Game Day Essentials: Game #7 vs Clemson

[hhcmatt]

Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-2) at Clemson Tigers (3-2): B1G-ACC Challenge

 

Date: Wednesday Nov. 29

Time: 8:15 pm CST 
Arena: Littlejohn Coliseum

Broadcast:  ESPNU

Web:  ESPN3/Watchespn.com (you need to have an ESPNU cable subscription to make this work)

Clemson Info

Head Coach: Brad Brownell 
Location: Clemson, SC
Conference: ACC
Nickname: Tigers
Mascot: "The Tiger"
Last time out: Beat High Point
Typical Rotation Depth: 6-8
Line: Clemson by 11
Tempo: Middling to Slow
Style: High assist/3pt heavy
4 Factors: Struggling to shoot and defend. Aggressive on offensive boards, not on defense.
Not putting you on the FT Line

Four Factors
Effective FG%:	49.7 190	52.5 247	50.0
Turnover %:	16.1 44	21.0 92	19.3
Off. Reb. %:	32.1 117	32.2 248	29.9
FTA/FGA:	39.5 115	23.0 17	36.2

 

Scouting Clemson

 

Players to watch: Jaron Blossomgame 

Blossomgame decided to come back to Clemson for his senior year to up his draft stock. He's deadly on the drive as he finishes well with his quickness and strength, getting to the FT line often. If you can turn him into a jump shooter he's only hitting 24% of his shots outside of the paint. Blossomgame also represents the problem with Jack McVeigh at SF as he's not going to be fast enough to keep with JB.  Will be interesting to see what sort of lineups we throw out there.

 

Here are some videos about his strengths/weaknesses from NBA Scouts. (H/T to @uneblinstu)

 

 

 

The Skinny

Much like Nebraska, the Tigers have thus far had a tough schedule that saw them place 4th in a tournament, dropping games to Xavier and Oklahoma after easily handling Davidson. With Senior Blossomgame plus a decent group of transfers this might be the best roster that Brad Brownell has put together at Clemson and a team with post season aspirations.  On the plus side Clemson does have limited depth as they essentially had a 6 man rotation up until last week when probable starting PG Shelton Mitchell played his first 11 minutes of the season.  Clemson mitigates this depth through a combination of a slower tempo plus generally keeping out of foul trouble.

 

The Tiger offense is generally Blossomgame attacking the rim, 6'10" senior center Sidy Djitte as an occasional inside look and the rest of the team ready to shoot from outside. You can sit there and look at who has the better 3 pt percentages all day long but you should pay more attention to the high and fairly evenly distributed attempts that tell you keying on one player isn't the answer. The Huskers need to figure out how to minimize the damage of Blossomgame while not just giving the rest of the team rhythm looks which any of those guys will hit. Making sure that you make it painful for JB to receive the ball anywhere inside the 3pt line is a start.  One other thing to mention is changing the defensive strategy if there is a point that JB decides to just take over. You don't need to cover everyone when a guy turns into a black hole.

 

On offense how aggressive will Nebraska be against Djitte. He's a guy who will let you body into him to draw fouls and has the length to alter/block your shot if you try to finesse it. Is Webster capable of beating his man and drawing that kind of contact? Can he find Morrow or Jacobson when the team collapses on him?  Is anyone else up to that challenge. The Huskers can suck out defenders by taking/hitting from 3 but the game plan works a lot better when you suck them in first with that drive.  When Miles has to talk about the offense after a loss it almost always includes a section about not attacking the rim as it's always our primary goal.

 

We all saw what this team can do when it shows up for 40 minutes vs Dayton and what it does when it doesn't show up for 40 vs Virginia Tech. The Huskers don't typically fair too well on the road though you have to think the enthusiasm level of this football school to draw an unglamorous Nebraska team should keep the crowd noise down. There will be chances to steal some points tonight via pressure and crashing the offensive boards but at the end of the day it will be all about how Nebraska defends this team.  Can we hold them in the low 70s or below? That's how Nebraska wins a game like this on the road.

Prediction: Clemson 72 - Nebraska 67  

 

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[Red Don]

[cozrulz]

Probably the best chance to get an important non-conference win.  It will be hard to think postseason without it.  I'd still take an upset of Creighton over this one.

[hhcmatt]

12 minutes ago, Red Don said:

 

I might need to add Red Don specific emoticons to my list because these do not work

[hhcmatt]

1 minute ago, cozrulz said:

Probably the best chance to get an important non-conference win.  It will be hard to think postseason without it.  I'd still take an upset of Creighton over this one.

 

At this point I think a "would you rather beat Creighton or win a NCAA tournament game" poll on this forum would be closer than you'd think.

[hhcmatt]

Miles Presser

 

• Emphasis on getting the guys not to lose focus on defense when their offense suffers
• Had a nice pace in practice before the trip
• Clemson is in Clemson

Watson

 

Morrow

 

[uneblinstu]

27 minutes ago, hhcdimes said:

 

At this point I think a "would you rather beat Creighton or win a NCAA tournament game" poll on this forum would be closer than you'd think.

[Red Don]

Sorry, Just trying to insert the Line-ups for Huskers & Clemson players with their stats, but I can't seem to get it to work.

One can find those stats on the 'Game Notes' page at Huskers.com

Here is the link:  http://www.huskers.com/pdf9/5115314.pdf

 

 

 

 

[49r]

 

1 hour ago, hhcdimes said:

 

At this point I think a "would you rather beat Creighton or win a NCAA tournament game" poll on this forum would be closer than you'd think.

 

 

1 hour ago, uneblinstu said: