Clemson at Boston College Basketball Preview

Boston College is bad! How bad? KenPom ranks them #246, below Colgate, Incarnate Word, New Hampshire, and (100 spots below) Montana! They're 0-17 in the conference. That said, they just played GT and NC State close and earlier in the year gave UNC a major scare. Clemson will now travel to Chestnut Hill hope to avoid being the "1" in a 1-17 ACC record for Boston College.

The Tigers already took care of business against BC at home, however the Tigers have proven to be very good at home and very poor on the road. On the entire season, Syracuse and Wake Forest are the Tigers only road wins. Meanwhile they have a long list of impressive home wins including Florida State, Duke, Louisville, Miami, and Pittsburgh.

DRatings currently has Clemson as a #3 seed in the NIT. At this point, the Tigers would need to reach the ACC Championship game to truly have a shot to make the NCAA tournament as an at-large bit. All hope of an at-large bid would be squelched with a loss to BC. More relevant though, a loss would be a fourth in a row and if it was coupled with a quick loss in the ACC tournament (to FSU for example), a top four seed in the NIT may even be a stretch.

KenPom gives the Tigers an 80% chance to collect the road win, a bold prediction to say the least. Boston College is atrocious offensively. Eli Carter is a very solid senior PG averaging 16.1ppg and 4.1apg (though he had a horrenous 1-17 day against Clemson). After him, only Jermone Robinson averages double-digit points and only one player on the team, a reserve averaging 5.2ppg, has an offensive efficiency above 99.9. Meanwhile, the Tigers have six players with an Ortg over 100. Interestingly, in ACC play, the Tigers rank 6th in both offensive and defensive efficiency ratings. This offense with some of the Clemson defenses of year's past would be something special.

In their last matchup with the Eagles, Blossomgame, Holmes, and Grantham combined for 50 of the Tigers' 65 points. They may need a more well-rounded effort to get the road win. Six total points from the center may spell trouble if Grantham and Holmes aren't 5-12 like they were in that contest. While BC has been bad, Clemson has been bad on the road.

If the Tigers are focused and confident, avoiding any signs of hangover from their third straight loss they should be able to avoid an embarrassing loss to BC - a loss which would surely categorize these final four games of the season as a late season collapse.