This weeks Clemson flashback doesn’t take us back very far in time. This past season Tiger basketball fans felt like they were on a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs, but there was no bigger up on the ride than the one that saw Clemson go on the road and do something that many thought they would never witness.
Clemson traveled up to Chapel Hill and won. For the first time…. EVER. Before this past season every Tiger team that went into Chapel Hill left the court the same way. By adding another loss onto what had grown into an oddly and embarrassingly long streak.
Not any more. For the first time ever, Clemson was the team celebrating in Chapel Hill.
Aamir Simms hit a 3 pointer that forced overtime with 3.5 seconds left in regulation, as the Tigers then went on to erase decades of futility at North Carolina by beating the Tar Heels 79-76. Their first win in 60 tries in Chapel Hill.
Simms finished with 20 points for the Tigers, who trailed by 10 with a little more than two minutes left in regulation. Clemson made a frantic comeback to force the extra period, coming up with enough key baskets to do what no other predecessor had done in school history.
Clemson’s streak began in 1926 and had reached 0-59 to give the Tar Heels an NCAA record for the longest home winning streak against one team. All of that pent up frustration ran over when the final horn sounded, with Tigers players running to midcourt to celebrate while John Newman III wrapped Brad Brownell in a bear hug.
This past season may not go down as one of the Tigers best overall but it will always be remembered as the season that saw Brownell and Clemson finally slay the dragon that was Chapel Hill, and many Tiger fans will remember this more than the other wins over top five teams during the season.
