While Clemson is trying to position itself for a possible NCAA Tournament bid, Georgia Tech is hoping a late-run to end the year will get it in the postseason. Though the Yellow Jackets, short of winning the ACC Tournament, will not make the NCAAs again this year, they are in position to qualify for a possible NIT selection, especially if they can continue at their current pace.

Georgia Tech (15-12, 5-9 ACC) heads into tonight’s ACC showdown with rival Clemson as winners in three of its last four games, including a win at Florida State last Wednesday and a 63-62 upset of Notre Dame this past Saturday.

“They are playing with much more confidence,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “When they are making shots like that, they are hard to deal with. They are always an unbelievable rebounding team and they are always physical.

“They beat Notre Dame and played really good in that game. Defensively, Notre Dame had a hard time against them and did not make quite as many shots early in the game and that made it hard on them. Georgia Tech moved the ball and got into some good places and put themselves in position to get a great win.”

While the Yellow Jackets have found some of their mojo, Clemson (16-11, 9-6 ACC) has lost a little bit of its. The Tigers have lost five of their last nine ACC games after opening the conference season with a 5-1 mark. They are coming off another tough road loss, this time a 77-74 loss to NC State.

Clemson is now 2-5 in ACC road games this year. In case you are wondering, the Yellow Jackets are 3-4 at the McCamish Pavilion, but two of the three wins have come against Virginia and Notre Dame, while three of the four losses are to Louisville, Duke and Miami.

“They are playing at a good level,” Brownell said. “We are not surprised by it because we play Georgia Tech all the time. We know they have good players. We know they are prepared, they scout and their coaches have them in good positions.

“It’s like anything. It’s a matter of just winning some close games, and here recently, they have won a few.”

Clemson beat the Jackets, 66-52, back on Feb. 13, as the Tigers held Tech without a field goal in the final 4:56 of the game.

“I would imagine they will try to do something differently to try to stop us,” Clemson forward Jaron Blossomgame said.

Blossomgame, who had a career-high 33 points at NC State this past Saturday, scored 17 points and had seven rebounds against the Yellow Jackets. He is averaging 18.1 points per game, the highest scoring average by a Tiger since Will Solomon’s 19.7 average in 2000-’01.

“I feel like they will try to do something to slow me down and slow some other guys down so I think it will definitely be an interesting game and I think we will need some other guys to step up if we want to win this game,” Blossomgame said.

Though he understands the Yellow Jackets are playing good basketball, Blossomgame has taken a page out of football coach Dabo Swinney’s book. He says tonight is not about what Georgia Tech is doing, it’s about what Clemson is doing.

“They won their last two basketball games. They are playing good basketball right now, but we have to focus on what we need to do,” the junior said. “If we prepare and focus on that, I think we will have a really good outcome.”

Blossomgame better hope so because the Tigers need this win if they want to have any shot at making the NCAA Tournament next month.

Photo credit: Dawson Powers-USA TODAY Sports

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