By William Qualkinbush.

The takeaway was unmistakable. Every fan saw it. Every television viewer saw it. Brad Brownell highlighted it. His players regurgitated it.

As of Saturday’s 74-50 home loss to North Carolina, the thing most obviously missing from Clemson basketball this season is not difficult to spot.

“Guys have to be more tough,” forward Jaron Blossomgame said. “A lot of things have to change in this program in order for us to start winning these games.”

Toughness seemed to be in short supply in Littlejohn Coliseum for a Clemson team who began the season looking to build off of a trip to last season’s NIT. That squad overcame a pair of blowout losses early in the season to conference foes to become a formidable team defined by scrappy play and consistency.

The 2014-15 version has much work to do to reach that plateau of performance.

“We’re not there mentally yet, as a team, to go into these big games and get these wins,” guard Damarcus Harrison said.

The downturn started early against the Tar Heels, who came in a much improved defensive outfit than conventional wisdom suggests a Roy Williams-coached team should be. North Carolina scored the game’s first five points and built a double-digit lead it would never relinquish by the 7:15 mark in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Tigers struggled mightily to string together anything meaningful offensively. They made just five shots in the first half and never made consecutive shot attempts before halftime. In fact, until the 7:10 mark of the game, Clemson only made back-to-back shots once—the final shot before halftime and the first shot afterwards.

“We didn’t make any shots early,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “That just puts so much pressure on you as a team.”

Unlike much of the Brownell era, where iffy offensive teams have bailed themselves out by being tough and fundamentally sound on defense, the Tigers failed to match the intensity level of the Tar Heels. North Carolina was plus-19 on the boards (49-30) and had almost as many second-half offensive rebounds (12) as Clemson did total rebounds (13).

Furthermore, the Tar Heels dominated the paint, outscoring the Tigers 34-12 underneath. They won the battle of second-chance points by double figures (16-6).

Center Kennedy Meeks managed a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds in only 22 minutes, while the 6-11 Clemson combo of Landry Nnoko and Sidy Djitte only had 4 points and 10 rebounds in 39 combined minutes.

To make matters worse, Clemson stagnated offensively, failing to create enough opportunities as the game progressed to rearrange its shooting numbers. Rod Hall was invisible, taking just four shots in 28 minutes in a performance in which Brownell said he “didn’t play well”.

The goal was to get him going with some ball screens, but North Carolina was ready for that.

“In hindsight, that didn’t work very well,” Brownell said.

Nothing did for Clemson, leaving the strong contingent of baby blue fans who filled in the sizable cracks in Littlejohn with a smile on their faces.

Harrison knows what needs to change. He understands he and Hall have to take ownership of the situation and coax a better mentality out of the team.

“It starts with our senior leaders,” he said. “We’ve got to pull our young guys together and make sure we can stay confident in ourselves and trust in each other.”

Last year’s team did it with no seniors on the roster. It was Harrison and Hall who teamed up with since-departed K.J. McDaniels to provide the team with a suitable structure for leadership. That structure laid the foundation for a tough-minded squad capable of handling tremendous adversity.

As good as North Carolina was—very, very good—Clemson was its own worst enemy at times, and the ghost of McDaniels never appeared to provide a lift.

Only a tough team can muddle through a seemingly impossible stretch of four upcoming conference games without being so beaten and battered that the remaining 13 games become a showcase for a weary team that lacked the capability to bring the fight to an opponent. Only a mentally mature team can handle losses like Saturday’s.

Last year’s Clemson team stepped up and grew up. The jury is still out on this one.