Virginia Basketball vs. Clemson Game Preview | ACC Tournament

The Cavaliers duel the Tigers with a spot in the ACC Championship Game up for grabs

Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

A spot in Saturday night's ACC Tournament Championship Game will be up for grabs when the No. 2 seed Virginia Cavaliers meet the No. 3 seed Clemson Tigers in a late-night matchup in the semifinals of the 2023 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament in Greensboro Coliseum on Friday. The Cavaliers and Tigers played just ten days ago, a 64-57 win for UVA in Charlottesville, but Clemson has looked flat-out incredible since then, winning the next two games by a combined 49 points, including an 80-54 beatdown against NC State on Thursday night. Virginia, meanwhile, has won three games in a row and earned a hard-fought 68-59 win over North Carolina on Thursday to set up this matchup in the ACC Tournament semifinals. 

Read on for a full preview of the ACC Tournament semifinal between No. 2 seed Virginia and No. 3 seed Clemson, including details on the game, an opponent scouting report, game notes, and what's at stake. 

Game Details

Who: Virginia Cavaliers (24-6) vs. Clemson Tigers (23-9)

When: Friday, March 10th at 9:30pm ET

Where: Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina

How to watch: ESPN2

How to stream: fuboTV (Start your free trial)

How to listen: SiriusXM 80, SXM App 80 | Virginia Sports Radio Network - click here for affiliates

All-time series: Virginia leads 81-53

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Clemson 64-57 on February 28th in Charlottesville

Opponent Scouting Report: Clemson

2022-2023: 23-9

The ACC Tournament is a wonderful event for many reasons, one of which being that it generates intriguing rematches, sometimes between two teams who played quite recently in the regular season. That's the case in this second semifinal matchup, as Virginia and Clemson met in Charlottesville just 10 days ago, with the Cavaliers earning a 64-57 victory. 

PJ Hall had 19 points and Hunter Tyson scored 17, but the Tigers didn't receive much scoring production from the rest of their roster. Virginia had four players in double figures, including 12 points apiece from Jayden Gardner, Armaan Franklin, and Isaac McKneely. Kihei Clark and Reece Beekman combined to record 14 assists to just two turnovers and the Cavaliers committed only eight turnovers as a team, while scoring 13 points off of 11 Clemson turnovers. UVA's bench unit outscored Clemson's bench 24-7 thanks to 12 points from McKneely and 10 points from Ryan Dunn. 

Click here to read a full recap of Virginia's win over Clemson on February 28th. 

The Tigers boast the ACC's No. 1 three-point shooting percentage at 37.2% as a team and when the threes are falling, they are a tough team to beat. The threes were falling on Thursday night and Clemson simply buried NC State, making 11 triples on 24 attempts (45.8%). Clemson was also solid on the defensive end, holding NC State to 54 points on 35.0% shooting from the floor and 25.0% from beyond the arc after the Wolfpack had scored 97 points against Virginia Tech in the second round the day before. Perhaps NC State ran out of gas, but Clemson's defense certainly had a lot to do with Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner scoring just 21 points between them on a combined 8/30 shooting. 

Both Virginia and Clemson are playing without the services of a key rotation player this week at the ACC Tournament. For UVA, it was graduate forward Ben Vander Plas who was lost for the rest of the season after fracturing his right hand in practice on Wednesday. For Clemson, it was 6'4" senior guard Alex Hemenway, who had an emergency appendectomy just a couple of days before the tournament began. Hemenway averages 6.9 points per game and shoots 47.1% from three. 

The forward tandem of Hunter Tyson and PJ Hall powers the Clemson offense, with each player averaging more than 15 points per game. A 6'8" graduate forward, Tyson is averaging nearly a double-double and shoots 41.3% from beyond the arc on high volume. Tyson garnered a First-Team All-ACC selection, while PJ Hall was selected to the All-ACC Third Team. The 6'10" Hall shoots 39.5% from three on fewer attempts per game than Tyson, but he made NC State pay for leaving him open in the quarterfinals, knocking down three triples in that game. Another forward, 6'7" sophomore Ian Schieffelin, is just a 22.7% three-point shooter on the season, but was a perfect 3/3 from downtown on Thursday and scored 15 points. Virginia is hoping that the Tigers got all of these threes out of their system before Friday's matchup. 

6'3" junior guard Chase Hunter orchestrates the Clemson offense, averaging 14.0 points and 4.5 assists per game. Hunter shoots 37.1% from three on the season. Joining Hunter in the back court is 6'3" graduate guard Brevin Galloway, who is averaging 11.3 points and 2.4 assists per game and shooting 34.6% from three-point range. Hunter and Galloway were largely held in check by Virginia's All-ACC Defensive Team guards Reece Beekman and Kihei Clark in the first meeting in Charlottesville. Hunter went 3/10 from the floor with seven points and Galloway had just three points on 1/7 shooting. 

Without the versatility provided by Ben Vander Plas, it will be interesting to see how Virginia chooses to defend against Clemson's bigs, as both PJ Hall and Hunter Tyson are capable of pounding the ball inside and stepping out to the three-point line and mobile enough to cause serious problems out of the pick-and-roll. Perhaps riding the confidence boost from his contributions in Virginia's win over North Carolina, Kadin Shedrick could be leaned on again as an option to defend against PJ Hall, while Armaan Franklin was the primary defender on Hunter Tyson in the first meeting. 

Hall scored 15 points in just 18 minutes in the win over NC State as he dealt with foul trouble, but that allowed 6'10" forward Ben Middlebrooks to step up and give the Tigers a big lift off the bench, recording eight points and five rebounds in 22 minutes of action. Clemson's starting five of Tyson, Hall, Hunter, Galloway, and Schieffelin will get the lion's share of the minutes, but the Tigers do have a number of players on the bench who could provide a spark: 6'3" guard Josh Beadle, 6'10" forward Ben Middlebrooks, 6'7" forward RJ Godfrey, 6'10" forward Chauncey Wiggins, and 6'3" guard Dillon Hunter. 

Game Notes

• Virginia holds an 81-53 advantage against Clemson in the all-time series that dates back to 1935-1936. 
• UVA has won 13 of the last 14 and 15 of the last 18 meetings with Clemson. 
• Virginia is 7-1 against Clemson at the ACC Tournament and 3-0 against Clemson in the semifinal round.
• UVA and Clemson have met five times in Greensboro, with the Cavaliers going 4-1 against the Tigers in those meetings. 
• UVA is 9-16 all-time in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament. 
• Virginia is seeking its 10th appearance in the ACC Championship Game, fourth under Tony Bennett, and first since 2018. 
• Virginia is 14-9 in the ACC Tournament under Tony Bennett
• Virginia is the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament for the fifth time in program history and for the second time in the Tony Bennett era. 
• UVA holds a 45-64 all-time record at the ACC Tournament, including a 19-24 record in Greensboro. 
• UVA has advanced to the semifinal four in seven of the last nine ACC Tournaments. 
• Virginia is seeking its fourth ACC Tournament Championship. UVA won ACC Tournament titles in 1976, 2014, and 2018. 

What's at Stake

Clemson

Clemson is seeking its third appearance in the ACC Championship Game and first since 2008. The Tigers have advanced to the ACC Tournament semifinals 13 times, but are 2-11 all-time in semifinal games. Clemson is also seeking its first-ever ACC Tournament Championship, as the Tigers lost in their only two appearances in the final in 1962 and 2008. 

Clemson's big win over NC State on Thursday has moved the Tigers up to the second team out in Joe Lunardi's "first four out" in his latest Bracketology, updated on Friday morning. The Tigers moved up from ten spots from No. 61 to No. 51 in the NET rankings after the win. In order to guarantee a bid to the NCAA Tournament, Clemson will likely have to beat Virginia on Friday night in the ACC semifinals, a victory which would qualify as a Quad 1 win for the Tigers. 

Virginia

UVA is seeking its fourth ACC Tournament Championship, third of the Tony Bennett era, and first since 2018. The Cavaliers are looking to advance to the ACC Tournament final for the 10th time in program history.

Clemson is now ranked No. 51 in the NET, just one spot outside of what would have qualified as a Quad 1 game for Virginia, as only opponents ranked 1-50 in the NET are Quad 1 on a neutral floor. Instead, UVA's game against Clemson will be a Quad 2 game. Virginia remains a No. 4 seed in Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology, but perhaps a little more solidly after Thursday's win over North Carolina. There is a chance that UVA could make a move up to the No. 3 seed line, but the Cavaliers would likely have to run the table in the ACC Tournament for that to happen, beating Clemson on Friday and then defeating the winner of the Miami/Duke game in the ACC Championship on Saturday. 

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