Clemson Men’s Basketball looks to rebound against Queens
By John Chancey
Clemson Men’s Basketball is off to a great start for the 2023-24 season, but they did hit their first bump in the road against Memphis last weekend.
That really isn’t a reason to be worried. Memphis stands now at 9-2 with wins over previously unbeaten Clemson and Virginia, which has placed them in this week’s AP Top 25.
Clemson is now at 13th in the NET rankings and 25th in the KenPom rankings as they approach the end of their non-conference schedule. Their final non-con game will be against Radford on December 29th.
First, they will face the Royals in Littlejohn Coliseum at 6:00 PM today. The game will be carried on the ACC Network and available for streaming on the ESPN app.
Queens University is located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a recent addition to Division I, playing its first season at this level in 2022. They are members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The Royals are 6-7 overall. They are 269th in the NET and 271st in KenPom, so even if the Tigers are victorious, this is one of those games that probably won’t help much in those rankings, and might even drop Clemson a bit because the strength of schedule played will decrease.
Queens is led in scoring by junior guard AJ McKee with 17.2 points per game. McKee also has 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
BJ McLaurin leads the Royals with 6.5 rebounds per game, and Deyton Albury dishes 4.7 assists per game.
Clemson will have a definite size advantage with PJ Hall, Chauncey Wiggins, and Ian Schieffelin. Queens plays a guard-heavy lineup, so as long as they hold up defensively, the Tigers should be able to find success down low.
If the big men find foul trouble early, the Tigers could fight fire with fire. This could be a game where we see a decent dose of Dylan Hunter and Josh Beadle.