Winners of three straight, Brad Brownell’s Clemson Tigers are set to host Syracuse on Wednesday night inside Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Orange come in at 9-9 overall but after a 0-3 start in ACC play, they have won three of their past four in league play.

Despite being ravaged by injuries, Brownell sees a Syracuse team starting to find its footing, led by junior guard J.J. Starling and his 18.5 points per game. Big man Eddie Lampkin Jr. is also doing his part, pitching in 10.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per contest.

“Good team speed,” Brownell said. “Obviously, a completely different team with JJ Starling; I think he’s an all-conference type player. They’ve won three out of four, and got great bench play. They can play big, obviously, with Lampkin and the freshmen big kid who they kind of went to late against Notre Dame. They have shooting with Chris Bell. They can do a lot of different things. They can score in the low post.”

Star freshman Donnie Freeman has also been out, missing Syracuse’s last four games. While Syracuse is 3-1 during that stretch, the teams the Orange have beaten have a combined ACC record of 5-17.

“They’re playing very well right now,” Brownell added. “It’s probably been a hard year for ‘Red’ (head coach Adrian Autry) because they’ve just had so many injuries, and when your best player’s out, as long as he has been; I know Freeman’s been out some, and I’m not sure if he’s coming back for our game, but I think they have a talented group. A good collection of players with good depth, and can play a lot of different ways within their versatility of their players.”

The Orange come in shooting just 29.6% from three-point land, while opponents are averaging 8.2 threes per game against their perimeter defense. Clemson hit a season high 14 three-pointers last time out in the overtime win over Pitt and the Tigers are shooting 38.9% from deep this season.

Even with all of that and the injuries, Brownell believes this is a dangerous Syracuse team.

“I just think they’re rounding into form, it looks like right now. And some of that’s probably just because they’ve gotten some guys healthy and been able to practice and play in a way that Red likes.”

Tipoff is set for 7pm at Littlejohn and the contest will be televised on the ACC Network. It’s the only time the two teams are scheduled to meet during the regular season.