ACC Tournament notes: Finally healthy, Mays emerging for Tigers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Clemson forward James Mays has suffered through a long, injury-riddled senior season.

But his return to health has come at the perfect time for the NCAA tournament-bound Tigers.

Mays, Clemson’s most athletic player and best defender, has played through three separate injuries. A sprained hip sidelined him for five games in November and December. Back spasms hindered his early-season play, too.

And during warm-ups for the ACC opener against North Carolina Jan. 6, Mays took a basketball off his left hand, breaking a small bone. He wore a wrap and a brace on the hand throughout the ACC season, finally shedding it only two weeks ago.

Since then, he’s responded with six consecutive double-figure scoring efforts. In that stretch, he’s averaging 14.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and a steal per game.

“It’s helped me a lot,” Mays said following the Tigers’ 78-74 ACC semifinal win over Duke. “My hand and my whole body have been through so much. To really come down and get it all 100 percent healthy, it feels good.”

Mays says his hip and hand have both returned to health recently, which has fueled his overall game.

“It’s everything — from the hip to the hand, with the injuries I have,” he said. “It’s being able to move laterally with my hip and getting to take that big mitt off my hand. I can actually feel the ball. It feels great.

“I can catch and move better. It just helps so much.”

PURPLE PASSION

Clemson broke out its all-purple uniforms for the second time this season, an honor coach Oliver Purnell reserves for big games. The first time they showed up, the Tigers erased a 20-point deficit with 11 minutes left for a 73-70 win over Maryland.

This time was equally special: it marked the program’s first ACC semifinal appearance in a decade and first win over Duke in 23 tries.

Clemson hadn’t beaten Duke in the ACC Tournament since 1977.

BIGS SHOW UP

Duke’s biggest weakness is a lack of inside presence, and the Tigers made them pay Saturday. Mays and sophomore center Trevor Booker combined for 34 points and 11 rebounds. They also committed just three personal fouls between them, key to wearing down the Blue Devils low.

“The emphasis against Duke when we play them is to take the ball inside,” Purnell said. “That’s hard to do. We put such pressure on Booker, but Book did a great job sealing inside. When he got the ball he was able to deliver and attack the weakness.”

NO DEFENSE HERE

If Wayne Ellington was expecting his coach to back up a technical foul, he got an unpleasant surprise. North Carolina coach Roy Williams blasted Ellington’s lack of control after he received what could have been a costly ‘T’ late in the Tar Heels’ 68-66 semifinal win over Virginia Tech.

With the score tied at 59, teammate Marcus Ginyard made a steal under the Hokies’ basket. Ginyard yapped too much, and was nailed for a technical — which Tech’s Deron Washington turned into a pair of free throws and a 61-59 lead. Ellington made up for the gaffe by scoring five of the Heels’ final seven points, but Williams wasn’t happy.

“Wayne will be in better condition after the running that he gets to do with everyone clapping for him later in the week,” Williams said. “I saw it clearly, and Wayne did start talking to the player. I have no idea if he was saying anything bad, or congratulating him on his haircut. He was talking and there was a bump, and I have no problem with what the official did.”

SECOND TIME AROUND

Few gave Virginia Tech much of a shot in Saturday’s first semifinal, largely because of their first meeting with the Tar Heels — a 93-52 blowout in Chapel Hill. Seth Greenberg, however, knew his team had a real chance. Friday, he called the defeat a “cleansing experience,” and his team proved it Saturday, taking the Heels to the wire before Tyler Hansbrough’s last-second jumper.

“We got drilled at North Carolina and came back and were in a position to win (today),” Greenberg said. “I thought this team could come together once they started to trust each other and believe in each other. Quite honestly, I had to learn to coach them. They grew but I grew with them.

“Maybe it took me a little longer to figure them out and figure out the best way to reach them. We learned how to utilize the guys we had at hand.”

Tech junior forward A.D. Vassallo — who had a team-high 17 points — said his team has clearly grown.

“We thought we had a legitimate chance of winning the game,” he said. “Although everybody doubted it and I heard a lot of people saying we’re going to get beat by 30, we thought we had a chance to come out here and win the game.

“We were up there, and we were just one jumper away. We played as hard as we could, and we knew we could have won the game.”