Three Pivotal Takeaways From Clemson Basketball's Loss to Virginia Tech

Clemson suffered its second conference loss of the season, snapping a four-game winning streak with a 76-66 loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies on Wednesday night.

The Tigers were trailing nearly the entire contest, allowing the Hokies to get back into the bubble talks with one of their best wins of the season.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.

Guard Play Must Improve, Especially the Starters

Head coach Brad Brownell didn’t mince words after the loss, saying that players on the team weren’t having their best performances, especially on the perimeter.

“We had a lot of guys, for the first time in a long time, not play well,” he said postgame, “and just too many different guys not playing well on the same day.”

Starting guards Dillon Hunter and Jestin Porter finished with a combined six points. The two also only had one assist to one turnover, being nonexistent in the loss when Clemson needed them most.

Fortunately, Brownell had bench piece Ace Buckner continue his good stretch of play. He finished with 16 points in 27 minutes. He was one of the only bright spots in this backcourt in the game, though.

“I don’t think our perimeter players played very well tonight,” Brownell said. “Ace played well, and I don’t know beyond that who played very well for us on the premier, and their perimeter guys did play well.”

Virginia Tech’s starting two guards combined for 42 points in its win.

Is This Free Throw Issue Here to Stay?

Once again, Clemson struggled against an ACC opponent in knocking down shots from the charity stripe. The Tigers shot 11 of 18 from the free-throw line, a low 61.1%.

Going into the game, the Tigers were sixth in the conference at a 72.7% rate from the line. Especially in close ACC games, which will only get closer as the season continues to roll on, that has to change if Clemson wants to win more tightly-contested contests.

Forward Nick Davidson said Brownell spoke about it at halftime, but it’s on the players to end up doing.

“He did mention that, but we know, like it’s something that we got to take care of,” Davidson said after the game.

Meanwhile, the Hokies were perfect from the free-throw line, going a perfect 13 of 13. Clemson missed four of its own. If you pair that together, the Tigers would’ve been in a more contested game if those shots had ended up falling more often.

The same thing happened in the NC State loss, when the Tigers shot 62.5% from the line. When you look at these losses, this stat could be one that will be key moving forward.

Status on Two Injury Scares

Forward Carter Welling went down in the second half, immediately grabbing his ankle and going into a medical room off of the court.

Brownell said after the game that he had sprained his ankle. However, the medical staff told him that Welling wanted to get back out there.

“They said, ‘Hey, he’s probably not going to be 100%, but he wants to try,’” Brownell said. “So, I thought he fought pretty good. I don’t know what that’s going to look like tomorrow, but, yeah, proud of him for trying to get back out there and fight.”

Buckner also went down when the game was getting tight, limping his way over the bench in what looked like something with his calf.

A team spokesperson after the game confirmed that it was a cramp, and he should be good moving forward. However, Welling’s ankle will be monitored going forward, including an important stretch for the rest of Clemson’s season.

That begins on Saturday against the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils. Tipoff is set for noon from Cameron Indoor Stadium on Valentine’s Day.