Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell says Saturday’s win at Pittsburgh meant a lot to his basketball team. More than the average fan or the media realizes.

The Tigers’ head coach pointed out during their six-game losing streak, his team played well for the most part, especially in losses to North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech and at Notre Dame. He said they played very well in those games, well enough that they were in position to win all four.

But, they did not. Instead they lost all four by five points or less, which hurt the morale of the team and had them second guessing at times.

“That’s one of the hardest things about playing in this league this year. You can play really well and lose,” Brownell said. “That is not easy when you lose a couple of times in a row. That is not easy for the morale of your team.

“It is hard to go back to work every day when you are putting in a good effort and you are doing things well and you don’t have anything to show for it.”

Clemson (12-8, 2-6 ACC) hopes it got back on track following its 67-60 win at Pittsburgh. What Brownell liked was the way his team played defensively and how they got critical stops in the second half when they needed to. That was something that was not getting done in the previous six games.

Pitt was just 5-of-28 in the second half from the field. With Georgia Tech coming to down on Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. tip at Littlejohn Coliseum, they are hoping to turn the Pitt win into a winning streak of their own.

“I hope (the Pitt win) means a lot,” Brownell said. “I hope we string a couple of wins together because we need to. It’s been tough.

“You have to try and keep going and hanging in there, and hopefully this win will mean a lot for us from a morale standpoint and is a little bit of a confidence booster.”

Georgia Tech (13-8, 5-4 ACC) is coming off back-to-back wins over top 15 teams in Florida State and Notre Dame last week. The Yellow Jackets also own a win over North Carolina as well.