The North Carolina Tar Heels had the chance to answer back after what was a very poor second half in the regular season finale against Duke. They had the chance at another game with the Blue Devils.
Instead, they looked like they didn’t want to be in Charlotte as they struggled against Clemson on Thursday.
North Carolina fell behind by as much as 18 points in the second half against the Tigers and although they fought back, it was how they fell behind that is worrisome. They were cold from the three-point line, bad from the free-throw line and there was no consistency on offense. Falling behind in games has been a common theme for the Tar Heels over the past few seasons.
According to @InsideCarolina, UNC has trailed by at least 15 points in 18 games over the last 2 seasons (over a quarter of them). Doing some quick research that may be wrong, I don’t think Duke has trailed by 15+ a single time during those two years.
— Ivan Corriher (@IWCorriher) March 13, 2026
Outside of Henri Veesaar, the Tar Heels essentially got nothing from key players.
Luka Bogavac, Jonathan Powell, and Jaydon Young combined to shoot 2-of-12 from the field. Seth Trimble, Derek Dixon and Jarin Stevenson had double figures each, but a lot of that was late. That begs the question — Who is going to step up for UNC come tournament time?
This issue, along with inconsistent guard play has plagued North Carolina all season long. When they need someone to complement Veesaar, they struggle to find that. Oftentimes, they go cold like they did tonight. Then there is the shooting struggles…..
As I mentioned above, the Tar Heels struggled from the three-point line. If it weren’t for a late barrage of makes at the end, that number would be worse. They were ice cold, including Bogavac, who was coming off a career-high performance against Clemson just 10 days ago. You can’t rely on being able to rally late after a poor shooting night in the NCAA Tournament. You also can’t rely on poor free-throw shooting, which has plagued them all season long.
It was the physicality that hurt the Tar Heels again.
“Yeah, just the inability to respond to physicality. I felt like it was the same thing Saturday of last week, and for most of the game tonight,” Davis said after the game. “Clemson has always been physical defensively, and one of the things I always say is you never let a defense dictate and decide how efficient you are on the offensive end. And I felt like their physicality took us out of our offense, took us off of our cuts, our screens, our moves, and didn’t really respond to that until the latter part of the second half.
These issues raise a lot of questions for a team that is seeing their stock on the decline going into the NCAA Tournament next week. A loss in the first round? Well, it could have significant ramifications for the upcoming offseason and future of the program.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: Questions linger after Clemson loss
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