By Harry Barsan

No. 13 Louisville will face the No. 10 Clemson Tigers in a highly anticipated rematch in the ACC semifinals.

Since falling to Louisville by double-digits in the Derby City, the Tigers have won 15 of their last 16 including a huge victory against Duke.

This will be the first ranked matchup of the entire season in the ACC.

A new coat of paint

Clemson has taken off since losing to the Cards, and the biggest reason is the evolution of their offense.

While the seniors Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin still lead the Tigers with 16.2 and 12.8 points per game, respectively, they’re both averaging about a point less than they were a couple of months ago.

Their loss is Jaeden Zackery and Viktor Lakhin’s gain, as each now average over 11 points.

Lakhin especially has moved into more of a focal point offensively, as he is being used on 26.3% of possessions he plays, almost six points higher than Schieffelin who is the next closest Tiger.

Outside of individual play, Clemson is still very similar as they were in January.

The Tigers shine the brightest on three-pointers with a top-30 efficiency with 37.3%, even though they only try 23 per game. Still, they score 33.6% of their points beyond the arc.

Against SMU however, they scored 40 of their 57 points in the paint, a nearly 70% rate in their slight victory.

Even on nights when the three-ball isn’t hitting, as they shot just 19% Thursday, they clearly aren’t daunted as easily. Ironically, the three was hitting in their earlier meeting with Louisville without much of a different result.

Louisville should expect to keep James Scott busy in the paint, like he did against Maxime Raynaud, while also respecting the Tiger deep ball that has seemed flimsy at times.

The one area where Clemson is poor on offense is getting to the line. The shoot a good 76.4% from the charity stripe, but they rank in the bottom 60 in points off of free throws. This might allow Scott and Noah Waterman to play with an added aggression, depending on how the referees call the game.

Same foundation

The tigers have earned their stripes on defense.

Opponents are only putting up 65.3 on average, a mark only surpassed by one squad in the past four games.

Clemson is an especially elite second-half defense, if you believe those can exist. They rank top five in second-half points allowed with just 32.7, which may be a kryptonite to the Cardiac Cards’ frequent late-game surges.

While forcing steals isn’t their bread and butter, Zackery and Hunter are both top-15 in the ACC in steals per game.

They are much better at preventing passing lines and stopping assists, giving up just over 10 per game. However, teams such as SMU and Virginia have had little trouble surpassing that mark, and the Cards still dished out 13 dimes as a team (just as they did against Stanford Thursday).

Clemson also doesn’t foul too often, ranked in the top-40 with only 15 per game. While Louisville doesn’t live off of the free throw, it is one of the many tricks out of Chucky Hepburn’s bag that on a looser night, may dip his production down a few notches.

In the first matchup on Jan. 7, Louisville won in no small part because of the play from J’Vonne Hadley. Hadley scored a career-high 32 points and had 10 rebounds to complete his double-double. He was so dominant in the game, players were giving him the ball and clearing out with no other options on offensive sets.

Hadley’s production was desperately needed as Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. combined for a woeful 14 points. Hepburn was able to pick up some of the slack with seven assists, but those two will need to play better Friday.

As healthy and powerful as they’ve ever been, Clemson will be the toughest hurdle Louisville has faced in a while. For the first time since early January, Louisville is the underdog in predictive metrics.

A win will be tough, but it would put Louisville in their first ACC championship game in program history.

Photo Courtesy // Mallory Peak, Louisville Athletics