By Will Vandervort

Clemson’s Milton Jennings called out his teammates following Thursday’s loss to North Carolina, in particular freshman guards Adonis Filer and Jordan Roper. It will be interesting to see how they respond tonight as the Tigers hit the road to Blacksburg, VA for an eight o’clock tip against Virginia Tech.

Jennings came down rather hard on Filer and Roper saying they were careless with the basketball and indecisive at crucial stages in the second half. The senior did clarify that he wasn’t trying to be mean or anything with his statements he just felt they should be held accountable, especially with it coming down to the final three games of the regular season.

Filer turned the baseball over five times, four in the second half against the Tar Heels, while Roper was 0-for-7 from the field in the last 20 minutes and settled for jump shots when he could have drove past a couple of players and tried for a high percentage shot instead.

Several times Filer and Roper got caught in the air trying to make a jump pass when there was nothing there.

“In high school you can get away with a jump pass, but you are not getting away with a jump pass in college,” Jennings said. “The guards played undisciplined. That was uncharacteristic of them in all honesty.”

Clemson head coach Brad Brownell agreed with the assessment of his senior forward, when it came to the play of his guards. Nine of the Tigers 15 turnovers came from Filer, Roper and Hall, including eight in the last 20 minutes.

“I thought in the second half we played much harder. I thought Devin (Booker) played extremely well, Milt played pretty well, but clearly our guard play was very poor,” Brownell said. “We had terrible turnovers that cost you.

“We had chances to get the game back in a winnable place.”

Trailing 50-40 following a Booker layup with 13:52 to play, the Tigers’ offense went south. Clemson went five minutes and 17 seconds without a field goal, missing six straight shots, while turning the basketball over on four other possessions.  Three of the four turnovers were charged to Filer, Roper and Hall.

“I’m very surprised, but as a senior we are told to call our guys out,” Jennings said. “Book and I played really hard, and I’m upset that they did not have that sense of urgency in such a big game. It just wasn’t there. It wasn’t there.”

It will have to be there tonight as the Tigers (13-14, 5-10 ACC) enter a game for the first time below the .500 mark in the Brownell era. Clemson has lost six of its last seven games overall and three straight.

The Tigers currently sit in eighth place in the ACC standings, tied with Wake Forest. Tonight’s game against Virginia Tech is a quick turnaround following such an emotional, and yet, another disappointing defeat.

Also, Brownell will have to possibly deal with not having forward K.J. McDaniels for a second straight game. He missed all of the North Carolina game due to a left ankle sprain suffered in the shoot around prior to the game.

“It is a big concern, especially at this time of the year,” Brownell said. “At this time of the year guys’ legs are a little heavy. A lot of them played a lot of minutes (in the North Carolina game) so bouncing back with the travel and two more games very quickly are not ideal.”