Clemson Basketball Preview: Florida State Seminoles

The struggling Clemson Tigers must hold serve at home against the red-hot Florida State Seminoles to avoid their season going into a tailspin.

Florida State Seminoles 13-13 (6-7) at Clemson Tigers 20-7 (10-4)
When: Saturday, Feb 21, Noon
Where: Littlejohn Coliseum – Clemson, SC
TV: CW

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Temperature Check on Clemson

Clemson has lost three games in a row and dropped from 28th in KenPom at the start of the month to 35th. They were projected as a 6-seed and are now more in the 8/9-seed range. If they keep losing they could find themselves on the bubble.

Fortunately for now, they are sill 33rd in the NET rankings. The losses at Wake Forest and at Duke were both quad 1 losses which doesn’t hurt so much. They’re 4-5 vs. quad 1. The home loss to VT that started the losing streak was a quad 2 loss. They’re 6-2 in quad 2 while posting a perfect 10-0 record against quads 3 and 4 combined. Despite FSU being red-hot right now, this is a quad 3 game for the Tigers making a win even more imperative.

The Tigers’ struggles have been driven by poor guard play. Dillon Hunter became a stabilizing force mid-way through last year. His return this season brought much of the same steady leadership and reliable presence. His 3-point shooting had improved and he was a key part of Clemson’s success. Recently we’ve seen a major regression though. He is averaging just 2.5 points per game on 21% shooting over the past six games.

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Jestin Porter, who has 19 more made 3-pointers than anyone else on the team, is just 2-15 from 3 over the last 3 games. Ace Buckner has been great (averaging 11 points over the last 8 games). That’s kept the guard play from being completely terrible, but the two starters must get back to form quickly.

The Red-Hot Florida State Seminoles

If Clemson had played the Seminoles a month ago, this would have been a cheap ACC win much like Boston College, Georgia Tech, or Pittsburgh. FSU was 7-11 (0-5). Since then, over the past 30 days they have gone 6-2…

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Publish date : 2026-02-20 15:25:00

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