Clemson head coach Brad Brownell says the 15th-ranked Tigers will not have Shelton Mitchell when they travel to Virginia Tech Wednesday night for a pivotal ACC game.
This will be the second game Mitchell has missed due to a concussion injury he suffered in last Wednesday’s loss at Florida State.
“He is just not ready,” Brownell opened Tuesday’s press conference with. “We are hopeful that he will be fine by the weekend. He needs to be able to do some more things.
“We are going to leave him back here and just let him have a couple of more days. It is a good decision and we will push forward without him.”
The Tigers, who have lost two straight, will have to try to hold on to fourth place in the conference without their junior guard. Clemson (20-6, 9-5 ACC) has a one-game lead over the Hokies (19-8, 8-6 ACC) for fourth place. The top four teams in the conference get a two-day bye for next month’s ACC Tournament in Brooklyn.
“I’m not sure that all matters, but our guys just want to go play,” Brownell said. “We have been playing extremely hard. I told our team that last week is one of those weeks where sometimes you work hard in life and it does not always pay off with wins.
“That is the hard thing about sports.”
It makes it even harder when the starting point guard is going to miss his second straight game. Clemson struggled in its loss over Duke this past Sunday. The Tigers shot 34.4 percent from the field, 25-percent form three-point range, including an 8-for-33 effort overall in the second half.
Now they have to figure a way to get it done against a Virginia Tech team that has been playing well and has one of the ACC’s best guards in Justin Robinson, who is averaging 13.7 points per game.
Brownell said Mitchell would love to be out there helping his team. However, he also understands there is nothing he and they can do about it. He knows he has to get better
“He obviously would have loved to have been out there, but that was not going to happen,” Brownell said. “It is hard not to be disappointed when you know you really cannot be out there with your guys.
“You only get like thirty or thirty-one opportunities to do this and guys put in a lot of work so when you miss one or two, that is disappointing.”
Clemson and Virginia Tech will play at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.