After watching SMU take down Syracuse with relative ease on Wednesday night, Clemson basketball is gearing up for a tough battle that could undoubtedly help improve the Tigers' seeding.
Right now, the Tigers are projected to be a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament after finishing the regular season with a top-10 ranking and there's a chance they could improve that outlook even further with a deep run in the ACC Tournament which just got a whole lot more interesting after the Cooper Flagg injury on Thursday afternoon.
But before we look ahead to potential matchups in the semifinals or finals, let's dive into some bold predictions for Clemson's second matchup with SMU this year.
1. Clemson shoots over 50 percent from deep
The only other time these two teams met this season, Clemson was able to light SMU up from deep on the road. The Tigers hit 14 threes on 29 attempts and really buried the Mustangs there.
That happens again on Thursday evening.
Chase Hunter, Jaeden Zackery, and Ian Schieffelin all hit at least two threes against SMU on Thursday and we'll even see Dillon Hunter have himself a nice game, hitting 1-2 of his own after getting shut down in the first meeting between these two teams. This will give Clemson some much-needed momentum heading into the semifinals (if it wins).
2. Clemson out-rebounds SMU
In that first meeting a few weeks ago, SMU dominated the glass against Clemson, 39-24. It really wasn't even close on the boards but I think Brad Brownell has made that a focus for Thursday's game as they'll need to hold their own if they want to sweep the Mustangs this season.
Although Clemson hasn't been a great rebounding team this year, ranked No. 205 nationally, and SMU has been one of the best in the ACC, I think we'll see the Tigers eat on the glass all game.
Clemson wins the battle of the boards, 38-34.
3. The Tigers cover
The spread for this game has been hovering around 6.5 points in favor of the Tigers and I think that's actually a pretty wide margin for two teams that have 23-plus wins. But Clemson is the better team.
And we're going to see that.
The Tigers will cover the spread against the Mustangs, improving that NCAA Tournament seeding outlook and winning its 27th game of the season, heading into a likely matchup with Louisville on Friday night. I'm going with a 78-70 final in favor of Clemson.