It was a tale of two halves for the Clemson Tigers on Friday night. Although they did outscore the Georgetown Hoyas 46-38 after intermission, a 15-point deficit at the midway point was simply too much for Brad Brownell's team to overcome. The Tigers were a slight favorite coming in, but once again, Clemson failed to cover yet another point spread. This comes back to a bigger issue at hand.
Point guard Ace Buckner voiced his frustrations afterwards. "Yeah, I felt like we just felt disrespected," Buckner said after the 85-78 home loss to Georgetown on Friday night. "Feel like the message of this year is trying to put 40 minutes together. Not playing in spurts, but to being able to play a full game well. This is a lesson. They came in here and kicked our butt, but we'll move on." He may have a point.
Buckner's opinion on feeling disrespected stems from Clemson allowing Georgetown to come into Littlejohn and push the Tigers around from the opening tipoff. Some of this may have to do with Brownell's questionable decision to have star forward Dylan Faulkner come off the bench in favor of David Fuchs for the sake of conserving fouls. Clemson played timid and tight, and it cost the Tigers.
Ace Buckner says he feels disrespected after @ClemsonMBB's loss to Georgetown.
— Caroline Soro (@caroline_soro) November 14, 2026
"They came in here and kicked our butt, but we'll move on." pic.twitter.com/XBt7iVSOSB
Clemson was not as locked in as it should have been against Georgetown
Clemson was able to eat away at the deficit to some degree because the Tigers did shoot the ball well on Friday night. They made 47 percent of their field goals, 41 percent of their 3-point attempts, and 79 percent of their free throws. Clemson took care of the ball by committing only five turnovers. The Tigers distributed the ball well and did not get into any serious foul trouble in this one.
If we were to nitpick where Clemson lost this game, maybe the Tigers were not as competitive on the glass as much as they should have been? Yes, Georgetown only out-rebounded them 33-27, but when a game ends up being decided by only seven points, it could be enough of a difference. It all comes back to what Buckner hinted at. Clemson was not as focused as it should have been.
In looking for positives from Clemson's first loss of the season, Buckner had 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting, to go along with his five assists. Cole Certa finally had a great shooting night from the floor. He had 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-7 from distance. While Liutauras Lelevicius had 10 points for Clemson, no one else was in double-digit scoring, including Faulkner, who only had nine.
Sadly, for as thorough as Brownell was in his assessment of starting Fuchs over Faulkner, it still does not change the fact that Chase Thompson played poorly in his second start of the year in the Tigers' frontcourt. He only had five points on 2-of-7 shooting in 31 minutes of action. Fuchs, who only played 13 minutes on Friday, had a far more efficient six points. Brownell's rotation still needs some work.
Buckner is right to feel frustrated about what all transpired, but this is still a long season for Clemson.
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