The Clemson Tigers and Florida State Seminoles are scheduled to meet Thursday in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum. This will be the teams second meeting in 2.5 weeks.
The Tigers look for another win after beating Miami on Wednesday. Clemson is averaging 66.4 points a game on 42.7% shooting, while allowing 64.1 points a game on 41.2% shooting.
Aamir Simms is the Tigers leading scorer and is averaging 13 points a game and 2.6 assists. Tevin Mack is also averaging 12.3 points a game and 5.2 rebounds. This season Clemson has shot 31.5% from behind the three point line and 67.6% from the free throw line.
Defensively the Tigers have held their opponents to 32.7% shooting from three and are averaging 31.1 rebounds a game. Clemson has split their last six games away from LittleJohn Coliseum.
Florida State enters the tournament winning 10 of their last 13 games (one of those losses at the hands of Clemson on 2/29/2020). The Seminoles are averaging 75.4 points per game on 45.7% shooting, and allow 65.7 points per game on 40.6% shooting.
Devin Vassell is averaging 12.7 points per game and 5.1 rebounds. Trent Forrest is averaging 11.6 points and 4.4 rebounds. Florida State is shooting 35.1% from beyond the three point line and 75% from the free throw line.
On defense the Seminoles are only allowing their opponents to shoot 31.7% from three and are grabbing 33.2 rebounds per game. FSU has also split their last six road games.
Clemson beat FSU a few weeks ago as 3.5-point underdogs and, despite playing yesterday, the Tigers are as tough as nails defensively. They aren’t going to give in despite being big underdogs. They have proven this all season. If you don’t believe it then ask not only FSU l, but Duke and Louisville as well.
The Seminoles have been impressive overall and have the rest advantage. This FSU team can go through droughts at times offensively though and that can help Clemson, who seems to go multiple minutes without baskets also.
Most expect this to be a physical and ugly defensive battle early in the afternoon. The Seminoles are expected to make a run at not only the ACC title, but also a Final Four appearance. However, Clemson would like to make a run of their own.
For the Tigers to have a chance they will need a similar performance to the one they had yesterday in second half, where shots are falling and their defense continues to be stingy.
Projected Lineups:
Clemson:
#0 Clyde Trapp Junior Guard
#10 Al-Amir Dawes Freshman Guard
#15 John Newman, III Sophomore Guard
#13 Tevin Mack Graduate Student Forward
#25 Aamir Simms Junior Forward
Florida State:
#3 Trent Forrest Graduate Student Guard
#23 M.J. Walker Junior Guard
#24 Devin Vassell Sophomore Guard
#1 RaiQuan Gray Redshirt Sophomore Forward
#10 Malik Osborne Redshirt Sophomore Forward
