We’ll get a much better picture of just how good the Clemson Tigers are when they face the North Carolina Tar Heels on Tuesday. Clemson won its ninth straight game with a comeback victory over Wake Forest on Saturday and for the time being sits atop the ACC standings. Sure it’s only one conference game, but the Tigers are looking a lot like the school’s football team in terms of grittiness and the ability to win games. The school’s faith in coach Brad Brownell might turn into a blessing.
This war on the floor will go down Tuesday, January 3, 2017, at 7 p.m. ET at Littlejohn Coliseum. The game will be televised live on ESPN2.
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Clemson is already closing in on its win total from a season ago and that’s good news for a team that’s won more than 20 games once since its last NCAA Tournament appearance in 2011. The Tigers have beaten some good teams along the way and bring a 7-0 record at Littlejohn Coliseum into this showdown with the Tar Heels. Overall the Tigers are 11-2 SU and 7-4 ATS
The Tar Heels are once again a good club, but they proved Saturday that they can’t just show up and expect to win. UNC will always have a target on their back and the No. 9 Heels fell victim to a rebuilding Georgia Tech squad in its ACC opener on Saturday. Not many expected the Jackets to win that game, but the ACC is solid up and down and Georgia Tech proved that any team can pull off an upset during the conference slate. The Tar Heels will finish off a conference-opening two-game road trip against the Tigers before returning home Saturday to face rival NC State. UNC has played just three true road games so far going 1-2 SU and 0-3 ATS.
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Joel Berry II had been North Carolina’s leading scorer for most of the season but he’s been battling a virus for the past week and his numbers have tumbled. He scored just six points in a win over Monmouth with all points coming from the free throw line. He was affected in the loss to Georgia Tech when he made 3 of 13 field goals and tallied just eight points.
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We can chalk North Carolina’s loss to Georgia Tech as a bump in the road. Maybe the Tar Heels took the Jackets a bit too lightly, after all Tech was picked to be a bottom feeder in the ACC standings and UNC has looked like a national championship contender. On more than one occasion following that game, Roy Williams used the word ‘awful’ to describe his team’s play.
But it looked like the Heels were frustrated in the slow down style the Yellow Jackets played. UNC likes to run and scores a bushel of points in transition. The Tar Heels average nearly 88 points per game and were held to a season-low point total in the 75-63 loss. It was an atypical game for the Tar Heels. Their 20 turnovers were nearly as many as their 24 made field goals. They shots just 33.3 percent from the floor and made just 5 of 26 three-pointers. Don’t expect the Tar Heels to do that again. It wasn’t anything Georgia Tech did defensively, rather a snow-ball effect of poor shooting and turnovers.
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For much of the early season the Tar Heels looked like they might be a better team this season without Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige. But that was quickly silenced with a loss to Georgia Tech. UNC is still a quality club and even the good ones can have a dud every now and then. I fully expect the Tar Heels to regroup and with Berry feeling better, the offense will perform at a higher rate.
The entire team won’t go into a funk at the same time and with some quality depth, UNC will bounce back. Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks are too good up front and are the best big men Clemson will face this season. While the Tigers have a nice streak going, the Tar Heels are poised for a bounce back game and should come out on top by covering the line.
College Basketball Odds: North Carolina 84, Clemson 75
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