When Virginia tips off against Clemson tomorrow afternoon at Littlejohn Coliseum, the fourth-ranked Cavaliers will be gunning for a ninth straight win against the Tigers. UVA will also look to stretch its conference road win streak to 12 and overall road win streak to 13, which leads the country.
The town of Clemson will be celebrating the Tiger football team’s recent national championship victory with a parade Saturday morning, and UVA will likely be playing in front of a large, rowdy crowd.
The Wahoos (14-0, 2-0 ACC) beat the Tigers twice a season ago — once at JPJ last January and then by six in the ACC Tournament semifinals. The regular-season win saw the Tigers post just 36 points.
Clemson’s last victory over Virginia came almost six years ago to the day, on Jan. 12, 2013. UVA’s last trip to Littlejohn resulted in a 77-73 victory nearly two years ago (Jan. 14, 2017), which also followed a championship parade for the Clemson football team.
As of Friday afternoon, UVA remains 2nd overall according to the KenPom ratings (3rd AdjD, 5th AdjO) and 1st in the NET rankings. Clemson is 40th overall in the KenPom ratings (24th AdjD, 58th AdjO) and 59th in the NET rankings.
The ‘Hoos (74.6 ppg) actually average more points per game than the Tigers (73.5), along with four other ACC schools (Miami 74.4, Wake Forest 74.1, Georgia Tech 71.2, Syracuse 70.2). Clemson gives up 14 more points a contest (65.9) than Virginia does (nation-best 51.8). The Tigers have only made 89 3-pointers all season, which is second-fewest in the conference. UVA leads the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.68, while Clemson ranks dead last in that category (0.81).
The Tigers won their first five games of the season before dropping three of the next four — to Creighton, Nebraska and then-No. 22 Mississippi State. Brad Brownell’s bunch lost its first two ACC games, at Duke by 19 and at Syracuse by 8.
Clemson senior go-to guard Marcquise Reed ranks fourth in the conference in scoring with 19.3 points a game, behind RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson from Duke and Ky Bowman from Boston College. Reed is 8th in the ACC in field-goal percentage (48%), and leads the league from the charity stripe with a percentage of 85 percent (55 for 65). Reed was held to six points (2 for 14 FG) in the last meeting against the Wahoos’ Pack-Line defense back in March.
Down low, Virginia will have to deal with 6-foot-9 senior forward Elijah Thomas, who averages 13.5 points and 7.3 rebounds a night, while 6-7 sophomore Aamir Simms and 6-8 senior David Skara combine for over 18 points and 9 boards per game.
Simms, a high-school teammate of UVA forward Mamadi Diakite at the Blue Ridge School down the road in Albemarle County, is solid from the perimeter as he leads the Tigers with 20 3-pointers on the season.
Reed, Simms and Skara can all knock down triples, as can another senior guard, Shelton Mitchell (13.1 ppg), as well as 6-4 sophomore Clyde Trapp (6.9 ppg) off the bench.
The ‘Hoos will try to hold steady at the top of the conference standings with two big ones coming up next week — vs. No. 9 Virginia Tech Tuesday and at top-ranked Duke next Saturday.
