The double nickel

Some more reflections on the loss that dropped Clemson to 0-for-55 in Chapel Hill:

-- When Georgia Tech blew North Carolina out of Atlanta on Sunday night, I thought it represented more harm than help to Clemson's chances of winning two nights later in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels looked awful in that game, and obviously that created some optimism that the Tigers could leave the Smith Center with a win -- particularly given that Clemson had just smoked the Yellow Jackets by 25 a few days earlier.

But comparing scores seldom makes much sense in sports -- another reason college football needs a playoff, by the way -- because emotion and other intangibles usually trump transitive properties.

The Tar Heels are not a good team right now. They're almost frustrating to watch even to those of us who don't have a dog in the hunt. But you knew they'd be energetic and emotional two days after the butt-kicking against Georgia Tech.

-- Last night's final score (75-65) will go down as just another double-digit North Carolina victory, even though the battle was far more pronounced than the margin indicates.

Of the 55 losses in Chapel Hill, 47 have come by double digits.

Here are the rare single-digit defeats:

68-66 in 2002-03
88-79 in 1997-98
77-72 in 1981-82
73-70 in 1979-80
74-72 in 1974-75
61-60 in 1973-74
65-59 in 1951-52
24-23 in 1935-36

Man, if that team in 1936 could've just made another shot...

-- The specter of The Streak puts the coaches from both teams in a weird position, and there's probably too much made of it. As Brad Brownell pointed out last night after the game, it's not as though either coach mentioned the history during a timeout late in the game.

But late in close games, I do think you see more determination from North Carolina players who don't want to be saddled with the embarrassment of The Streak ending at their expense.

We saw it three years ago when the Tar Heels came from 15 down and won in double overtime, and we might've seen it last night. And maybe Clemson's players start to think about it a little bit when they get inside of five minutes with a chance to win. Three years ago, it was almost as if the Tigers wilted after looking at the scoreboard and realizing what they were about to accomplish.

-- The Tar Heels really disrupted the passing lanes by overplaying the wings and mucking up what the Tigers normally like to do.

Maybe Clemson should've run more backdoor cuts to take advantage of this tactic, but mostly the first-half turnovers were a result of poor passes at the top by Zavier Anderson, Cory Stanton, Milton Jennings, Bryan Narcisse and Tanner Smith.

Brownell made an adjustment by spreading the floor to create more opportunity for penetration, but driving to the basket is difficult when John Henson and Tyler Zeller are swatting away shots left and right.

-- Late last week, at the press conference announcing the planned $50 million of upgrades to athletics facilities, I sat down for a casual conversation with Brownell. You could tell he was really happy with the way things were going -- certainly much happier than when we last had an extended conversation in mid-December -- but there were still some concerns.

His chief worry was lack of depth. He figured it would catch up to this team at some point, and his fears were realized last night.

Smith's loss hurt in a big way, because the Tigers could've used his size against the Tar Heels. Brownell certainly didn't anticipate losing him, but North Carolina's depth probably would've worn on the Tigers even had Smith not gone down and out halfway through the first half.

North Carolina exploited Anderson's shaky ball-handling. And Brownell acknowledged that his team might've been gassed late, when they scored just two points over the final 7:43.

-- Masterful move by Brownell to go to the zone in the second half. And it was masterful as much for the timing as for the decision itself.

Brownell and Co. came into the game armed with the zone, but they held off in the first half because they wanted to exploit the element of surprise and spring it at a crucial moment against a team that really struggles with offensive flow and continuity.

Clemson has not shown much zone this season, so the Tar Heels probably weren't anticipating it. Impressive show of restraint by Brownell to keep it under his sleeve in the first half when things were teetering.

-- The unfortunate thing about a close loss is that a lot of the positives get washed away in all the day-after analysis simply because it's a loss.

Had Clemson pulled out the win, we'd be talking about completely different plays and sequences.

Here are a few snapshots I considered important:

1) Things are coming apart late in the first half after Reggie Bullock steals a Jennings pass at the top and dunks to put the Heels up nine. On the next two possessions, Jennings nails a perimeter jumper and then goes backdoor for a dunk. Narcisse hits a hook shot, and Stanton buries a 3 to help the Tigers go into halftime down single digits. Those are big plays from the reserves.

2) Early in the second half, Young hits a 3 and Stanton scores off a drive on successive possessions to draw Clemson within four and signal that North Carolina isn't going to run away with this one.

3) Narcisse making big plays on the defensive end and hitting the two big 3-pointers as Clemson comes back to tie the score at 66.

Narcisse, by the way, was the MVP last night in my opinion. The TV folks gave it to Stitt, but my vote goes to the goggled one.

-- Key sequence of the game: Jerai Grant misses two free throws with 1:24 left, then Zeller has a huge rebound of a Harrison Barnes miss with 50 seconds on the clock.

Clemson had gone 41-of-49 on free throws its previous two games. Stitt missed the front end of a one-and-one late in the first half.

-- After the Tigers squandered that big lead in Chapel Hill three years ago, I walked out of the building thinking they'd never win there.

Now, I'm not so sure. Brownell might be the guy who gets it done.

He was oh, so close to 1-0.

LW