By William Qualkinbush.

By William Qualkinbush.

Breathe a deep sigh of relief, Clemson basketball. It’s over.

Or at least it’s almost over. That depends on your perspective.

In this case, “it” is the dreaded three-game road swing that came at a really awkward time in the calendar and featured a triad of games Clemson was expected to lose. The Tigers navigated that stretch relatively well, with a sneaky good performance at Louisville and a win at Pittsburgh in a game they controlled for most of 40 minutes.

It ended with a thud at Virginia, where the best basketball team I’ve seen this season (I’ve seen Kentucky play, too) beat Clemson, 65-42. It was a close one at halftime, then the Wahoos started making every shot and the Tigers hit a cold spell against Virginia’s impossible defensive scheme.

Still, if you told me at the start of the new year that Clemson would win one of those three games and look like the better team for the majority of another one, I’d say it’s time to count those blessings. After the North Carolina loss, I went on the record and told Clemson fans to expect an 0-4 start.

We thought it would probably be 0-5 before the season with Syracuse invading Tigertown on Saturday, but some have been underwhelmed by the Orange and have shifted that game into Clemson’s column, or at the very least into the tossup category. I’d be more inclined to expect a nail-biter in that one, which brings us back to this just-completed brutal stretch.

Remember last season, when the Tigers finished off January with road trips to Chapel Hill, Pittsburgh, and Tallahassee? Remember how brutal that stretch was, and how gratifying it felt to knock off Florida State after getting pummeled by the Tar Heels and the Panthers?

The Tigers spent 17 days away from Littlejohn Coliseum in what was arguably the toughest stretch of road games in the ACC last season. I’d nominate this year’s installment for the same honor, for a couple of different reasons.

First of all, it’s one of the longest stretches away from home for any team in ACC play this season. Only North Carolina (19), Virginia Tech (19), and Duke (16) go longer without playing a home game. I actually think those are easier stretches to handle because they involve more practice time and more time on campus in-between contests than Clemson’s three-game, two-week road swing. Plus, one of Duke’s games is against St. John’s, which isn’t a conference foe.

Three other teams (Wake Forest, Syracuse, and N.C. State) have 14-day stretches between home games, but only the Wolfpack have to play three games during such a stretch. N.C. State’s level of competition is significantly easier (North Carolina, Boston College, and yes, Clemson), so I’d say the Tigers have a tougher road than them.

Sandwich that string of games between home games against NCAA Tournament teams in the Tar Heels and the Orange, and you have the makings of an absurd start to conference play. There are a couple of similar ones scattered throughout the schedule, but none of them involve sending student-athletes on the road three times during the first two weeks of classes.

A win over Syracuse on Saturday would give Clemson a 2-3 start in league play, an outrageous accomplishment that should be met with dancing in the streets. Regardless, the most grueling road stretch in the ACC this season is now over.

And again I say, rejoice.

God Bless!

WQ