By Will Vandervort.

It’s that time of year again. Clemson basketball + ACC Tournament = disappointment.

The thing is Clemson fans are so used to it, it doesn’t even hurt. It is expected.

Today’s noon tip against No. 9 seed Florida State, will be the Tigers’ 62nd trip to the ACC Basketball Tournament and in the previous 61 trips to college basketball’s grandest conference tournament they have come home as losers 61 times.

Clemson, who is the No. 8 seed this year, is 18-61 all-time in the ACC Tournament, reaching the championship game just twice –1962 and 2008 – while advancing past the quarterfinal round just 12 times.

The Tigers have won just 23 percent of their 79 tournament games.

“We want to go in and compete and try to play as well as we can so we can get what we want,” Clemson center Landry Nnoko said.

What the Tigers want is to play another game after the ACC Tournament this year, which means they need to win probably one, if not two tournament games, to earn an NIT invitation or win the whole tournament to get in the NCAA Tournament.

Based on history, the odds of even winning two games or the entire tournament are slim.

Clemson, as mentioned above, has never won the ACC Tournament so we kind of know what the odds of that happening are. It has won just two tournament games in the same season twice, both years it advanced to the tournament finals.

The Tigers are 2-16 all-time in second games at the ACC Tournament. Should the Tigers find a way to beat the Seminoles today, then it will set up a second meeting this year with defending ACC Champion, and No. 1 overall seed, Virginia in Friday’s Quarterfinal Round.

“You don’t look at it that way,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “This time of year, you should be excited. You have a chance to do something special. You are playing in one of the great tournaments in all of college basketball. Certainly, there are a lot of things to look forward to and the first is Florida State.”

But the question right now is can Clemson win today’s game?

The answer is yes, they can. But it will not be easy.

The Tigers (16-14) have not fared too well lately against FSU in the ACC Tournament. The Seminoles, who won the ACC Tournament three years ago, have won four straight against Clemson at the ACC Tournament and are 2-0 against the Tigers in Greensboro, the site of this year’s tournament.

This season, the two split their two meetings with FSU winning at Clemson on Jan. 19 and the Tigers returning the favor on Feb. 4 in Tallahassee.

“If you can build some positive momentum with a win there, you never know what can happen,” Brownell said. “We are excited to be a part of it. We will have a big game against a team that we know very well. It should be very competitive and very physical.

“It might be one of those whoever has the ball last wins.”

Maybe it can be the start of some new history in the ACC Tournament. Though, no one right now is expecting it to be any different.