Syracuse basketball hosts Clemson: 5 Key Things to Know

Syracuse, N.Y. ― The Syracuse Orange and the Clemson Tigers will face each other on Saturday at the JMA Wireless Dome in a game that will serve as one of the most anticipated homecomings ever.

It’s a critically important game for both teams. Syracuse (15-8 overall, 6-6 ACC) needs a win over a quality team to boost its slim hopes of earning an NCAA bid. Clemson, ranked 29th in the NCAA’s NET, represents exactly that type of team.

Clemson (15-7, 5-6) has seemingly solidified its hold on an NCAA berth. The Tigers’ only losses in their last five games have been 1-point setbacks against Duke (72-71) and Virginia (66-65).

Both teams are coming off wins that were big in different ways.

Syracuse won a frenetic 94-92 thriller over Louisville on Wednesday. The win snapped the Orange’s two-game losing streak. It was also the team’s first game following a 99-70 loss at Wake Forest, which might have been the low point of the season. It was also SU’s first game since junior forward Benny Williams was dismissed from the program.

Clemson, meanwhile, got a rare win over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The Tigers had been 1-60 on the Tar Heels’ homecourt over the years before Wednesday’s 80-76 win at UNC’s Dean Smith Center.

But about that homecoming. Joe Girard, the former Syracuse guard, will make his return to the Dome. Girard is a fifth-year grad student at Clemson. (More on him in a bit).

The Syracuse-Clemson game is scheduled to start at noon and will be televised on ESPN2.

Here are 5 Key Things to Know about the matchup:

The return of JG3

After spending the previous four years in a Syracuse uniform, Joe Girard will return to the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday as the starting guard for the Clemson Tigers.

Thanks to the NCAA’s decision to grant athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the Covid pandemic’s impact on the 2020-21 season, Girard elected to leave Syracuse and use his fifth year at Clemson.

Podcast: After 4 years at Syracuse, Joe Girard returns to the Dome as a Clemson Tiger

He is averaging 15.3 points per game in ACC play for the Tigers. He leads the ACC in free throw shooting (95.1%), ranks third in 3-pointers made per game (3.0) and fourth in 3-point shooting (42.3%).

The day could hold even more significance for Girard. He needs just 18 points to reach the 2,000-point mark for his career.

Ringing the Bell

The Bell rang eight times in Syracuse’s game against Louisville on Wednesday. Chris Bell, that is. Bell tolled eight times, knocking down eight 3-pointers during a career-best 30-point performance.

Bell’s eight 3-pointers were the most for a Syracuse player in a decade. Trevor Cooney made nine 3-pointers in a 61-55 win over Notre Dame on Feb. 3, 2014. Cooney scored 33 points; more than half the Orange’s total, in the win over the Irish.

Since then, Michael Gbinije made eight 3s in a game against NC State in 2016 and Andrew White made eight against Georgia Tech in 2017.

There is probably no better barometer of SU’s success than Bell’s 3-point shooting.

In SU’s six ACC wins, he has gone 21-for-42 (50%) from 3-point range. In the Orange’s six conference losses, he’s 5-for-22 (22%). (hat tip to @ShieldsOnHoops)

In these last eight ACC games, Bell has to be fully engaged and Syracuse has to find ways to keep him involved in the offense.

Free throw woes

Through the first 18 games of the season, the Syracuse Orange fared really well at the free throw line. In those games, Syracuse as a team had gone 248-for-332 (74.6%) at the foul line.

That figure would currently rank 7th in the ACC.

However, Syracuse has stumbled into a team-wide slump in the last five games. Beginning with the Jan. 23 home loss to Florida State and continuing through Wednesday’s two-point win over Louisville, Syracuse has made 84 out of 131 free throw attempts in the recent 5-game stretch.

That works out to 64 percent.

Syracuse hasn’t made 70% of its free throws in any of those five games, which include losses to FSU, Boston College and Wake Forest and wins over NC State and Louisville.

It could be said that the poor free throw really only hurt Syracuse in its loss to BC, but it almost cost the Orange in Wednesday’s win against Louisville.

Syracuse has enough offensive problems. It needs to be able to capitalize when it gets to the free throw line.

Hall monitor

Guys like North Carolina’s Armando Bacot and Duke’s Kyle Filipowski get a lot of attention, but the best center in the ACC might just be Clemson’s PJ Hall.

Hall, a 6-foot-10, 238-pound senior, is averaging 20.1 points and 7.1 rebounds this season. In ACC play, his numbers are 19.8 points and 8.2 rebounds. Those rank second and seventh in the conference, respectively.

The only other player in the ACC currently ranked in the Top 10 for both scoring and rebounding is Miami’s Norchad Omier.

In recent matchups with Bacot and Filipowski, Hall has been really impressive. He had 25 points and nine boards in Clemson’s win at North Carolina this past Tuesday. Two weeks ago in a 72-71 loss at Duke, he put up 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Maliq the stat-sheet stuffer

Syracuse’s Maliq Brown had a unique stat line in the Orange’s win over Louisville on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-8 sophomore had 11 points, 9 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists and 5 steals. He hit career-highs in blocks, assists and steals.

There is no record on file for the last time a Syracuse player had what is called a 5-by-5 game.

According to the NCAA, Brown is the first Division I player to have at least 10 points, five rebounds, five assists, five steals and five blocks in a game in the last two years. The last player to do that was Coppin State’s Anthony Tarke. He had 13 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 6 steals and 5 blocks against Delaware State on Jan. 5, 2021.

Per Katie Sharp of Stathead/Sports Reference, Brown is one of just three college players to put together a 5-by-5 stat line since 2011. Brown is the only major conference player of the three.

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