March 10th, 2019
#10 Florida State (20-5, 10-5 ACC) at Clemson (23-9, 10-5 ACC)
Clemson beat us with relative ease at our place. Close first half, they led by 6 at halftime, pushed it to 10 very early in the second half, and led by double digits pretty much the entire second half, winning by 13. Their PG, Walcott scored 18, their SG, Len Bullicer scored 9 in about 15 minutes w/ foul trouble.
They have a weakness inside and we tried to exploit that, getting 10 from Pugh and 8 from Locklier... we didn't exploit it nearly enough.
Overall Clemson still has a 92 roster strength (93 off/91 def/95 sht/91 reb/91 coach).
Scouting
PG Dick Walcott – JR – 81 OVR – 96 speed/91 quickness. 84 defense, only 74 steals. Very good ball handler, just an average passer(76). 83 close/75 med/82 3/82 off the dribble. Good in traffic and a good clutch shooter too, but his job is clearly to set up Bullicer and Vargas. Just 4.5 ppg.
SG Mitch Len Bullicer – SR – 89 OVR – Pretty awesome development for a guy who just has C+ potential. 15.3 ppg, leading the team I believe. Good but not elite speed. 82 defense/87 steals, a great steals guy but just an average defender. 89 close/84 med/91 3/84 off the dribble. A truly elite shooter from anywhere on the court. He's 6'3 and has good rebounding skills for a guard. Was the #22 recruit and is projected as a first round draft pick.
SF JP Vargas – SR – 88 OVR – 6'5 – natural SG – elite speed(95) but no quickness(83). 84 defense/89 steals. 89 close/87 med/79 3/85 off the dribble/86 in traffic. Less of a 3 point threat than Len Bullicer, but a huge threat anyway. Coach on the floor(85 off awareness/79 defensive). 9.7 ppg/5.0 rpg this year so far.
PF WM Lalugba – FR – 79 OVR – 6'4” only, a natural SF, we've got a huge edge here I hope. 74 orb/79 drb. 79 post offense/69 post deense. 84 close/82 in traffic. He's a solid athlete but Pugh is a fair on ball defender, enough that he can come out and keep an eye on this guy.
C Ekene Pettway – SR – 80 OVR – 6'11” natural center. 74 orb/88 drb. 79 blocked shot rating, not bad at all. 85 post offense/83 post defense. 93 close/85 in traffic. He has very good, but not great skills. 8.5 ppg/4.4 rpg. A threat inside for sure but nothing compared to their guards.
They have a 3
rd natural SG on the bench, Roland Mitchell is rated 87 OVR, all his shooting ratings are above 80, his shooting off the dribble is 88, in traffic 89... looks like a huge threat off the bench. He avearages 9 a game.
A 4
th SG, Taurean Morgan is a 6'5” guard rated 83 OVR. Also a solid shooter averaging 6 ppg.
Half
| Time
| FSU
| CLEM
| Notes
|
1
| 17:15
| 3
| 10
| Sigh. Timeout FSU. Len Bullicer has 8.
|
1
| 15:00
| 9
| 13
| They sit Len Bullicer. He has 11, 3-3 from 3, shooting over Crosswhite, our best on ball defender. Lets see how things go with him on the bench.
|
1
| 14:00
| 13
| 13
| That's about how I expected things to go with their big scorer sitting heh. Timeout Clemson.
|
1
| 12:45
| 18
| 13
| 9-0 FSU run while Len Bullicer sits. Pugh has 4 and 3 assists, all kickouts for 3's. Clemson timeout, they get their star back in.
|
1
| 10:40
| 18
| 18
| They've tied it up and my starters are ready to come out now... timeout FSU, backups in.
|
1
| 9:55
| 18
| 18
| Another timeout Clemson, unsure why but thanks for helping my starters rest! Duncan has a 91 on ball defense rating, highest on the team today so he's on Len Bullicer.
|
1
| 5:15
| 29
| 23
| There we go! Watson comes alive for 7 points, the starters were ready around the 7 minute mark but we had everything going our way so I wasn't going to stop the clock. Starters are back in now after a foul by us.
|
| HALF
| 40
| 32
| A Weisse breakaway with 5 seconds left gives us an 8 point lead. Great first half. Crosswhite 10, Watson 7, Weisse 8. Pugh has 4 points/5 boards, he should be more involved but i'm not complaning. We're 15-30. Crosswhite is only 3-10 and 3-8 from 3, early on he was launching a bit much desparately trying to keep us in it against what was a 2-3 zone exclusively.
They have 13 from Len Bullicer, a great result given that he scored 11 of their first 13 points. The problem for Clemson is that no one has stepped up. Walcott(PG) has 5, no one else has more than 2 in their starting 5.
|
2
| 17:20
| 46
| 36
| We get out to our first 10 point lead of the game.
|
2
| 15:40
| 46
| 43
| Ugh, 7-0 run for them, right back down to 3.
|
2
| 11:40
| 56
| 51
| Backups are in. We've burned two timeouts to avoid held ball situations and are down to just 2 remaining for the game, which let us get a bit more out of the starters.
|
2
| 6:10
| 65
| 57
| Watson with a couple more big shots, Duncan a 3 and Clemson takes a timeout. Watson just sunk a giant 3 to put us up 8. Starters are back in.
|
2
| 5:00
| 67
| 59
| 8 point lead with 5 left, we just grabbed a big offensive board.
|
2
| 3:30
| 67
| 59
| We're not scoring but time's running off fast. They miss a shot on one possession, then Crosswhite intercepts an outlet pass on another.
|
2
| 2:05
| 67
| 62
| Vargas with a 3 for them and its a 5 point game, our ball.
|
2
| 1:45
| 69
| 62
| Pugh with a hook shot in low, 7 point lead, timeout Clemson.
|
2
| 0:50
| 71
| 64
| They score again, but we burn clock and Pugh hits a beautiful turnaround from about 13-15 feet out on the right wing.
|
2
| 0:30
| 71
| 67
| They take awhile but do hit a 3 to cut the lead down to 4.
|
2
| 0:26
| 73
| 67
| Crosswhite at the line, hits both. Clutch!
|
They miss their next time down, we get the rebound and ice the game at the line.
Florida State 77
Clemson 69
Clemson clearly isn't quite the same caliber of Boston College and Georgia Tech, though they are rated as good as anyone in the league. Regardless, this was a big, big road win for us, as it gives us the knowledge that we can go into a hostile environment against a team as good or better and pull of a win, something we needed to see after embarrassing losses to BC and Ga Tech.
They get 4 guys in double figures, Len Bullicer cools way off and finishes with only 17. Vargas 14, C Pettway 11.
Summers: 8 points/3 boards
Crosswhite: 17 points
Weisse: 16 points/4 boards
Pugh: 14 points/10 boards
Locklier: 2 points/5 boards
Watson: 13 points
Watson was huge off the bench today.