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Clemson

Brad Brownell discusses overall strength of ACC, lack of dominant team

Chandler Vesselsby:Chandler Vessels•01/18/23•

ChandlerVessels

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Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Clemson coach Brad Brownell knows the ACC is full of talent. Although no team has quite separated themselves from the rest of the pack yet, Brownell believes that fact speaks to the overall strength of the conference.

His Tigers sit atop the league standings with a 7-1 record in ACC play, suffering their first loss Tuesday to a Wake Forest team that is now just one game behind them at 6-2. Speaking after that game, Brownell offered his opinion on why the ACC deserves more respect on a national scale.

“I think the league is better than people think it is,” he said. “We’re much better now than we were in November and December. PJ (Hall) is much more like himself here in the last couple of weeks. We may not have a dominant team this year, but I think we’ve got a lot of really good teams. That’s why we won the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.”

The ACC is fifth out of all conferences in RPI, and has three teams ranked in the AP poll. That includes the Tigers, who went from unranked to No. 19 this week following a victory against then-No. 24 Duke. Additionally, the ACC is tied with the Big 12 for the second-most projected NCAA Tournament bids with seven teams according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

But while the league may have overall balance, it lacks the one elite squad that some other conferences have. No. 10 Virginia (13-3, 5-2 ACC) might be the closest team to fitting that role, but even the Cavaliers have already dropped a couple of tough ACC road games.

Brad Brownell added that a lot of teams in the ACC are just starting to hit their stride, including Clemson, which had won seven straight games prior to its loss Tuesday.

“I think a lot of teams have turnover and so they’re different,” he said. “I think Steve (Forbes)’s team is one of those teams and they’re playing really well. Our team had to adjust to a lot of things and we’re playing different than we were in November. We’re better. I think there’s several teams that are probably like that in our league. I think our league’s pretty good.”

Clemson will look to bounce back from its first ACC loss when it hosts Virginia Tech at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday.