GAME INFO:
February 8, 2022
6:00pm Tip Off
Littlejohn Coliseum (Capacity: 9,000)
Clemson, SC
TV: ACCN
UNC is given a 43.9% chance to win by ESPN
Records:
UNC: 16-7 (8-4 in ACC)
Clemson: 12-10 (4-7 in ACC)
Last Time Out:
UNC: Lost to Duke 67-87
Clemson: Lost at Georgia Tech 64-69
SERIES INFO:
• Carolina leads the series, 133-23.
• The Tar Heels are 40-18 on the road, including 29-15 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
• Clemson has won two in a row and three of the last four games against UNC. That four-game stretch followed a 10-game Tar Heel win streak.
• The Tar Heels have won eight of the last 11 at Littlejohn.
• Clemson beat Carolina, 63-50, in Littlejohn on 2/2/2021 in the only game between the schools last season.
Team Leaders
Points:
UNC: Bacot (16.3 PPG)
Clemson: P. Hall (14.9 PPG)
Rebounds:
UNC: Bacot (12.2)
Clemson: D. Collins (7.0)
Assists:
UNC: Love (3.6)
Clemson: N. Honor (2.9)
Duke Notes
Brady Manek had 21 points on 7-16 shooting, 6-10 from 3, 1-2 FT, 6 rebounds
Armando Bacot had 12 points on 4-10 shooting, 4-5 FT, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 TO, 1 block, 2 steals
RJ Davis had 11 points on 4-11 shooting, 0-3 from 3, 3-4 FT, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 TO, 2 steals
Caleb Love had 8 points on 3-10 shooting, 1-5 from 3, 1-2 FT, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 TOs
Leaky Black had 4 points on 2-4 shooting, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 TO, 2 blocks
Kerwin Walton had 5 points on 2-4 shooting, 1-2 from 3, 1 rebound, 1 TO
TEAM STATS:
40.7% FG (24-59)
40.9% 3PT (9-22)
66.7% FT (10-15)
24 rebounds
13 assists
8 turnovers
3 blocks
5 steals
Styes and Dunn each had 3 points
The team had 8 total turnovers, Love had half of them (4)
Davis and Love combined to go 7-21 from the field and 1-8 from 3
Outrebounded 24-40
2 second chance points
Now 0-7 in Q1 games
The Heels look to bounce back from yet another Q1 20+ point loss. The Heels are now 0-7 against Q1 teams with 5 blowouts of 20+ points. The lone “competitive" losses were against Purdue on a neutral court and at Notre Dame. We are 3-0 against Q2 teams, 8-0 against Q3 teams, and 5-0 against Q4 teams. So we have technically beaten the teams we were supposed to beat but haven’t beaten a good team and haven’t been competitive in a majority of those games. The margin for error is even slimmer now as the Heels must win all their remaining games before the rematch with Duke. This starts at Clemson on Tuesday night and is followed by home games against FSU and Pitt followed by games at Virginia Tech, home against Louisville, at NC State, home against Syracuse, and then the regular season finale at Duke. This game feels like another trap game. The away games at Virginia Tech and NC State have a similar feeling. We have beaten both those teams at home, so they will be looking for revenge on their home court. Clemson is up first.
Before I get into the Clemson game, I wanted to just acknowledge Brady Manek’s performance the past 2 games. He single handedly kept the team in the game at Louisville until other guys could step up more and his performance against Duke was the only reason the deficit felt manageable at halftime. He has been the leading scorer in both those games. He has picked up the slack when our guard play has been less than stellar. He was absolutely gassed in the second half of the Duke game and they took advantage of it, but did you really expect anything else? Manek is the only guy playing like each game may be his last. He knows this season is most likely his last season of competitive basketball. He is leaving everything out on the floor despite his defensive inadequacies at times. Manek is busting his ass and I wish we had him for more than one year. They grow ‘em tough down there in Oklahoma and I would hate to see this team without the Oklahoma grit that Manek provides.
It’s also worth mentioning the job Black did on Banchero. He was extremely undersized and held him at bay while he was guarding him. Now I'm not saying Leaky Black is God’s gift to defense, but he is our best defender. He is really our only good defender. We need more leaky black’s. We have one. Black can shut down one guy, but then another guy goes off because the rest of the team can’t defend. Team defense remains a huge problem when a team has multiple scoring options.
It’s no secret the Heels have struggled on the road, but they will have to try to get back on track at Clemson on Tuesday night. Let’s all be thankful the game got pushed up to 6pm from it’s originally scheduled time of 8pm. Now I won’t lose any sleep.
Clemson has had an up and down year. They have out of conference losses to St. Bonaventure, West Virginia and Rutgers and had to go to OT to beat Drake. They split their season series with UVA. They have away losses at Miami, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Duke, and Georgia Tech. They only lost to Duke by two. They have a home loss to Boston College. They beat State in Raleigh and have home wins over Pitt and FSU.
The Tigers are without their starting forward, Hunter Tyson. He broke his clavicle in the FSU game and there is no timetable for his return. Tyson was averaging 10.4 points a game and 25.8 minutes. It’s a huge loss for Clemson. Their first game with Tyson was a 64-69 loss at Georgia Tech. Bohannon is starting in Tyson’s place. The rest of the rotation is as follows:
STARTERS:
PJ Hall F (SO 6-10) (21)
N. Bohannon F (GRAD 6-6) (3)
C. Hunter G (SO 6-3.5) (5)
A Dawes G (JR 6-2) (11)
D. Collins G (GRAD 6-4.5) (13)
BENCH:
I Schieffelin F (FR 6-7)
A Hemenway G (JR 6-3.5) (2)
N. Honor G (JR 5-10) (9)
B. Middlebrooks F (FR 6-10)
Clemson utilizes a 8-9 man rotation. Middlebrooks is used very sparingly. He only averages 3.6 minutes a game. Hall, Collins, and Dawes are the only players to have started every game. Honor has spent a significant amount of time in the starting lineup. He has started 16 games, but is currently coming off the bench.
Offensively the team is led by Hall and Collins. Hall has been in double figures all but one game and Collins has recorded 13 double figure games. The number of double figure games for each player is to the right of their class and height. Hunter has come on more recently and Bohannon is not a big offensive threat. Honor is the biggest threat of the bench with 9 double figure games.
Dawes is as much of a threat as Collins and he leads the team in minutes at 30.5 a game. Hall, Collins, and Honor all average over 25. Hunter and Bohannon average between 15-20. Hemenway averages 14.5. Schieffelin averages 7.5, and as previously mentioned, Middlebrooks averages 3.6.
Highlighted in the team stats table above are the stats where the Heels and Tigers are very similar starting with 3 point shooting. The Tigers shoot 38.7% from 3 and average 8.3 makes a game. We shoot 38.6% from 3 and average 8.4 makes a game. 3 point defense percentages are also close with only a percentage point difference. Carolina relies on the 3. Clemson relies on the 3 and both teams shoot a respectable percentage. Clemson has 6 guys that shoot over 35% from 3. Schieffelin shoots 50% but only has 6 attempts so take him away and you still have 5 guys to worry about from deep. Hall only shoots 31.1% from 3 but has 61 attempts. The 3 point shot is very much a part of his game, and this spells trouble for our bigs. More on that later. The percentages are below:
3 Point Percentages:
Hall 31.1% (19-61)
Collins 46.7% (14-30)
Dawes 39.4% (50-127)
Honor 36.4% (28-77)
Hemenway 45.5% (25-55)
Hunter 39.3% (11-28)
Schieffelin 50% (3-6)
Both teams turnover the ball over around 11 times per game. Carolina has gotten better about taking care of the ball recently. Clemson had 18 turnovers against Georgia Tech. We had 8 against Duke. Whoever turns the ball over less probably wins this game.
Bench points are fairly even, but ours have taken a massive hit with the loss of Harris and Garcia. The bench points in the Duke game were mainly garbage points where the game was no longer in question. We are definitely trending down in that category. Clemson only had 9 bench points in their loss at Georgia Tech, but had 32 in their win over FSU at home. Black only had 4 points against Duke, not that he would have made up for the point deficit. This emphasizes that we can’t rely on double figure games from Black in order to win. We need more bench production.
The biggest matchup problem will be Hall. Not that I am comparing him to Banchero, but Bacot got in early foul trouble guarding him. But Manek wasn’t good against LaRavia. Waardenburg also had a career night against our bigs. LaRavia was a known scorer, Waardenburg not so much but both had the 3 point shot in their offensive arsenal. So the Hall matchup is a little tricky. Maybe you put Manek on him to prevent Bacot from getting in foul trouble and let Bacot bang with Bohannon who has a bigger physical frame than Hall but is only 6’6”. This is a huge mismatch offensively though. Bacot should be able to body Hall if Hall guards him. If Bohannon guards him, even better. Manek can shoot over Bohannon as well.
All of their guards are a threat to shoot the 3. Collins is their biggest offensive threat so my guess is that Black starts out on him. Dawes is listed at 6’2”, so he is the shortest of the guards but is a bigger offensive threat than Hunter. Davis probably starts out on him. Love will check Hunter. Stopping dribble penetration will be key since they essentially have 4 guys that can shoot the 3. Dribble drives lead to easy kick-outs.
Love really needs to get back going. He is shooting less than 30% on 2 point shoots in the last couple of games and it’s incredibly hard to win games when Love is struggling. We need him to have a good offensive game just so he will play defense. We need both RJ Davis and Caleb Love to be more efficient on the offensive end. The offense is at it’s best when those two are driving. Sometimes when your shot is off, getting to the free throw helps. It would do Love a lot of good to take multiple trips to the charity strike.
Carolina can’t afford to lose this game and keep it’s tourney hopes alive.
Latest KENPOM Ratings: UNC is 46th, Clemson is 65th
Latest NET Rankings: UNC is 42nd, Clemson is 79th
THINGS TO WATCH FOR:
Rotation (Again it is very short and it’s not changing. But who comes off the bench first, and do we get more bench production? Will Hubert punish the starters who are playing poorly? Probably not, but it’s a nice concept to think about.)
Playing Through Bacot (Jacking up 3’s obviously isn’t a recipe for success. This is another game where we will have the size advantage and Bacot has the potential to have another big game. Bacot struggled against Mark Williams who is probably one of the bigger defenders he will face all year height and body wise. Hall doesn’t quite fit into the same physicality category as Williams. Bohannon is also extremely undersized if he gets stuck on Bacot. Hall is also one of their main scorers and can’t get into foul trouble. Playing through the post is a better bet than jacking up 3’s.)
Guarding Hall (The above mentioned Hall has shades of LaRabia and Waardenburg, two shooting bigs that absolutely torched us in previous games. Plain and simple, we can’t have a repeat of either one of those performances.)
No Love for Love (Love has been struggling. He is shooting less than 30% on 2 point shots the past several games. We need him to get going again, but it doesn’t need to be forced. No more hero ball. Driving and getting fouled will be a good start.)
Away intensity (How will we come out on the road after absolutely getting thumped by our rivals? We have struggled in away games with intensity and energy without those circumstances. The first 4 minutes is usually a pretty good indicator of how the game is going to go. How we start will be crucial.)
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