It's been mentioned here that the infusion of exquisitely talented players can be more troublesome than anticipated.
There's lots of baggage that can come with high-maintenance players (and their parents, of course) who instantly want 40 minutes a game on their way to certain NBA stardom.
Clearly, Georgia Tech's program has been hurt by the lack of continuity and team-building brought on in part by a steady stream of early exits.
(Then again, maybe the more pressing problem in Atlanta is Paul Hewitt's inability to coach.)
Earlier this season, we saw Roy Williams struggling to confront the prima donna culture when his team's results were not proportional to the talent on hand.
Remember this quote from Williams?
"I get frustrated when I feel like my team doesn’t invest enough or cares about it enough or loses itself in the team. And in today’s culture, it’s hard. I’ve got half of the guys on my team that their mom and dad and their friends and everything think that they’re going to make $88 million. They could give a flip whether we win a game or not. They want their guy to get 37 shots and play 50 minutes in a 40-minute game. The culture is hard on kids nowadays, and I understand that, but it makes coaching harder."
So it's not easy to get all the egos and individual interests to coalesce, but Saturday's events in Littlejohn Coliseum showed us that this game -- or any game, for that matter -- often comes down to the Jimmys and the Joes.
Without a doubt, the most striking thing about this game was Brad Brownell looking back on it and reflecting that North Carolina's players are just better suited to making clutch plays late in close games.
“That’s the small difference between us and North Carolina right now,” he said. “I just feel that they’re more comfortable in their system. The things they do in a crunch-time situation, they do better.”
What makes this observation stand out is the players who were making these plays for North Carolina, and the players who weren't making them for Clemson.
The Tigers were largely undone by the no-show of Jerai Grant, who finished with zero points. They were also undone by down-the-stretch miscues from Demontez Stitt.
The Tar Heels were lifted by the spectacular drive, spin and dunk of Harrison Barnes, plus the steal-and-layup from Kendall Marshall.
Grant and Stitt are seniors. Barnes and Marshall are freshmen.
Sometimes, you can play great defense and battle a superior team to the wire and come out with a win. Sometimes you can beat all those McDonald's All-Americans with a good scheme, a pronounced home-court advantage and an off night from the other team. We've certainly seen it happen at Clemson over the last several years.
But most of the time, talent wins out in the end. That was illustrated Saturday afternoon.
-- I don't believe Jadeveon Clowney is going to pick Clemson later this morning at an event in Rock Hill you might've heard about.
Cris and Ryan have been plugged in to this situation from the start, and they're saying South Carolina. So I absolutely trust that.
But if it's true that Clowney's intent is to "shock the world" -- and who knows what his intent is, given how much contradiction that's been present in recent interviews with him -- then wouldn't it make sense for him to slide a Clemson hat onto his head today?
Last week, it was accepted by many that the key variable in his decision was what he decided to do with his time Saturday. If he opted to make a second visit to Clemson, the logic went, Clemson's chances of landing him went up significantly.
But Clowney appears to be a shrewd dude, and surely he knew of the immense importance being placed on his actions Saturday. So if he'd already decided on Clemson and truly wanted to spring a Monday surprise, why would he make the trip to Clemson on Saturday and give folks an idea he was headed to the Tigers?
Again -- and I can't stress this enough -- there's very little indication from our sources that Clowney isn't bound for Columbia. Not trying to get anyone's hopes up.
But ... just saying.
-- Speaking of Clowney, the recent New York Times article on Clowney's allegedly poor academics was a bit of a shocker.
Not shocking that a media outlet revealed that he might have difficulty qualifying. It happens all the time on the high school and college level, and it's fair game to report that stuff -- particularly if it's a big-name player, and particularly given that these schools see fit to breathlessly tell us when athletes are doing well academically.
But it's definitely eye-opening when a high school English teacher and a coach at Hargrave openly discuss a player's academic shortcomings, on the record.
-- The folks at Clemson are expecting the ACC to (finally) release the 2011 football schedule today or tomorrow.
It's been confusing to follow to this point.
Last week, we did some checking and found that the schedule circulating on the Internet was also circulating inside the football offices and being treated as legitimate.
Then we get word that the ACC says the schedules are not complete and that the schedule floating around on the Internet was bunk.
Hard to decipher what's true at this point. Did some folks in the AD simply see the schedule on the Internet and begin considering it gospel, or was there actually truth to it?
We have heard it speculated from folks in the AD that Florida State has mucked up the process by not assenting to a Labor Day game with Miami.
If that game falls through, you could understand how Clemson would be an attractive Labor Day target. And thus, you could understand how any Clemson-related schedule previously set forth would be ripped up and reconfigured as a result.
Whatever the case, sounds like this thing will be resolved soon.
-- The unfortunate thing about Clemson's loss to North Carolina was that it overshadowed a splendid defensive showing in the first half.
The Tigers frequently could not get out of their own way in the first 20 minutes, but excellent defense kept them close.
Eight minutes in, Clemson had scored four points. It was almost stunning to look up at the scoreboard and see the Tigers were down just seven.
-- Clemson's RPI dropped to 73 after Saturday's loss, according to realtimerpi.com, putting the Tigers in a precarious position as they pursue a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Here are the RPI numbers of the remaining opponents:
at N.C. State 100
at Miami 63
Wake Forest 241
at Duke 8
Virginia Tech 66
-- Got a good laugh Saturday before the post-game press conference. Greg Wallace of the Independent-Mail informed me that Bart Wright was ripping the "fanboy websites" for not crediting The Greenville News for breaking the story about Billy Napier taking a player-development position on Nick Saban's staff.
This is amusing for two reasons:
One, because in seven years on this beat I've never once seen that newspaper give credit to another outlet for breaking a story on Clemson. Not saying it hasn't happened. Just saying I can't remember seeing it happen.
Two, because ... good gosh, that story was so far off our radar screen that we didn't even consider it a story. When Tom Dienhart of Rivals broke the news that Andre' Powell landed at Maryland, it was a five-word snippet on our message board. When Napier landed at Alabama, it was posted on our message board and we readily discussed it.
We're flattered that Bart is paying so much attention to us sleazeballs who run these sites, and the thousands upon thousands of the jobless no-lifers who subscribe to them.
But geez, man. Lighten up.
LW
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