Miami @ Clemson preview
Greensboro Coliseum
Last Meeting ( Feb 27, 2021 ) Miami-Florida 58, Clemson 66
Clemson will face a familiar foe in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament on Wednesday.
The Tigers, 16-6 and seeded fifth in the tournament in Greensboro, N.C., will play Miami (9-16) for a third time this season.
Clemson received a first-round bye while Miami, the tournament's No. 13 seed, advanced with a 79-73 victory against No. 12 seed Pitt in a first-round game on Tuesday.
The Tigers won both previous meetings against the Hurricanes this season, albeit by close margins. The Tigers prevailed 66-65 at Miami on Jan. 2 when Aamir Simms banked in the game-winning jumper with 19 seconds left. Simms scored 25 points in that contest, and none of his teammates reached double figures.
Clemson earned a 66-58 home win over Miami on Feb. 27 despite Isaiah Wong's 28-point game for the Hurricanes. Wong, a sophomore who was selected to the All-ACC third team on Monday, averaged 20.5 points in two games against the Tigers this season. He added a team-high 20 on Tuesday against Pitt, though he shot just 5 of 13 from the floor.
Last year the ACC tournament was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic as Clemson took the floor to face Florida State in a quarterfinal game. A year later, caution remains the order of the day.
"There's concern just because we're in a hotel with other people," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "We're taking every precaution that we can, but it's not like we're on complete lockdown like we hear it's going to be in Indianapolis (for the NCAA Tournament)."
The Tigers are led by Simms, a senior forward who earned second-team All-ACC honors on Monday. Simms was the only player in the league to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, and assists, finishing at 13.2 points, 6.1 boards and 2.6 assists per game.
However, the hottest player for Clemson of late has been Al-Amir Dawes, a sophomore guard who is averaging 17 points and shooting 70.6 percent (12 of 17) from 3-point range over the Tigers' last three games.
The Tigers' Alex Hemenway sustained a broken nose in the team's victory against Pitt on Saturday, but he has practiced and is expected to play Wednesday while wearing a face guard.
"I like our team, I like how we're playing," said Brownell, whose squad won six of its last seven regular-season games. "I like where we are. This has been a heck of a season. These guys have really done well, coming off two COVID pauses. It's exciting to go into the postseason and see what we can do."
Miami coach Jim Larranaga immediately turned his focus to Clemson's myriad weapons following his team's win against Pitt.
"Aamir Simms is, I'd say, in a class all his own," Larranaga said. "I think he's the one guy that can play incredible defense on multiple positions. Offensively he can score inside, from outside. He can drive the ball to the basket and he's a good free-throw shooter.
"He will be the topic of conversation tonight with the coaching staff, but he's certainly not a one-man team. He's got a lot of help."
--Field Level Media