Lucas: Long Live

By Adam Lucas

CLEMSON, S.C.—Atlantic Coast Conference basketball isn't over just yet.

Maybe you've heard differently. Maybe you've heard that the ACC is no longer the cool conference, that a better version of the game is played somewhere else, that the NET or KenPom or some other computer somewhere favors a different league.

Forget those computers. Come inside Littlejohn Coliseum on a Saturday afternoon, with two good teams battling it out and the students lined up outside in the rainy cold two hours early even though classes aren't even in session right now. There's fire shooting out during starting lineups and the lights are out and the students are all in their orange shirts.

There are good, veteran players on both sides—Joe Girard and PJ Hall for the home team and Armando Bacot and RJ Davis for the visitors. This is the fourth time Hall has faced the Tar Heels and the seventh for Girard. Nobody has any secrets anymore.

So the gameplan matters and execution matters. The Tar Heels had a great one, with the scouting report handled by Pat Sullivan and implemented by Hubert Davis and the entire staff the last two days. And it was executed well enough to get a solid 65-55 victory.

The message to the team in practice was simple: Carolina and Clemson are two similar teams that want to score in the paint, hit three-pointers, and force midrange shots on defense.

"Coach Sully told us," said Armando Bacot, "that something had to give today."

What gave was Clemson's undefeated record at Littlejohn this season. On paper it looked like a battle of two talented offensive teams but instead turned into what we've seen plenty before from Carolina and Clemson—a grinding, defensive minded game.

Three key factors ultimately determined the outcome: the Heels' individual defense on Girard, the individual defense against Hall, and the team defense over the decisive final five minutes.

The best defensive statistic against Girard was not his 1-for-10 from the field. It was his six two-point attempts. That's more two-point shots than he's taken in a game since November 19, and it's because a constant parade of Tar Heels—largely RJ Davis, Cormac Ryan and Seth Trimble—were fully committed defensively to blanketing him outside the arc, chasing him around constant screens, never taking the easy route by going under those screens, and forcing him inside the three-point line.

The work against Hall was less artistic and more physical, and was handled largely by Bacot. Hall finished 4-for-13 and fouled out after just 24 minutes.

"I was trying not to let him get to his spots," Bacot said.

"Every one of their shots, cuts and posts was met with physicality," said a very pleased Hubert Davis.

Imagine, then, how happy the head coach was with his overall team's defense in the final five minutes, when Clemson did not make a field goal. Hall sank a jumper at the 5:02 mark that made it a 58-55 Carolina lead. From that point, the Tar Heels limited the Tigers to 0-for-6 from the field and allowed just one offensive rebound on those six misses.

They took a one-possession game and stretched it out such that an audible "Tar-Heels!" cheer was echoing from corner to corner of Littlejohn in the waning minutes, and when Bacot went to the free throw line with 1:26 left and a nine-point lead, he was greeted by the sight of those same Clemson students who had lined up early streaming up the stairs to the exits. The game was so clearly over that the Tigers didn't attempt to score on their final possession, instead just trying to get it over with more quickly.

It felt like a very Tar Heel-esque finish to a road win, draining the energy from an excited crowd, executing in the closing minutes and sealing the win with authority. "We worked on the last three minutes of the game in practice," Bacot said. "We were prepared and we carried that focus over to the game."

You might get the impression that the Tar Heels were pleased with this win, and you'd be correct. This was a good victory, one likely to be a key notch on the postseason credentials. But it was also something else.

It is not cool to say nice things about the ACC anymore. The league has indisputably changed; look no further than the fact that Carolina played a road game at Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Look, Brad Daugherty never did battle with Jerome Lane.

But Carolina and Clemson are both original members of this conference, this league that has been a college mainstay for three-quarters of a century. When Bacot passed both Charlie Scott and Al Wood on the UNC career scoring list, it felt right that, yeah, they played against Clemson, too.

If there comes a day when the league goes away, or when the Tar Heels out of necessity go elsewhere, this is what will be missed. Not the points or the rebounds. But the feeling that you're getting those points or rebounds against an opponent who knows you, an opponent who has a history with you, an opponent who, yes, somewhere down deep, respects you. That's why one of the first things Tigers head coach Brad Brownell said before starting his pregame radio interview was expressing condolences about the passing of Eric Montross, and talking about how much he loved watching him play. And that's why upon arriving at the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast location Saturday morning, we were greeted by flowers and a name card at the seat that read:

"In Loving Memory
Eric Montross
Father, Husband, Son, Tar Heel"

I unequivocally understand that college sports is a business now, and that is reality. But if college sports isn't at least a little bit about gestures like that one (spearheaded by Clemson assistant director of communications Ben Winterrowd, and IPTAY director of major gifts Aaron Dunham also brought flowers) between competitors who have been fighting it out for nearly a century, then that isn't really college sports.

So long live double-doubles and the band playing Tiger Rag and stealing brownies on the road.

And long live, for today at least, the ACC.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Cormac Ryan

Seth Trimble

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