Deacs play Clemson AGAIN Saturday Night at LJVM.
Clemson hasn't changed much since WF played them 10 days ago in Littlejohn (in addition to beating WF for the SEVENTH STRAIGHT TIME 71-68, they Tigers lost 80-62 @ #10 L'ville, and beat #52 Cuse 71-70 at home).
Here is the revised rundown on Clemson:
The season: Clemson is among a large group of "meh" ACC teams as they are 11-9 (5-5). Even so, Clemson finally knocked the monkey off their back with an OT win at Chapel Hill on January 11, ending a 59 game streak of road futility against UNC -- the longest such streak between any two conference teams in NCAA history. Besides that win (which in retrospect, wasn't very impressive since UNC has yet to win in 2020, and none of its other losses were as close as the Clemson/UNC game, including the ordinary Pitt Panthers sweeping two from UNC), Clemson has top 100 wins over #66 TCU in OT, #46 NC State (without CJ Bryce), #51 Cuse and #2 Duke. Clemson is 1-4 on the road with losses to #37 Minnesota, #21 FSU, #56 NC State and #10 L'vlle; their lone road win was the streakbreaker in OT over UNC. Collectively Clemson is 5-8 against top 100 teams (WF is #108).
The series: Perhaps, the best example of how hard and far WF hoop has fallen is Wake Forest's current streak of ineptitude against Clemson. WF first played Clemson in basketball in 1926. Up through 2010 (the last year before [] took over), WF had an all-time record of 98-51 against Clemson; simply stated, WF dominated Clemson in basketball. Over the last 10 seasons of WF Basketball, WF has beaten Clemson once -- 62-57 at the Joel on February 25, 2014 (Tyler Cavanaugh and Devin Thomas led WF with 12 each), and WF has lost 11 times of that span. WF is winless at home against the Tigers since 2014, and Brad Brownell (who is "awright") is 12-1 against WF; including 7-0 against Danny Manning. Last game, WF led for the most of the game, but collapsed late to lose 71-68. Andrien White paced WF with 22 points, while the unheralded Hunter Tyson, had a career night with 21 for Clemson (no other Tiger scored in double figures. Clemson was an abysmal 7-18 at the line.
The lineup: Against WF last time out, Clemson started 6-4 Curran Scott (Charlotte and Tulsa transfer) , 6-4 Clyde Trapp, 6-5 John Newman (former WF recruiting target; has played well recently averaging 12 ppg over the last 4), 6-8 Hunter Tyson, 6-8 Aamir Sims (leading scorer; best 3 point shooter 38%). Off the bench, Clemson rotated in 6-5 Tevin Mack (Texas and Alabama transfer; had 22 in the win over Duke), 6-2 Al-Amir Dawes and 6-3 Chase Hunter (yes, Clemson has both Hunter Tyson and Chase Hunter) Clemson is a poor shooting team in conference play as they hit 32% of their 3 point shots (#10 among ACC teams), and only 62% from the line (#14 in the conference); Clemson has been effective inside shooting 53% on 2s (#2 in the ACC) in conference games. On defense, Clemson has had trouble defending the paint as they are DFL in the ACC in 2 PT FG% (53%). Clemson plays at a slow tempo averaging 67 possessions a game.
The prediction: KP has our Deacs winning 70-69. Think WF takes this game. Clemson blows on the road; both teams have played a lot of close games, and WF is by far the superior FT shooting team. Also, I have a hunch Chaundee returns tomorrow night.