Clemson basketball preview: Tigers receive SC State

When: Wednesday, 6 PM
Where: Littlejohn
TV: ACCN

The 2020-2021 season had a great start for coach Brad Brownell. The Tigers won the Space Coast Championship with a dominant victory over a Purdue team that dealt with the likely NCAA Liberty (who just beat U of SC, LOL) in the previous game. This year’s version of Tigers features extreme pressure man-to-man defense spanning the entire court, driven by three high-level ball defenders in Al-Amir Dawes, Chase Hunter and Nick Honor. This led to many more counterattack opportunities for a program that, for the most part, had to live half a block during the Brownell era.

This is not the Oliver Purnell diamond press day, but it is a lot of fun to watch. Essentially, Clemson is rolling out something similar to what Leonard Hamilton used to raise the state of Florida from the middle of the pack at ACC to the candidate to the top 5. What Tigers lack in choice in the lottery, they make up for with a large number of versatile players. It is truly the path to success by Clemson’s basketball standards, and it is what Purnell used to make Clemson a perennial NCAA tournament team for the past four years of his tenure. As long as this team remains healthy, an ACC result in the top 6 is easily on the cards.

SC State arrives as one of the few resting games on this year’s schedule. They are not good and have already been eliminated by Appalachian State and Bowling Green. They must be dominated by the speed, pressure and length that Tigers play against them. This should give Brownell a good chance to work with different lineup combinations and give young people like Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Lynn Kidd a few minutes of confidence building. John Newman can certainly use a dose of confidence after a few tough games in Florida, as he returns to form after a knee injury. Clemson needs Newman to get back to what we saw in the best stretch of 2019-20, when he was the best downhill player on the list.

You wonder when the Tigers will roll the freshman PJ Hall and team leader Aamir Simms together. Right now, Hall and Simms are spinning in position 5, with Hunter Tyson and Jonathan Baehre recording the most minutes in position 4. Baehre’s game against Purdue was particularly exciting and, in my view, justifies an early nod in this game. He’s taller and longer than Tyson and actually kicks the ball better.

Clyde Trapp recovered from a tough game against the state of Mississippi with a strong performance against Purdue. His explosive burial on Purdue’s Yao Ming clone was a sign that his knee has returned to 100%. Trapp does not need to score much on this team, but if he can offer some of what Newman has provided in the cutting / kidney attack department while hitting a shot here and there, that will be enough.

The Tigers saw almost all of the man’s defense in the first two games. You know someone is going to launch some zone eventually, and this game is probably the one where we’ll see that. It will be interesting to see what this team’s attack zone looks like or if it causes the team to pass the ball around the perimeter before throwing a 3. You expect to see Tigers attack the gaps and play inside / outside to get the perimeter looks .

The state of SC is not very good defensively and yielded 71% of the 2-point range to the Appalachian state. They try to pressure and created 19 or more turnovers in the two games, but when they fail, the opponent finds easy baskets. They will also fire many 3’s, as evidenced by their 33 attempts against Bowling Green.

Sometimes teams that press don’t like to be pressured, so it will be interesting to see how Clemson can react to a more aggressive approach. Brownell has the luxury of being able to play Dawes and Honor together against this type of defense.

This should be an easy 25-35 point win for the Tigers. SC State may find a way to stay close, but Clemson’s depth will wear them out and lead to at least one grueling run. Clemson fans should expect confidence to build in some of the guys mentioned earlier. Teams are still groping at this point in the season, without the benefit of friendly games and displays. The defense, however, is neither hot nor cold and shouldn’t be a problem for this exciting version of the Clemson Tigers.

KenPom asks Clemson to win 89-54, which seems right to me.

Photo by Donald Miralle / Getty Images