No. 6 seed Clemson (23-11) vs No. 2 seed Arizona (27-8) | NCAA Tournament West Region semifinal | Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles | 4:09 p.m. Thursday | CBS | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
LOS ANGELES — The Arizona Wildcats are a win away from their first Elite 8 appearance since 2015. In their way: Clemson.
Here's a look ahead at the second-seeded Wildcats' matchup with the sixth-seed Tigers in the West Region semifinal of the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on Thursday at 4:09 p.m.
Probable starters
ARIZONA
G Kylan Boswell (6-2 soph.)
G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)
F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)
F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)
C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)
CLEMSON
G Chase Hunter (6-4 senior)
G Joseph Girard (6-2 senior)
F Jack Clark (6-10 senior)
F Ian Schieffelin (6-8 junior)
C PJ Hall (6-10 senior)
How they match up
How they got here: Clemson finished in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference with an 11-9 record and lost 76-55 to Boston College in its opening game of the ACC Tournament. But after getting a No. 6 seed in the West Region as an at-large team, Clemson beat 11th-seeded New Mexico 77-56 in the first round and No. 3 Baylor 72-64 in the second round at Memphis.
Arizona went 15-5 to win the Pac-12 and finished 24-7 at the end of the regular season, beating USC but losing to Oregon in the Pac-12 Tournament. Given a No. 2 seed, the Wildcats beat 15th-seeded Long Beach State 85-65 in the first round and Dayton 78-68 in the second round in Salt Lake City.
Arizona forward Keshad Johnson shoots against Cal on Feb. 1 at McKale Center. Johnson is two wins away from going to the Final Four two straight years with two different teams.
Series history: Arizona has won all three previous matchups with Clemson, sweeping a home-and-home series played during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. UA won 63-47 at McKale Center in December 2011 and 66-54 in December 2012 at Clemson. The top-seeded Wildcats also beat the Tigers 94-68 at Boise, Idaho, in the second round of the 1989 NCAA Tournament.
Clemson overview: The Tigers might be one of the more mercurial teams in the NCAA Tournament field, having blazed to a 9-0 start that included road wins at Alabama and Pittsburgh, plus other big wins over Boise State, South Carolina and TCU. But they stumbled early in ACC play, losing six of their first 10 conference games, and, after winning seven of their final 10 ACC games, were booted out of the league tournament by Boston College in a blowout. Then they clobbered New Mexico in the first round, took a 15-point lead against Baylor in the second round — and barely hung on to win that game.
Overall, Clemson is strong in all areas though not overly spectacular in any. The Tigers have the 24th-most efficient offense and are particularly effective inside the arc and at the free-throw line. They shoot 54.4% from 2-point range (38th best nationally) and 79.0% from the line (eighth-best) — but they don’t get to the line as often as their opponents, averaging just 18.1 attempts per game with a ratio of just 31.1 of free throws to field goals (ranking 231 nationally).
Center PJ Hall is a versatile force, leading the Tigers in scoring (18.5 points) while taking a quarter of his shots from 3-point range — but hitting those at a 32.1% rate. Power forward Ian Schieffelin is the Tigers’ leading rebounder (9.5), ranking 19th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage (26.9) and 61st in offensive rebounding percentage (12.8).
The Tigers have a long perimeter shooter at small forward in 6-10 Chancey Wiggins, who hits 33.8% of his 3-pointers while lately coming off the bench, and fifth-year guard Joseph Girard is a versatile scorer who hits 41.4% of his 3-pointers and leads the country in free-throw percentage (95.0). Point guard Chase Hunter was particularly hot last weekend, averaging 20.5 points and 6.0 assists while shooting 50% overall and hitting 4 of 9 3-pointers.
Defensively, Clemson ranks 38th in overall efficiency. The Tigers don’t look for steals but settle in to defend 2-point shots at a 46.9% rate (ranking 43rd nationally). They held New Mexico to just 29.7% overall shooting in the first round.
He said it: “They play very much like we like to play. They have skills, but they're also physical, and they want to impose their will and toughness. Experienced guys coming back, seniors, juniors who have been there.
Their win over North Carolina "was like Baylor, like New Mexico — they imposed their will, they were the tougher team to jump out on a lead.
"Hall is a very good player. He probably didn't have his two best games (last weekend) but I think their strength is that they have multiple guys that can impact the game. So we'll have to do a good job on him and you know, make sure that he doesn't get it going against us. He is capable of shooting, he's very skilled and he's very tough.
Clemson guard Joseph Girard III chases a loose ball against North Carolina guard Paxson Wojcik during a January game.
"Schieffelin is a great compliment to him and Godfrey as well. There are very physical; they play their ass off. It goes back to maybe they don't get much national attention with the media. But when you talk to ACC coaches, and there are good coaches in their league, they recognize good players and that's kind of what they've been their message to us and I totally get why they're saying that.
Clark and Wiggins are "just very long and tall. That's what makes them a dangerous team. They're a big team. Hunter and Girard are like combo guards. (Hunter) is a super talented player. We're talking about an NBA talent. He’s capable of scoring 3s, long twos, attacking the rim. He’s probably their most talented player. And Girard is an elite shooter, as good as any shooter we played this year. We've played some good ones between (Utah's Gabe) Madsen and (OSU's Jordan) Pope, and he's as good as any of those guys. ... there's gonna be a big feeling of like, don't give up open 3s to him. Make him feel uncomfortable, which is always hard.
— UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois, who scouted the Tigers.
Key players
CLEMSON — PJ Hall
The Tigers’ first-team all-ACC player was on the floor for an average of only 19.3 minutes over Clemson’s first two NCAA Tournament games because of foul trouble. No doubt Arizona will try to stick a few more fouls on him this time, minimizing the all-around offense Hall is known for, shooting 55.7% from 2-point range, 32.1% from 3 and 79.0 from the line.
ARIZONA — Keshad Johnson
Nobody brings more energy than Johnson on a consistent basis to the Wildcats. He'll need all of it this time likely having to battle Schieffelin on the glass and stepping out to help guard the Tigers’ bigger 3-point shooters.
Sidelines
Tigers' turning point
Clemson’s early season streak lifted the Tigers as high as No. 13 in the Associated Press men’s basketball poll, but it wasn’t long before coach Brad Brownell worried it wouldn’t ultimately mean a thing.
That’s what losing 6 of 9 games over January and early February can do to a team.
“We had a really hard meeting with our players,” Brownell said. “We were teetering a little bit. We had an unbelievable November and December. I was just so excited to play. We played a really hard schedule and won a bunch of games. We had no adversity. We were 10-1 and playing great, then came back from Christmas and got smashed in the mouth by some teams in our league.
"We were 4-6 in the ACC and I said, `Guys, we need to understand something. We were the 10-1 (early season) team. Right now, we’re the 4-6 team. If we go 4-6 again, we won’t be playing in the NCAA Tournament.” I said that’d be a shame because of what you did in the first two months of the year — and also because I think we’re good enough to get to the Final Four.
"That’s not something I throw around easily and I asked my older players, `Have I ever said that to you?’ They said, `no.”
Brownell’s message set in. After losing to Virginia at home 66-65 on Feb. 3, the Tigers looked like a Final Four team by winning 80-76 at North Carolina, then won five of their next six games after that.
“Him telling us that, it woke us up,” forward Ian Schieffelin said. “We ended up getting a big win at North Carolina and we kind of kept rolling from there.”
Arizona’s Caleb Love could face his old team Saturday if the Wildcats and UNC both win Thursday.
Lots of Love
Even though North Carolina is playing in the other Los Angeles Sweet 16 game Thursday, Caleb Love couldn’t escape attention from being a former Tar Heel.
During Arizona's NCAA-mandated open locker room media session, Love was surrounded by multiple North Carolina-based reporters who had him talking about what food he missed in Chapel Hill (the Purple Bowl, which says it serves Acai bowls, artisan toats and "healthy eats"), about the weather in Tucson (“it’s always hot”) and about the dagger 3 he hit two years ago to help North Carolina put away Duke in the national semifinals.
“I think it's a big shot of my career as far as as how big the stakes were, being in the Final Four and it being Coach K's last game,” Love said. “It was definitely a big milestone.”
But when a follow-up question asked if he felt appreciated at UNC, Love said little.
“I don’t know,” Love said. “I leave that up to the fans.”
For what it’s worth, Love could have a little extra motivation if Arizona and UNC win Thursday. He would then be facing former UNC teammate RJ Davis, who was named one of four Naismith Trophy finalists along with Purdue's Zach Edey, Tennessee's Dalton Knecht and Houston's Jamal Shead.
Love was one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy, was named a third-team AP all-American last week while Davis landed on the first team. Both Love and Davis were named players of the year in their respective conferences.
Limited view
NCAA Tournament participants were forced to hold shootarounds the day before their first-round games last week that were open to the public and media, prompting Arizona to practice privately at the University of Utah after appearing at the Delta Center.
This week, there was no such problem for the teams. They were each given an hour and 45 minutes on the court, with only the first 15 minutes open to media (presumably so there would be plenty of video circulating to help publicize the event.)
The Wildcats used their opening 15 minutes to stretch and put up shots, while UA coach Tommy Lloyd strolled over to joke around briefly with four Tucson-based reporters.
“Can you imagine if I had you four guys at practice every day?” Lloyd said, smiling.
Numbers game
6: Arizona wins in nine NCAA Tournament games played in Los Angeles, though the Wildcats are 1-2 since advancing to the 1994 Final Four from L.A.
5: Arizona wins in 11 second weekend (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight) games played in Southern California since 1998.
40.9: Love’s career 3-point shooting percentage against Clemson over three games with North Carolina. He had 23 points while hitting 6 of 9 3s at Clemson last season.
48.0: Arizona’s winning percentage (12 of 25 games) at Crypto.com Arena, formerly known as Staples Center, including Pac-10 Tournament and NCAA Tournament games.
— Bruce Pascoe
The Star's Justin Spears and Michael Lev look back on Arizona's win over Dayton in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament to reach the Sweet 16, and the challenge Clemson presents; plus, a recap of the entire opening weekend of the tournament. Also, Arizona women's basketball beat reporter PJ Brown joins the pod to discuss the Wildcats' memorable season and coaching job by Adia Barnes, and how the UA is set up for next season.
