CLEMSON — Donte Grantham remembers walking into the Dean Smith Center this time two years ago in Chapel Hill, N.C., and looking around for the first time.
He saw Michael Jordan’s jersey hanging in the rafters. He saw Vince Carter’s jersey. He looked at the national championship banners, skimmed the jerseys of North Carolina Hall of Famers and thought of all of those who made the NBA.
For a moment, he got wrapped up in the history of North Carolina basketball. Then he realized that it wasn’t until the national anthem played before the matchup between the two teams in 2015 arrived that he snapped out of it and forced himself to not get overwhelmed by the venue.
“I think it’s mostly the history,” Grantham said. “It’s just ‘Whew,’ just knowing where you’re at because it is a special place. But we came there to handle business. It’s a nice place to play, but just go in there and handle business and everything’s going to take care of itself.”
Grantham will return to Chapel Hill on Tuesday, this time as a senior and this time well-rehearsed in what it is like playing in the Smith Center, where No. 20 Clemson and No. 15 UNC meet Tuesday.
He will pass that wisdom down to younger teammates not as familiar with the venue, then he will take the floor at 7 p.m. with one last chance to help snap the streak as a Clemson player.
As Grantham and his teammates are well aware, the Tigers have never won a basketball game in Chapel Hill. That includes an 0-27 mark at the Smith Center and an 0-58 mark overall. North Carolina (14-4, 3-2 ACC) owns the overall series 131-20.
But perhaps if there were ever a season a Clemson win on UNC’s turf might be possible, perhaps it would be the one the Tigers are in the middle of right now with a veteran squad.
The Tigers are 15-2 overall, 4-1 in ACC play. They have already knocked off the likes of Ohio State, Florida, Louisville and Miami. The latter three were all ranked at the time, and Clemson has more depth with more experience this year than in several years' past.
“(The Tar Heels) are kind of saying, ‘We don’t want to be the team to lose to Clemson. We don’t want to be known as that,’” Grantham said. “But it’s basketball. It’s the ACC. Anybody can win any day. Don’t be surprised by anything in the ACC. It’s the best players in the country.”
Clemson has come close to snapping the skid on several occasions, most recently in 2007-08, when North Carolina won by 10 points, but needed double overtime to do so. At one point, Clemson led by 15.
On seven different occasions, 1935-36, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1979-80, 1981-82, 2002-03 and 2007-08, Clemson has come within five points or lost in double overtime to the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.
That 1982 year, UNC won the national championship. Like Grantham, Clemson coach Brad Brownell is adamant in that his players need to settle in early.
“It’s different,” Brownell said. “There’s no doubt about it. The first time you walk in when you’re a freshman, you’re going to look around for a while. But you hope that once the game gets going, you’re not looking around, because if you’re looking around, it’s not going to go well.”
When the Tigers take the floor, it will be their third game in five days, which has been a juggling act for Brownell in keeping his players fresh. For as much as Clemson has heard about the streak externally, he bets North Carolina has, too. But neither team, he guesses, talks about it internally.
“At the end of the day, it’s just another game,” he said. “We all approach it the same way.”