Tuesday 3 March 2009

VIRGINIA PREVIEW II

(littlejohn, 03/03, 7:00pm)

I don't have much to add to the first preview, except that Virginia has now clearly established itself as the second worst team in the league, lifting itself out of its titanic struggle with Georgia Tech (largely thanks to us...). Looking at the stats this is a game Clemson should win 9 times out of 10 (which gives us about a 1 in 100 chance of losing to Virginia twice in the same season). But at the same time, let's not kid ourselves here--this is the kind of game where stats don't tell the whole story.

The book is out on Clemson--on offense, get your best three-point shooters spotting up behind the three point line in transition after breaking the press, and on defense do everything you can to deny the entry pass into the post. Do that, and a lot of teams are going to give themselves a chance to win down the stretch. Virginia's a bad three point-shooting team, but that didn't stop them from putting up a plus-forty percentage performance against us before. Look for Sammy Zeglinski and even their big man Jamil Tucker to spot up, catch, and shoot after breaking the press.

If we trot out the same game plan, particularly defensive game plan, we have used in the last few weeks, there is a real possibility we lose this game. If we make some adjustments, hopefully we see a team that can win handily today and also put up a fight in the postseason. To be clear, I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done at this point, particularly on offense. Your backcourt can't just grow a few inches overnight. But please, please, maybe a little more focus on halfcourt defense at the occasional expense of the full-court press? Doesn't have to be much, just don't let them get comfortable shooting those threes...

GO TIGERS!!!

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A blog about all Clemson Tiger University sports--football, basketball, baseball, along with the occasional South Carolina coot bashing.