Clemson Tough to Beat at Home, Now Must Prove Themselves on Road
For the second time this season, the Clemson basketball team is on a roll.
Brad Brownell's Tigers raced out to a 9-1 start, putting together one of the nation's more impressive resumes over the early part of the season while rising to as high as No. 12 in the polls.
However, the team was then forced to pause team activities for just over a week due to Covid protocols, and when they came back, the Tigers had trouble finding that magic that had made them so good to begin the season.
Clemson would lose three straight coming off of the pause, and four of five altogether, with three of those losses coming on the road. And they didn't just lose those games, they weren't even competitive in any of the four losses, getting blown out in all four. They found themselves once again unranked just as quickly as they'd climbed the rankings.
Now the Tigers are on another roll, having won three straight and four of five, after their last-second 74-72 win over Georgia Tech at home on Friday night. The victory moves Clemson to 13-5 on the season and 7-5 in ACC play.
The Tigers are currently in sixth place in the conference, just one game behind North Carolina in the loss column. and appear to be firmly inside the NCAA bubble. ESPN currently projects Clemson as an 8-seed, with CBS Sports having them as a six-seed. They came into the week ranked No. 48 in the ever-important NET rankings and are currently No. 11 in the RPI.
The schedule does start to let up some now for Brownell and the Tigers, with Notre Dame, Pitt and Wake Forest being their next three opponents. All three are currently sitting below Clemson in the ACC standings, with Notre Dame and Wake both being in the bottom-third of the conference at the moment.
However, while the schedule does get a little easier, each of the next three games are on the road and Clemson has struggled away from Littlejohn in conference play. On the season the Tigers are just 1-4 in true road games, with their only ACC win away from homecoming in a 66-65 last-second win at Miami back on January 2. Clemson has lost its last three road games, each time getting blown out.
There is no denying that the Tigers are playing some of their best basketball as the team heads down the final stretch of the regular season. The next step is now going out and proving they can do it away from the friendly confines of Littlejohn Coliseum.
If Clemson wants to solidify itself as an NCAA Tournament team, they can not afford to go on another losing streak. One way or another, Brownell and the Tigers are going to have to find a way to get a win or two on the road during this next three-game stretch. If not they could easily find themselves back on the bubble, or even worse, on the outside looking in.
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