(AP Photo/ Richard Shiro)
Oh no, is the 58-0 streak over versus Clemson?
Pretty much every UNC basketball fan knows that Clemson has never won a game in Chapel Hill. Not once in the 93 years the Tigers have been coming up here to play hoops, from Bynum Hall to the Tin Can, to Wollen Gym all the way to Carmichael to the Dean Dome.
There are some who say that tonight’s game will no longer be mentioned in the same sentence with Jon Southerland’s record of taking a jog for 16,447 straight days or 45 years of going out for a daily run. Not quite apples to apples, but 0-58 is pretty embarrassing. The Tigers are 15-2 and ranked 20th, the Tar Heels 14-4 and No. 15. But there is still that legendary home court advantage!
In the modern era, since the ACC began in 1953, the game in Chapel Hill has been close a few times. Especially the back-to-back seasons when Tates Locke’s Tigers lost 61-60 and 74-72. Of course, those were the Clemson Cheetahs, and if those games were won they would have been vacated by an NCAA probation that followed and cost Locke his job.
Anyway, there have been a few other close games. A 73-70 loss here in 1980 and a five-point defeat to the 1982 national champions, which I guess qualifies as a moral victory for Clemson. The biggest blowout came in 1994, when Eric Montross’ Heels won by 44 points.
In 1997 was Carolina’s only upset win over the Tigers in Chapel Hill. They were ranked No. 2 and we were No. 19 after a 2-5 start in ACC play. But the Tar Heels beat Rick Barnes’ team 61-48 and our students rushed the court, well, a few of them did.
Carolina even beat Clemson here in Matt Doherty’s 8-20 season with everyone predicting that game would end the streak. When Ol’ Roy arrived, the ACC expanded and we didn’t play home and home every year, so we avoided hosting the Tigers in that 2010 NIT season. Probably good because Coach Oliver Purnell’s team went 21-11 and made the NCAA Dance.
Purnell gave the Tar Heel fits, once losing in double overtime here and one overtime down there in 2008 and then leading the Heels by double digits in the ACC tournament championship game before losing to UNC for a third time in ‘08.
In Clemon’s nine trips here since Williams came back to coach, Carolina has won by an average of 16 points. It may not be that number tonight, but it will be No. 59. Count on it.
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