Clemson basketball one and done at ACC Tournament. Tigers now await NCAA fate

The Clemson men’s basketball was more or less playing with house money this week as one of three ACC teams already considered locks for the NCAA Tournament.

But if the Tigers play next week like they did here on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena, it’s going to be a very short stay for coach Brad Brownell and company.

Clemson, lacking energy and effort from the jump, dropped its opening ACC Tournament game to Boston College, 76-55, and will head home from Washington, D.C., as losers of three of its last four games.

The Tigers aren’t going to miss out on the NCAA Tournament — thanks to an excellent non-conference record and some big wins in ACC play, they’re considered safely in the field by all experts — but nothing about their performance screamed national contender. Or Sweet 16 team. Or second round material, for that matter.

Center PJ Hall (21 points) and guard Joe Girard III (13 points) poured in enough buckets to keep Clemson within a run of getting back into the game, but the Tigers had too many self-inflicted wounds and too little oomph to ever mount a true comeback in the last game of the night in the ACC tournament’s second round.

Clemson (21-11) trailed by as many as 23 points in the game, and its last lead came at the 16:15 mark of the first half — when the score was 7-6. A mere four days after the Tigers entered their regular season finale at Wake Forest with a chance to clinch a double bye into the ACC quarterfinals, they couldn’t get within 10 points of Boston College for the final 15 minutes of the game

“We just weren’t quite ready,” Brownell said. “Ultimately, that’s on me. I don’t really understand it. I thought we were. But we looked a half step slow and lacked urgency. And then I thought when we got behind, that’s probably not great for us. We haven’t been behind a lot this year, and we probably panicked a little bit.”

‘It’s a shame’

Clemson, the No. 6 seed in the ACC tournament, shot 35% from the field, shot 20% on 3-pointers, and was out-rebounded by 16. And got essentially nothing from two of its other starters: Forward Ian Schieffelin had 5 points on 2-7 shooting, and guard Chase Hunter had 2 points on 0-10 shooting with a -29 plus/minus. As a team, Clemson was a mere 7 for 18 on layups.

“In warmups, we thought we looked and felt great,” Hall said. “Had a good energy to us. I don’t know if it was we just got popped in the mouth and didn’t recover, or if wasn’t there in the first place. But I’ll tell you what: For 40 minutes, they controlled it. It’s a shame.”

Added Girard: “It’s not on the coaches. It’s on the players. Fortunately for us, we’ve had a great season so far, so hopefully we’ll get another chance. But as a group, as players, we’ve got to move forward and be better.”

Boston College, the No. 11 seed in the tournament, lost at Clemson earlier this season without its best player, Quinten Post, in the lineup and only six players available because of a stomach flu that ran through the team.

But the Eagles enacted a swift revenge with Post back in the lineup Wednesday, plus some juice from a win over No. 14 Miami in the opening round of the tournament Tuesday and huge nights from guards Claudell Harris Jr. (27 points) and Jaeden Zackery (22 points).

BC, which advances to play No. 3 Virginia in Friday’s ACC quarterfinals, was a 7.5-point betting underdog in this game but looked like the favorite from the beginning, leading 18-9 at the first media timeout, 40-28 at halftime and by nine points — 49-38 — with 15:01 remaining.

That was the last time Boston College, a team that finished 11th out of 15 teams in the ACC this year at 8-12 in conference, allowed an experienced, talented Clemson to get within 10 points.

“I think they’re a really physical team, Post said. “We matched their physicality tonight, and it showed.”

Under coach Earl Grant, a former Clemson assistant on Brownell’s inaugural staff from 2010-14, the Eagles have now won four games in a row dating back to the end of the regular season.

“Just thankful,” Grant said. “Thankful, happy for our players. ... They played hard, they were connected, and we showed a lot of grit. I’m just proud of the players and really happy for our program.”

What’s next for Tigers?

Clemson, which entered Wednesday primarily considered a No. 5 seed in the tournament, now awaits its NCAA Tournament placement. The selection show is at 6 p.m. Sunday on CBS, with first-round games the following Thursday and Friday.

Qualifying for a second NCAA Tournament in four years will be a nice consolation prize for Clemson, which, as Brownell and his players correctly noted, showed more than enough over the past 31 games to warrant a spot in the 68-team field. An “oddity” like Wednesday night’s clunker doesn’t change that.

But it does continue a long run of ACC tournament struggles for Clemson, which has participated in every tournament since the inaugural one in 1954 but never won the tournament title. In Brownell’s tenure, the Tigers have still never won two games at a single tournament.

Now they head home earlier than expected ... with some work to do before moving onto a tournament that doesn’t provide the second chance they’re getting after Wednesday.

“I just thought they (Boston College) played with a lot of confidence and swagger and very free and loose,” Brownell said. “For whatever reason, we did not.”