Lucas: Clemson Rapid Reactions

By Adam Lucas

1. It wasn't pretty, but it was a win. Nice design by Carolina on the final possession to draw the defense to Caleb Love, who then found an open Brady Manek for a game-winning layup.

2. The game changed when Armando Bacot was whistled for his fourth foul with 11:42 left. At that point, Carolina was up by five points. Without Bacot, who was clearly Carolina's dominant offensive player, Clemson climbed back into the game and had the lead within a couple of minutes. Bacot came back in with 6:30 left in the game; at that point, Clemson had a one-point lead. He fouled out with 1:04 remaining on an offensive foul and finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

3. With that being said, the Tigers made a major tactical error by not going hard at Bacot in the paint once he came back in. The way the whistles were blowing at that point, he almost surely would've fouled out just by being in the vicinity of the ball. Instead, Clemson went over three minutes without ever throwing the ball to P.J. Hall in the paint, and Bacot was able to stay in the game.

4. An ugly first half--and the game--changed once Carolina started taking care of the ball. The Tar Heels turned it over seven times in the first 13:00 of the half, which enabled Clemson to build a 19-13 lead at that juncture. But the Heels coughed it up just once the rest of the half, and were +11 during that stretch.

5. With Clemson paying very little defensive attention to Leaky Black, the Tar Heels adjusted the first half rotation and got a handful of minutes for Dontrez Styles and D'Marco Dunn. Clemson's lack of an offensive dynamo meant Black's defense wasn't essential, so Hubert Davis got some minutes for the freshmen. The rotation got much tighter in the second half, as only Kerwin Walton came off the bench for most of the final 20 minutes.

6. That scenario changed in the second half, as Black scored Carolina's first six points and put up 11 in the period. That included a clutch three-pointer in the game's final minutes that gave the Heels a four-point edge.

7. Good use by Davis of the use it or lose it timeout in the first half. Carolina called it with 31 seconds left and set up a good possession that ended in a Bacot dunk. In a game that at that point looked like every possession might matter, it made sense to get the ball to the most effective player. It was also a good move to call a timeout with 2:11 remaining facing a one-point deficit and the Heels with the ball under their own basket. The execution wasn't great, however, as Caleb Love stepped out of bounds on the sideline. The Tar Heels also scored the game's decisive basket out of a timeout with three seconds to play and then called another timeout after they got a look at Clemson's play design with 3.1 seconds left. In other words--with basically nothing running smoothly, that was a well orchestrated game from the UNC sideline.

8. The Love miscue was one of two times when Clemson probably had a chance to seal the game after a UNC error, but the Tigers turned it right back over. The other came when Clemson botched a two-on-one fast break a couple minutes earlier.

9. The way the game was officiated changed at halftime. The two teams combined to shoot six free throws in the first half. They shot that many in the first couple minutes of the second half, and the fouls began to rapidly accumulate. Twelve fouls were called in the first 20 minutes; 10 were whistled in the first 8:18 of the second half, and both teams were in the bonus midway through the half. The crew of Jeffrey Anderson, Kipp Kissinger and Tom Morrissey must have believed the game was played very differently in the two halves. The second half also included a five-point possession and a four-point possession for Clemson courtesy of a couple of flagrant fouls that were whistled on the visitors, plus a technical foul on an incredulous RJ Davis, who made the mistake of being happy he scored a basket in a tight ACC game. Clemson shot 19 free throws in the second half alone, and to their credit, they made 17 of them.

10. RJ Davis was important in the second half. Caleb Love continued his shooting struggles, but Davis made multiple very difficult shots, and also handed out six assists with zero turnovers. Davis finished with 16.

11. That's a much needed solid road win on Carolina's resume. Here's the trick: the Tar Heels need Clemson to play reasonably well the rest of the way. The Tigers are just outside the top 75 in the NCAA's NET rankings. If they could move into the top 75, the win becomes a Quadrant 1 victory, which would be Carolina's first in that category this season. The Tigers--missing Hunter Tyson--play two more games this week, both at home.

12. Random note: Clemson fans get biscuits when the Tigers break 70 points. That's called targeted marketing.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

D'Marco Dunn

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

Dontrez Styles

Kerwin Walton

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