It’s seemingly now or never for Clemson’s men’s basketball team.

The Tigers tied a single-season record for regular-season wins in the Brad Brownell era. They’ve also set a record for the most ACC wins in program history. Yet Hunter Tyson, a first-team all-ACC performer and one of the veteran leaders of the group, acknowledged it would be disappointing if Clemson’s season doesn’t include an NCAA Tournament berth.

“I think, at the end of the day, we’ve got much bigger goals than what we’ve accomplished thus far,” Tyson said.

Despite those accomplishments, which includes the No. 3 seed in this week’s ACC Tournament, things are dicey in that regard for the Tigers (22-9). Clemson is sitting at 61 in the NET rankings and on the wrong side of the bubble in most bracket projections, something the Tigers will try to change starting tonight. 

That’s when the conference tournament starts for Clemson in Greensboro, where the Tigers will have one last chance to bolster a resume that includes a 7-5 combined record against the top two quadrants as well as a pair of dreaded Quad 4 blemishes. Winning a couple of games this week, particularly against Quad 1 teams, would give the Tigers the kind of boost that just might push them into the tournament.

“I do think there are some things in our favor, but you’ve got to look for them,” said Brownell, who’s winding down his 13th season at the helm of the Tigers’ program. “How much are people going to do that? I don’t know. What’s worse? A bad day? Or what’s better? A couple of good days? What are you going to examine? 

“Our stain is we’ve lost to a couple of good teams who haven’t had good years, but we certainly have proven that we can beat good teams and beat them away from home.”

There’s another option that Clemson would rather go with this week: Win the whole thing and remove all doubt.

“I think that’s our mindset going into it,” said sixth-year guard Brevin Galloway, an Anderson native who’s trying to get to the NCAA Tournament in his last go-round. “We slipped up a few times throughout the regular season, but going forward, we kind of eliminated those mistakes. … We believe we can win three games for sure.”

That’s how many the Tigers need to win in as many days in order to cut down the nets inside Greensboro Coliseum this weekend. The top 4 seed gave Clemson a double bye into tonight’s quarterfinals, where the Tigers will meet NC State – a 97-77 winner over Virginia Tech on Wednesday – for the third time this season (9:30 p.m., ESPN). A win there would move Clemson into Friday’s semifinals and just one win away from a berth in the title game Saturday.

And if the Tigers could pull off their first-ever ACC tournament title, it would come with automatic entry into the field of 68.

“We’ve got a job to do,” Tyson said. “We’ll be ready to go when it’s our time to play.”

Tyson has been Clemson’s most consistent performer during his fifth and final season, averaging 19.7 points and 9.5 rebounds with 15 double-doubles heading into the postseason. Junior big PJ Hall was named third-team all conference after putting up 15.5 points and 5.6 boards per game during the regular season. Galloway (11.3 points per game) and point guard Chase Hunter (14), who’s adding nearly five assists a game, are also averaging double figures.

But Brownell said Clemson will need others to step up if his team is going to make a serious run at the conference tournament crown. Clemson won’t have the services of junior guard Alex Hemenway, who underwent an emergency appendectomy earlier this week and won’t play this week. That likely means more minutes for freshman Chauncey Wiggins, who’s played nine or fewer in each of the last four games.

“It’s going to take the full complement of guys playing very well to win three games in a row,” Brownell said. “It’s rare that one or two guys has a nice game and then you continue to do that every night. I think it’s too hard. I think teams will load up on somebody at some point and your other guys have to help.”

The one thing Clemson knows its NCAA Tournament hopes likely can’t afford is going one and done in Greensboro. The goal, perhaps as important this year as any for Clemson to achieve, is to hang around as long as possible and see what happens.

“We’ve just got to win games,” Galloway said. “That’s what it comes down to, and that’s what I’ve been trying to focus on instead of just worrying about the NET rankings and all that type of stuff. If we just win, everything else will be taken care of.”

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