Florida State @ Clemson preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 8, 2019 ) Clemson 53, Florida State 72

Florida State sits all alone atop the ACC standings after toppling Louisville 82-67 last time out for its school-record 14th ACC victory but now the challenge is remaining the leader. The sixth-ranked Seminoles can't afford a letdown as they head to Clemson on Saturday to face a Tigers team that had its three-game win streak halted Tuesday when it fell to Georgia Tech 68-59.,

"We are going to try and keep this in perspective," Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton told reporters after his team pulled off a season sweep of Louisville. "This game was important to us, but we are in a conference of teams with some of the richest traditions and most success in basketball history. … We cannot start to get excited now because just about every team in our league has gone to the Final Four and won a national title. We have a big mountain to climb. We want to keep doing what we are doing by not trying to pick up momentum, not get down, and not get overly excited. We just have to keep grinding to see how far we go by staying focused and believing in a philosophy that makes sense.” The Seminoles have won four straight and seven of their last eight on their way to locking up a double-bye in the ACC Tournament but three games remain before they can stake claim to the regular-season title and they only lead Louisville by a slim half-game and Duke by one. The Tigers are playing for their postseason lives and will provide a stiff test as Clemson has proven it can come up big after earning victories this season against three of the top teams in the conference - Duke, Louisville and Syracuse. "Just not consistent," coach Brad Brownell said. "If we have a couple of guys not play well, we're really just not good enough to overcome that."

TIME: 2 p.m. ET. TV: FOX Sports

ABOUT FLORIDA STATE (24-4, 14-3 ACC): The victory over Louisville was its eighth double-figure ACC win of the season and the key has been depth as 10 players average more than 10 minutes of playing time per game, resulting in opponents getting worn down by the fresher Seminoles. "There is no doubt that we win games by committee," Hamilton said. "It's interesting that our players embrace that. People keep asking questions about how do we keep everybody happy with playing so many guys? These guys are happy to come out of the game because they give tremendous effort. We feel like that is who we are, that is the style of play that best suits us, and we have different guys stepping up every night." Five Seminoles wound up scoring in double digits against Louisville, led by senior Trent Forrest with 16, and for the season, Devin Vassell (12.9) tops the team in scoring followed by Forrest (11.7), M.J. Walker (10.6) and Patrick Williams (9.4).

ABOUT CLEMSON (14-13, 8-9): The Tigers hit 41.4 percent of their shots from the field against Georgia Tech, but they struggled from 3-point range, going 2-for-20 after connecting on 34-of-68 in the three previous games combined, all victories. Forward Aamir Simms scored a team-high 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting to equal his career high for field goals made, while Al-Amir Dawes and Hunter Tyson each contributed 10 points but the team only scored 59 after averaging 77 during its three-game winning streak. A big issue rearing up for the Tigers of late is turnovers as they had 16 of them in the Georgia Tech loss, six by Simms, and they are now averaging 14.6 giveaways in their last four games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Florida State owns a 44-32 series advantage after sweeping Clemson last season and defeating the Tigers 72-53 in Tallahassee in December.

2. A Seminoles victory would give them 25 regular-season wins for the second straight season.

3. With his 23 points against Georgia Tech, Simms finished two shy of his career high of 25, set against Duke in January.

PREDICTION: Florida State 81, Clemson 70