The Cardinals took care of business on Sunday evening down in Winston Salem beating Wake Forest in their very first conference game. Now the Cardinals will play their very first ACC game at the KFC Yum Center on Wednesday night against Clemson. The Cardinals and the Tigers have only played three times on the hardwood with Louisville leading the series 3-0. After their win Sunday the Cardinals are 149-66 against current ACC teams.
COACH PITINO TALKS CLEMSON AND THE PROGRESS OF HIS TEAM
Clemson has won four of their last six games. They are averaging 65.2 points a game shooting 42.5% from the field, 28% from Three and 66.5% from the free throw line. Jaron Blossomgame is averaging 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds while Damarcus Harrison is averaging 11 points and 3.5 rebounds. Donte Grantham is the third player averaging double-digit points and Landry Nnoko is grabbing 6.5 rebounds. The Tigers are a team that rely heavily on their defense and they are holding teams to 62.6 points a game on 39% shooting from field. Their defense has held teams to 65 points or less in seven of their last 10 games. They average almost 6 blocked shots a game good for 19th in the country.
Clemson 2014-15 Overall Rankings Offense | Defense
OFFENSE
-POINTS PER GAME
65.2
248th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
37.0
93rd
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
10.8
292nd
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.425
232nd
OVERALL
DEFENSE
-POINTS ALLOWED
62.6
101st
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
25.4
103rd
OVERALL
-BLOCKS PER GAME
5.7
19th
OVERALL
-STEALS PER GAME
5.0
316th
OVERALL
2014-15 Kenpom Rankings
Overall- #141
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-97.5 ranks 106th
Offense Adjustment Efficiency
-99.2 ranks 204th
-Per Kenpom’s game prediction he has Louisville winning the game 70-53 based on his indexes.
Our Cardinals have four players averaging in double figures with Terry Rozier (17.1 points, 5.6 rebounds), Montrezl Harrell (16.7 points, 9.5 rebounds), Chris Jones (12.1 points, dishing out 3.2 assists) and Wayne Blackshear (12.1 points). With Shaqquan Aaron coming around the Cardinal’s now must get something going at the 5 spot. Chinanu, Mango, and Anas are averaging 8.3 points a game combined while averaging 13.3 rebounds. These numbers have to come up for the Cardinals to be any real threat in the post season.
It will be interesting to see if Chris can put together great back to back performances and if the play of Shaqquan Aaron has lit a fire under Wayne Blackshear. We’ll see if the post guys show any type of spark after Coach Pitino said that he was going to put his focus on them. I don’t think the Cards have any trouble with Clemson and it will be another opportunity to get better. Tough road trip to Chapel Hill is looming.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 79 Clemson 65