After yet another heartbreaking loss, this time to  Virginia Tech, 82-81, on Sunday night, Clemson still has not been able to correct that small margin of error in its sixth straight loss.

All of a sudden, a season that began with so much promise after an 11-2 start has turned into a season of what-ifs, with four out of their six losses coming by five points or less.

In a game where Clemson (11-8, 1-6 ACC) had three players with 15 or more points, won the turnover margin by three and shot 13-of-27 from three point range, anyone looking at the stat sheet would have thought that the Tigers won, right?

While Clemson’s defense continued to struggle and its offense proves to be effective, the Tigers just do not seem to possess that spark to give them an edge in close games.

Small mistakes plagued Clemson in the most important situations throughout the game, forcing the Tigers to play catch-up most of the game.

At one point Jaron Blossomgame made a momentum shifting dunk, giving the Tigers a 62-60 lead and igniting Littlejohn Coliseum for the first time all night. What does Clemson do? They allow Virginia Tech to go on a 10-2 run.

Let’s not forget free throws. This looks to be the dreaded topic for Clemson, especially in a one-point loss. The Tigers were 6-of-11 from the charity stripe. For anyone that does not watch basketball that is not good, especially when you add in the fact that Virginia Tech converted 16 of their 17 free throws.

Clemson’s fortune looked like it might have reached a tipping point when a players only meeting was held after the 32-point beat down at the hands of Louisville this past Thursday night.

Donte Grantham, who had a great turnaround game with 15 points, said the team just talked about gaining some toughness.

“We gotta play harder defensively, we have to rebound and we gotta do tougher things to win the game,” he said. “We just asked everyone if they had ideas of how we could do that.”

While toughness is obviously part of the equation, head coach Brad Brownell thinks his team needs to find a chip on their shoulder.

“I really believe that our players ‘want to’ has got to get all the way there,” he said. “It’s close and there is a little bit of frustration…a little bit of fatigue.”

At this point in the season Brownell also thinks his team may be a little beat up after all of the close losses.

“We’re just at a point here where we aren’t where we need to be, mentally and physically,” the Clemson coach said. “Losing has probably taken a little bit of a toll here the last couple of weeks…four of the six games have been gut-renching.”

Brownell said it is up to the players whether or not they change their post season fortune.

“We’re gonna turn it around when our guys want to turn it around,” he said.

Regardless of their current record and the past six games, the Tigers will need to pull something special out of their pocket down the stretch if they want to secure a post-season spot.

Joe Lunardi seems to have faith in Clemson, even after their blowout loss to Louisville, the real question is “Does Clemson have faith in themselves?”

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