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ACC Roundup: Tigers Bounce Back

Presbyterian isn't much of a measuring stick but Clemson did a lot of things right.

By JD King
New Mexico State v Clemson
SAN DIEGO, CA - MARCH 16: Head coach Brad Brownell of the Clemson Tigers reacts as they take on the New Mexico State Aggies in the first half in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena on March 16, 2018 in San Diego, California.
Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Clemson lost its season opener to Virginia Tech in a bit of a surprise but bounced back nicely against Presbyterian, winning 79-45.

Granted, it’s the Blue Hose and not a powerful team but Clemson was still impressive. The Tigers played a lot of smart basketball and crushed it from three point range, hitting 14-34 from deep.

The Tigers forced 21 turnovers and, for the parts of the game we saw, played with some real savvy.

Over the years, Clemson has usually had either great talent and poor coaching or middling talent and solid coaching.

Brad Brownell is closer to the latter than the former but we liked what we saw from Clemson Thursday. With some work and luck, the Tigers can exceed the low expectations most people have for them this season. We’d like to see that.

It was a pleasure to see Clemson playing smart basketball. It’s a football town but Brownell’s program deserves support. It’s generally admirable.

One minor bit of bad news: the NCAA ruled that Nick Honor, a transfer from Fordham, would not be eligible this season. On the bright side, a waiver was granted recently to Khavon Moore, who transferred to Clemson from Texas Tech. He played 20 minutes against Presbyterian and had six rebounds and two points.

Johnny Newman led the way with 16 points.

Early ACC competition was fun but Jim Boeheim is not a fan. He called it a “money grab” (Hey Jimmy, what do you call it when you hike prices for the Duke game and open extra seats then?)

We don't necessarily disagree with him. We just appreciate the fact that he’s become the ACC’s crochety old man. You can imagine him in a rocking chair outside of the Carrier Dome saying “get off my lawn!”

Incidentally, speaking of the Dome...remember not too long ago when Syracuse mysteriously removed all references to the Carrier Dome from its website?

They’re using Carrier again so presumably the university has worked out its issues with the Carrier corporation which may have come down to the fact that Syracuse wanted to get more money from naming rights. You’d hate to call that a money grab. right coach?

Anyway, here’s Friday’s ACC schedule:

  • Colorado State @ Duke || 7:00 ||ACCN
  • UNCW @ UNC || 7:00 || FloSports
  • Florida Atlantic @ Miami || 7:00 || ACCNX
  • Coppin State @ Virginia Tech || 7:00 || ACCNX

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