The conference season is set to start Wednesday for Clemson basketball and the Tigers are being regarded very highly as the NCAA Tournament field begins to come into picture.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his latest Bracketology. and he has Clemson ranked as the highest ACC team. Brad Brownell’s squad is listed as the No. 2 seed in the South Region, taking on Lipscomb to open the tournament.

It’s also important to note the Tigers are listed as an automatic qualifier, predicting an ACC Tournament victory, something the program is yet to achieve in two finals appearances.

Blue bloods in North Carolina and Duke are the two next teams in the ACC listed as No. 3 and No. 4 seeds respectively. Clemson takes on the former Saturday, Jan. 6 right after a key matchup with Miami on the road Wednesday night. The stocks are high in basketball too for the Tigers, and the value can climb exponentially with a pair of wins to open up the new year.