Kaleb Glenn and Emmanuel Okorafor

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There were two Atlantic Coast Conference teams that the University of Louisville men's basketball team defeated last season.

One was Georgia Tech, which fired its coach (Josh Pastner) after the season.

The other was Clemson, which did not fire its coach (Brad Brownell) after the season because the Tigers actually finished 14-6 in league play in 2023.

As the list of items that U of L can achieve this season continues to dwindle, beating Clemson or Georgia Tech remains on the table for Kenny Payne's program.

The Cards will visit Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, South Carolina, at 9 p.m. Tuesday for their first meeting with the Tigers since U of L's 83-73 victory last Feb. 18.

Can they do it again? The analytics formulas project that it is highly unlikely.

Ken Pomeroy's numbers have it 84-67 Clemson with a 94% win probability. Bart Torvik's numbers have it 86-66 Clemson with a 96% win probability.

Hey, KenPom put Clemson's win probability at 87% before the game last season, and it resulted in U of L's best victory of the season.

"I can easily say they will probably be the most physical team that we play," Payne said.

"They set great screens. They post the ball a lot. They play well together. You can't really scout three, four or five offensive sets that they run. They probably have 50 sets."

Make a note of this: In the projected men's NCAA Tournament bracket that Joe Lunardi shared at ESPN.com at 11 a.m. Monday, he included three ACC teams:

  • North Carolina, a one-seed
  • Duke, a five-seed
  • Clemson, a seven-seed

Considering Clemson has lost five of its last seven that seems strange. But the Tigers have three quality out-of-conference victories over Alabama, South Carolina and TCU. They also beat Boise State.

They are 13-6 overall, 3-5 in the ACC. And they had a game taken from them by the officials at Duke on Saturday after losing in double overtime at Georgia Tech.

"It's going to be hard," Payne said. "We have to know going in that it's going to be hard and we have to go in there and take it if we want it."

If they intend to take it they could use a positive night from Emmanuel Okorafor, who made a solid contribution (six points, four rebounds and a block) in his first 10 minutes back after missing seven consecutive games with an ankle injury.

With Okorafor and J.J. Traynor injured and Dennis Evans no longer with the team because of a medical issue, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield has averaged nearly 33 minutes per game in the Cards' nine ACC games.

Okorafor should provide Huntley-Hatfield some breathing room and give Payne the option of using a bigger lineup against Clemson, which ranks second in the ACC in offensive rebounding percentage.

In ACC games, the Tigers have rebounded 31.1% of their misses shots. Louisville ranks last in that category at 19.8%.

"One of our Achilles' heels has been rebounding," Payne said. "That's what Emmanuel does, he rebounds — to go with Kaleb (Glenn) and Brandon.

"So that gives us three guys that are strong on the boards and we're going to need all three to play and contribute …

"... he came in (against Virginia). He showed that he can bring a different dynamic with us."

And Louisville could use as much of that different vibe as Okorafor can contribute.

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