By Will Vandervort.

Once again Clemson is one of the best defensive teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But that should be no surprise.

The Tigers, who will host Virginia Tech at noon on Saturday, rank third in the ACC in scoring defense and fourth in field goal percentage defense.

Clemson is holding its opponents to an average of 38.9 percent from the field this season – currently the best for the program since the shot clock was introduced. The Tigers’ all-time record is a .371 figure by the 1958-’59 team.

“We certainly practice defense a good bit and reinforce it with teaching,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “I think I reinforce it with the way I coach. I take guys out for mistakes. I think guys understand that it gives us the best chance to win consistently in this league.”

There is something to that. Clemson has held its last 10 opponents to 65 or less points, including seven of the last eight under 60 points.

“In a lot of ways it is what this program starts with and they understand that,” Brownell said. “If you are going to play and be a good player here you are going to have to do that to play consistently. That is where it starts and sometimes it takes guys a little bit longer to buy into it or understand it, but when they do I think guys enjoy it.”

They do enjoy it. Fans are more likely to see guys like Rod Hall, Landry Nnoko and Jaron Blossomgame celebrate a blocked shot or steal as much as a dunk or three-pointer.

“Everybody is really buying into what coach is teaching us to do,” Hall said. “They are trying to work hard at it and doing just the best they can.”

Some think this year’s team might be better on defense than last year’s team. Of course last year’s team had ACC Defensive Player of the Year K.J. McDaniels, who led the league in blocked shots.

“I don’t know if we are better,” Brownell said. “K.J.’s blocks and intimidation and those things I think really were… K.J. was talked about on a lot scouting reports and not just for his offense so no I don’t know if we are a better defensive team. I would find that hard to believe.

“But I do think we are a team that has improved a great deal defensively. I think our guys compete at it pretty good. That is more difficult to do than people would realize. It takes mental discipline as much as physical effort. There is a mental discipline to doing things the right way defensively that you have to have game to game when you change game plans and do some things differently. I think our guys have gotten better with that through the course of the season. I’m really proud of the way they are competing.”