Brad Brownell breaks down Clemson’s opponent for the ACC tournament

Clemson will face Boston College in the ACC tournament on Thursday, two days after the event in Brooklyn, N.Y. got underway.

The Tigers earned a No. 4 seed and a double bye after finishing 11-7 in conference play and will face a Boston College team that has earned back-to-back wins against Georgia Tech and N.C. State in Brooklyn.

The 12^th-seeded Eagles upset No. 5 seed N.C. State on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals with a 91-87 win.

“I think Jim Christian’s done a great job,” Tigers coach Brad Brownell said of Boston College’s coach. “I think their perimeter players are dynamite. I thought Jerome Robinson was the best player in our league in terms of productivity this year for 18 games. He and Ky Bowman, (Jordan) Chatman, I think are outstanding.”

Robinson is scoring nearly 21 points per game through 33 games, while Bowman is averaging more than 17.

They will be a tough test for Clemson guards Gabe DeVoe, Shelton Mitchell and Marcquise Reed.

The fact that Boston College has already played a pair of games in the ACC tournament is helpful for them, according to Brownell.

“When you win a game in the tournament, it just gives you confidence. You’ve been in that building, you’ve got some good feeling, your players have got some good feeling ... I think we felt that way last year after we beat N.C. State and were playing Duke,” Brownell said. “We felt like, ‘We feel good about who we are, and let’s go play.’ And that’s the hardest part about having the double bye is somebody is going to have won a game or two and kind of have some positive juice. Obviously, you don’t want to not have the double bye, but there is some positive things that players can take from playing well in a tournament setting and going to the next game.”

With a win, the Tigers likely will face No. 1 seed Virginia.

Clemson would then have an opportunity to improve its seed for the NCAA Tournament. But in order to do so the Tigers will need to play better than they did in a loss at Syracuse on Saturday.

“There are things we need to get better at if we want to win at a high level,” Brownell said. “Obviously, the quality of competition that we’re getting ready to play in these next two tournaments is going to be high. We’ve got some things that we’ve got to improve, and so we’re working hard on that.”

Thursday’s quarterfinals

G8: No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 9 Louisville, 12 noon, ESPN

G9: No. 4 Clemson vs. No. 12 Boston College, 2 p.m., ESPN

G10: No. 2 Duke vs. No. 10 Notre Dame, 7 p.m., ESPN

G11: No. 3 Miami vs. No. 6 North Carolina, 9 p.m., ESPN

Friday’s semifinals

Game 12: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 7 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2

Game 13: Game 10 winner vs. Game 11 winner, 9 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2

Saturday’s championship

Game 12 winner vs. Game 13 winner, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 8:03 PM with the headline "Brad Brownell breaks down Clemson’s opponent for the ACC tournament."