Mike Brey and the Fighting Irish are set to tip-off against Brad Brownell and the Clemson Tigers Wednesday afternoon at Purcell Pavillion. It feels like Notre Dame is firing on all cylinders, winning five straight games, including a resume builder against North Carolina. The Irish will look to stay undefeated at home Tonight against Clemson.
Notre Dame comes in ranked 116th in the country on the defensive end (in terms of points allowed), only allowing opponents to 66.1 points per game. A lot of that defensive improvement has to do with Anthony Solomon, who Mike Brey brought in this offseason to be a defensive coordinator of sorts. Meanwhile, Clemson comes in as the 107th best defense, allowing 65.9 points per game. But Brad Brownell's teams are typically much tougher than the rankings indicate and will try to make this a grind it out game.
Offensively, the Irish come in as the 211th highest scoring offense in the country, scoring 70.8 points per game. Meanwhile, Clemson comes in as the 137th best offense, scoring 74.2 points per game. But, with the pace the Irish play at that stat is a bit misleading.
Notre Dame's offense has become somewhat underappreciated, led by Dane Goodwin and Blake Wesley. The Irish have shown recently that they can play like veterans offensively. Outside of Goodwin and Wesley, the Irish also have Nate Laszewski, a big man who can shoot the rock and score at will when needed, Cormac Ryan, a defensive minded role player and 3-point shooter, Prentiss Hubb, a veteran guard who can make clutch shots down the stretch, Trey Wertz, an experienced guard, and Paul Atkinson, a veteran center who can finish inside in the post and take advantage of favorable matchups. This is a veteran group, aside from Blake Wesley, who has been put in pressure situations and in big-time games before. Like Mike Brey has always said, it's just a case of old guys being old, and that experience will certainly be needed against a gritty Clemson team.
For Clemson, they lost a huge piece in Aamir Simms coming into the season and are still looking for the guy to take charge. Hunter Tyson, David Collins, and P. J. Hall have all been solid pieces for the Tigers. But to make real noise in the ACC, they'll need more from their guards offensively. The Tigers have a few solid depth pieces in Chase Hunter, Alex Hemenway and Naz Bohannon off the bench, but to beat Notre Dame they'll need their starters to shoulder the load.
Notre Dame's Key to victory is feeding Paul Atkinson in the post given the fact that they have nobody that can match up to him, let Blake Wesley be Blake Wesley, Limit Turnovers, and don't let Tyson or Collins get going (limit them as much as possible). Dane Goodwin will do his thing and the Irish should be set up for another win here.
Clemson's key to victory is to limit Paul Atkinson and Nate Laszewski inside the post, set up open looks for Tyson and Collins, make the Irish uncomfortable outside the arc, and to make this game a grinder.
Notre Dame is currently 6-0 at home, including a win over (at the time), Tenth ranked Kentucky, 3-1 in ACC play and 9-5 overall. They look to make it 7-0 at Purcell and 4-1 in ACC play. Clemson on the other hand is 2-2 away from home, 2-2 in ACC play, and 10-5 overall.
This game is no cakewalk for the Irish, as no ACC game ever is, but I think with the presence of Atkinson and Laszewski on the defensive end, Wesley and Goodwin pushing it on the offensive end, and the coaching of Brey and Solomon will lead to a Notre Dame win and their 6th straight win.
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