By 6 PM on the first day of the NCAA tournament Louisville and Clemson were eliminated in a relative surprise loss to Creighton and a stunner to McNeese State. Both were double-digit losses where neither team sniffed winning the game.
What in the world happened?
First off this isn’t an indictment of the ACC. Louisville and Clemson were good NCAA-caliber basketball teams. They proved it in the non-conference. Louisville took care of teams like Indiana and West Virginia that just missed the NCAAs and they beat Clemson twice who had a win over Kentucky and Duke. The ACC wasn’t deep and maybe the two 18-2 conference records were somewhat inflated, but they were always going to make the NCAA tournament.
So again what happened?
Louisville was underseeded at 8. They should have been no worse than a 6 seed, but they were playing in the state of Kentucky and it was a virtual home game. Creighton went up double digits with about 5 minutes left, and it was over. The Bluejays shot 57% from the field and 46% from 3 and that was all she wrote.
Clemson got down 10 with 9 minutes left in the 1st to McNeese State, and it was a wrap. They got as far down as 22 in the second half and ended up losing by 2 by extending the game the last 5 minutes. As @MattZemek said on X it was the most lopsided 2-point game in history. Make no mistake Clemson was never in the game and they never had a realistic chance to win.
Louisville and Clemson took hard 1st half punches and packed it in. It’s that simple. Two teams with the quality of PGs of Louisville and Clemson had should have shown more fight, but neither did. There was never a legitimate run, there was never a flurry of scoring that gave an indication either team could. Clemson was coming off an Elite 8 appearance, they had experience in these games.
They both acked energy and urgency.
Who were the players that provided that for Louisville and Clemson? Louisville Reyne Smith was coming off an ankle injury and hurt it again Thursday. Even before then, he was 1 for 5 on 3’s. It was so hard to make runs on Louisville during the season because Smith was an instant offense, and he was compromised today.
For Clemson Dillion Hunter went out during the ACC tournament, and he was one of Clemson’s best defenders. He was on the few Clemson players who could guard multiple positions, and he was an active presence on both ends of the floor.
You may be able to get away with lackluster energy during portions of the season, but in the NCAA tournament, your 90% energy playing 100% energy is going to get you beat almost every time.
Creighton and McNeese State had it, and Louisville and Clemson didn’t and that’s why they are headed home before they should have been.
