The Georgetown Hoyas will hit the road for the first time on Friday when they travel down to ACC country to take on the Clemson Tigers. The Hoyas are a perfect 3-0 but just 1-2 ATS, with that lone cover being their outright win over Maryland as a +3.5 home underdog. Similarly, Clemson is 3-0 SU, while the Tigers are 0-3 ATS against the likes of Stetson, American and North Dakota.
Brad Brownell has built a very solid program in South Carolina’s upstate, but it’s a new era at Clemson, especially if Dillon Hunter isn’t granted eligibility to play this season. To make matters worse, Zac Foster and Carter Welling are on the shelf with injuries, which has crushed Clemson’s depth, and it shows in their 0-3 ATS number.
Georgetown represents a massive step up in class from what the Tigers have seen thus far, and the home win over Maryland is a key notch in the Hoyas’ metaphorical belt ahead of this contest. Sure, it may have been an outlier shooting performance at home, connecting on 50% of threes, but there are bona fide veteran shooters throughout this Georgetown backcourt, and I’m not sold on the current state of the Tigers’ defense. Despite a strength of schedule that ranks 329th (KenPom) after the first week and a half of the season, Clemson is outside the top 100 in adjusted defensive efficiency, while they’re 284th in opposing effective field goal percentage and well outside the top 300 in forced turnover rate. Now they’ll be up against a backcourt including veterans in Jaland Lowe and Elmarko Jackson – Lowe is an elite playmaker who should succeed in facilitating this offense. Further, Caleb Williams might be a tough guard for the Tigers; I don’t see Liutauras Lelevicius being able to consistently defend him throughout.
If this wasn’t the first game away from home for the Hoyas, this would be in best-bet range. But alas, it is. I’m going to happily take the points here and potentially sprinkle on the money line.
Georgetown vs Clemson prediction: Georgetown +4.5 (-108) available at time of publishing. Playable to +3.
