Familiar Script as UNC Loses to Clemson in ACCT Quarters - The Postgame | College Basketball

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Welcome into an insight curl on a post game podcast.

I am Tommy Ashley, that's Rob Harrington.

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Rob, let's get right into it.

I said off air.

Not sure I've seen a game that sums up.

The Hubert Davis era better than that one from both sides.

He is one of the best.

Down 15 would four minute coaches in the country.

Carolina almost pulls off the miracle when, when Clemson does what

Carolina's gotten in trouble to do.

Goes stagnant.

And almost gives up the lead in the end.

Carolina falls by one ACC quarter finals.

Initial thought.

Yeah, I mean, it's too late in the year for moral victories.

The comeback is fun to watch in real time.

But bottom line is the team ends up number four seed in the ACC.

Way out of first place.

They lose in the first round of the tournament.

There's only so much positive you can take away from that.

You can certainly qualify it with Caleb Wilson's absence.

But I was very disappointed by the effort for 80% of the game.

I don't know how you couldn't be just the team was listless.

And then when they started pressuring, I think it wasn't just the threes falling.

I mean, obviously that was the number one factor in the comeback.

But I thought that the energy picked up when they started pressing.

Not that they should start pressing the whole time.

But finally, they came to life and Clemson helped them.

By stalling.

Hey, we've criticized Hubert for doing that in the past.

Thought Clemson went to it too early.

Also, they became non-aggressive.

And all of a sudden, Clemson goes from being the aggressor.

To Carolina being the aggressor.

And it was fun to watch.

But certainly it's disappointing.

They haven't had much success in the ACC tournament lately.

This year couldn't win a game.

Yeah, Carolina falls 80 to 79.

I mean, like you said, you got a credit for coming back.

But while they're continually in that situation is just mind blowing.

And like I said, opening the show.

It is the same.

I was watching the game thinking this is like it's been the entire time.

I mean, you don't start playing until 37 minutes in and all.

Let's talk about a positive though.

And then we'll get into more.

Is this show progresses?

Shout out to the 500 that are here at midnight on a Thursday night.

I know you folks got to go to work.

So shout out for for joining us.

Henry Vassar.

Greg Barnes and I did.

I see daily this morning.

And the crux of that was.

Or yes, I guess Thursday morning.

The crux of that was.

This team will go as far as Henry Vassar can carry him.

And for 37 minutes, Rob, I said there's he.

He obviously can't do it on his own.

And because he was having a great game and they were way out of it.

Then he had a few shots and some other guys stepped up.

But 28 and 17.

Six turnovers is brutal.

But you thoughts on his game.

I felt like he was the only one on that floor that was in it from start to finish.

Yeah, he wasn't just playing well, especially a second half.

He really came to life.

But he was trying to get everyone engaged.

I think they saw the same thing.

We all did the team lack pop.

You know, I thought my analogy I was going to make.

Especially before they come back to say the whole game.

But he put a device for most of the games that.

It reminded me of some of the NIL scrimmages in October.

You know, that's how they were treating it.

And I thought it was sort of like we're here.

We'll play.

But you know, outcome is the outcome.

And he was trying to get them engaged.

I finally, it's sort of it worked.

I mean, he was not only being very productive himself, but I thought that.

Again, and when they started pressing that increased the energy level,

of course, it also raises the question, why did it take so long?

I don't think Clemson is very good.

They shot very well tonight.

So credit to them for that.

But in general, I don't think that's a great team.

So it's kind of a bad loss to me, even without Caleb Wilson.

But again, I mean, they saw it was awesome.

The second half, the clutch shots.

All the rebounds, you know, this season he's been up and down as a rebounder.

He definitely came through tonight on that.

Even with the turnovers, yes, some bad ones.

You know, when you put that much weight on a player's shoulder, you just have to live with it.

Yeah, no, I thought he was fantastic.

And there were some plays in the first half.

He was some people in the shadow call itself.

He struggles with physicality.

He's been that way all along.

But when you have 28 and 17 folks, let's be honest.

I mean, you have 28 and 17 and 36 minutes of action.

When you're virtually the only post-presence though, Jaren Stevenson was good early,

you got to give credit to that.

And he hits some shots.

You know, he is what it is physically.

But 28 and 17 are big numbers.

I don't care who you are.

And he put those up.

Looking at the stats, it's climps the shot.

49% Carolina shot.

48% three pointers.

Climps and 47% hit nine.

Carolina hit 11.

Free throws once again.

10 for 17.

You lose by one and you shoot 10 for 17 or 59% shooting.

That's brutal.

They outrebound and climps and they out offense.

Rebound and climps and bench points killed him.

And let's talk about Carolina's bench rub.

Let's talk about.

Well, I'm looking at the starters.

And Luca Bogavats was not great.

And I'll get to him in a second.

But Carolina's bench offered nothing today.

And they've been able to offer something in the past few weeks.

But nothing from Powell.

Nothing from young.

Nothing from Zadenha.

Nothing from Kay and Evans again.

It's not a recipe when you're in March.

It's a game by game situation.

But it's also accumulation of 30-some games.

And your bench gives you nothing.

That's just brutal for Carolina.

In the event that they're able to win their first game,

which is not at all a given to me.

I think they're going to have a dog fight in the first game,

the tournament, the second game that will be a short turnaround.

And so the bench has to play some.

I know these are young guys and they can play 35 plus.

But I think we've seen throughout the season that they saw in particular.

If you get him to 3738 range, it starts to wear on him.

And especially if he does it twice in three days,

which is what will be required.

The bench guys have got to give them better minutes.

Like you said, they had done better at times recently,

since Caleb Wilson went out starting with the due game.

I thought they were pretty poor.

And tonight that continued.

They just.

They couldn't get any help from those guys.

He even had a weird lineup at some point in the second half,

where he was sort of reaching for anything.

I think he just wanted energy.

And they just couldn't deliver.

When you look at it and I mentioned this, I tweeted this.

And I want you to take on this because I didn't feel like they did anything.

Special to get Luca any shots.

And granted he was bad.

One for six, one for four.

You know, and just one rebound into assist.

You know, as Roy said, he has one more rebound in Wanda.

But I didn't see Hubert Davis and the coaching staff really run anything to get Luca free.

I didn't see him really do a whole lot until the very end at all,

which has been sort of the mantra all year without pounding on that.

But that was what's surprising to me.

How, how much Clemson adjusted to what Carolina did in the first game?

And I didn't see a vice versa going on there, Rob.

Am I wrong there?

Clemson was switching pretty aggressively on Bogobats.

I thought they, they were coming out hard on him.

They weren't going to let him beat them again.

And it was sort of a similar issue to Duke and NC State,

where for the most part, the Carolina guards,

other than Trumble, some were struggling big time

to win their one-on-one matchup, even on the switch.

So in theory, you have an advantage.

But the Carolina guards, and we talked about this in the fall,

the other than Trumble and Wilson, it's not an athletic team.

And I think that the other people have figured them out on that basis.

So you can switch against Carolina's guards.

They probably can't get to the rim anyway.

You know, the shot that everyone will come back to is that Miss Leop by Bogobats,

where he actually got to the rim and just couldn't finish it.

And that's just, you, and I'm not trying to pick on him,

but that's a play that you expect to a college basketball player to convert.

And that type of thing happens, and it's not just him by any means.

God, these, the perimeter guys just don't have great finishing ability.

They don't get into the lane enough to make plays for themselves or others.

And it's been that way all year.

It's not anything new, especially without Caleb Wilson.

Here's a question for you.

And I don't usually do post game questions in the chat,

but I'm going to steal this one.

If it'll stop for just a second, and I can find it.

James News Newton.

Aside from Andrew Vesar, named one position on the floor where Carolina had an advantage.

It's a good question.

And it's Clemson.

And don't get me wrong.

Clemson's not a bad basketball team.

And I think Brad Brownell, you know,

throws coaching chops tonight and certainly outcoakes Carolina.

If my opinion was asked for, but that's a problem.

That's a problem this deep in the season, but it kind of is what it is.

And Carolina couldn't overcome it, Rob.

The heels are going to have advantages.

It's certainly if they win a game in the second game in the tournament.

In terms of personnel, we know that.

But it shouldn't be as drastic as it looked for most of the night.

Now, in the last few minutes, I mean, Derek Dixon,

they should, when he comes to the bench during every TV time out,

they should just tell him, hey, there are two minutes left in the game and work down five.

So he's, he's, he's in like late game mode.

He's an unbelievable clutch shooter.

So later in the game, he was certainly getting an advantage over the Clemson guards.

But generally speaking, yes, I think the larger issue may be.

That the Carolina guys have similar strengths and weaknesses or at least similar weaknesses.

And so if you, if you have the right personnel to attack one of them,

probably you'll have success attacking all of them.

Duke did that.

State did that.

Clemson did that.

Very largely effective.

And I would point out too.

I mean, for me, I would, you know, we're talking a lot about individual players, not fence.

I, the thing that I hated the most about this game.

Other than the overall lack of energy was the drop coverage on defense.

The Clemson is not a team that should be bringing up points when you like that.

And again, they started stalling late in the game so they weren't attacking the same way.

The drop coverage that Carolina was playing.

The Clemson guys were just walksing into the lane for uncontested 15 footers.

And we saw that against Michigan State way back and Thanksgiving day.

And I thought Carolina sort of used cloak and mirrors for most of the year.

And I thought it was going to be some defensively other than that real bad stretch to start the ACC.

I think that issue reared his head again tonight where the drop coverage is just too.

It's too much of a red carpet for these guys.

And it's too late in the season because the offices are polished.

So if they see something like that, you have a critical vulnerability that Carolina has.

I think the drop coverage is exacerbating it actually.

Instead of hiding a weakness, I think it showcasing one.

That's something that I hope they tweak if they have time that they tweak between now and next week.

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Yeah, I don't know.

I think at this point it is what it is.

And folks are setting their ways for better for worse.

Somebody said, Caroline, I had the advantage on Jared and Steven soon and Nick Davidson.

I think that's Davidson's first name.

Davidson finished with 17.

He had 11 in second half.

Stevenson had two in the second half.

I'm not sure if that's an advantage there.

But that doesn't, I mean, that speaks to the whole organization.

If we're talking about skill players and in the talent it manages, that's a Carolina problem.

Not just this team problem.

If folks understand what I'm saying.

Talking about Rob Harrington here on the insight, Caroline, a post game.

Again, shout out Johnny T-Shirt, support him.

816 people in, we're 13 minutes in.

Rob, you talked about what if for next week.

And I don't know how much you and I are talk.

We're going to have a big season ending pod for sure.

And it's going to get real and we'll go there.

But the season is not over yet.

How does this game specifically affect Carolina's seeding in that tournament?

And also the mindset going into it.

A long question.

I think they should be a six seed.

Don't give me the five seed stuff when you lose in the first round of the ACC tournament.

Can't hear that.

And you have a strength of schedule, like they've had in the off, you know, outside of the ACC.

But your thoughts on it.

I think six seed as well as they're going to do, I agree.

This is where I think the comeback might have helped them.

Because if they lose that game by 15 or 18 points, like they were flirting with.

They might drop to a seven.

Because I've written a column about this too.

We talked about it a little bit previously.

If the committee is looking to sort of make the Tar Heels pay penets for making the tournament last year, controversially.

They could ding them on a seed.

And the way they justify it is, hey, you're not the same team without Caleb Wilson.

In fact, you have a beat in the decent team off of your home force in January, which is UVA.

Clemson was an opportunity to do that tonight and they came up short.

But on paper, it doesn't look so bad because the score was close.

So how much attention are people playing paying to an 1130 p.m. game on a Wednesday night or Thursday night?

You know, I don't know.

But I think the justification is a little bit more difficult because Carolina didn't get blown out.

That would have made it easier for the committee to say, you're now knocked down to a seven.

I think at least they might hold court as a six.

And I don't think this is just a semantics argument because, in my opinion, the six three game is much, much, much more winable than a seven two.

Even assuming they win the first round game.

Because the top five to eight teams, I think they're, they're a cut above that next group before the three seeds.

So that it gets a lot less likely that he'll find a way to win one of those games.

I think possibly, but, but pretty unlikely.

I think they would have at least a decent chance in a six three game.

So that's what I'm hoping for.

When you look at it, I think you're exactly right.

That's why I think a six is much better than a four or five or seven.

I mean, people are talking about eight.

I don't know that it matters. I mean, this team has got to check in for a full 40 minutes.

Whenever they play, whether it's next Thursday or Friday and then say a tournament.

Because they go into up to your point about being these seeds, those lower seeded teams, whether it's a five to 12 or six 11 or 17.

Those teams are going to be chuffing that bit to get a piece of Carolina.

And I felt like Clemson did that tonight.

And Carolina just set there and took it for 37 minutes.

And so we're arguing about seeds. I don't know if it matters.

Ultimately, what matters is how Carolina plays.

And Rob, a lot of people have said, and I've seen it on social media.

I've seen it on the message boards checking out after he were after, excuse me, Caleb Wilson.

The news is he's not coming back and the teams emotionally checked out.

I don't know if I buy that. And if it if it is a thing, then I put I lay that at the feet of the coaching staff to not be able to get them through that.

It's human nature to be sad, you know, to be upset that you're missing a guy.

And that's a huge loss.

But you got to sack up and play.

And that's part of it. And injuries are part of it. Clemson did it tonight. Louisville did it.

You know, without Michael Brown, they lost obviously today, but your thoughts on that aspect of this discussion with Carolina basketball.

I don't know. It's digging a little too deep for me into the team psychology to say that will Caleb Wilson's the reason that they played poorly.

I mean, I think that part of the reason they've struggled the past two games is they were not at home.

They haven't been a good team away from home all season really. They had the UVA when Kentucky went early.

But by and large, obviously, a much different team when they're at home.

That was true with Wilson, true without Wilson. And the other thing is.

Even with Wilson, they they were up and down. You know, we know how they started the ACC. The first five games were awful.

Even with them. So it's not out of character for this team to play this way. Unfortunately, you know, to fall behind.

It's just like the cow game. You know, they're a full squad. They have a terrible first half. They get down huge to an inferior opponent. They have a comeback.

And in the comebacks, exciting. But at the same time, like, why were you in this position?

I don't think that question has changed from cow to Clemson tonight.

I can't put it at Caleb Wilson's feet. I agree that it's it's certainly not an excuse for the team to play listlessly.

That's on the coaching staff. You know, in terms of personal, yes, you have to factor Wilson's absence into it.

But in terms of the effort, you know, it does it does go to the coaching staff. And I wouldn't assume that it's because of anything going on with Wilson.

It's just it's just kind of what this team is.

Yeah, I think that's just a valid excuse. And, you know, for you to come out and play in an ACC tournament like that, I don't care what the reason is.

I mean, it's just can't happen. And again, it's 100% on the coaching staff. If that's if that's an issue, then they're deeper, deeper issues than,

than we even have know about and we watch them every day. We cover them every day. We talk about it every day. So anyway, Rob 19 minutes in some interesting comments on the on the on the message board thread. I appreciate folks paying attention.

I'm a read one. I think it's funny. And it's not necessarily wrong.

Hold on. This is great radio.

Our team is as soft as this podcast, credit them for coming back seriously. We got down 18 to our team without one of their best players.

Valid, I guess, to get down.

I credit the players for coming back and I credit the players for for showing a little bit of fight how they got there, why they were down.

That's another story. And we've talked about that Rob final thoughts here on our last ACC tournament post game show of the year. These are rapidly coming to the end.

Greg Barnes pointed out, you know, before they had three games max a minimum of three games left. Well, now there's a minimum of one game left and could be a maximum of one game left that they continue to do what they do.

But the final thoughts here.

Or one, the heels took a beating and so did you and I probably deserve that's okay. I love it. I love it. If I said, I'm going to say what Dean Smith always said.

Dean Smith said, I don't always say what I think, but I mean what I say.

And there's and there's a time and place to do it. And it's not quite there yet. It's getting close, but it's not quite there yet. And besides, I'm just to host Rob's the expert. Go Rob.

I mean, for me, in the season, we're on a three game losing streak would be horrific, even even without Caleb Wilson.

And even if you want to say, okay, winning at Duke, not a fair ask under the circumstances, okay. Probably could have played better, but but Clemson on a neutral floor is a game that you can win.

Whoever they play in the first round of the tournament is a game that they will be favored to win. I would imagine probably not by a lot, but a little bit.

They need to win that one at least. I mean, we're talking bare minimum expectations, even without Caleb Wilson, they need to win that game.

And I think that they should be competitive again, pending matchups and seeds and all that. I don't I don't think they should be outclassed by anyone as long as they don't drop to a seven.

Especially if there are six, I think that they should they need to be competitive in all these games, Tommy. I mean, they.

If they go into the off season, losing three in a row.

And they have to fundraise off that, you know, they have to raise all this money to and they don't have much time to do it.

No one's going to forget how the season ended because the portal starts immediately and it only runs for a couple of weeks, at least to get people into the portal.

A lot of the actions going to happen earlier this year than has been the case in the past few years.

If you have a moralized fan base to watch them lose three games in a row, that's going to be real tough without any major changes.

And so I think having, you know, yes, the season is almost definitely going to end with a loss.

But, but sandwiched in there somewhere has got to be a winner to, especially if they could find a way to make the second weekend.

That would make people feel better and more hopeful.

You and I will not sugar code anything.

You know, I think it's, it's, it's disappointing to me that they couldn't win a game in the ACC tournament.

This is, this was an important year for them to do that, especially because they probably aren't a final four contender.

They, but you saw Florida State give Duke a run here that they're not invincible.

They needed to get to that game and give it another shot.

I, I, I, I pod, I'm going to disagree with the message board poster.

I do think we're noting the team's good play, whatever the context is.

It doesn't change the fact that it's still a bad loss and it doesn't undo the fact they were in that situation in the first place.

Because the person's going to point out, I think accurately, if the, if the hills have been up to points back and forth and they lost by two points at the end of the game.

Everyone would be furious and they don't get credit for anything.

So you're sort of like given them credit for getting an iPhone of paper and then following that out with a D minus or whatever.

But you, you, you, you passed, but it's still a really poor score and bottom line issue didn't do well enough.

I think that the next week is real important for this, this team and also the Hubert Davis era.

Because if they don't strike it rich in the portal, the next season could get pretty ugly.

And then what is Carolina basketball?

And then you've got this arena talk Rob, we could, we need to do this.

We're keeping people late, but we could, we could go for a long time on how those issues tie together too.

It is, it is all connected. It is a 100% all connected and it's all going to come to a head at some point soon enough.

And if they lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament, it's going to be interesting.

I don't know what they'll do.

We've seen things shake out in many different ways in Chapel Hill before, but bottom line is, as the expectations of Carolina basketball, in my opinion, should not change and should not be changed.

Here we are in a time where four seeds in the ACC tournament and opening round losses, and I considered a quarter finals opening round loss in the ACC tournament, should not, should not be part of the standard.

But we'll see Rob is always fun. I'm glad I'm sorry that you were soft tonight, but I helped you along with that.

We'll get them next time.

We did better at the end. We had our own comeback. We got down 15 points, and now we're coming back.

Yeah, do me a favor, folks, if you're watching this, even if you didn't like the show, and I'm ingest, the fans have been unbelievable inside Carolina fans have been unbelievable in these podcasts. We've done a lot of them.

I guess this is 32 on the season, and there's always been a pile of folks in here watching and watching live, and here it is at midnight or midnight 1230 on the Thursday night when everybody's got to get up and go to work or most everybody does.

So as always, I'm a joy to be able to do these shows with Rob, and mostly with Rob, and for you guys to pay attention.

So shout out to everybody paying attention. Do me a favor, like the podcast on YouTube, rate, review, subscribe on all this stuff.

Go to Instagram, and get in the discussion.

Keep it clean. Express your opinions. Don't get it personal, and it'll be a fun place to or an enjoyable place to discuss things that might not be so enjoyable to discuss.

At the moment, Carolina loses a glimpse in 80 to 79 and ACC quarters.

The AC Tournament is officially over for the Tar Heels this year on the Selection Sunday, where you'll get plenty of covers from coast to coast and all that crowd.

And of course, here at Inside Carolina, a ton of coverage.

So much portal season, goodness gracious. It never stops. Thanks Rob.

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