University of North Carolina Athletics
Clemson Game Guide
January 21, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 21, 2009
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
No. 5/6 North Carolina (16-2, 2-2) will host No. 10/9 Clemson (16-1, 2-1) and look to get above .500 in ACC play for the first time this season. Carolina is coming off of an 82-65 win over Miami on Saturday night. Clemson was handed its first loss of the season, 78-68, at home on Saturday by the current No. 1 team, Wake Forest. The Tigers were one of three unbeatens left in the nation; Wake Forest is the last remaining. Carolina will have a one-week break before its next ACC game.
Carolina leads the all-time series between the two schools, 121-19. Clemson is 0-53 in Chapel Hill, the longest road losing streak in college basketball history. Carolina is 22-0 against Clemson in the Smith Center. Carolina has won nine in a row in the series. This will be the second meeting ever in Chapel Hill in which both teams are ranked in the top ten. The other time was in 1987 when Clemson was 10th and Carolina was 3rd.
Game Time: Clemson at North Carolina, 9:00 PM.
Last Time: Carolina beat Clemson 86-81 in the ACC Tournament Championship game to claim its second straight ACC Tournament title and third straight win that season over Clemson. Clemson led 39-38 at the break but Carolina shot 56.7% in the second half while the Tigers shot 44.1 percent. Carolina dominated the backboards, 49-34. The two teams combined for 37 turnovers (Carolina had 20). Carolina took a 13-point lead with eight minutes to go but Clemson scored eight straight and twice came within four points in the final 3:30. Carolina's press-break offense carried the day as the Tar Heels managed 34 fast-break points.
Wayne Ellington led the way with 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Tyler Hansbrough added 18 points and 11 rebounds. Ty Lawson had 12 points, eight assists and four turnovers. Danny Green had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Marcus Ginyard added ten points and nine rebounds. K.C. Rivers led the way for Clemson with 28 points on 9-of-20 shooting (6-of-12 from beyond the arc), adding eight rebounds and six steals. Trevor Booker had 12 points, six rebounds and six blocked shots. Demontez Stitt added 11 points.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 8:00 PM.
Injury Report: Mike Copeland tore his ACL in May and saw his first action of the season against Nevada. Tyler Zeller broke his wrist against Kentucky. He had surgery and will likely miss the rest of the season. Marcus Ginyard returned to limited action in the Nevada and Boston College games but has missed the last two games. He is still trying to get back into his normal form after having surgery on October 8th to repair a stress fracture in his foot. He will be re-evaluated on Thursday.
Storylines
Assists and turnovers: Carolina has had problems either taking care of the ball and with assists in three of its four conference games so far. Carolina had assists on just 44 percent of its field goals in its ACC losses and a staggering 70.9% in its two wins. Carolina's assist-turnover ratio has crept up from 0.72 in the first two games to 1.7 in the last two wins. Still, Carolina has more turnovers than it averaged before league play (12.8) in three of four ACC games. It's a concern because Clemson is a team that lives on forcing turnovers. The Clemson press is something that Carolina alternately struggled with and exploited, sometimes in the same game.
In three games (nearly three and a half with the overtimes), Carolina had plenty of exposure to it. Carolina turned it over 19 or more times in seven of 19 ACC games last season; three of those were against Clemson. Carolina averaged 19.7 turnovers against the Tigers; Carolina has not turned it over more than 18 times this season so far. Seven teams also had double-digit steals against Carolina (opponents averaged 8.6); Clemson had 11 or more in every meeting with Carolina and averaged 12.7 steals. This year, Carolina's league opponents are averaging eight steals. Clemson also converted its 38 steals into 71 points off turnovers (23.7 per game).
Despite the way Carolina has struggled shooting it at times, it has the three of the top 30 offensive players in the nation according to Ken Pomeroy; Wayne Ellington also checks in at 106th. Carolina is 47th in the nation in assists per field goals made (60.4%) and Pomeroy also charts Carolina as the No. 1 offense in the land. Carolina is 13th in turnover percentage (17.1 percent). The Tar Heels have faced just two of the top 100 and six of the top 150 defenses in the nation in turnover percentage. Santa Barbara is the highest-ranked team at 38th, forcing 23.9% turnovers; Carolina had a 17.9% loss of ball in that game. Evansville is 80th at 22.4%; Carolina had a 16.8% loss of ball. Wake Forest is 105th at 22.1%; despite 18 turnovers, Carolina had a 16.5% loss of ball because of a season-high 109 possessions.
Interestingly, Carolina has had problems in recent games with teams outside of the top in terms of turnovers forced. Boston College is 289th at 18.5%; Carolina had a 14.4% loss of ball in the loss. Miami is 292nd at 18.4%; Carolina had a 16.5% loss of ball against the Hurricanes. But against Virginia, Carolina had just nine turnovers, the fewest it has had in a game since Michigan State. Carolina's three second-half turnovers against Virginia were the fewest it has had in a half since Chaminade.
Carolina's biggest issue in the last three games has been that it has turned it over on average nine times in the first half. That number drops to just 4.7 in the second half, but against Wake Forest, the 12 first-half turnovers tied a season high and really put the Tar Heels in a hole. Even at Wake Forest, Carolina did some good things against the No. 1 team in the nation but couldn't pull it out. Including the second half at Wake, Carolina has a 1.55 assist/turnover ratio; Carolina has dished out 45 assists on 66 field goals (68.2%). Something clicked.
"I think the last couple games we've played, we've been clicking," Green said. "We've just been selfless and not as careless. Our turnovers have usually, Coach said, been a lack of effort or selfishness or carelessness, basically. That's where turnovers come from. So we need to be selfless, be real urgent and have a real care for the ball. So just sharing the ball and playing with each other, having fun - I think that just puts us on the same page.
Getting the Carolina swagger back: It sounds cheesy. But if you saw the look on Wayne Ellington's face when his shot finally started falling or heard the Smith Center crowd explode when Danny Green made two ridiculous blocks, it seems more real. Carolina has never lost to Clemson in Chapel Hill in 53 games. It's a streak that Clemson has come close to ending recently and a streak that Carolina would like to keep intact. But what's more important than the streak is Carolina beginning to get things going again. The team appears to be regaining its confidence slowly but surely after seeming beaten down and even unhappy and tight on the court in two league losses.
"We're getting our confidence back; we're getting kind of our swagger back a little bit," Danny Green, who has a lot to do with that, said. "We're just playing basketball now. We're playing together as a team. Guys are hitting shots. We're executing better. Coach is more pleased with the way we're executing and doing the things that we're doing. If we continue to play this way and keep making shots (going) forward, I think we'll be fine. ... We have the potential to be a great team."
Green said that Carolina getting back to taking smart shots (even if they didn't always go in) and playing tough, hard-nosed defense has seemed to trickle down to every other aspect of the game. "Getting back to being a hungry team and just doing the little things out on the floor - playing pressure defense, executing, setting good screens, hustling back on defense," Green said. "The blocks just came from hustling back on defense and just trying to stop them from getting a basket. Luckily, it came out good for me and we got some stops. But we needed to have everybody in that type of mental mode."
Miami only outscored Carolina 17-10 during a stretch of less than three minutes, but it seemed like more than a nine-point deficit. Carolina seemed demoralized. Miami made 6-of-7 shots and 3-of-4 three's in that span to take a 32-23 lead with 6:48 to go. "We were down a bunch and I think we had been going through the motions," Williams said. "We even sort of started feeling sorry for ourselves because they were making a bunch of shots. Some of those shots I thought we did a decent job of guarding them but over the course of a game if you do a decent job of guarding them you give them an opportunity to miss instead of just hoping they miss. I thought that the last five minutes of the first half was crucial."
It was Miami's turn to feel sorry for itself after that as the Tar Heels forced them into nine missed shots and zero points down the stretch to take a 36-32 lead into halftime. There were Carolina steals, blocked shots and even a three-pointer at the first-half buzzer that all helped Carolina gain momentum and feel good about itself going into halftime. Did Carolina get any better defensively before the first half ended? Not necessarily, but the Tar Heels did pick up their intensity. Two Carolina steals and fastbreak dunks brought the lead to three and two Ed Davis blocks set off the Tar Heel faithful. Sometimes, that's all it takes.
Clemson will most certainly be playing with emotion coming off of a disappointing loss to Wake Forest, so Carolina had better be ready to pull from that reservoir again. "That's the way you're supposed to play," Williams said. "You're supposed to play with some emotion. You're supposed to lose yourself in the game. I say that all the time to the kids and I think we finally did that."
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
ESPN coverage: The game will be available on ESPN. Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale will have the call.
Names To Know
Wayne Ellington: Leave it to Wayne Ellington to wake up just when the Tar Heels need him the most. Last year Carolina needed him to deliver it from the brink in double overtime against Clemson when Carolina was in danger of picking up its third ACC loss. Ellington responded with a six-game stretch of 20.7 points per game, including 28 against the Tigers, 19 in a narrow win at Virginia and 20 at Boston College in a comeback victory. He has struggled to find his shot consistently this season, but rarely his all-around game. Considering his season average has gone up from 12.3 points in non-conference play to 17.3 points in league play, he is stepping up yet again when Carolina needs him the most.
Roy Williams mentioned how gratifying it was to see Ellington's shot fall against Miami after he has struggled to find it all season despite his hard work. "There's been a little extra pressure on him and the shot just hasn't gone in. A lot of people in here play golf - if you miss one, you're not quite as confident on the next one. That's the way it is in basketball," Williams said. "I did expect that he was going to get it straightened out, but I told him I wanted it to be in my lifetime, too. ... I'm hoping that this sort of puts him over the edge and gives him some confidence and gets him a rhythm where he'll make a lot of them."
Ellington had 23 points in the second half against Miami, by far his biggest scoring half and his highest-scoring game this season. He only has five double-digit halves of basketball this season; two came in Carolina's first three games. But the last two have come in Carolina's last three games. Ellington had 13 points in the second half against Wake Forest on 2-of-9 shooting but made all seven free throws and pulled down four second-half rebounds (three offensive). Since then, he has averaged 18 points in the last two games on 12-of-24 shooting (7-of-13 from beyond the arc), six rebounds and four assists. In six of Carolina's first 12 games, he shot under 40 percent from the floor and he has only done that in one of the last six games (Wake Forest).
Ellington had five 20-point games in ACC play last season and three were against Clemson, including his career-high 36 points in the initial overtime win at Clemson to open league play last year. He averaged 0.75 points per minute against the Tigers, scoring 29.3 points in three games and shooting 55.6% from the floor, 57.1% from the three-point line and 84.2% from the foul line. He also averaged three rebounds, 2.3 assists, one steal and three turnovers in 39.3 minutes. He averaged four made three's against the Tigers.
But it was Ellington's final game of the year against Clemson in the ACC Championship game that was arguably his most impressive. The Tar Heels were able to break Clemson's press with more ease than they have all season and get out in transition; Ellington made 8-of-9 two-point baskets and ran the floor brilliantly. He also had four assists and two steals. He is one of Carolina's best at running the floor as it is and the way he got hot against Miami, jetting down the floor and setting up quickly in a vacant spot of the Miami zone defense, he could continue to be a weapon in what will be an up-and-down game.
Ty Lawson: If there was a play that summed up Ty Lawson's year so far, someone might bring up one of his spectacular three-point plays or speeding up the court to lay it in after a made basket. But the play that encapsulated not only how much Lawson has improved but also how much he can impact a game was when he decided that Jack McClinton was not going to get the ball. He decided that the ball belonged to him and that he was tired of waiting and watching.
"I think Danny's blocks and Eddie's (Ed Davis') blocks got the crowd going, but it didn't get our team going," Williams said. "After all that stuff was over, you look up and we are still down seven or eight. I do think it really started when Ty started getting more pressure on the ball. We got two or three steals out in the middle of the court that we converted to baskets. In one of them, he goes diving down on the floor and ended up getting it to the other end too."
He wanted to be the spark for this team on the defensive end; when he is, Carolina is darn near unbeatable. "It makes them start their offense a lot farther away. They can't run what they want to run when Ty's pressuring the ball like that," Danny Green said. "When anybody is pressuring the ball, you can't really see the floor as well, you can't make the passes you want to make, you can't cut the way you want to cut. It makes them push their offense further back, it makes them do other things and work outside of their offense and not execute as well."
Ty Lawson played in 13 of Carolina's 19 ACC games (including the ACC Tournament) and had just three shooting performances of under 40 percent; one came against Clemson. He also had four ACC games with four or more turnovers and two of those came against Clemson. In his two games against the Tigers, he shot 9-of-23 (39.1%) from the floor, 0-of-4 from beyond the arc and 10-of-13 from the foul line, averaging 14 points, 5.5 rebounds, eight assists, four fouls and 4.5 turnovers in 32 minutes. His assist-turnover ratio was 1.8 against the Tigers and 2.9 against other ACC foes; he also averaged nearly one more steal per game (1.5) against all other teams.
Lawson had four or more fouls in six of Carolina's 39 games last season; two were against Clemson. It's certainly a worry because the Tar Heels need him on the court. In 88 career games at Carolina, the Tar Heels are a ridiculous 56-2 when Lawson stays below three fouls and 21-9 when he has three or more fouls (he has played in just 11 losses in the last three seasons). His defensive maturity and progress shows through how much his fouls have dropped; he had three or more fouls in 19 games his freshman season (Carolina was 12-7 in those games). In the last two seasons, he has played in 50 games and has three or more fouls in just 11.
He has not fouled out since his freshman season; Carolina is actually 2-0 when he fouls out. But when he is limited due to foul trouble either in playing time or what he can do defensively, Carolina is 19-9 when he has three or more fouls and surprisingly is 12-6 when he has only three fouls, including 1-1 this season. It hurt the Tar Heels quite a bit when Lawson picked up his third foul against Wake Forest with 17:42 to go. The point is that the Tar Heels not only need Lawson in the game but also need him to be setting the tempo on both ends of the court. That's how Carolina is able to survive off-shooting nights. When Lawson is able to change a game, the Tar Heels are a completely different team.
K.C. Rivers: The 6-5 senior guard/forward continues to be one of the most underrated and versatile players in the ACC this season. Rivers is 14th in the league in scoring (14.7 points per game), 19th in rebounding (6.5 per game), tenth in field-goal percentage (46.9%) and tied for fifth in three-pointers made (2.0 per game). In the loss to Wake Forest, he had 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting and added six rebounds. He had his best ACC game against Miami, notching 28 points on a scorching 10-of-15 shooting performance. He is actually shooting 48.7% in ACC play (47.1% from beyond the arc) and averaging 17.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists, making 2.7 three's per league game. In non-conference games, he was shooting 46.5% (32.9% from beyond the arc), averaging 14.1 points, 1.9 three's, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.7 steals.
The very reason that Ellington was able to thrive against Clemson is the same reason that Rivers also did well against the Tar Heels. It was a constant duel between the two guards as Rivers averaged 22 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 4.3 steals and 1.3 blocks in three meetings. He also shot 46.9% from the floor and 51.9% from beyond the arc, averaging a ridiculous 4.7 made three's per game. Also like Ellington, Rivers also thrived in the final up-and-down meeting between the two teams, notching 28 points. He made 6-of-12 three-pointers and had eight rebounds and six steals.
"When it's an up-and-down game, sometimes human nature is you run into run into the lane to stop layups and inside shots by the other team, and then all of a sudden, you have to build back out that pressure," Williams said of Ellington's dominance. "I think that's also something you can say that K.C. Rivers has been pretty doggone good against us for the same reason. So we've got to run back and find K.C. in transition and I would suspect that's what they'll try to do with Wayne."
Trevor Booker: The 6-7 junior forward/center was often said to be coming into his own last season and he showed flashes of what he can do. This season, he appears to be putting it all together. He leads Clemson and is 12th in the league in scoring (15.1 points), is second in the league in rebounding (9.0 per game), eight in offensive rebounding (2.9), fourth in defensive rebounding (6.1), first in field-goal percentage (56%), and first in blocks (2.9 per game). He is also second on the team in assists with 1.9 per game and third in steals with 1.4 per game. He's just 6-7 but his height has never been a problem; he is one of the most tenacious and determined post players in the ACC right now.
Just like Carolina's frontcourt, Booker struggled against the Wake Forest front line, shooting just 3-of-9 from the floor for nine points. In league play, his shooting percentage dropped to 42.1% in three games from 59.9% in non-conference. He also has decreased his free throw percentage from 73.4% to 61.5% in league play. But Booker has contributed in other ways, averaging 10 rebounds (8.8 in non-conference), increasing his assists to 2.7 from 1.8, his steals to 2.0 from 1.3 and his blocked shots to 3.0 from 2.6. He has hit 3-of-7 three's in the last four games after hitting just 2-of-5 in the first 13 games. He did have one of his best games of the season against NC State, hitting 9-of-17 shots, adding six rebounds, three steals and six blocks in just 30 minutes.
In three games last year against the Tar Heels, Booker averaged 12 points, nine rebounds (3.7 offensive boards), 1.3 assists, 3.3 blocks, 4.7 fouls and 1.7 turnovers. He shot 51.4% from the floor. Two of his efforts were double-doubles and he fouled out of two of the games. In the final meeting in the ACC Tournament, he did not have a double-double but did have 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and six blocks in 33 minutes. It was the only meeting of the three that he did not foul out of that season.
Quotables
"He learned. He watched on the sidelines and took some notes. I think I taught him pretty well." -Danny Green on Wayne Ellington being `inspired' by his own hot shooting performance against UNC-Asheville
"I think they (the two performances) were pretty similar. He stepped out a little bit farther than me. ... I'd probably give mine the edge. I didn't get a heat-check." -Wayne Ellington
"Coach talked about us making the extra effort, just hustling back on defense, getting back, doing the little things, getting back to being that hungry team." Danny Green pauses and chews an enormous bite of pizza. "As you can see, I'm pretty hungry myself."
"I told Wayne (Ellington) and Tyler (Hansbrough) today, they shouldn't be too tired. They only played half the game each on Saturday. Tyler played the first half and Wayne played the second half. But they didn't buy into that very much." -Roy Williams
"He's got an old-school jump- hot, a little push shot, left-handed, Lenny Wilkens style. He gets off the ground; he's vertical 2-3 inches." -Roy Williams on President Barack Obama's jump shot
"When I came here as a student in 68-69, we'd just get after people (defensively). Well, hello Pete, they couldn't do the things with the ball they allow them to do now. I love Eddie Fogler to death - he couldn't guard those guys right now. He got after people. Jimmy Delany, Commissioner of the Big 10 - that's where he should be because he couldn't guard the ball right now. But we could then because guys weren't allowed to do the things with the basketball." -Roy Williams
"The best shooter I ever coached in high school - one time we're playing down at Sylva Webster which is way up in the mountains. Kenny in the first half was 0-for-6 and he comes out in the second half and he misses his first two shots and now he's 0-for-8. He goes running by the bench, and every shooter feels this way, he says, `Coach, I just know I'm going to start making them!' I said, `I do too Kenny, but is it going to be tonight?'" -Roy Williams
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
