Arizona vs Clemson: 2023-24 NCAA Tournament game preview, TV schedule
A spot in the Elite 8 is on the line between Arizona and Clemson. Which of them will remain in the NCAA Tournament?
TV schedule: Thursday, March 28th, 7:09 pm ET, CBS
Arena: crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California
No conference had a better opening week of the NCAA Tournament than the ACC, which still has four of the original five teams in the field. One of them is the Clemson Tigers, who had two very impressive offensive performances. They defeated New Mexico and Baylor to make the Sweet 16, led by the frontcourt duo of PJ Hall and Ian Schieffelin.
Due to the lack of upsets to this point, the 6-seed Tigers are one of the lowest-ranked teams in the field. Still, they have plenty of upperclassmen scoring talent and have the offense to keep up with most teams. That'll be tested against one of the top-scoring teams in the country, Arizona.
The Wildcats took care of business against Long Beach State in the first round, before beating 7-seed Dayton in the Round of 32. The final score of that game was 78-68, led by 19 points from Caleb Love. After a couple of earlier exits than expected in the Big Dance, Coach Tommy Lloyd and Arizona are looking to make a deeper run, with the winner of this game taking on the winner of Alabama and North Carolina in the Elite 8.
The matchups to watch in this game includes the frontcourt battle of Hall/Schieffelin for Clemson against Arizona's Oumar Ballo and Keshad Johnson. Plus, both Joe Girard of Clemson and Arizona's Love are both capable of going for 20+ points on any given night but also can have highly inefficient shooting nights.
Ranking Sweet 16 teams. Ranking Sweet 16 teams. dark. Next
Arizona will be the favorite in this matchup but Clemson has shown it can keep up with opponents. Look for this to be a closer game than expected but to continue the theme of the NCAA Tournament so far, look for the favorites to prevail.
Prediction: Arizona 79, Clemson 72