to tame Seminoles in Tallahassee

Clemson Men's Basketball will have to hit the road to try and regroup after a heartbreaking double overtime loss to Georgia Tech Wednesday at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Tigers have lost four of their last five games since the New Year and are currently 12-5 overall and 2-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

After suffering three consecutive double-digit losses, the Tigers had a double-digit win of their own over Boston College, before melting down the stretch against the Yellow Jackets.

Saturday's game is an important one, if for no other reason than with Duke up next on January 27, Clemson could be looking at an extended slump before a breather appears on the schedule.

Meanwhile, Florida State is headed in the other direction, winning five straight and six of their last seven after a 4-5 start.

The Seminoles feature a balanced offense, led in scoring by 6'7 senior forward Jamir Watkins at 13.1 points per game, with Darin Green registering 12.3 points and the nicely named Primo Spears at 11.3 per contest.

Watkins also leads Florida State on the boards with 5.9 rebounds per game.

The Seminoles haven't shot as well from the floor as the Tigers have, but with Clemson on an extended slump from three-point range and in an unfamiliar arena, the results are certainly in question headed into Saturday's matchup.

Outside of pace and free throw attempts, the Tiger offense still looks good efficiently on the surface, but those numbers belie the current struggles from three-point range, which the Clemson offense relies on heavily.

Per usual for Clemson opponents, the Seminoles play at a faster pace than the Tigers and in a lot of ways, this could turn into a matchup of the Florida State defense vs. the Clemson offense.

The Tigers have three double-digit scorers themselves and another on the cusp. P.J. Hall is averaging 20.1 points per game, Joe Girard 15.2, Chase Hunter 11.7 and Ian Schieffelin 9.9.

Schieffelin and Hall lead the Tigers in rebounding at 9.8 and 7.1 per game, respectively.

Clemson Men's Basketball has fallen in rankings as trip to Tallahassee looms

With the recent struggles, Brad Brownell's squad has fallen out of the top 25, dropped to No. 40 in the NET Rankings, No. 39 at KenPom.com and No. 32 at haslametrics.com.

More importantly, due to circumstances beyond their control, the Tigers currently have only two Quad 1 wins along with a Quad 3 loss and their profile looks quite different than it did just two weeks ago.

After the Florida State game, Clemson will be off until a January 27 matchup with Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium, followed by home contests with Louisville (January 30) and Virginia (February 3).

Saturday's game is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on the ACC Network.