North Carolina vs.Clemson
Tip-off: 1 p.m. ET
Odds: -5 ½
All I have to say is that Roy Williams better be burning sacrifices to the recruiting gods for bringing him Tyler Hansbrough. The sophomore forward isn’t much to look at, but in two straight games, Hansbrough has single-handed hoisted the Tar Heels on his back and carried them to victory.
Against Virginia Tech, they really had no business winning the game after trailing for almost the entire 40 minutes in the face of Tech’s in-your-face defense, but UNC was just good enough to hang close until the end when Hansbrough made three consecutive plays that gave his team the win.
There was about one minute left when UNC was trailing by two points and Virginia Tech’s Delaney stole the ball from a North Carolina guard. Delaney was sprinting toward the basket when Hansbrough chased him down from behind and knocked the ball away. Then on the next play, Virginia Tech missed a three-pointer and it was Hansbrough who chased down the long rebound. On the final play of the game, Williams elected to let Ty Lawson take the shot, he missed it, but Hansbrough was there to get another long rebound and make the 12-foot jumper to give North Carolina the win.
The kid is amazing. But when you’re done marveling at Hansbrough’s tenacity, then you start to wonder why the No. 1 team in the country needed to be bailed out like that.
There is the possibility that this team is tired. They missed a lot of long jumpers and three-pointers, which is usually a sure sign of tired legs. Their 40 percent shooting from the field and 5-for-14 rate from three-point range isn’t really all that surprising considering the slugfest they had with Florida State on Friday.
That is definitely something to consider going into this final. Sure, they have good depth and Hansbrough’s motor will never run out of gas, but as improbable as it seems, UNC looks like a team that is fading. They may be asking themselves how bad they really need this conference championship. They’ll have to fight for a win in the final and I don’t know how much fight is left in the Tar Heels.
It probably would have worked in UNC’s favor if Duke had made it through because the rivalry and hype surrounding the matchup might have energized them. But instead they get Clemson, a team they’ve already beaten twice this year and no history between them.
Clemson, on the other hand, has a whole bunch of reasons to be motivated for this game. Their two losses to Carolina were particularly bitter because on both occasions they had the game in hand, but gave up leads before losing in overtime. You know this team is dying to make amends for those near misses and what better venue to make it right than in the ACC tournament final with an automatic bid to the Big Dance on the line?
In their win over Duke, the Tigers were relentless. They showed no signs of fatigue and they attacked from wire-to-wire on both ends of the floor. The amazing thing about this team is how many weapons they have with five players averaging more than 10 points per game. I would hate to be a Roy Williams trying to come up with a plan to stop this offense that has averaged 80 points in two ACC tournament games.
With good size and strength up front, combined with guards who can shoot from everywhere, Clemson seems to match up with North Carolina better than the undersized Blue Devils.
You take a fired up team with a chip on its shoulder and put them up against a battle-weary defending champion that has little to play for, you tell me who you like. Add to that equation that UNC’s point guard Ty Lawson’s health is in question and a dropoff in production from the bench and it looks like a great spot to take the underdog.
As Clemson coach Oliver Pernell said after the game: “right now we’re riding a lot of momentum and we’re playing as well as we’ve played all year.”
Pick: Clemson