By William Qualkinbush.

By William Qualkinbush.

Through seven games in ACC play, the Clemson basketball team sports a 3-4 record that puts the Tigers in ninth place in a 14-team league. It may not seem like much, until considering Vegas would’ve had them at 2-5 at this point.

Once again, Clemson will be the underdog when it heads to Raleigh tonight to battle an N.C. State squad that seems destined for the NCAA Tournament. It is always a difficult task to go up to Raleigh and win, and the difficulty ratchets up this year because of the tremendous depth the Wolfpack possesses.

N.C. State has nine players who play at least 11.9 minutes per game. Eight of them play at least 17.9 minutes. All nine players are talented and versatile, a nice luxury for Mark Gottfried to have at his disposal.

Along the same lines, depth has been perhaps Clemson’s worst enemy this season. The Tigers have gotten very little production from the bench this season—the word “inconsistent” is almost too kind.

For the season, Clemson’s bench is averaging 16.3 points per game—two points higher than its opposition. This looks fine, even in a simplistic thought process where efficiency is solely based on scoring output. If the Tigers are outscoring their opponents off the bench, it stands to reason they are being more productive in that regard.

This is simply not the case. One major outlier skews the data—a 35-point bench performance against a winless Florida A&M team in a game in which the Tigers were +21 off the bench. Take that game out on both sides, and the averages are almost identical.

Relying heavily on starters pays a toll since a long season requires peripheral players to step up on occasion to provide a lift. Such was the case in Saturday’s win over Wake Forest, where Clemson’s reserves provided 18 of its 59 points—around 30 percent of the total. For the season, the bench is only providing about 26 percent of the scoring, which underscores the fundamental issue: There simply aren’t many dynamic offensive weapons on Clemson’s bench.

Other than Jordan Roper—no bastion of efficiency himself—no viable threats have emerged all year. Sidy Djitte and Josh Smith are merely role players capable of picking up junk points. Austin Ajukwa has sputtered in a season of regression. Patrick Rooks and Gabe Devoe are capable offensive players, but both struggle to see the floor because of a general flatness in their respective games.

On a per-game basis, this means the Clemson starting five must outscore opponents who have NBA prospects and players with national cache in tow. That’s a tall task for this group.

In 19 games this season, Clemson’s bench has outscored its opposition on seven occasions. The Tigers are 5-2 in those games, with the losses coming to Rutgers and Louisville. In those two games, they combined to get just 17 points from the bench against two teams whose reserves were similarly challenged. In only eight games have Clemson’s reserves shot a better percentage than their opponents, and the Tigers are 6-2 in those contests.

As we start to dig deeper, we can see the prognosis get worse. An ideal bench won’t score as much as the starting group, but it can be more efficient in its opportunities. In essence, a quality bench should be just as productive on a per-possession basis—if not more so—than its starting unit.

Only three times all season has the bench outshot the starting unit in terms of percentage—Nevada (4-8), Pittsburgh (9-17), and Wake Forest (7-16). The Nevada and Pitt games are the only occasions all season when the bench made at least half of its shots. Only six times has the bench even hit the 40 percent mark, the college basketball equivalent of a .250 batting average (for me, anyway).

Clemson’s bench has actually outscored four of its seven conference opponents, but it’s only shooting 32.6 percent in ACC play and averaging 13.3 points—about 23.6 percent of the team’s output, beneath the season average. In other words, Clemson’s bench has bested teams with similarly weak benches while its reserve unit has been stagnant.

The most bench points Clemson has scored in a loss this season is 13, against Winthrop and Florida State. With 14 or more points from reserves, the Tigers are 5-0. Maybe Roper’s insertion into the starting lineup will pay off for both the starters and the backups, as Damarcus Harrison’s three-point stroke gives Clemson a weapon off the bench. Maybe Djitte can bring some instant energy as a member of the starters, while Landry Nnoko continues to play as well as he did as a reserve against Wake Forest.

The bottom line is this: Clemson’s bench play must improve dramatically if it wants to achieve anything of significance this season. It starts tonight against a deep Wolfpack squad, but the impact of a better bench could make a major difference in a lot of games over the next few weeks.

God Bless!

WQ