North Carolina saw this Clemson loss coming, and didn’t do anything to stop it

North Carolina had a bad practice Monday, halted halfway through for an attitude adjustment. The Tar Heels had a bad shootaround Tuesday morning. Several players showed up late for warmups Tuesday night. They did everything a good team can do to play badly. They saw this coming. And they didn’t do anything to stop it. They just let it happen. So will Tuesday’s 80-76 loss to Clemson be some sort of wake-up call? It better be, because North Carolina has no one to blame but itself for Clemson’s second win in Chapel Hill since 1926.

“We’re a great team, but we’re not talented enough to turn it on and off whenever we want to,” North Carolina forward Armando Bacot said. This was a bad loss for many reasons, but the inability to prevent it from occurring has to top the list. North Carolina was down 15-2 in a heartbeat, to the point where Hubert Davis called an early timeout and told the huddle there was no point in talking about basketball, because the effort and energy was so deficient.

It’s far too simple and easy to say that the Duke game beat North Carolina — hangover, letdown — whatever you want to call it. The reality is North Carolina beat North Carolina. Because of how the Tar Heels let the euphoria of Saturday’s victory dull their edge, to be sure. But also because they failed to react or adapt when it was clear what was happening. Bacot, who has made his share of UNC history, chiseled out a more ignominious piece for himself Tuesday night by becoming the first-ever Tar Heel to lose twice to Clemson at home. He’s the only player left from the historic 2020 defeat, on either side. Technically, in a long enough timeline, everyone loses to Clemson twice. But the Tigers have now won two of three in Chapel Hill after losing 59 of the previous 59.