Will Clemson beat Louisville in ACC Tournament? ESPN makes its prediction
Will Clemson beat Louisville in ACC Tournament? ESPN makes its prediction Who has the edge in tonight's matchup between Clemson and Louisville? Here's what ESPN thinks of the matchup.
Next up for the Clemson Tigers is a rematch with the Louisville Cardinals in the ACC Tournament tonight.
Louisville (26-6 overall) was one of only two teams that defeated the Tigers (27-5) in the ACC regular season. That came on Jan. 7, when J'Vonne Hadley had a career-high 32 points and 10 rebounds in a 74-64 Cardinals win. Clemson has lost only once since then, as has Louisville. Both teams fell to Georgia Tech.
The Tigers opened ACC Tournament play Thursday night with a gritty 57-54 win over the SMU Mustangs. Chase Hunter had 15 of his 21 points in the second half to help Clemson erase a five-point deficit for the team's ninth straight win.
Louisville won its 10th straight on Thursday with some late heroics from Chucky Hepburn, whose put-back at the buzzer helped the Cardinals escape for a 75-73 win over Stanford. Hepburn had 20 points to go with Terrence Edwards' 25.
How do Clemson and Louisville stack up on a neutral court? While oddsmakers essentially have the game as a tossup, ESPN gives the Tigers better odds.
ESPN Analytics' Matchup Predictor, which offers a prediction model based on its College Basketball Power Index ratings and other variables, gives Clemson a 61 percent chance to win Friday's game at Spectrum Center.
ESPN defines its BPI ratings as a "measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is." Adds ESPN: "Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day's rest and altitude."
Clemson enters the day No. 17 in ESPN's BPI, while Louisville is No. 28.
Clemson vs. Louisville is scheduled for a 9:30 p.m. ET tip at Spectrum Center. The game will be televised on ESPN. The Clemson-Louisville winner will face the winner of North Carolina (22-12) vs. Duke (29-3) in the ACC title game Saturday night at 8:30 ET.
HOW TO WATCH: Time, TV channel for Clemson-Louisville
Contact us @Clemson_Wire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Clemson Tigers news and notes, plus opinions.
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