Regional Preview

CUAD Preview

#15 Clemson plays at 7pm against Tennessee Tech Friday night, while Alabama plays OK State in the early afternoon game. Trey Delk (4-1 2.98 ERA) will take the mound in Game 1. Delk has made ten appearances this season, all starts. He has given up 47 hits in 45-and-a-third innings of work, while striking out 38 batters. He'll be lined up against TT Jr. Starter Lee Henry (9-2, 2.96, 74 K in 76 IP), with 5 complete games.

Clemson is 35-7 in NCAA Regional games played at Tiger Field, and finished the season 19-7 and hitting .341; we've definitely finished the season strong, but the defensive play in the ACC Tourney worries me the most. Fridays game will be just the third meeting between Clemson and Tennessee Tech. Clemson won a two-game series in March of 2003.

Tennessee Tech should not pose a problem for Delk, but given Jack's predilection for taking pitchers out too soon, I'm not sure how it matters. They have one player with 20 Homers, a rarity in college ball now with the altered aluminum bats (A.J. Kirby-Jones, .344, 20 HR, 66 RBI).

Leggett: "I've been in a lot of NCAA Tournament games, and that first one is probably the toughest. You come out of the blocks, you have to get your game going and the other team always has a good pitcher, so it's always a close ballgame where you have to find a way to make it swing in your favor.

"I've been doing this a long time. When a team comes off winning a conference championship, they're at a high. They're playing their best baseball of the year, and they've got confidence, so that's what I expect to see from Tennessee Tech."

The GNews has capsule previews of each team in the regional.

Tennessee Tech comes to Clemson with a 30-22-1 record after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with four straight wins, including each of the last two by one run in extra innings. The Golden Eagles defeated Jacksonville State in the championship game 4-3 in 10 innings. Tennessee Tech was 10-11-1 in the regular season in the OVC and was the #4 seed in the tournament. But Head Coach Matt Bragga's team scored 33 runs in the four tourney games to take home the trophy.

Tennessee Tech is led on offense by A.J. Kirby-Jones, who has a team-high 20 home runs and a team-best 66 RBIs in starting all 53 games this year. He is also hitting .344 and was named MVP of the OVC Tournament. Casanova Donaldson is the top hitter with a .351 batting average, while Chad Oberaker is second at .348, but they have very little power other than Kirby-Jones.

Oklahoma State has fairly good pitchers in Andy Oliver (5-6, 5.58 ERA) and Tyler Lyons (6-5, 3.75 ERA), and have a good closer (Randy McCurry (3-1, 2.45 ERA, 9 SV)). Don't let that high ERA fool you, the Big XII is a tough league too, and their defense is ranked 9th in fielding nationally. The Cowboys are led by Neil Medchill, who is hitting .337 with a team-high 14 homers and 55 RBI, and Micheal Dabbs (.325, 13 HR, 38 RBIs).

#20 Alabama has some great hitting but little pitching depth, leading the HR count against their opponents 107-50 and outscoring by 185 runs. we'd be wise to walk Kent Matthes (.365, 28 HR, 81 RBI) and look for Ross Wilson (.349, 9 HR, 46 RBI) and Brandon May (.343, 12 HR, 68 RBIs). 3B/RP Jake Smith is lost for the tournament due to injury at the SEC Tournament. Austin Hyatt (8-2, 3.14 ERA) is their top starter.

Etc.

Ben Paulsen's experience here has brought him closer to his father, Clemson assistant Tom Riginos.

Clemson's catchers have always been solid, dating back before Matt LeCroy.

Kyle Parker's two-sport journey is chronicled in this article from ESPN.

Lee Corso suffered a minor stroke, but is expected back on ESPN Gameday.

Phil Steele ranked Clemson #25 in his preseason football prospectus.

Humphries takes himself out

After losing a year because of injury and working hard to get another final year to play football, and being a Clemson graduate, you would think a guy would have his shit together. Barry Humphries apparently doesnt.

Humphries was arrested at 5am May 2 by CUPD for DUI.....on a moped. EDSBS gave us some Fulmer Cup points for the whole deal.

Dude you've got to be pretty fucked up to get a DUI on a liquorcycle. Apparently the cop saw a swerving moped with a very large subject riding and he failed the field sobriety tests.

“I was proud of Barry when he graduated from Clemson earlier this month, but I was disappointed in his decision in this situation,” said Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney. “Even though he was on a motor scooter, we take this charge seriously. He came to us the next day and told us what had happened. Barry will be suspended for the first two games this year (Middle Tennessee and Georgia Tech) and we will continue to monitor the legal process in this situation throughout the summer.”

Humphries started two years ago, and was the starter early last season until an ACL took him out. He's listed as the 4th team Center, but thats really only because he wasnt cleared for full contact this spring. Recall we posted before that he's a definite contender to take away the Center position from Cloy, who barely held off Freeman. We could handle not having him for MTSU, but if Cloy doesnt get his act together, we might've been able to use him against GT's large heavy linemen. Humph is also the strongest player on the team.

SEC Coaches Meetings Under Way

The coaches of the SEC are together this week, and it appears SOS will need to find some other recruiting/placement/expulsion/greyshirt/redshirt/whatever other policy that he can to ensure the Cocks have a full roster each year (go from his standard 4 strikes, you're out to 5-6 strikes and you're gone policy?). This all derives from the ridiculousness that is over-signing.

27 roster spots, I guess we should sign 40-50 prospects

Also, on a SOS note, Spurlid apparently got loose on his buddy Lane Kiffin.

Don't eff with Stevo at an elevator

And now they have even pissed off the commish Slive Rages


In Clemson news, I think we are all excited about hosting a regional this season. The Tigers played well down the stretch, but will need quality pitching this weekend to get past Bammer.

And as referred to by the Good Dr. earlier, Humphries will have to sit the first two games this season. Ban the woo-hoo, ban the purple, and ban the moped for football players.

More fallout from TO

Larry Williams writes a nice article on the points and counterpoints of Oglesby's leaving the team. Strelow reports for the State here.

Like he says, I see in the blogs and other articles, as well as TNet, that this is a good thing for Clemson basketball. I would like for someone to show me how you lose 13ppg, and a shooter who could take over a game from the perimeter (remember ECU and Sakerlina, as LW points out), and be a better basketball team.

Yes his defense was suspect. Yes he got emotional and fucked up a time or two, but those were also problems WITH THE WHOLE TEAM down the stretch this season. He's young and still needs teaching. You might point out he could be selfish: well good scorers tend to be that way, you would only complain if he goes cold from the arc. He wasn't a polished player but then neither is Booker by any means, who we'd all agree is the best player on the team with the most potential. Another season of instruction on defense and theres no reason to assume TO wouldn't be a better defensive player, hasn't OP proven that he can teach and motivate? We might have faltered down the stretch this season but we've certainly improved every year OP has been around (but perhaps moved laterally the last two).

No matter what your complaints, he could still hit FREE THROWS. Don't tell me we don't need that. Don't tell me with Jennings and lil' Booker coming in that it wont hurt this year either, because neither of them is a 2G.

I believe Young and Stitt will lock down the Guard spots (though Tanner Smith plays with the most hustle of them all), but as good a shooter as Young is, I'm not sure he has the raw talent that TO had, and although I think we're certainly a 20-win NCAA team either way, I'm not sure we're going to do any better than 9-7 in conference again without TO.

Afternoon update: Purnell gave a conference call with reporters this afternoon, and apparently had no idea TO was thinking of doing this. He was on vacation to the Isle of Palms when he received the phone call.

"My reaction was, this is quick and a bit odd. I would have loved to have had a chance to weigh in and give information and so on and so forth. But if he's made up his mind to that degree, then so be it.

I had discussions with Terrence, just like I had with all of our players after the season was over, I asked all the guys what they think about the beginning, the middle, how things ended. And Terrence and I were certainly in agreement that we weren't happy with way the season ended. But we had conversations after that that had gone very well – and as late as three days before I heard about this."

Other stuff...
-While Purnell is happy at Clemson, he's not happy with our facilities just yet. Virginia Tech will soon open a new basketball complex and he wants something more than the Littlejohn Annex to impress recruits, and he wants it all for Men's Basketball.

-Season ticket sales for football appear down 12%, and with Verizon and Bi-Lo pulling sponsorships to the hit of $1 million, the Athletic Dept. is reeling.

-Tajh Boyd is taking Maymester classes and doing rehab on campus. Jonathan Meeks is impressing in the summer drills; the second week of voluntary drills is ongoing. Tyler Shatley is going to start off at DT, as predicted after signing day, but he has to bulk up a lot (260 now) to play at Clemson there.

-Clemson received a commitment from Battery Creek (Beaufort) Safety Ricky Chaney (6-3 195, 4.45 40). He has no star rating as of yet, and was pulled in by Dan Brooks. At that height, its likely he could bulk up and play OLB.

Terrance Oglesby leaving for Europe

According to various sources, Oglesby is signing an agent and looking to play in Europe next year and hoping to play in Italy or Spain. He has several offers and played in Norway last year.

We all know of the rumors of his leaving since the NCAAs ended. Nothing official out of CU/OP yet however.

If true, you can go ahead and knock a few W's off next year's schedule. You dont replace a pure shooter like him very easily.

Update-now official from the AD.

“Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to play internationally, and as a result I have been given the opportunity of playing professionally in Europe,” Oglesby said. “After much thought and consideration, I have opted to take my basketball career a step further and pursue a professional career.

“I have enjoyed my time at Clemson University and want to thank all the fans and friends for being supportive. My decision is based solely on chasing the dream of being a professional basketball player. I would like to thank all my coaches and teammates for a memorable two years, and wish them the best of luck in the future.”

Clemson gets NCAA Regional

The ACC locked down 4 host sites for the NCAA Tournament that starts Friday: GT, FSU, UNC, and us. Virginia got the shitty end of the stick. Its our 12th selection to host and the first since 2006, and Jack Leggett's 10th in 16 years. Its our 22nd selection to the NCAA in the last 23 years.

Since we have played well at home of late and are 7-1 in hosted regionals, this is big. The full bracket is here in PDF.

Clemson will host Alabama (37-19), Oklahoma State (32-22) and Tennessee Tech (30-22-1) this weekend. It is double-elimination in this round. To get a Super Regional, we need Arizona State to fall in their host regional, as they are the #5 national seed. Ard gives his take on the team and the regional here.

Greg Wallace talks about the fluke that was 2008 baseball, but honestly I dont have his confidence after the way we played defensively in the ACC Tournament. It was just bad. Alabama is a good offensive team, but at least we could thump Chris Smelley again. Oklahoma State has good pitching but poor offensive and defensive stats.

Next year's ACC Tournament is set for Myrtle Beach, as it should be, but with UNC being the only draw for baseball this year, they might have problems filling seats.

An article on Khalil Greene's struggles in St. Louis makes his baseball future look bleak.

Spring football recruiting's evaluation period, when 7 coaches could be on the road at any one time, is now over. The staff will be trimming down their lists to about half of the original (around 700 on mailing lists) and create a working recruit board. Recall that Dabo has said they will try to bring in a full class this year, around 22-23.

Cluckers...
Sakerlina assistant Brad Lawing talks about the star rating used by Rivals and Scout to rate HS players, and how it means nothing. He forgets, as does Korncoot, to mention that the Chicken Curse factors heavily in the poor performance of SC's highly-rated recruits. That and a lack of intelligence...since if they were smart they'd pick the better academic school and consistently better athletic teams and happier students. It just goes to show you that they'll never figure it out.

Greg Oliver at Upstate Today did though, and points out that Steven Orr is losing his mojo.

However, if the 2009 season resembles anything close to the past two seasons, or even worse, Spurrier will have a lot more time to spend on radio and television reliving his past glory and trying to sound funny again because his gridiron days will end with a thud that would make even Chevy Chase shudder.

Maybe Steve is rightfully pissed? At least Axon saved the scholarships of Ajiboye and Whitlock.

Remember the "Cocky Cloth"? Fear the towel!

Tigers blow game against UVA

Trey Delk started well yesterday, but as usual Jack took him out early and handed the game over to the bullpen. I can't say the loss was because of that decision or the hit that followed off the Left-Center field wall, it was more because of bad defensive play. The triple and errant throw should not have happened, and an infield hit to SS shouldve been played better earlier. It looked like no one could handle playing in the tricky cornered outfield. We were up 5-3 and choked it away 6-5, then UVA's pitching shut us down totally. We now must win against Puke today, and pray UVA loses the next two. Either way, a win in our next two games should seal up the regional. FSU already locked up one spot in the ACC Title game Sunday.

Dan Foster has passed away.

Ard answers questions about Byrnes and Butch Davis here.

What is Steve thinking? How is he reinstating players when he has too many coming in anyway? Maybe Ben Axon vacated a spot...

Fridge has been released from the hospital:

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) - William "The Refrigerator" Perry has been released from the hospital after a monthlong stay for complications of a nervous system disorder.
Aiken Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Melissa Summer said the former Chicago Bears star was released on Wednesday after being treated for Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Summer had no details about Perry's condition other than that doctors considered the 46-year-old improved enough to go home.