Pittsburgh Basketball: 3 keys to beating Clemson in battle for 1st place

3. Clemson won’t beat itself so don’t make it easy for them

All teams have flaws but aren’t necessarily seen on the stat sheet. For North Carolina, their inability to focus and play a consistent 40 minutes was why Pittsburgh was able to come back and beat them last Friday. And for Virginia, their issues are that they’re offensively deficient at times, while also having small guards that make it easier to penetrate.

It shouldn’t be a major issue to do that with Clemson, whose entire guard rotation is 6’3 or shorter. None of them are elite individual defenders but certainly not bad either. One thing that shouldn’t be expected is much disruption, as the Tigers don’t turn the ball over much but also don’t force live-ball turnovers either. Not only are they a great free throw shooting team but also is 11th in the country with 79%.

The Tigers aren’t going to beat themselves but when they aren’t hitting three-pointers, aren’t going to run anyone off the court. One area where they struggle is creating second-chance opportunities, ranking in the bottom 20 in offensive rebounds per game. Pittsburgh is a top-40 rebounding team overall, especially on the defensive end.

This is a matchup where the Panthers have to be careful on the inside but doesn’t have to be afraid of anything. And considering that they haven’t shot the ball well in the past two games, means that there’s more room to grow on the offensive end. If they shoot well on Saturday, we could see a number next to Pittsburgh Basketball on Monday.