Clemson Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Tigers

Key Non-Conference Games

Cayman Islands Classic

Clemson starts off this tournament with a game against Akron. Forward Daniel Utomi will be a handful but the Zips have to many new faces they’ll be incorporating to have a legit chance to pull off the upset.

Next up would be a matchup against either Illinois St or Georgia. Georgia lost their star player Yante Maten from a year ago so that will be a very winnable game for the Redbirds.

It’ll be interesting to see how Tom Crean handles the guard situation. Teshuan Hightower and Turtle Jackson give him a couple of options at the point. Nicholas Claxton and Derek Ogebeide give him a couple bigs he can rely on.

While the best player in that matchup might actually play for Illinois St. Milik Yarbrough is a great player who considered declaring for the NBA draft before opting to return for his senior season.

The possible opponents for the third game are three teams who made the NCAA tournament and a Boise State team who had to settle for the NIT.

Those bottom games are very hard to predict so it’s possible that Clemson could face any of them. The Tigers would be favored over any of these opponents.

Boise State lost their star Chandler Hutchinson and he’ll be very hard to replace. Justinian Jessup is a good offensive player but he isn’t enough to pose much of a threat to Clemson.

Georgia State is another possible opponent and they might have the most talented player in this whole tournament. D’Marcus Simonds averaged 21.2 points a game last season and he’ll only be better this season. The Panthers have more than just Simonds though. Devin Mitchell and Jeff Thomas are also both very good players.

Another possible opponent is St. Bonaventure. They had a great season last year led by stars Jaylen Adams, and Matt Mobley but they are gone now. This looks to be a rebuilding year for the Bonnies. Courtney Stockard is a good player but it would be a shock if they were to pull off an upset against Clemson.

The last possible opponent is the Creighton Blue Jays. They lose all of their main scorers from a year ago so this seems to be another team in a rebuilding year.

They do have a couple of guys coming back who had good seasons and who seem to be ready to take the next step. Mitchell Ballock and Davion Mintz are two guys to keep an eye on for the Blue Jays.

Nebraska

Nebraska finished last season 13-5 in the Big Ten and they still only made it to the NIT. This team is going to be motivated to get some big non-conference wins to keep that from happening again.

This will be a home game for Clemson so the Cornhuskers will want this one even more so they can get a road win over a really good team early in the season.

James Palmer is back for his senior season after breaking out during his junior year last season. After transferring in from Miami (FL) he averaged 17.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

This will be a tough game for the Tigers to win. They’ll need to play well if they want to get a marquee win early on in the season.

South Carolina

After making the Final Four in 2017 the Gamecocks struggled last season and it doesn’t look like things will be much different this season.

They do have some guys, especially in the front line that can give Clemson problems. Chris Silva and Malik Kotsar form one of the more underrated big duos in the country.

Any time you head on the road for a rivalry game it will be tough. This game takes place in late December and would be a huge road win to get before heading into ACC play.