Clemson head coach Brad Brownell and the Tigers’ focus right now is on playing their best basketball in the 65th ACC Basketball Tournament, which began Tuesday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

But Clemson has already secured a berth in the NCAA Tournament, so no matter how they fare in the ACC tourney, the Tigers will take part in March Madness for the first time since 2011, Brownell’s first season as Clemson’s coach.

Brownell admitted the NCAA Tournament trip will be gratifying for him, just two years removed from his team having to play “home” games at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville while Littlejohn Coliseum was under renovation during the 2015-16 season.

“This is going to be a very rewarding NCAA Tournament trip, certainly for me because it’s been a few years since we’ve been,” Brownell said Tuesday. “We’re the guys that for 20 months weren’t in our building, played a year in Greenville, had no building to recruit to… You’re bringing kids on campus and can’t really show them some of the things with basketball. I think the job, at times, was harder than people realized.

“So now a couple years later, for us to be where we are — that part of it is rewarding for sure.”

Brownell has done a commendable coaching job in his eighth season, leading his team to a 22-8 overall record and third-place finish in the ACC at 11-7 in conference play. Before the season, Clemson was picked to finish 13th by the media. The 10-place improvement from preseason poll to final standing is the greatest improvement in ACC history.

Brownell finished second to Virginia’s Tony Bennett in ACC Coach of the Year voting and was named a semifinalist for the Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year award.

However, when asked about the recognition, Brownell was quick to deflect the credit for Clemson’s success to his players such as second-team All-ACC guard Marcquise Reed, honorable mention all-conference guard Gabe DeVoe and ACC All-Defensive Team forward/center Elijah Thomas.

“Coaches get awards because their players play, and my players made big plays this year throughout the season,” Brownell said. “Our staff did a really good job of handling some adversity, and my assistants have done a great job with our team and keeping guys focused and helping me make sure we’re prepared every week for what we’re trying to do.

“But coaches win awards because players make plays. They’re the guys that stop people or make big buckets, and that’s really what it’s about.”

Clemson is a No. 4 seed in the ACC Tournament. As a top-four seed, the Tigers received a double-bye into the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Boston College defeated Georgia Tech in the tournament Tuesday and will play NC State on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the second round. The winner of that game will square off against Clemson on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the quarterfinals.

“We haven’t played either one of those teams in so long, it will be different that way,” Brownell said. “We didn’t play State with Markell Johnson, so that’s a significant addition for them, and obviously it’s a significant deletion for us because we had Donte Grantham for both games. … A lot of times tournament basketball is shooting. If you get hot, you’re hard to beat.

“Both teams are certainly very talented and very capable, so it’s going to be a difficult game.”

Difficult as it may be, there is a certain level of comfort for Brownell and the Tigers heading into the ACC Tournament knowing that an appearance in the NCAA Tournament is on the horizon.

“We talked about it really the last week, week and a half of the season that we’ve kind of known for a while that we’re an NCAA Tournament team, and we’ve earned that,” Brownell said. “We put ourselves in that position, and it’s been nice to play the last week and a half without that kind of stress that 25 teams are probably under right now.

“But our guys have earned it, and we scheduled appropriately and took care of business. Now it’s just about trying to continue to improve to get better. I think our team needs to get better if we’re going to have any kind of significant success in these next two tournaments. So we’re really pushing to do that and anxious to see how it works out.”