The latter portion of Clemson’s 2024 ACC slate is a time for the Tigers to improve the resume and potentially earn a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament. Larger than that is an opportunity to end negative storylines regarding the team.

Let’s start with the Wednesday matchup. Clemson returns home to take on Miami in Littlejohn Coliseum. The first contest was a defensive horror that started a trend of opposing three-point excellence that the Tigers couldn’t remedy.

After the Hurricanes hung 60 points in the second half of that game, Clemson had to regain its defensive identity. No better way to complete that mission than take down Miami in the second opportunity. This one will be more challenging though as Wooga Poplar is back in the lineup. He’s averaging 13.9 points and shoots north of 42 percent from behind the arc.

Surrendering 95 points can’t happen again, especially at home. The Tigers didn’t have any issues scoring in that game, and shouldn’t in this one either. If Brad Brownell’s defense ups the ante, that nightmare can be forgotten. Jack Clark’s insertion to the starting lineup should help mightily on those efforts.

This leads us to the other issue: winning at home. Since the beginning of conference play, Clemson has failed to defend home court, going 2-3 in Littlejohn. It’s also come with some ugly offensive performances, shooting over 30 percent from three in just two of those games.

The Tigers have seen the true arrival of Joseph Girard III, and his hot streak should raise the potential for this offense. On top of the matchup with Miami, NC State travels into town Saturday.

These are both middle of the road ACC teams, and a strong opportunity to retake the pride of home court. If Clemson does that, it’ll likely be back in the top five of the conference with a chance to compete for a double bye in the ACC Tournament.

That’s a sweet proposition, but the Tigers have to handle business accordingly and extend this current two-game streak into four.