CLEMSON — There’s not much time to decide the final standings for ACC basketball, and the Clemson Tigers have a chance to make a big push at home.

Head coach Brad Brownell has described the upper-middle pack of the conference as “The Glob” and Tuesday’s opponent, Pittsburgh, is right in that group with them.

Clemson is ranked No. 5 in the latest ACC standings at 9-7 while the Panthers hold the same league mark. The only difference is their head-to-head tiebreaker, Clemson’s win at Pitt back in December.

The first meeting feels like an eternity ago as the two met last December 3. The Tigers caught fire in a 79-70 win. Joseph Girard III went off for 25 points on 7 of 10 shooting and Jack Clark was out with injury. Not to mention Brownell’s team was 7-0 at the time.

While Clemson has changed a lot, so has Pittsburgh. Jeff Capel has his team winners in eight of their last 10 games to surge up the ACC standings.

In regards to the rematch, Capel has a lot respect for Clemson forward Ian Schieffelin. During the ACC’s coaches’ teleconference on Monday, he called Clemson’s leading rebounder (9.3 rpg.) “the ultimate glue guy.”

Heading into Tuesday’s game at Littlejohn Coliseum, the Tigers (19-8) need to make sure Blake Hinson doesn’t go off for another 27-point point outing while also rekindling that same fire of 11 threes made on the road.

If Clemson gets the win, the standings will shake out accordingly.

A victory also opens up the door for a key contest when Wake Forest comes to town for the final game of the season, and that could decide the No. 4 seed and a double bye in the ACC Tournament.

The Tigers are taking it game-by-game, and each one becomes more valuable for its chances in next month’s ACC Tournament and beyond.