CLEMSON -- At halftime against Duke last weekend, Chase Hunter and Cooper Flagg had four points apiece.
Blue Devils fans were asking what was wrong with Flagg, a certified superstar in his one-year college basketball tour.
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Tigers fans were asking what was wrong with Hunter, known for rising to and above such occasions.
A big part of the answer: Both teams were devoting considerable resources to stopping the other team's best player, and that tends to matter.
Hunter ended up getting his that day in the second half, delivering elite clutch playmaking with the ball in his hands while also pulling down seven rebounds, drawing six fouls and producing a monster block late.
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Flagg got his too before his big slip and fall in the final moments, going on a tear that temporarily sucked some of the air out of Littlejohn Coliseum.
But beyond the primal euphoria Clemson fans experience when they're graced with basketball victories over Duke and North Carolina over a period of 48 hours, and beyond even the NCAA Tournament credentials burnished with the wins, this team's portfolio contains an attribute that could be vitally important come March:
The ability to beat you in different ways.
The challenge of playing Saturday and Monday wasn't just a test of Clemson's ability to recover quickly from an exhausting game. It was also a significant stylistic shift, and the Tigers aced that test.
The Tigers attempted just 10 3-pointers against Duke, making four. Hunter had just one attempt from long range over those 40 minutes and missed it.
Much different story two days later against the faster but leakier Tar Heels: Clemson put up 25 shots from 3 and made 12 of them. Hunter was 4-of-8 from long range and finished with 19 points behind a game-leading 22 from Viktor Lakhin.
Against Duke, Brad Brownell and his staff knew going in that the Blue Devils put a strong emphasis on defending the 3-pointer. They knew they had to have a counter.
It's really not a lot different from a defense in football playing two deep safeties to limit big plays in the passing game: That theoretically opens up more space for the running game, as there are fewer numbers closer to the line of scrimmage.
Higher Duke hedges on ball screens, and fewer instances of helping on post players in the paint, meant open looks from long range were going to be hard to come by against Jon Scheyer's team.
But there was going to be more space for Lakhin to operate near the rim. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the opening 20 minutes against the Blue Devils and finished with 22 points.
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Duke entered the game as the top 2-point defense in college basketball. Clemson torched the Blue Devils inside the arc by making 26 of 41 2-point shots (63.4 percent).
Totally different story two days later: Lakhin had a whopping 20 points in the first half, and 12 of them were on a perfect 4-of-4 from 3 (he attempted zero 3-pointers against Duke).
In the first half alone Monday, Clemson attempted more 3-pointers (12) than it did all game against the Blue Devils. The Tigers made eight of them and then tacked on four more after beginning the second half up 49-33.
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With four of their last six games on the road, starting with Saturday's noon visit to Florida State (15-9, 6-7), Clemson will find out more about itself as it tries to build on a 20-5 overall record (12-2 ACC).
But the Tigers and everyone else found out quite a lot over the last 80 minutes of basketball.
This team can beat you in different ways, and that's quite an asset to the toolbox with March approaching.
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