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Since when has Clemson been the biggest game on the schedule?

Maybe back in the cantankerous days of Tates Locke with Tree Rollins, the excellent Bill Foster teams of the 1980s, Rick Barnes’ tough guys of the 1990s and Oliver Purnell’s talented Tigers of the 2000s, followed by current coach Brad Brownell.

None of his predecessors had teams with higher rankings than Brownell’s 14th entry, which climbed to No. 10 in the current NCAA NET before falling to 18th after losing at Miami on January 3. The Hurricanes jumped 13 spots by beating Clemson soundly, 95-82.

Carolina is the highest ACC team in the NET, sitting at No. 12 after winning its second ACC game at Pitt. Duke is at No. 17, Miami at 40 and Virginia at 48. Pitt (50), Wake Forest (56), Virginia Tech (65), NC State (73), Syracuse (77) and Boston College (82) are roundly on the bubble for an NCAA tournament bid.

Georgia Tech, Florida State, Notre Dame and Louisville are between Nos. 123 and 267, which makes them all nothing better than spoilers for the rest of the regular season. Also flirting to fall are Virginia, which lost to Notre Dame (182), and FSU (132) losing to Lipscomb (147) at home.

For Carolina to move into the top 10 in the NET ranking for the first time in the Hubert Davis era, the Tar Heels would have to win Saturday at Clemson, where Brownell’s Tigers are 6-0 so far (same as UNC’s home record).

Clemson has the ACC’s second leading scorer in P.J. Hall, behind R.J. Davis. It is also a match-up of the leading rebounders between Armando Bacot with 10.8 per game and Tiger Ian Schieffelin with one less. And the ACC’s free throw leaders are UNC’s Davis (95 percent) and Tiger transfer Joe Girard (92).

Clemson has shot 42 more 3-pointers than Carolina and is making 39 percent of them, while the Tar Heels are hitting a lower percentage (36.3). So, let’s say this could be a real shootout at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Another reason this game is so important to both teams is the scarcity of Quad 1 or 2 wins within the league. Ten ACC teams have a NET between 50 and 200-plus, so wins over any of those teams will not be as valuable to the NCAA tournament selection committee.

The ACC is rated fifth best of all major basketball conferences. The good news is the Tar Heels should win a lot of league games. The bad news is there may not be a lot more Quad 1 opportunities.

 

Featured image via Associated Press/Matt Freed

Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.

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