MBB: Clemson @ Duke (Jan.5th, 8:00 pm ESPN) Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[UrinalCake]

Javan White (6'10" 227lb grad transfer from Oral Roberts) is the backup center.

Man, if Clemson has somehow found a way to combine Javin Delaurier and Jack White into a single player, they'll have the perfect guy coming off the bench!

(Thanks for the excellent breakdown, as always)

[NSDukeFan]

Does Clemson produce solid, strong point guards? They always seem to have one of those, as far as I remember.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Great write-up CDu!

It would have been interesting to have this game in Clemson if only to see the reaction of the local fans to Zion Williamson. He's a local kid, but I have a hunch that there would have been plenty of boos until he started dunking the ball.

I wonder why Reed and Mitchell have shot the ball so poorly this year. Let's hope that trend continues for another game before they find their stroke in ACC play.

[Billy Dat]

As conference play starts, I am curious about the following...

-Right now, Jones, RJ and Zions are the givens.

-Can Cam establish himself, by staying on the court and being productive, as the 4th given, or will be keep seeing scenarios where he hasn't established himself above Jack, or been able to stay out of foul trouble, to get more minutes.

-Elijah Thomas of Clemson is similar in stature to Javin. While we don't know how practice has been going this past week, let's assume he's kept his starting role. Clemson feels like the kind of slow it down squad that would allow Marquese to have an impact inside, throwing some length at Thomas. That's a long way of saying I am curious as to whether Marquese will still be a key piece of the rotation in certain match-ups or will he only spell Javin? Jack has proven to be a very tough defender...would K rather use him against a taller, athletic big like Thomas than go to Marquese, especially to keep more shooting on the floor?

-Will AOC defend well enough, shoot well enough, and take care of the ball well enough, to be a guy who gets second half minutes in close ACC games?

[English]

Hate to be that guy, but he's been on the team long enough to spell his name Marques Bolden.

Otherwise, I echo all of your sentiments. Carry on.

[Rickshaw]

doesn't Clemson have a football game @ the same time ? gotta be some (fan) distraction

[nocilla]

doesn't Clemson have a football game @ the same time ? gotta be some (fan) distraction

No, the football game is Monday night.

[Billy Dat]

Hate to be that guy, but he's been on the team long enough to spell his name Marques Bolden.

Otherwise, I echo all of your sentiments. Carry on.

I hate being that guy who gets it wrong...thanks for the correction. I don't know why I make that mistake all the time, I should print their names out and tape it to my office wall!!!

[CDu]

I hate being that guy who gets it wrong...thanks for the correction. I don't know why I make that mistake all the time, I should print their names out and tape it to my office wall!!!

If it makes you feel better, I think I still regularly say his name wrong. I think maybe that's part of it: the pronunciation doesn't quite align with the spelling.

[Rickshaw]

sorry ....head got twisted

[UrinalCake]

Now that we're in ACC play I think we're going to see a lot more 6'10 and taller guys, so Marques's role should increase. We've played so many smaller teams with 6'7 centers that playing our smaller lineup has made sense, but I do think we're going to need Marques to bang in the post among the trees.

With that said, one of my big concerns heading into this season was our lack of rim protection, and yet we're leading the nation in blocks despite limited minutes from Bolden. So maybe we'll continue to play small anyways.

[ChillinDuke]

This year's Clemson team is a very veteran squad, returning almost all of the players from last year's Sweet-16 team. It is not, however, all that similar to the team we faced in Clemson last year. The differences: that team didn't have their PG (Shelton Mitchell) available, and this team doesn't have their glue guy and #3 player (Gabe DeVoe). So I'm not sure how useful last year's data point will be. That being said, a lot of what Clemson does is similar to what they did when healthy last year. They play slow, they own the defensive glass, they score in the paint and defend around the rim well. They are also pretty good at forcing turnovers.

Despite this profile, the Tigers are 0-3 in Q1 games so far this year. So it has been an unquestionably disappointing start to the season. Their best wins to date are a neutral-site win over Georgia, a road win over South Carolina, and a home win over Lipscomb. So, they'll obviously be looking to improve their resume. The results so far simply haven't matched the talent. It's a good team, but one that just isn't performing up to par yet.

Centers: Elijah Thomas (6'9", 245lb fifth-year senior) is the man in the middle. Thomas is an extremely talented player who has never quite figured out how to stay out of foul trouble. He does pretty much everything you can ask for in a post player. Scores incredibly efficiently in the post, rebounds extraordinarily well on both ends, and (which is unusual) blocks shots and defensive rebounds at a fantastic rate. He is a bear inside, with great quickness/agility and explosive leaping ability along with strength and tenacity. The bugaboo for him is that he just can't avoid the fouls. He averages 3.2 per 24.2 mpg this year, and that's before getting to the tougher opponents on the schedule. Clemson NEEDS Thomas to stay on the floor, but he just hasn't been able to do so consistently enough in his career. If he can avoid foul trouble, he's a game changer. But odds are that he will not be able to avoid foul trouble. Javan White (6'10" 227lb grad transfer from Oral Roberts) is the backup center. He's a serviceable backup, but he's a HUGE step down from Thomas. The "break in case of emergency" center is Trey Jemison (7'0", 255lb freshman), a project at this point who is just minutes filler as needed.

Forwards: Aamir Simms (6'7", 250lb sophomore) is the starting PF for the Tigers. He's a really good athlete who also has tremendous strength as you might expect given his size. He does a lot of dirty work for the Tigers and fits in nicely on a blue-collar, defense-first type of team like Clemson. Interestingly, he appears to have improved as a perimeter shooter too, hitting 37% of his 3s on 4 attempts per game and 80% from the line albeit in few attempts. Simms will get the unenviable task of guarding Williamson, and in terms of size and athleticism it's not nearly the mismatch we typically see. Williamson is bigger, stronger, quicker, and more explosive, but Simms is one of few that checks in within shouting distance across all those areas. Should be fun, although it is a matchup I expect Williamson to win. Alongside Simms is David Skara (6'8", 215lb fifth-year senior). Skara is kind of like a very poor man's Kyle Singler. He's a rugged defender who can guard multiple spots adequately, and does a little of everything. He's not nearly as strong with the ball as Singler, which is where the comp really falls off and why he's a very poor man's Singler. But he's a nice role player who is versatile defensively, and has improved his outside shooting this year to stretch the floor a bit. These two guys will both start, with Skara able to swing between SF and PF when the team goes with three guards. Hunter Tyson (6'8", 205lb freshman) is the backup. He's used sparingly and is still a year or two away from ACC readiness.

Wings: Marcquise Reed (6'3", 190lb fifth-year senior) is the star of the team. He leads the Tigers in minutes, scoring, steals, and (currently, at least) assists. He's an All-ACC talent, and a real star. Oddly, he hasn't shot the ball very well from 3 this year, but historically he is a good 3pt shooter. I wouldn't consider his current 3pt% (29%) to be reflective of his threat as a shooter. Reed is also a good ballhandler, and serves as the backup PG as well. The other primary wing is Clyde Trapp (6'4, 195lb sophomore), who serves as the sixth man. Trapp is an athletic and pesky defender, who has a knack for getting steals. But offensively he's still fairly raw. John Newman III (6'5", 200lb freshman) is the backup, and he is sort of a freshman version of Trapp.

Guards: The point guard is Shelton Mitchell (6'4" 200lb fifth-year senior). Mitchell was, as noted above, absent from the matchup last year. He's a terrific, All-ACC caliber talent as well, although oddly he hasn't played as well so far this season. Like Reed, Mitchell hasn't shot as well as he has historically. So again, I'm not sure that his current percentage (29.5%) is reflective of his skill set. He's a bulldog of a PG, with tremendous size, strength, and savvy for the position. More of a scoring PG than a distributor, he's a defensive bulldog and with Reed is the heart and soul of the team. When Mitchell sits (which is rare against good teams), Reed will handle the PG duties.

Depth is a huge question for Clemson. They really have only 4 or 5 ACC-level players at this point. Trapp, White, Tyson, and Newman are only borderline ACC caliber at this point in their careers, and Skara is purely a role player at this level as well. And with Thomas struggling to stay on the floor, that puts real pressure on the team to stay competitive against good teams. Clemson will be well-organized and tenacious, and as such it should be a nice test of our team's development. Thankfully we kick off the season at home, because I think if this was in Clemson I'd be sweating a lot more. Still, it's a game that poses some threat due to the talent at the top for Clemson, but a game we should win at home.

Wait, so Clemson starts FOUR fifth-year seniors?! Holy frijoles. That's all you needed to say to scare me. Talk about experience.

And someone was talking about Blossomgame being there forever...

- Chillin

[TruBlu]

Wait, so Clemson starts FOUR fifth-year seniors?! Holy frijoles. That's all you needed to say to scare me. Talk about experience.

And someone was talking about Blossomgame being there forever...

- Chillin

And of course, with all that experience they don’t play the cheaters in the Dean (knew) Dome this year with a chance to break the streak. Next year, with all of the experience gone, they will play at the cheaters. SMH

[CDu]

Wait, so Clemson starts FOUR fifth-year seniors?! Holy frijoles. That's all you needed to say to scare me. Talk about experience.

And someone was talking about Blossomgame being there forever...

- Chillin

Yep, and they bring a (not so good, but still old) grad transfer off the bench too.

Interestingly, though, it is kind of all or nothing. Aside from those 5 “old” guys, it is two sophomores and some freshmen.

If Reed, Mitchell, and (especially) Thomas can stay on the floor, it can be a tough game. Those guys can play, and have been together for 4 years (playing for 3 years) now. And Skara has been around for 3, playing for 2.

The issue, as it has been in the past, is whether Thomas can stay on the floor. In 2017, he did so and they almost got us in Cameron. Then, in the ACCs, he fouled out in 15 minutes and lost. Last year, he stayed on the court and Clemson gave us fits until the late stages even without their PG available. If he can stay on the court, Clemson can keep it competitive. If he finds foul trouble, they are probably going to be in real trouble.

[MChambers]

Thinking about it, I'm not at all worried about the effects of the layoff. Duke practices hard, so adjusting to game conditions won't be difficult. Also, Duke did okay with that long layoff between the Canada games and Kentucky.

[budwom]

Major question now and going forward: can we shoot better?

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Major question now and going forward: can we shoot better?

I say yes...in the presser, the VERY first thing Jack mentioned was shooting better, that the team has a lot of good shooters, and that they needed to get more of those - in his words - "stand still jumpers." That tells me the team has been working on making one more pass, getting the 3 point shots as catch and shoot opportunities, not off the bounce. So I feel good about that improving.

I also feel good about the FT shooting the last couple games. I always thought that would improve...Tre is too good to stay at 61% and RJ too good to stay at 65%.

[CDu]

I say yes...in the presser, the VERY first thing Jack mentioned was shooting better, that the team has a lot of good shooters, and that they needed to get more of those - in his words - "stand still jumpers." That tells me the team has been working on making one more pass, getting the 3 point shots as catch and shoot opportunities, not off the bounce. So I feel good about that improving.

I also feel good about the FT shooting the last couple games. I always thought that would improve...Tre is too good to stay at 61% and RJ too good to stay at 65%.

Actually, I think those FT% are pretty reasonable, at least for Barrett. Barrett was a ~60% shooter in high school. I would have been surprised if he was suddenly a much better shooter this year.

Jones was a ~70% shooter in high school, so presumably he could improve a good bit still. But I would be surprised if Barrett - always known for being a questionable shooter - gets above 70% from the line this year. I hope he does, but I don’t expect it.

[cptnflash]

I’m stuck in Calgary tonight and they don’t have ESPN up here (it’s called TSN instead and seems to show hockey 24/7). WatchESPN and ESPN+ are also not available outside the US. Anyone have any suggestions on how I might be able to see the game?

[uh_no]

I’m stuck in Calgary tonight and they don’t have ESPN up here (it’s called TSN instead and seems to show hockey 24/7). WatchESPN and ESPN+ are also not available outside the US. Anyone have any suggestions on how I might be able to see the game?

find a us based vpn