Tobacco Road Report

By Michael

Clemson (17-2, 3-2) showed good energy on the defensive end from the start and used several Carolina turnovers to their advantage, but once Carolina settled down it was only a matter of time. The Tar Heels (16-2, 3-1) were much better in executing their half-court offense and blew the game wide open in the closing minutes before halftime. Brandon Wright (17 points) carried the Tar Heels early and Tyler Hansbrough (16 points, 7 rebounds) carried them late. Together they were enough to overcome 20 steals and 12 blocks by the Tigers.

Watching this game, I felt that Clemson's only hope was to turn this into a track meet and win ugly. That's a risky strategy since Carolina has a high powered offense and is usually adept at converting opportunities in the open court. But with Clemson's half court offense in shambles -- have you ever seen a 17-2 team with a worse half court motion offense? -- the only way to keep it close was tempo, pressure, and forcing turnovers.

How bad was Clemson's offense? Effective field goal percentage of 37 percent, 9 total assists or 1 every 10 possessions, turnovers on 23 percent of possessions, and a points per possession of 0.67. That won't get it done for the Tigers in conference play.

Even the Official Wife of TRR recognized the ineptness of the Tigers and lack of spacing on offense, saying at one point, "Why are those four guys standing together on the floor? Who's that foolin'?" We at TRR concur...exactly who is that foolin'?

Clemson's athleticism on the defensive end did give Carolina trouble in the early going. Lawson, who finished with 7 turnovers alone, had stretches where he looked particularly bad. Carolina committed 11 turnovers in the first half, most of these in the opening ten minutes, which led to 18 Clemson points. Given that the score was 44-31 Carolina at the half, you see what we mean about the Tigers needing points in transition.

Yet at around the 12 minute mark of the first half, Carolina's offense settled down and Roy had his offense clicking. Clemson gets lost in the half court defense and doesn't play helpside very well, something that we at TRR noticed in their game against Maryland.

When Carolina was patient and showed good ball movement, the result was usually an open look. After starting the game 3-10 from the field, Carolina finished the half shooting 13-21 from the floor. A marked improvement. For the game, the Tar Heels shot 52 percent from the floor, and some timely three point shooting resulted in an effective field goal percentage of 54 percent. Respectable on the road in conference play.

In the second half Clemson made a few runs, but could never get closer than a 10-12 point margin. One culprit in this regard was some horrendous free throw shooting by the Tigers. They finished the game a miserable 5-19 from the line, and I'm not sure how many of these were 1 and 1 opportunities with a miss on the front end. The number of points left at the line will have the Tigers shaking their heads in disbelief. Poor free throw shooting is something that will cost them a game at some point during the season.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we at TRR love Brandon Wright's game. The accolades typically go to Hansbrough, and we don't begrudge the attention he receives, but we feel that Wright is seriously underappreciated outside of Chapel Hill.

Hansbrough had trouble getting his shot off in this game...again. Booker (8 blocks in 22 minutes) and Mays (15 points) were doing an effective job of denying good position and blocking shots. In contrast, Wright has enough length and athleticism to get his shot off in traffic and this greatly helped the Tar Heels in the first half. After all, Wright collected all 17 of his points with over 13 minutes left to play...on 8-10 shooting no less. Kudos Brandon.