North Carolina is back on the road. While on a two-game losing streak, the Tar Heels will be playing Clemson, who is still hanging onto a top-25 spot.
Date and time: Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. ET
TV schedule: ESPN
Arena: Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, South Carolina.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have had troubles finding a consistent third scorer. Luke Maye has gone over 20 points in their two recent defeats, but only two other Tar Heel has seen double-figures. Obviously, Joel Berry II is going to contribute, but he only recorded six on Saturday. The only other one to come close was Cameron Johnson.
Clemson, on the other hand, is doing better than expected in ACC play. After losing only one non-conference game, the Tigers have had a nice showing so far. Their losses so far have come to NC State (who has defeated several good teams), Virginia (a top team in the nation), and North Carolina.
UNC put it all together in that game defeat the Tigers and have floundered since. For Clemson, they are having to deal with replacing a star player.
Donte Grantham is a 6’8 senior forward who was averaging 14.2 points per game, 6.9 rebounds 2.4 assists and 26 three-pointers before he went down with a torn ACL.
In the first game without Grantham, Clemson only put up 36 points to Virginia. The Cavaliers have the best defense in the country, but the Tigers struggled to find scorers all night. Clemson bounced back to pick up an expected victory over Georgia Tech. It was only a two-point win over the Yellow Jackets, but it was nice for them to get back on track.
North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball
The last time these two teams met, UNC was on a two-game winning streak but was still trying to find more of a balanced scoring threat. That’s when all five starters recorded double-digit scoring performances. The defense had a minor collapse in the second half like a normal Tar Heels team does, but Cameron Johnson was on fire from downtown. He recorded 21 points thanks to six 3-pointers. Clemson’s Marcquise Reed, Shelton Mitchell, and Gabe DeVoe kept up. They combined for nine 3-pointers, but the Tar Heels’ offense was just too much.
Since then, UNC dominated Georgia Tech but fell to two bubble teams. Thanks to UNC, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State both should be considered potential Tournament teams.
Looking past what Virginia’s defense did to Clemson, the Tigers have found nice contributions from the 3-point shooting of DeVoe. Besides the Virginia game, DeVoe has shot three or more from behind-the-arc in each game since their win over Miami on Jan. 13.
The Tar Heels, on the other hand, have really faced their problems on the offensive end. They already have to deal with poor defense and now it’s struggling to find reliable scorers. They shot just 42% from the field against the Hokies, but the fact that no one other than Maye or Berry scored more than five points is a problem. Especially since no other starter went over four.
UNC finally had their offense explode for over 90 points against NC State. They needed overtime to do it, but it was a shootout with their in-state rival. Maye again shot well for 31 points on 52 percent shooting. Theo Pinson was the star earlier on. He had a great match up and ended the game with a double-double resulting in 22 points and 15 boards.
Johnson scored a solid 12, but went 0-for-4 from downtown. Berry ended with just six points and also no made three-pointers. Kenny Williams averages 11 points per game. He only took four shots, two of which were 3-point attempts. Despite this solid offensive performance, UNC’s defense is what caused them to lose to NC State. With a defense ranked 194th in the country, the Tar Heels are going to go on losing streaks.
Clemson doesn’t have as good of an offense. The Tigers have not gone over 80 points in an ACC game this season. The closest was against the Tar Heels with 79 points. Clemson is going to have to rely on their defense to compete with UNC. They have only given up over 70 twice. In comparison, North Carolina has hit 80 or more five times in ACC play and have given up over 70 four times.
Next: Most recent Bracketology field (Jan. 29)
If North Carolina can get balanced scoring like they did in the first game, the Tar Heels will have no problem winning this game. In fact, UNC will win almost every game if their players can all perform that way. Clemson, on the other hand, is still trying to figure out how they’re going to make up for the 14 points per game left behind by Grantham.
There’s no doubt that Clemson’s starters are going to be okay. The problem is their depth. No one on Clemson’s bench is averaging over four points per game on the season. Things may change now that they’ll play more games without Grantham, but as of right now, the team is slim. North Carolina has the bodies to log minutes, but scoring is always a guessing game. UNC won’t let itself go on any more than a two-game losing streak so they will be ready to play.
Prediction: North Carolina: 80, Clemson: 74