Clemson basketball hosts No. 2 Duke in Dick Vitale’s return to ESPN. How to watch
Clemson basketball’s biggest home game of the year is on deck.
The Tigers are hosting No. 2 Duke on Saturday in Littlejohn Coliseum. It’s a massive opportunity for coach Brad Brownell’s program — and for its NCAA Tournament résumé, with Selection Sunday slowly approaching.
Here’s how to watch Clemson-Duke, and what else to know about the matchup.
How to watch Clemson vs. Duke basketball
Who: No. 2 Duke (20-2, 12-0 ACC) at Clemson (18-5, 10-2 ACC)
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson
TV: ESPN
Streaming: Via ESPN.com or the ESPN app
Betting line: Duke by 7.5 points (FanDuel)
Meeting of ACC heavyweights
Duke coach Jon Scheyer’s group has cemented itself as one of the best two teams in the country and a legitimate championship contender.
The Blue Devils — led by freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, a do-it-all forward and a lock for the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick this summer — are on a nation-best 16-game winning streak.
After blowing out Syracuse on the road Wednesday, Duke also remains perfect in the ACC at 12-0 — its best start to conference play since 2005-06. It’s the only Division I team to score over 80 points per game while allowing fewer than 60 points per game. The list goes on and on.
Combine that with the Tigers, who tied their best ever start to ACC play this season (10-1) and rank just outside the AP Top 25 ranking, and you’ve got quite a matchup.
Clemson has already announced the game as a sellout and clarified how early students can start lining up to get in for the game (9 a.m., which is 9.5 hours before tipoff). Secondary market tickets are available … at $230 a pop, per SeatGeek.
Dickie V makes his return
Clemson-Duke is also drawing one of the sport’s top broadcasters to Littlejohn.
Dick Vitale, the 85-year-old ESPN analyst, announced this week on social media that he’ll return to the booth for Saturday’s game in Clemson.
It’ll be his first game in nearly two years and his first since being declared cancer-free and ready to return to work in January.
Vitale will call the game with Dave O’Brien and Cory Alexander. A staple of ESPN’s college basketball coverage renowned for his excitement and positivity, he was behind the mic for the network’s first ever college basketball broadcast in 1979 and has called over 1,000 since.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous,” Vitale told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune this week. “But more than that? I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. The past few years have tested me like never before. … There were moments I wasn’t sure I’d ever sit courtside again.”
Clemson’s NCAA Tournament chances
Clemson’s home loss to Georgia Tech on Tuesday was unsightly.
The Tigers got dominated on the glass, bungled multiple late-game opportunities and lost 89-86 in triple overtime to a team that was 4-7 in the ACC.
It’s the sort of loss that could sink the Tigers — if it becomes a pattern.
Based on all projections and models, Clemson’s done enough at this point to feel good about its NCAA Tournament chances. As of Thursday, ESPN gave the Tigers an 85% chance to make the field and they were included on all 92 brackets regularly tracked by Bracket Matrix.
With guard Chase Hunter, forward Ian Schieffelin and a few veteran plug-and-play transfers leading the way, the Tigers have picked up quality wins and avoided bad losses. The Georgia Tech loss is their only Quad 3 or Quad 4 loss to date, as defined by the NCAA’s NET metric that plays a major role in tournament seeding.
Duke, naturally, is a Quad 1 opponent. Among its eight remaining games, Clemson also has one more Quad 1 opportunity (at SMU) and three more Quad 2 opportunities (vs. UNC, at Florida State, vs. Notre Dame, at Virginia).
Per Bracket Matrix, Clemson’s consensus projection at this point is a No. 7 seed. ESPN currently has the No. 8 Tigers facing No. 9 West Virginia in Raleigh and CBS predicts Clemson opening as a No. 7 seed against No. 10 San Diego State in Wichita.
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
