North Carolina
Welter's Baseline Thoughts: UNC literally didn't wake up for 80-76 loss to Clemson
Pat Welter gives his take after covering UNC's 80-76 loss to Clemson.
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Pat Welter gives his take after covering UNC's 80-76 loss to Clemson.
All right. Let's give you some baseline thoughts after an 80 to 76 UN C loss to Clemson. Now in a vacuum coming out flat before and after your rivalry game versus Duke is one of the most predictable things in the world. In fact, the players said they saw it coming. I think, I just thought that this UN C team was better than that. And the reality is they aren't UN C was number three in the country heading into this game. Not because they are that much more talented than the rest of the nation. It's because they were playing that much harder and are that much more experienced? They can't win big games unless they play defense and come out with energy and they were over for three on that front here versus Clemson tonight. Too casual. Uh, practice. We didn't come out how we wanted to. I mean, our practice, we're going full on all out and they just haven't been that good these last two days and shoot around today. We had a bad shoot around and even in warm today, we didn't get out there on time. We didn't, we just post this whole coming up to this game, this wasn't where it needed to be and we got what we deserved war. I talked about coming out waiting for warm ups. Um, where did that come from? Was that just, like, naturally occurred or was it like, just hanging out or whatever happened? I, I feel like, I mean, most people would take naps before the game and I feel like we just weren't ready to go. Some people slept in, I mean, we're getting taped and, you know, people were just late and it just can't happen. I feel like that showed in the game. I mean, that was like one of the first games we were late and we came out slow energy in the w was slow energy at half time. Everything was, wasn't the same Clemson needed this game. This was a team that was top 25 after their nonconference schedule, but they have struggled in the AC C. They nearly won at Cameron versus Duke. Maybe should have won that game depending on how you look at the final foul call. And they had to have this one here tonight. They get a quad one win and they really boost up their tournament resume, but that's no excuse for UN C who has final four national title expectations. And you saw that ceiling with how they performed at Duke. One comment that stood out to me last week was from John C who said that this UN C team expects to win. And that was one of the encouraging things I did see from them despite the slow start in this game, they're down by nine at half time, 15 to 2 before they even blink. And they never counted themselves out of the game. Harrison Ingram Armando Bacot said they weren't panicking at half time and they were ready to come out and make a comeback similar to what they did at Florida State where they won that game similar to what they did against Georgia Tech when they didn't. And that was a stereo tonight where I think they just ran out of gas, you know, Seth trimble was out for this game. They really could have used his energy off the bench. Harrison Ingram cramped up at one point in the second half and they were running on fumes to tie the game at 70 with four minutes to go. You could feel it in the building. Everyone thought that were going to pull this thing out, but then they just didn't execute the little details in the final moments and that was one of the things that was most disappointing to Hubert Davis is that you need to have that attention to detail, especially in a trap game like this and UN C just didn't have it. I checked them in practice, I checked them both practices and in shoot around today, the importance of attention to detail. Um We always talk about reacting and responding. Uh, um, when things don't go your way and when things do go your way, but at the end of the day, you'd rather lose to Georgia Tech to Clemson in February than get upset in the middle of March. Maybe this could just be a reality check. This team isn't that much better than their competition. Yes, they do have what it takes to win it all, but they have to deliver every single night if they're going to get there.