Clemson Basketball 'Going To Be Good At The Right Time' Despite Loss at UNC

Playing on the road is tough anywhere, but nowhere is it tougher than at UNC’s Dean Smith Center. Falling 67-63 to North Carolina on Tuesday night, Clemson learned that the hard way.

But in the ocean of Carolina Blue, RJ Godfrey found a silver lining.

“We played hard and our defensive effort was up there. So I think we are going to be good at the right time, that’s all I know,” Godfrey said following the loss.

Against one of the best teams in the country, Clemson pushed UNC to the limit. This wasn’t the same loss that we saw against Duke or Wake Forest in February. The last word that should be used to describe UNC’s win is “dominant.”

For Clemson, “swagger” felt like the defining word for the team’s performance.

“We’re finding our mood back, our swagger back, our mojo back,” Godfrey said following the loss.

In a game decided by a few coin-flip moments, Clemson was one big shot or one big stop away from defeating two ranked teams back-to-back, after taking down, at the time, No. 24-ranked Louisville this past Saturday.

But in an anomaly-type statistic, UNC shot significantly better from three (44%) than they did from the field (38%).

It was a tough pill to swallow, especially for Godfrey, who could hardly even joy his career night. He posted a career-high 22-points along with nine rebounds on 76% from the field.

“It’s just tough when you lose, man,” Godfrey said.

But Clemson displayed all the components of a tournament team capable of making a run at it. The go-to guy had been missing, but Godfrey wore those shoes with pride. The team didn’t excessively turn the ball over, and at 35%, the three-point shooting wasn’t as dismal as it had been in previous outings.

Just a week ago, the aforementioned woes had Clemson on a four-game losing streak. When you lose four in a row at the tail end of the season, the delusional (or rational) fan might say, “It’s good to lose now, they are just getting it out of their system.”

For Clemson, maybe that will actually hold true.

Once projected as high as a No. 4 or No. 5 seed, Clemson is now hovering around the No. 8 or No. 9 range in projections. But now, instead of playing their worst basketball of the year, it is back to its best.

With its convincing win over Louisville and a nailbiter against UNC — whom Clemson is 2-61 with all-time on the road — Clemson might have weathered the storm.

Awaiting is a Saturday tune-up game against Georgia Tech, the ACC’s last-place team.

To the aforementioned delusional fan: maybe that four-game losing streak was best spent in February after all.