SILVEY- The loss in Littlejohn to Duke on Sunday was Clemson’s first home loss of the season and the first time they lost back-to-back games as well. The Tiger’s offense was stymied by Duke’s zone defense and made a lot of “young errors” leading to costly turnovers. A big factor that hurt Clemson in that game was the absence of veteran point guard, Shelton Mitchell.
It was released early Tuesday that Mitchell would be unavailable for the Virginia Tech game as well. Playing in Blacksburg is no easy task to begin with but when you subtract your starting point guard and offensive facilitator, it doesn't help. But Clemson has shown that they are still competitive even without two of their three best players on the court (Grantham and Mitchell). It took a big day at the free throw line, inbounds turnovers by the Tigers and a bad shooting day from DeVoe & Reed (4/24 combined field goals) for Duke to give Clemson it's first loss at home this season. There were other factors of course but those are a couple of the main ones that stuck out to me.
The game against Virginia Tech is massive in terms of ACC tourney implications. Right now, Clemson sits at 20-6 overall and 9-5 in ACC play; Virginia Tech is 19-8 overall and 8-6 in the ACC. Should the Hokies win, they would have the same conference record as the Tigers and own the tiebreaker. Clemson is in 4th place in the ACC standings right now, giving them a double-bye in the ACC tourney should the current standings remain intact. But a loss in Blacksburg would knock them out of the top four, at least for now. Clemson still has three games left to play, after Virginia Tech, and two of them are in Littlejohn (vs Georgia Tech, vs Florida State, @ Syracuse). All the remaining games are winnable for Brownell's bunch but a win vs the Hokies still allows them to seemingly "control their own destiny."
As difficult as it is to play Cassell Coliseum, I think this Clemson team will respond well to this new adversity and challenge they now face. I believe either Clyde Trapp or David Skara will have a bigger offensive contribution in this game and I think it's critical at least one of them does. Coming off their first losing streak and home loss of the season, I think the Tigers are poised to pounce on the Hokies and maintain their place as one of the top teams in the ACC this season; even without Shelton Mitchell leading the charge.
PROJECTION- Clemson wins 80-75