By Derek DeBurger
Clemson is a hard team to dissect. They sit at 8-9 on the year—including 1-4 in the ACC—and the team averages don’t jump out at you. All of this to say, they have played some of the toughest teams on their schedule down to the wire.
The most likely answer is that this Tiger team plays up or down to the level of their competition. That does not bode well for the Cards; they are exactly the type of competition that Clemson will get up to play. Being on the road at Clemson will make it much harder since the Tigers play significantly better at home.
Clemson’s leading scoring is starting center Amari Robinson who is averaging 18.2 points per game. After Robinson, there’s a pretty sizable drop-off in points scored per game. Louisville has done a very good job at making things difficult in the paint this season, and they’ve been even better at drawing fouls on opposing bigs. If Olivia Cochran and Nyla Harris can continue their success with drawing fouls, Clemson could quickly find themselves struggling to put points on the scoreboard.
This game will be a sneaky tough game, but the outcome will say more about Louisville than Clemson. Yes, Clemson can be a tough outting, but they’ve been losing games for a reason.
Louisville has the potential to go out and win by double-digits, but any win here is a great win. I expect them to head back home one win better than when they left.
