After its 72-75 road win over Virginia Tech on Saturday, Clemson now gets a week off before taking the court again in Raleigh next weekend against NC State.

The flu has been making its way through the Tigers’ locker room of late. Dillon Hunter was out for the win over Syracuse last Wednesday, with older brother Chase Hunter missing most of the victory over the Hokies. This comes after Viktor Lakhin dealt with an illness of his own earlier this month.

Add in Ian Schieffelin dealing with back spasms and a mild calf strain and head coach Brad Brownell believes the break is coming at an opportune time for his squad.

“We have a sickness making its way through our team,” Brownell said during the weekly ACC Men’s Basketball Coaches Zoom Call on Monday. “We’ve got guys that are just beat up physically. Schieffelin has been a warrior, battling some back spasms and stuff. And just the wear and tear of a long season.”

Chase Hunter did not enter Saturday’s win over the Hokies until 12 minutes remaining in the contest, with Virginia Tech in the midst of a big run and the Tigers clinging to a six-point lead.

Freshman Dell Jones stepped up to fill that void, scoring a career-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. At one point, Jones scored eight consecutive points, helping to seal the win for the Tigers.

“I thought we did some good things,” Brownell said. “Good mix to our game, which is what we’re looking for. Chase is one of those guys that can sometimes bail you out of a bad possession by jumping up and making a shot or making a play for you. Without having that, we had to do some other things.”

“I thought Del Jones was really good down the stretch. He made some good plays off the bounce. But I thought we did a nice job of moving the ball, staying patient and reading some things within the the game. I just thought we played a pretty sharp game.”

Now Brownell’s team gets a chance to heal up ahead of its trip to Raleigh on Saturday. Not only physically, but mentally.

“It’s probably good for us mentally as well,” Brownell added. “So, yeah we’re taking a couple of days off for sure. We took off Sunday and Monday. We’ll get back in the gym a little bit (Tuesday). But yes, it’s a good time for us.”

Clemson and NC State will tip off at 1:30pm and the game will be televised on The CW.