Lucas: Begin Again

By Adam Lucas

It was one of the earliest timeouts in North Carolina basketball history.

Carolina was so egregiously lethargic in the first 3:28 of Tuesday night's game against Clemson that Hubert Davis knew he could not afford to wait even another 32 seconds to make it to a media timeout.

With Clemson up 15-2, he had to stop play right then. The Tigers were on pace to score approximately 130 points. They had made six of their first seven shots, including three straight three-pointers. Those last two trifectas, from PJ Hall, came with very little resistance and helped spark him to a game-high 25-point performance. He had entered the game making seven of his last 38 three-point attempts.

In the huddle during the timeout, Davis knew he didn't need to make technical adjustments or strategical tweaks.

"We came in the huddle and there was nothing basketball-wise we could talk about," Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game. "Until the energy and effort and attention to detail rises, you can't even talk about basketball. From a defensive standpoint, they were getting anything they wanted on offense."

It might make you feel a little better—or perhaps worse—to know that after their red-hot start, Clemson made 20 of its final 60 field goal attempts and eight of its final 28 three-point tries.

They were, in other words, pretty average. They shot 31.4 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from the three-point line in the second half. These are numbers that you might expect to correlate to a Carolina victory, especially at the Smith Center.

But that start.

This defeat instantly goes in the all-time Tar Heel handbook under "Duke hangover," as Carolina won a pulsating game against the Blue Devils on Saturday but then could not summon the same energy three nights later. It just always felt a little off.

That began as early as Monday, when the Tar Heels did not have a crisp practice. "I'm still hungry," Davis told his team after one poor sequence. "We have to be more sharp than this."

RJ Davis eventually called his teammates around him to try and improve the intensity. And while it did get marginally better, it was decidedly worse on Tuesday. It wasn't missing shots that was the problem, as Carolina missed five of its first six attempts.

That can be overcome. Recall that just a month ago, the Heels started an abysmal 0-for-10 from the field at Pitt and didn't score a point until over six minutes had elapsed in the game.

But because the Heels were so aggressive defensively, Pitt managed to build only a 6-0 lead during the offensive struggles. If it had taken that long to score against Clemson, it felt like the Tigers might have had biscuits.

Carolina was competitive at the end, eventually drawing to a 70-70 tie. But the Tigers had a big answer for virtually every Tar Heel play. Carolina closes to five with under eight minutes to play: Joe Girard hits a three. Carolina closes to three with six minutes left: Ian Schiefflin scores and draws a foul. Carolina ties it with 4:17 remaining: PJ Hall scores and is fouled. Down two, Carolina misses a three to take the lead with 2:30 remaining: Girard hits another three-pointer.

The Heels will rue some late game execution; from the time they tied the game, they took just one shot in the next four possessions because of a series of turnovers.

But the real issue had happened two hours earlier, when the slow start had allowed a wounded Clemson team to build some momentum—and a big lead.

"We were not at the level you have to be at in any game," Hubert Davis said. "And Clemson is a very good basketball team and took advantage of that."

Players Mentioned

RJ Davis

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