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Rex Brown

Clemson’s Trevor Booker (35) throws down a two-handed dunk during the Tigers’ win over Virginia this season at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson.

CLEMSON — Clemson forward K.C. Rivers just wants to know what he and the No. 18 Clemson Tigers have to do in order to earn a first-round bye in next week’s ACC Tournament.

The problem is no one really knows.

“We just want to know what is at stake here,” the senior said. “Are we playing for third or fourth place? We do not know. But again, we are going to prepare hard. We are getting ready to play a big, strong and physical Wake Forest team.”

The Tigers (23-6, 9-6 ACC) better be ready or they could end up as the ACC’s No. 7 seed depending on what happened Wednesday night between North Carolina at Virginia Tech and Boston College at N.C. State.

“We knew we were going to be in this position. It is a must-win game,” guard Terrence Oglesby said. “We have to be ready to go. Wake Forest is a tough team so we have to be careful. We have to be ready for them.”

Like Clemson, Wake Forest (23-5, 10-5) is one of three teams vying for one of the league’s four first-round byes. The No. 10 Demon Deacons beat Maryland Tuesday night to keep itself in third place behind North Carolina and Duke. The Tigers are actually in fifth place right now being that Florida State, who is also 9-6 in league play, owns the tiebreaker should both teams end up with the same record.

Clemson will need Virginia Tech to win at Florida State Sunday, plus a win over Wake to earn a No. 4 seed or maybe higher depending on what happens between North Carolina and Duke.

Of course all of this would not have been possible had the Tigers not beaten Virginia 75-57 Tuesday night. Clemson got 18 points from Oglesby and 13 points and 15 rebounds from forward Trevor Booker.

“This was a big game for our confidence,” Booker said. “If we would have lost this game, our confidence would be very low. But we came out and got the job done and now we are looking at going to Wake and getting a win.”

With that win, the Tigers clinched a second straight winning record in the ACC – the first time that has happened since the 1966 and 1967 teams did the same. It also marked just the 11th winning season for Clemson in the 56 years of ACC basketball.

But the victory did more than set records, it also snapped a two-game losing streak while giving the Tigers much-needed confidence heading into Sunday’s game in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“That happens. It is basketball,” Rivers said. “It’s like the NBA. There are so many games, you are going to lose some. But when it is playoff time everybody looks different.

“When it is time to buckle down and get serious, this team will be ready.”

Like they were when it mattered against the Cavaliers.

“Anytime you lose two in a row, you don’t want to lose a third one especially because you have never had that happen to this team before. That’s what I was concerned about,” Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. “Certainly this team is resilient, but I did not want to go there. Fortunately, we did not have to go there. We got that win.”

And it’s a win that puts the Tigers in position to earn a bye in the ACC Tournament for a second straight year.

“It puts us in a position where we have another huge game,” Purnell said. “I don’t know if this year if I had not said that an ACC game hasn’t been huge. It just amazes me that we have another huge game.

“(Tuesday) was huge and now we are going to Wake Forest. There is a good chance we will be playing for a bye, so that is huge.”