The Clemson Tigers are sneaking up the ACC Standings - SCACCHoops.com

The Clemson Tigers are sneaking up the ACC Standings

by All Sports Discussion

Posted: 2/26/2012 11:39:15 AM


Game Central

Game Recap

The ACC’s top 3 teams appear set. Duke and North Carolina at 12-2 in the ACC have clinched ACC tournament first round BYEs. Florida St barring a major collapse seems to have locked up 3rd position. The 4th position currently belongs to Virginia at 8-6, followed by Miami at 7-6. They play Florida State Sunday. After that it is NC State at 7-7 and Clemson at 7-7. Wait a minute is this the same Clemson team that less than 3 weeks ago was 11-12 (3-6)?

This was a forgotten team in the ACC that had lost games to UTEP, Coastal Carolina, and Hawaii. A 20 point win over Florida State was seen more as function of a struggling Seminole team in January than of anything to do with Clemson. Now, since a 62-64 home loss to Maryland, Clemson has won 4 of their last 5 games including a win over Virginia. Saturday Clemson won an OT  thriller over NC State 72-69 and now they are 1 game out of 4th place in the ACC stands.  

I saw a couple of tweets across my @TalkinACCSports timeline that asked where did Clemson come from all of a sudden? At 15-13 and an RPI in the 140s, Clemson isn’t going to the NCAAs without winning the ACCT, but they are making some late noise. This is a balanced scoring team that has 4 players Andre Young, Tanner Smith, Devin Booker and Milton Jennings that average 9 points or more, but it’s the ACC’s 2nd ranked defense that has fueled Clemson’s recent good play. The Tigers have allowed only 1 opponent since the middle of January more than 70 points in a game.

Could the Tigers really end up in 4th place and earn a first round ACCT Bye? They have a shot at it. The Tigers lost their top two scorers from 2011. A 4th place finish would be remarkable and should warrant Brad Brownell some ACC COY consideration. This seemed unfathomable a few weeks ago. The resurgent Tigers have quietly put together one of the better turnarounds in the ACC this year.  

 

This article was originally published at http://www.AllSportsDiscussion.com. If you are interested in sharing your website's content with SCACCHoops.com, Contact Us.

 

 


SCACC Hoops has no affiliation to the NCAA or the ACC
Team logos are trademarks of their respective organizations (more/credits)

Privacy Policy