Tip Drill: Florida State at Clemson

1/9 vs. Florida State

Result: 56-41 Defeat
Leading Scorer: KJ McDaniels (14)
Key Stat: Clemson had a season high 18 turnovers

• I may not be at the level of DrB post-SCar, but I'm pretty furious about this game. I knew FSU was better than us, but we should have had a realistic chance to win at home. We played a putrid game. The offense was so bad that we had more turnovers than baskets. Yes, more turnovers than field goals. What was the worst turnover? It's a tough call, but it has to be either Demarcus Harrison's needless dribble between his legs and off his foot or Rod Hall's five-second inbounding violation where he missed Roper out by the three point arc..
  
  
• Josh Smith took Blossomgame's starting spot. Nnoko, McDaniels, Roper, and Hall started alongside Josh Smith. We've been hoping for a consistent starting lineup, but this change actually doesn't bother me one bit. There's been zero production from the PF spot, and FSU is an especially big team. Josh Smith gives us some size. He only scored two, but had five rebounds. STS does not believe he's the caliber of player that should be on the team. Blossomgame and Djambo finished a combined 0/3 from the field with one rebound. Djambo got pulled after some very poor decisions and only played seven minutes. Blossomgame only played four, but I didn't see anything egregious in that time. It's more likely he saw limited minutes due to matchups and his recent listless play than anything in this particular game.
  
  
• The first half was hard to watch. We settled for jumpers. Djambo, our SIX FOOT TEN power forward took all of his shot and committed two first half fouls outside the three point arc. Landry Nnoko led Clemson in scoring in the first half with six so you know things didn't go according to plan. If most teams score just 16 in the first half it's already a blowout. Fortunately, FSU only scored 21 making for a five point game at the break.
  
  
• Just how much was Clemson settling? Tigers shot just a mere six FTs. Aside from Filer's four attempts, KJ McDaniels had two. That was all, and it shows a lack of effort on offense.
  
  
• Rod Hall continues to shoot that 24 foot leaner. I'm not sure I understand that shot. Step one foot back and it's a three pointer. You only have to make it 67% as much as you make the 24 footer for it to be a better shot. He even paused, stepped up just barely enough to put him foot squarely on the line, and then missed. Effective FG% is a valuable stat basketball fans (and players) should learn.
  
  
• Until the seven minute mark of the second half, Roper had no points, no assists, and four turnovers. Neither he nor Rod Hall scored until around the 7 min mark of the second half. They actually racked up 10 quick points between them in those final minutes, but the game was over at that point. Hall, Roper, and Filer had a miserable 6-to-8 AST-TO ratio.
  
  
• Clemson players of the game were of course K.J. McDaniels and then you have to give it to Landry Nnoko. He held the FSU centers to just four points, mostly do to his ball denial, which was great. He had six points, six rebounds, and a big momentum shifting block. 
  
  
• There were just too many runs by FSU. An 11-0 run that ended with a K.J. floater around the 12 minute mark gave them their early lead. A six minute scoring drought just about took us into halftime before Filer made a few free throws. The bottom line is, the best defense in the world isn't going to win with 41 points and as hapless as our offense is, 18 turnovers screams lack of focus. I hope Brownell has some tough practices before the Duke game on Saturday. I don't believe FSU played their best game. They were 1-11 from three and 3-7 from the charity stripe. This could have been a lot worse.
  
  
• Florida State has now beat us five-in-row on the hardwood. They've also beat us two in a row in both football and baseball.
  
  
• Let me try to be positive for the rest of this post. The crowd did a great job on the shot clock countdown. They duped a FSU player into shooting out-of-rhythm

• If you're a student and don't enjoy watching really, really good defense, but slightly worse offense there is good news. Clemson announced a new attendance rewards program. They had something like this back when I was in school. I was actually one of those folks who scanned the cards. Now it'll use a smartphone app and the prizes are pretty impressive. Kudos to the athletic department on this one.
  
  
• We were hoping to start ACC play 2-2 and that's still possible, but barring a Louisiana-Monroe vs. Alabama caliber upset against Duke that'll require a win in Blacksburg. VT has already lost to USC Upstate and UNC Greensboro so I think we'll manage that one. At this point I'm comfortable standing by our original 6-12 projection.

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