NCAA Basketball: Smart’s hot seat, Duke’s weakness and more takeaways

7) When fouling up three goes wrong

There are differing opinions about this situation, but when up three points with only a few seconds left, many prefer to foul to make the opponent shoot two free throws, eliminating the opportunity for them to tie the game. Others simply choose to play it out.

Clemson and head coach Brad Brownell might be playing it out from now on.

In the biggest meltdown of the week, the Tigers blew a six-point lead over NC State with 20 seconds left.

The sequence started with NC State guard Markell Johnson driving, getting fouled, and converting the and-one opportunity. Still up three, Clemson star – and 80 percent free throw shooter – Marcquise Reed went to the foul line. He missed both.

No worries though, there were only 9.7 seconds left when the Wolfpack were inbounding the ball on their end of the court. Clemson fouled…but did so right away. Only 0.4 seconds went off the clock and NC State made both free throws.

Suddenly it’s a one-point game with over nine seconds left. Reed gets fouled and, again, misses both free throws, setting this up.

Ball game.

Obviously, Clemson blew every opportunity, executed the “foul up three” strategy as poorly as you could, and missed FOUR free throws. But this is one the “play it out” crowd will point to as why they choose to do it that way.