WTF CLEMSON?
We dominated them in the first half. All despite not shooting that well (35.9pct) and missing a ton of easy baskets inside, but we rebounded so well early on the offensive glass (14 off. reb, 25-19 total) that we got good second-chances (14pts). The rest of that huge advantage came from Illinois' sloppyness with the ball (10 turnovers) and our 12 points off of them, and us NOT turning the ball over. Clemson put up a 25-4 run and seemingly had the game put away....and our Guards even attacked the paint.
Then they went to halftime, and Clemson came back out totally flat. Illinois puts up a 28-4 run, with good zone defense and superior effort, then Clemson decides to start playing again to make it a ballgame, but the momentum was already gone. This has to be the worst loss of Purnell's time at Clemson. Its certainly the worst performance I've seen one of his teams put out there in several years.
The culprits:
-Standing around and not doing shit. Swing it a couple times, obvious look inside and then the defender jumps in front of it, then rush a shot or shoot a bad one.
-Turnovers: sloppy passing and ballhandling. We turned it over 2 times in the first half, then couldnt hold onto anything or pass well enough to keep the ball on our side of the court.
-Freshmen disappeared. Jennings is....damn, he was 5-star? Noel Johnson got minutes and scored points early, then where did he go?
-No presence inside by Trevor Booker in the 2nd half. Apparently we cannot pass the ball inside to him. Why doesnt Jerai Grant take it to the hole?
-Total lack of intensity on defense that spilled over to the offensive side, very passive. No longer fighting for rebounds. Nobody seems to be playing hard or even trying to, except Narcisse.
-No true shooter to go to when we get down. You see teams collapse on Booker, and since the Guards took the 2nd half off (with the exception of a few clutch 3s late) we have no reason for them to play honest.
-David Potter, what the fuck were you thinking at the end? FOUL, dont let another 8 seconds run off the clock. Wheres the basketball instincts? and a senior? Stagnant offensive player.
Your thoughts on this garbage?