By Will Vandervort.

In wins over Arkansas and Auburn, Clemson did a pretty decent job against both teams pressing style of play, though the Tigers did turn the basketball ball over 14 times against the Razorbacks and 17 times against the SEC’s Tigers.

And though it might seem that this kind of experience could play out favorably for Clemson in Wednesday’s game at No. 5 Louisville, then again it might not. Though the Cardinals run a full-court press, what Rick Pitino’s squad does is nothing like what everyone else does.

“It’s a little bit unique. It is not as much risk-reward. It is more safety pressing, but it is not really safety pressing because of the way their guards can really bother you,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said.

Those guards are Chris Jones and Terry Rozier. Jones has 30 steals already this year and Rozier has 32. The Cardinals have 149 overall in just 14 games. In comparison, the Tigers have just 65 steals in 13 games so far.

“They don’t take a lot of chances,” Brownell said. “They are not trapping you unless it is out of a run-and-jump situation. They are just putting extreme pressure on you to get the ball in bounds and extreme pressure to bring it up the court versus some of the best ball-hawks you will go against.”

Then Louisville (13-1, 1-0 ACC) will mix up some running and jumping.

“It’s very good,” Brownell said. “It is really good. It might be harder to deal with than the others. But it will be a big factor in the game in terms of how our guards handle that.”

Lately, Clemson’s guards, in particular senior Rod Hall, has handled the ball pretty well the last few games. After turning the ball over five times in a loss to South Carolina, the point guard has only been charged with three turnovers in the three games since. However, he turned the basketball over eight times against Auburn’s trapping defense.

The key for Clemson (8-5, 0-1 ACC) against the Cardinals will be to take care of the basketball and get off to a good start.

“It is going to be a hostile environment. You are going to be playing a team that is playing their first ACC game at home. There is going to be a lot of hype about it and there is going to be a lot of energy in the building and we just need to get off to a good start,” Brownell said. “Those are critical in games against these kinds of team that are top programs. If you do not get off to a good start and set the tone a little bit, it just puts you in a heck of a hole. Really, we need to take care of the ball early, try to rebound physically and then we are going to have to make a couple of shots.

“Unfortunately, I thought we guarded reasonably well the first 10 minutes of the game, but we just did not make enough shots and it put us in a huge hole against North Carolina and we cannot have that happen again against a team like Louisville.”