Clemson losing streak ends as Tar Heels buckle under the weight of history
Sometimes a number is just a number. A guy scores 20 points a game, he might be the biggest ball hog in the area code. A team wins 20 games, it might have played a schedule so weak it’s embarrassing. You count, you average, you measure, but what you end up with doesn’t always mean anything.
The numbers meant everything Saturday, looming over the court, tugging and pulling somewhere deep in the soul. The overwhelming power of the history they represented was oppressive, everyone laboring under their weight.
59.
879.
1.
You could feel it over the final two minutes of regulation, as North Carolina wilted in the face of Clemson’s pressure and in the face of a streak that predated any of the players’ parents. An 11-point lead evaporated in 128 seconds as the Tar Heels lost their poise. History, lurking behind the curtain for the entire game, stepped out and let its presence be known.
Clemson 79, North Carolina 76, in overtime and for the first time in a series that dates back to 1928.
If you live long enough, you’ll see just about everything. In this case, you might have needed to make it all the way to 92. Never has there been so much rejoicing over a 1-59 record and so much lament over a 59-1 record.
But there was something about how Clemson’s perpetual incompetence in Chapel Hill had endured that made it bigger than what it actually was, stretching across the venues from the Tin Can to Woollen Gym to Carmichael Auditorium to the Smith Center, stretching across the years through 2002 and 2010 and all the other years when everyone thought it would fall — or 2008, when absolutely no one thought it would fall and it needed double overtime to survive — and stretching across the coaches from Frank McGuire to Dean Smith to Bill Guthridge to even Matt Doherty.
But not through Roy Williams, who has now suffered through an agonizing three home losses waiting to pass Smith with his 880th win. And may wait even longer the way things are going.
Williams was despondent afterward, blaming himself for not reminding his team to foul when it was up three at the end of regulation, allowing Aamir Simms to hit the 3-pointer that sent the game to overtime. That he thought such a reminder mandatory was a statement of just how utterly lost this team is — “It just slipped through. We got caught up in the intensity of the game,” Brandon Robinson said — and there’s always a bit of compassionate deflection in Williams’ self-flagellation, but his despair was certainly genuine.
“They’re dribbling the ball across the 10-second line and I said, ‘You didn’t remind them to foul.’ We do it in practice. I believe in it,” Williams said. “I’ve had some great moments as a coach and I’d say that right now this is my lowest one because losing this game was my fault. I told them if I die tomorrow or 20 years from now that’ll be the biggest regret I have in 32 years as a coach. Because these kids really need a win. And their coach let them down today.”
So this is how a difficult season manages to get even more difficult, with Jeremiah Francis ruled out just before game time, joining the other wounded on the bench. Still, the Tar Heels were in complete control thanks to the explosive scoring of Robinson and the unexpected and varied contributions of Andrew Platek, both of whom put the Tar Heels into a position to win, at least until Clemson started pressing and North Carolina suddenly sensed not only the burden of 59-0 but the paralyzing hesitancy that sunk the Tar Heels against Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
“North Carolina did a good job,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “They played well for 38 minutes.”
It was genuinely meant as a compliment.
But this is the season for damning North Carolina with faint praise. At least the Tar Heels have secured as many wins as that 8-20 team in 2002, but they have no visible way out of this, not with Cole Anthony and Anthony Harris and Sterling Manley and Francis all out. They actually played to their potential on Saturday, limited as it may be, building the late double-digit lead and yet still managing to collapse in a historic loss.
It had the eerie feel of the end of North Carolina’s home loss to Duke in 2012, when the Tar Heels let a double-digit lead slip away, only Simms’ shot was to tie and Austin Rivers’ shot was for the win. (To be sure, there was no comparison whatsoever Saturday to the talent that was on the floor that night eight years ago.)
Sometimes numbers are just numbers. Sometimes, they’re living, breathing things, crouching on your shoulder, pulling you back, pinning you down.
Robinson missed the 3-pointer that represented North Carolina’s final chance at the end of overtime, then fell flat on his back and laid there, one streak of many decades over, one skid of three games still alive. The weight of all that history held him in place while the world kept spinning around him.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 8:06 PM.
