What Went Wrong: Clemson Loses Fourth Straight to Florida State at Home

Clemson basketball is officially in free fall down the bracket projections, losing its fourth straight game against the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday afternoon.

A lot went into the loss, including details that head coach Brad Brownell brought to the table after the game to the media. Here is everything that caused Clemson to pick up its fifth ACC loss of the season.

Robert McCray V

Clemson hasn’t seen many opponents drop the production that Florida State guard Robert McCray V had in the loss, and it hurt badly.

McCray scored a game-high 29 points in the Seminoles’ away win, including 20 of those in the second half alone. He hit some important shots down the stretch, including the final seven points of the game to go on a 7-0 run by himself to close out the contest.

Guard Dillon Hunter said it’s from the way that Florida State runs its offense, a “five outspread offense” that has everyone playing by themselves.

“So, we got kind of spread, and he was being aggressive going downhill, using his shoulders, so we got called on a couple fouls and made us kind of iffy if we wanted to be aggressive on his second dribble,” he said.

Brownell had high praise for the South Carolina native as well.

“Obviously, Robert McCray was the best player on the floor by far, and his second half was elite,” he said. “I probably didn’t do a good enough job of trying to figure out another way to stop him, he’s a great player.”

It’s difficult for a player to make his mark offensively against this Clemson team, but that’s what McCray did to disrupt the party.

Shotmaking Down The Stretch

In the second half, Clemson shot 34.5% from the field, a short 21.1% clip from beyond the arc. On the other hand, Florida State shot over 57% from the court in its win in the final frame.

Keep in mind that the Tigers had eight more shots put up over the 20-minute period, being unable to knock down key plays down the stretch.

The last shot that was hit was from Hunter at the 2:44 mark, making a difficult three to take the last lead of the game. For the rest of the game, misses from four others, including a stepback three from Hunter that missed with 31 seconds to go.

Brownell says that happens sometimes, and he doesn’t want it hurting the morale of his team.

“It’s hard, it’s like making a four-footer in golf,” he said. “I mean, you try really hard. Sometimes, that’s not the answer on a four-footer, and it’s sometimes that way on an open shot. You can try really hard, but, you know, you’re putting some mental pressure on yourself.”

Clemson’s Margins Were Exposed

Brownell has also spoken about Clemson’s margins over the last two weeks, which he describes as small. Several plays can’t be screwed up at the same time, and that’s what happened on Saturday.

“We’re a team that, we win because we have to guard at an extremely high level, and, you know, with this team, we have a phrase ‘everybody all the time,’ and it takes everybody for us to win,” he said. “I mean, it just does.”

Whether it’s shotmaking, going into foul trouble or defensive breakdowns, Clemson needs to play complete to win games. In Saturday’s loss, it was the inability to stop McCray while missing shots on the other end. Similar actions were echoed in losses to Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Duke over the last two weeks.

The Clemson head coach wants his team to make the smart plays down the stretch, and the opposite occurred in the loss.

“Even in the wins, we’ve had other games where we’ve won a bunch of close games,” Brownell said. “Your margins are small, and you have to be very opportunistic, sometimes a little fortunate.”

The Tigers will be back in action next Saturday when they will play Louisville at Littlejohn Coliseum.