The pinnacle of Clemson’s 71–62 second-round victory over Wake Forest was interrupted by a sobering awakening in the locker room late Wednesday night. The Tigers won their way into the ACC Tournament quarterfinals, but they did so with a heavy price.
Sophomore forward Carter Welling, who fell down in the first half with a right knee injury, was spotted in the tunnel at the Spectrum Center after the game wearing a heavy knee brace and using crutches. Brownell, normally stoic, did not mince words in his response to questions about whether his 6-foot-11 anchor was good or not during Thursday night’s clash with North Carolina.
While the team was waiting for official medical imaging to be made available, Brownell’s gut feeling is anything but rosy.
"Yeah, I don't have obviously, they're going to do MRIs and all those things," Brownell told reporters. "I mean, I find it unlikely that he would play tomorrow. I haven't been told anything definitive."
Welling’s emotional exit in the first half — in which he already hit five points and four rebounds in a mere 10 minutes — created a hole in the Clemson bench. The Tigers were playing some of the most synchronized basketball the month ahead of the injury, a phenomenon for the head coach to grasp.
“It’s obviously disappointing, because I just thought we were really doing well tonight and would love to be at full strength,” Brownell said. “But I mean that’s part of it, so we’ll figure out a way to do that.”
The injury to Welling also does more than take a starter out; it fundamentally changes how Brownell operates on the bench. Clemson has leaned upon a “platoon system,” to maintain their bigs fresh and aggressive, a luxury that they would likely lack when pitted against any rested North Carolina squad. Brownell cracked a morose joke about the situation, and observed that the Tigers’ rotation is now extended:
“Obviously it's a little harder to do the platoon system. We only have nine—so play North Carolina, five on four.”
With Welling probably sidelined, what now rests with RJ Godfrey (who finished 11 and 6 against Wake Forest) and Nick Davidson to play extended, high-pressure minutes. The Tigers will face a UNC team that is going through another significant absence in superstar Caleb Wilson, yet the Tar Heels will be blessed with "fresh legs" following a double-bye. Clemson showed on Wednesday it could hold their lead without Welling, but against fourth-seeded Tar Heels in the midst of a shot at semifinals is much taller order.