In less than two weeks, Clemson’s men’s basketball team has gone from sole possession of first place in the ACC to what would be the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament if it started today.

That speaks to how competitive things are at the top in the race for the league’s regular-season title, one in which Clemson now finds itself having to play catch-up after another loss. North Carolina continued the Tigers’ longest skid of the season Saturday by handing them their most lopsided loss of the season inside the Dean E. Smith Center.

After winning 10 of its first 11 conference games, Clemson has lost three straight to fall a full game behind Virginia and Pittsburgh and half a game behind Miami. But Clemson coach Brad Brownell wasn’t in the mood to criticize his team too much for the rough patch it’s trying to navigate following Saturday’s game.

“It’s hard to go through a season and not have a bad week,” Brownell said. “We’re not going to overreact. We’ve played some really good basketball. Very few teams don’t have a bad week. We’ve had a little bit of a bad week.”

Brownell pointed to a lack of offensive rhythm as part of the issue given the recent injuries Clemson has dealt with in its backcourt. Point guard Chase Hunter (ankle), Brevin Galloway (testicular torsion) and Alex Hemenway (foot) have been back playing together for two games while Hunter returned four games ago.

But Hunter hasn’t been the same offensive threat since his 26-point outing at Florida State on Jan. 28. In the three games since, he’s shooting less than 30% from the floor. Hunter shot just 3 of 16 and 1 of 8 from 3-point range against the Tar Heels. Eight of his 15 points came from the free-throw line. 

“I think some guys being out, I don’t know that they came back quite as sharp,” Brownell said. “We’ve just got to get back and stick with it.”

As for Hemenway, who’s scored just eight points since returning three games ago, Brownell said the bout of plantar fasciitis that caused him to miss 10 games earlier this season has been flaring up again. Hemenway played just four minutes against UNC before sitting the rest of the game.

“I thought his foot was bothering him one day in practice this week,” Brownell said. “The game got behind on us, and I wasn’t comfortable putting him back in. I think the trainer would tell me that he’s fine, but I just don’t think he has been moving quite as well.

“I’m trying to win the war here at the end of the year with him, so I was just being cautious.”

Outside of a Quad 3 setback at Boston College on Jan. 31, the Tigers’ losses over the last two weeks haven’t come to bad teams. Clemson fell to Miami last weekend before its loss to UNC, two teams that would likely be in the NCAA Tournament if it started today.

Still, with a pair of Quad 4 losses also on the postseason resume, Clemson’s own tournament hopes are becoming increasingly delicate. While the Tigers are still widely projected to be part of the Big Dance at the moment, BracketMatrix.com has Clemson as an 11 seed. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Tigers as one of the last four at-large teams into the field in his updated projections following Saturday’s outcome.

Brownell insinuated there’s been no panic among the coaching staff or his team, which has six games left before the ACC Tournament to try to get back on track. Half of those will be played at Littlejohn Coliseum starting Wednesday when the Tigers host Florida State.

“We’re fine,” Brownell said. “I know we’ve had a bad week, and we don’t want to. But there are still probably 12 or 13 teams in the league that would love to change places with us. So let’s not overreact to a bad week.”

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