Some thoughts from last night's gut punch in Tallahassee -- and man, was it an absolute gut punch:

-- We noted multiple times this week Brad Brownell's feeling that his team seems somewhat scared or uncomfortable in crunch-time moments. He said after the loss at N.C. State that he had to convince his guys they belonged in such a game, had to keep them from being almost surprised they were playing a supposedly superior team dead even.

Sunday night we saw some mental lapses late after the Tigers battled back to forge a tie on two occasions. And last night we saw some more of the same. K.J. McDaniels and Rod Hall just sort of froze up on that last possession coming out of the timeout. Brownell wanted one of them to drive, be the aggressor, score or draw a foul. Instead the ball was just passed around on the perimeter, leading to the flailing shot by McDaniels that didn't hit anything. Another miscue came earlier, when Devon Bookert nailed a game-tying 3 with 43 seconds left. Adonis Filer sagged down into the post when he wasn't supposed to, allowing Bookert a reasonably good look.

Regarding the failed final possession, Brownell said this after the game: "Somebody on the perimeter has to put their head down and go make a play. But we're not quite ready for all that."

-- It seemed this could be such an uplifting night after Jordan Roper, out of a timeout, peeled off a screen by Devin Booker, shot-faked and drained a jumper to give Clemson a 57-54 lead with 55 seconds left. But the Tigers just missed too many shots from outside in the second half. They were 0 for 8 from long range in the second half and finished 3 for 16 on the game. With 2:15 left, the Seminoles were sagging on the post and Hall was wide open for a top-of-the-key 3-pointer. He missed it, and when your point guard is unable to hit open shots from the perimeter it's going to be costly at times. It was just the third 3-pointer Hall has attempted this season in 522 minutes.

-- If this were a game not involving Clemson, I'd have turned it off early in the second half and most of you would've too. Not sure what compelled the refs to start calling it so closely, but the game disintegrated into a snail's pace with stoppages seemingly every trip down the court. Booker drew his second and third fouls with 17:50 and 17:35 to go. Landry Nnoko drew his fourth with 17:07 left, and Booker drew his fourth going for an offensive rebound with 9:26 on the clock. That, plus Milton Jennings also suffering from foul trouble, was a huge factor in the game because the Seminoles started attacking inside. That helps explain why FSU shot 52.4 percent in the second half from the field (11 of 21).

-- On Jan. 12, Jennings had a 21-point, 11-rebound night in a win over Virginia and afterward he called it an epiphany for him and said things were going to be different from that point forward. We now have a three-game cross-section to evaluate, and his forecast hasn't come to fruition. He's scored a total of 18 points over that stretch in 89 minutes, shooting 6 for 23. Last night he committed five of his team's 13 turnovers and was 1 for 7 from the field.

"We needed a third scorer tonight," Brownell said. "We couldn't find one."

-- Heck of an effort by Booker, who was really sick yesterday and gutted it out by scoring 15 on 7-of-10 shooting. The problem with his foul trouble, though, was that with Nnoko, Bernard Sullivan and Josh Smith in the game Brownell couldn't run as much of the offensive stuff he runs with his starters in there.

-- Clemson shot 10 of 15 from the line, and two misses ended up being pretty big. Booker couldn't convert a three-point play with 3:57 left and Clemson up three, and Hall missed one of two with 1:41 left and his team up three. On the other end, Florida State made 18 of 20.

-- This team needs some positive reinforcement that only winning can bring, and that's why last night's loss hurt so much. You have a double-digit lead in the second half, and you feel like you should win the game. You have the ball coming out of a timeout in a tie game with 23 seconds left, you feel like you should win the game. Tough defeat. Very tough.

LW