Pittsburg, PA

Clemson basketball vs. Pittsburgh: Score prediction, scouting report for ACC game

Published

2 years ago

February 26, 2024

Clemson basketball vs. Pittsburgh: Score prediction, scouting report for ACC game

CLEMSON — After gaining ground ahead of the middle of the ACC standings in Saturday’s win vs. Florida State, Clemson basketball (19-8, 9-7) hosts Pittsburgh (18-9, 9-7) in another critical conference matchup Tuesday at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Tigers are coming off a 74-63 win in which their leading scorer and shot blocker, PJ Hall, played a season-low 16 minutes. Now they shift their focus to the Panthers, a team that has the second-best road record in the conference (6-3).

“As much as anything, they’re just playing with tremendous confidence,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “That’s a big thing on the road because your team has to truly believe they’re going to win. You’re going into places, you’re just executing your plan and you’re not distracted by the environment.”

Pittsburgh, which has won six of its past seven games, defeated Virginia Tech 79-64 on Saturday. The Panthers hope to split the regular-season series against the Tigers after losing 79-70 on Dec. 3. The teams are tied with North Carolina State for fifth in the ACC.

Here are three things to know and a score prediction:

RJ Godfrey, Clemson’s reserves come through as team battles attrition

With Hall in early foul trouble Saturday, it opened the door for 6-foot-8 RJ Godfrey to maximize his time off the bench again. He gave an instant boost to Clemson, thanks to his size and athleticism on both ends of the floor. He recorded 12 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals against Florida State. Brownell said it was “maybe his best game at Clemson.”

The sophomore has played at least 20 minutes in his past three games. His additional minutes correlate to Hall and Ian Schieffelin missing practices due to undisclosed injuries. As a result, Godfrey and the reserve unit are receiving extra reps, and their results are showing up on the floor.

The Tigers’ bench (Godfrey, Josh Beadle, Chauncey Wiggins, Dillon Hunter) scored 23 points Saturday — their fifth straight game scoring in double figures — and added four blocks and four steals.

“There’s not many guys left to work on the post stuff, so our perimeter guys are just getting a lot of work,” Brownell said. “We’re walking through a lot of things. RJ is getting a lot of extra work, and that’s helped him become a better player.”

Tigers continue to respond to Brownell’s call to be better defensively

Monday’s “difficult” film session — when Clemson coaches challenged the players and emphasized to them to be aggressive on defense — has resonated with the Tigers. After holding Georgia Tech to 57 points — a season low in conference play, they held FSU to 63, which is 13 points fewer than its points per game average.

Clemson finished Saturday’s game with nine blocks, tying a season high, and six steals, its most since Jan. 20. It has held opponents to under 70 points in four of its past five games. The outlier was against NC State, allowing the Wolfpack to score 78, which sparked the intense film session.

“We’ve worked hard on our defense the last month or so,” Brownell said. “It’s gotten better, and one of the things that we’ve got to do is just continue to get our hands on a few balls.”

PROTECTING PLAYERS: ‘We can’t have players getting hurt’: Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell on court storming

What makes Pittsburgh a tough out?

The Tigers must figure out how to slow down guard Blake Hinson. He is second in the ACC in points per game with 18.9, shoots 42.2% from 3-point range and leads the conference in made 3-pointers (95). The last time Clemson faced an elite scorer was NC State’s DJ Horne, who finished with 27 points, including the go-ahead basket in the final seconds on Feb. 17.

The Panthers are also a dominant rebounding team, averaging 12 offensive boards, which ranks second in the ACC. Defensively, they allow the third-fewest points (67.1) and the lowest 3-point field goal percentage (29.8%) in the conference. Federiko Federiko and Zack Austin are among the best shot blockers in the ACC; both have 38 blocks this season.

Clemson basketball score prediction vs. Pitt

Clemson 73, Pittsburgh 69: This crucial ACC game is going to go down to the wire. In a game like this, look for both teams’ best players to dominate. Hinson will be dynamic, but expect Hall, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds in their first matchup, to lead the Tigers to their third straight victory by having a greater impact on both ends of the floor.

Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00

Source link

Click to comment

Pittsburg, PA

Steelers re-sign veteran running back

Published

10 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

The Pittsburgh Steelers are re-signing veteran running back Trey Sermon, the team announced today. Sermon has had multiple on-and-off stints with the Steelers since signing with the team rookie mini-camp. He’s appeared in three games for the Steelers in 2025.

Sermon was drafted in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. In 46 career games, Sermon has 505 yards on 134 carries and three touchdowns with the 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts, and Steelers.

The Steelers have the chance to put the Baltimore Ravens on the ropes this Sunday. If they defeat the Detroit Lions, the Ravens would have to defeat one of the New England Patriots or Green Bay Packers for the Week 18 matchup between the Steelers and Ravens to have any stakes. The Steelers can also clinch the division before Week 18 if they win their next two games and the Ravens go 1-1 or 0-2.

Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!

Source link

Pittsburg, PA

The 10 best Pittsburgh concerts of 2025

Published

22 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

ACCOUNT

SECTIONS

OTHER

CLASSIFIEDS

Source link

Pittsburg, PA

Steelers passed the eye test for the first time in a while in a dominant win over Miami

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Steelers passed the eye test for the first time in a while in a dominant win over Miami

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t play a particularly aesthetically pleasing brand of football. It’s been that way for a while.

The offense can lack explosion for long stretches. The defense can get pushed around with alarming ease against quality opponents. The coaching decisions sometimes randomly flip-flop between aggressive and overly cautious.

The Steelers almost need a specific set of circumstances to succeed. They need to run the ball. They need to take it away. They need to avoid mistakes. It’s a formula as old as the game itself, and at times in recent years, it has felt more stale than steady.

Yet occasionally, there are stretches when Pittsburgh finds a way to thread the needle well enough that what is old feels new again.

One of those stretches arrived late in the first half of what became a 28-15 dismantling of Miami on Monday night that kept the Steelers (8-6) one game ahead of Baltimore for the top spot in the AFC North.

Four offensive drives, all of them at least 60 yards in length, produced touchdowns that turned a 3-0 deficit into a 25-point lead, their biggest advantage at any point in a game since 2020.

While 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers was channeling his prime at wintry Acrisure Stadium by completing 23 of 27 passes for 224 yards and two scores, a defense playing without superstar outside linebacker T.J. Watt overwhelmed Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during a third quarter in which Miami ran six plays and lost 20 yards in the process.

Though the Dolphins managed a pair of meaningless touchdowns late to make the final score more respectable, the outcome was never in doubt in the second half and offered tangible proof that Pittsburgh’s hope of playing its best football in December wasn’t just an empty promise.

Stringing together performances like the one the Steelers enjoyed on Monday night has been a challenge — and what has made the Steelers so confounding for much of the last decade.

Yet for the first time in a while, Pittsburgh looked like a first-place team capable of doing more than squeaking into the playoffs before meekly exiting. As rocky as it was during a 2-5 stretch in which their comfortable AFC North lead vanished, they’ll take it.

“We hold ourselves to a higher standard here,” longtime defensive captain Cam Heyward said. “You know, when you play for a team like this that’s had a lot of success, and, you know, we’re not responsible for that, those guys before (did that). We are trying to grasp what they did. The expectations are high, and we like it that way.”

What’s working

Finding experienced players looking for an opportunity midseason and having them make an impact.

The list of what Rodgers described as “cast-offs” includes wide receivers Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen and cornerback Asante Samuel Jr., all of whom made plays that contributed to perhaps Pittsburgh’s most complete performance since beating Minnesota in Ireland at the end of September.

Valdes-Scantling caught his first touchdown pass from Rodgers since 2021 when they were both in Green Bay. Samuel collected his first pick since 2023 and Thielen had his first reception and added a perfect kick-out block that opened up a lane for a Jonnu Smith touchdown run.

What needs help

The weather wasn’t conducive to a hot start and it took the offense a while to get going. While Pittsburgh did eventually score touchdowns on four straight possessions for the first time since 2018, the Steelers have been slow to warm up for most of the season, something they’ll likely need to avoid on Sunday in Detroit if they want to keep pace with the Lions.

Stock up

Tight ends Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth had virtually disappeared from the offense entirely in recent weeks as Darnell Washington took on an increasingly larger role in the passing game.

That changed against Miami. Smith had three touches for 26 yards, including the second rushing touchdown of his nine-year career on a cleverly designed pitch early in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach.

Freiermuth had more yards receiving (45) than he had in the previous four games combined, nimbly adjusting his routes against Miami’s zone.

Stock down

The “Fire Tomlin!” chants that popped up in the waning stages of a blowout loss at home to Buffalo on Nov. 30. Winning two straight and looking pretty good in the process will do that.

For all of the vitriol aimed at the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach by a portion of the fan base, the Steelers are where they have always been during Tomlin’s 19-year run: in the mix as Christmas approaches.

Even Ben Roethlisberger, who suggested recently it might be time for the team to “clean house,” said on Monday night before being inducted into the club’s Hall of Honor that he’d be fine if Tomlin coached in Pittsburgh for 10 more years.

Injuries

Watt’s status remains uncertain as he recovers from surgery to repair a partially collapsed lung suffered following a dry-needling treatment last week. … Veteran LG Isaac Seumalo sustained a triceps injury in the second half against Miami. … OLB Nick Herbig left late with a hamstring injury. It’s unclear whether it’s an aggravation of the hamstring injury that forced him to miss the season opener. … LT Andrus Peat remains in the concussion protocol. … CB James Pierre could return from a calf injury that forced him to sit out on Monday night.