CLEMSON — Like always, Clemson head basketball coach Brad Brownell was direct and to the point following the Tigers’ loss at Louisville this past Tuesday.

“I am disappointed with our team’s performance tonight,” he said. “I don’t think we played with the type of force and toughness necessary to come into this type of environment and be successful.”

The Tigers (12-4, 4-1 ACC) did not seem tough, especially mentally in the loss to Louisville. After cutting the what was once a 12-point lead for the Cardinals to two points with 10:45 to play, Clemson missed 13 of its next 14 attempts and could not get out of its own way down the stretch.

It also allowed Louisville guard J’Vonne Hadley to score a career-high 32 points on 10 of 12 shooting. Hadley was averaging just over 10 points per game coming in and had not scored in double figures in almost a month.

“Hadley was terrific and we did not have an answer for him,” Brownell said.

Clemson needs to have an answer for Florida State, who comes into Littlejohn Coliseum for a 2 p.m., tip on Saturday (ACCN). In a season in which the Tigers are considered one of the top teams to contend for an ACC Regular Season Championship, holding serve at home is extremely important.

The Seminoles (11-4, 2-2 ACC) are coming off an 80-65 win at Miami. Malique Erwin totaled his third career double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, as the Seminoles closed the game on a 30-7 run.

Ewin totaled 12 second half points and four second half rebounds as Florida State won its second consecutive ACC game. He is averaging 13.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

Taylor Bol Bowen added 16 points in the win over the Hurricanes, while, Jamir Watkins scored 10 points. Both Ewin and Watkins have now scored in double figures in 12 consecutive games, dating back to November 15.

Watkins leads the Seminoles with 18.7 points per game.

Bol Bowen was on from outside vs. Miami, as he made all four of his attempts from 3-point range. He added six rebounds and three assists, as well.

Speaking of assists, Daquan Davis, in his third ACC start, totaled a career-high 10 assists. He also scored nine points and added three rebounds. Davis’ night included 10 assists and only one turnover in 25 minutes of playing time.

What does all this mean, the Tigers are going to play a very confident FSU team at Littlejohn and they have to play better than they did against Louisville.

“For whatever reason, we just did not play very well,” Brownell said. “I think the environment bothered us a little bit. We did not have the kind of rhythm and follow (needed).

“I felt like we were searching, I was searching  to try and help our guys. Our big guys did not do a good enough job of finishing around the basket. That was a problem for us.”

The Tigers will also need to be more physical against the Seminoles. They drew only 13 fouls in the Louisville game and shot just five free throws.

“We needed to do a better job of drawing more fouls out of the paint,” Brownell said. “That obviously was a big difference in the game.”

Clemson has to figure out a way to fix those things if it wants to hold serve at home Saturday against FSU.