'Gut check' time for Clemson basketball following loss to UVA

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Clemson head coach Brad Brownell after the Tigers 61-36 road loss to Virginia. BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Clemson’s first basketball game A.D. (After Donte), proved a bit challenging.

Not that Donte Grantham’s presence would have changed the ultimate outcome in Tuesday night’s 61-36 loss at No. 2 Virginia, but there’s little doubt that his experience and savvy could have helped the Tigers’ cause against the Cavaliers.

The major question now is how will the team compensate for Grantham as it heads into “gut check” time of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s regular season?

Ten league games remain, beginning with Sunday’s trip to Georgia Tech, and the Tigers must find a way to not only make up for Grantham’s 14.2 points and 6.9 rebounds, but also his leadership and ability to keep the team functioning on an even keel.

“At the end of the day, we have to figure out a way to play without him, and we’re working on doing that,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “We’ve got to make some other adjustments and so some other things to counteract it, and I’ve got to figure some things out, but we’ll work through that in the next month and a half.”

Freshman Aamir Simms, who started in Grantham’s spot Tuesday night, responded with career highs in points (nine) and rebounds (six), but there were times that he looked very much like a freshman against the Cavaliers.

The good?

Simms helped spark a 7-0 Clemson run early in the game with a nifty jump shot in the lane with a defender draped all over him, then later buried a 3-pointer from the right baseline to give the Tigers’ their biggest lead of the night at 23-16. He also had an impressive baseline drive and dunk with five minutes left in the game.

The bad?

Simms managed only one offensive rebound, air-balled his first 3-point attempt, picked up his third foul early in the second half and turned the ball over three times.

Yet for a first start, it was difficult to be overly-critical of the 6-foot-7 Virginia native playing against the nation’s No. 2 team on their home court.

“I thought Aamir Simms did some good things for us today,” Brownell said. “For a freshman in there battling, he played as well as anybody.”

True enough, but then again Brownell would be hard pressed to find anyone else on the team who played “well.”

Starting guards Marcquise Reed, Shelton Mitchell and Gabe DeVoe combined to shoot 7 of 23 (30 percent) from the floor and a meager 0 for 9 from 3-point range. That trio also committed 10 of the team’s season-high tying 19 turnovers.

Elijah Thomas also endured one of his more-forgettable games – two points, four rebounds and three turnovers in 15 minutes.

Virginia’s defense tends to bring out the worst in everybody, and Brownell acknowledged as much after watching his team fall to 16-4 overall and 5-3 in ACC play with its third loss in five games.

“We really tried to do too many one-on-one things in the second half,” Brownell said. “We made some poor decisions and had some turnovers and when Virginia gets the lead like that, you’re really in trouble.”

The bottom line is that the loss of Grantham will have to be overcome sooner rather than later if the Tigers hope to play their way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years.

With four of their next seven games on the road – and a home schedule that includes visits from league kingpins Duke and North Carolina – the Tigers have no time to waste while searching for answers.