I'm not as enraged after this loss to WF as I was the last one. Last night we did well enough against Jeff Teague, and given that we've had problems stopping the other side's best scoring Guard, I'm a little encouraged that he didn't get the chances to run right up the lane on us last night. The AP recap of the game is here, with the full statistical comparison available here.
What stood out to me last night, and is shown in the statistics, is the lack of presence inside. Booker did well enough in the first half, but we were nonexistent in the paint during the 2nd, and that is what ultimately cost us the game. With 18pts and 10 Rebs, you'd think he had a great night, but he did not on defense. Rebounding has not been a problem for us this season, and even in most of our losses we still won the stat, but WF was better inside on defense and offense than us yesterday.
One other thing that stood out is our ball handling skills, or the spotty lack thereof. This has been a problem all season, and while the stats don't show a lot of turnovers on our part (thank God), I'm sure you noticed the sloppy passing (primarily the passes inside) and dribbling during the game which WF capitalized on.
9-7 in conference and a #5 seed in the ACC Tourney is not bad, and we're on the upper end of where I thought we'd finish in the preseason, but given how we played throughout most of this year its still disappointing. The losses to UVA and FSU at home...we won't forget those. But we did finish the regular season ranked #18.
Are we a Sweet 16 team? Given our RPI, which should still be around #20 when its updated, we should get a 4 or a dreaded 5 seed in the NCAAs.
The ACC Tourney starts Thursday in the GA Dome....which surprises me...Swofford did something that wasn't beneficial to UNC/Duke, can you believe it? I think it should always be in Greensboro. We play GT at 2:30 Thursday, and would face the Noles again in the 2nd if we win.
EDIT: Booker made 2nd team All-ACC, KC Rivers gets honorable mention.
Beisbol
Clemson lost 2-of-3 to #2 UNC over the weekend, choking away the 3rd game in the bottom of the 9th. Given that #1 LSU lost 2 games to Illinois over the weekend, I think UNC might be the new #1 in one of the polls when they are all released. Baseball America still has them at #2 however. Clemson drops to #22.
What I took away from the series was that our pitching just bit us in the rear, and UNC's vaunted staff didn't dominate us. Our bats did warm up with the weather some. We got behind saturday by walking in runs, and yesterday the bullpen couldn't hold it in the 9th. The report of the game yesterday doesn't show that Clemson had them with runners at 2nd and 3rd with the 1st base open, giving us the opportunity to walk the batter and set up a force at every base as well as the DP. Both those runners in scoring position were the tying and go-ahead, so walking the batter would not have mattered at all. The book says to walk the batter in this situation, but Jack chose not to put him on. Instead he got a hit and drove in one run, and two batters later they scored the winning run.
I lean towards the pitcher 99% of the time, and I wouldn't want to put anybody on intentionally, I believe you should make them hit....but I'm also not a manager. If your staff had walked in a shitload of runs the day before, I can see why you wouldn't want to chance it.
I give Jack Leggett more leeway than any other Clemson coach, because he's earned it, so I won't be like those on Tardnet who call for his head when we don't go undefeated. He took teams who weren't supposed to do shit to the CWS, and after our performance against UNC I'm confident we'll be at the ~45 win level again this year.
Futbaw
An article about Will Korn and whether he can establish himself, which includes the practice schedule.
5 Questions Clemson must answer for this coming season. Of course I've already mentioned all of them and if you pay attention to football, then you already know about them too. The Gamecock Propaganda Rag talks about 5 players whose destinies are crucial to this season's success.
Oh dear, are they praising our OL already? Then again, if they are not improved, I would like to skin Brad alive.
This past weekend was a Jr. Day, and if another commitment is coming, you'll hear about it in the next few days.
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Basketball - We do not have enough big inside players to compete with WF and FSU, but help is on the way, so everyone should relax. We have had a good season, and are headed in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteBaseball - They are going to have to win some games before I can get over losing to Furman.
Football - I really do not know what to expect from this team, but I have a lot of confidence in Dabo. He just seems to get it. Also, I listened to the interview with Kevin Steele, and he sounds like he gets it. Let us know if you think we are going to get another committ. So far, it sounds like we have gotten some pretty solid players, but I will not get too excited after what happened last year.
I was there for the Shyatt years and I remember the Barnes years, and we're just as good now, if not better, than we were back then. We're recruiting well, and hopefully we can just plug in Jennings and lil' Book next year, with Stitt hopefully becoming better at G. I would like to see the turnover/assist ratio from the Guards improve.
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