Brad Brownell explains what it would mean for Clemson to win ACC

It has been a difficult past eight days for the Clemson basketball program as the Tigers have lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Clemson is now 10-3 in the league, after starting the year 10-1.

While the losses to Boston College and Miami last week were frustrating, the positive news is that the Tigers are still tied atop the ACC standings.

Clemson, Virginia and Pitt are all 10-3 in the league, with seven games remaining. The Tigers return to action Saturday, playing at North Carolina at 2 p.m.

“I think most teams in the league would be very excited to be where we are and have a chance,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said of potentially winning the ACC. “We’re excited about what we’ve got ahead of us and now we need to play great basketball to try and get it done.”

Clemson has won the ACC regular season title only once in the history of its program, accomplishing the feat in 1990.

The Tigers won the conference tournament title in 1939 for their only other ACC crown.

Clemson is in position to make history again this season, but it needs to finish the year strong.

“It would be a heck of an accomplishment. I know that we have one banner in our gym for a regular season title. So it’d be pretty neat to have another one,” Brownell said. “We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve had a hard last couple of weeks. We’ve gotta get ourselves back right and playing really good basketball here down the stretch to put ourselves in a position to have a chance.”

The good news for Clemson is that the Tigers are finally back healthy.

Alex Hemenway, Chase Hunter and Brevin Galloway are all back on the court after missing time over the past seven weeks.

The bad news is that Brownell and his staff have had a hard time trying to figure out rotations and lineups with everyone back.

That has been a big emphasis for the Tigers this week as they had an extended break with no midweek game.

“We haven’t been healthy, and except for the last day and a half of practice before Miami is the first time we’ve been back to whole,” Brownell said. “That’s what I’m excited about this week is we get a little bit of rest, but we also finally get back to having our full team every day in practice.”