Clemson, Memphis announce home-and-home basketball series for 2023-24

Clemson has added a marquee opponent to its out of conference schedule for each of the next two seasons. The Clemson Tigers announced on Tuesday that they will be playing the Memphis Tigers in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The first game of the home-and-home will be played in Memphis this season on Dec. 16. Clemson will host Penny Hardaway’s squad in 2024-25.

Clemson head coach Brad Brownell spoke following this past season about wanting to beef up his team’s out of conference schedule and playing at Memphis certainly does that. Memphis was a No. 8 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament and suffered a one-point loss to FAU in the first round, before FAU went on to reach the Final Four.

Memphis finished 26-9 last season and has won 20-plus games every year under Hardaway.

Clemson also had a strong 2022-23 season but just missed out on the NCAA Tournament. Brownell’s squad finished 23-11, including a 14-6 mark in ACC play, and finished third in the league. However, Clemson was named one of the first four teams out of the tourney on Selection Sunday.

Clemson has a chance to be even better this year as star forward PJ Hall passed on the NBA Draft to return for his junior season. In addition to Hall, guard Chase Hunter and forward Ian Schieffelin are back after starting most of last year.

Clemson also brought in some impact transfers from the portal, including guard Joe Girard, who was one of the top scorers in the ACC last season at Syracuse.

Joe Girard explains decision to remain in ACC, transfer to Clemson

Speaking of Joe Girard, he explained his decision to remain in the ACC and transfer to Clemson earlier this summer.

He spoke with Chris Spatola on SiriusXM about the process.

“To be honest, at first, it was a little nerve-racking for me. I didn’t know if I really wanted to [transfer to an ACC school], because with the experience and everything, you kind of want to see if you can play in a different environment, see if you can play a different style with all the other leagues that they offer,” Joseph Girard said.

“A lot of coaches with a few of the schools that recruited me, they would say, ‘Well, you don’t think they’re going to know you if you go to the PAC-12 or the SEC? I mean they kind of put it in a good perspective and it made sense. … Looking at it, there are a lot of pros to it. You’re familiar with all the teams, you’re familiar with all the arenas, you’re familiar with all the environments and you’ve been through it for four years.”