Latest injury news on Clemson starting guards

Clemson guards Chase Hunter and Alex Hemenway were unable to suit up for Tuesday night’s win over Georgia Tech as they continue to deal with foot injuries, but the two are getting close to returning to action.

Hunter in particular was considered a game-time decision for the matchup with the Yellow Jackets, while Hemenway has also made a lot of progress since being sidelined in mid-December.

Tigers coach Brad Brownell is hopeful that both players will be cleared for Saturday’s game at Florida State.

“We’re hoping those guys will be back, maybe this weekend. They’re closer,” Brownell said Tuesday night. “Thought there was an outside chance [Chase] might play [Tuesday], but just want them to be comfortable before they get out there in competition.”

Clemson is 8-1 since Hemenway went out and 2-1 without Hunter as the Tigers currently sit atop the ACC standings with a 9-1 league record at the halfway mark of conference play.

Both players have returned to practice, at least in a limited capacity.

“Just very light stuff. More 1-on-1 stuff,” Brownell said. “We thought maybe that we could get them to do some of that [Monday]. Didn’t quite get to that point. Just trying to be ultra-careful.”

Hunter is third on Clemson’s team in scoring, averaging 14 points per game. He leads the Tigers in assists. Hemenway is fifth in scoring, averaging 9.8 points per game.

By sitting the pair on Tuesday, it allowed them to get a couple of extra days off. Clemson obviously didn’t practice Tuesday with it being a game day and also had Wednesday off.

Brownell is hopeful that the couple of days of rest will allow them to make progress and be ready to play this weekend.

“If we progress then maybe we’ll see Thursday how it goes,” Brownell said. “It’s just one of those things where I felt like let’s just give them another two days. We’ll give them [Tuesday] and [Wednesday] and really try to see how they are on Thursday and Friday. And if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, we’ll back it up another couple of days.”

Clemson not celebrating yet

Brownell is certainly pleased with where Clemson is halfway through ACC play, but the Tigers aren’t celebrating anything yet, despite being off to their best start in the ACC in school history.

At 9-1, Clemson currently holds a 1.5-game lead over Virginia for first place in the league.

“Obviously I’m thrilled – happy for our team, the players and fans, but there’s still 10 games to go,” Brownell said. “We’ve done a nice job of staying together, being focused and played well enough to win some good games.”

With that said, Brownell and the Tigers are certainly keeping an eye on the ACC standings.

Clemson players and coaches take pride in being able to pull up the ACC standings and see Clemson at the top.

“Yea, absolutely. Our guys do that, absolutely,” Brownell said. “We talk about it a little bit. We don’t talk about it a lot. But we certainly make our guys understand where they are. But we don’t make a big deal about it. There’s still way too much basketball left. Those guys don’t need all that. They need to dream big, focus small. So we need to be on point.”