CLEMSON’S NCAA TOURNAMENT HOPES GET POPPED …
So close … yet so far away. The best of times … the worst of times …
In fact pick your yin-yang “duality of man” metaphor, and you’ve got a descriptor of Clemson University’s 2013-14 basketball season. The good news? Tigers’ head coach Brad Brownell has turned down some of the heat on his seat after posting a disappointing 13-18 record last season.
Clemson went 19-11 this season, including a 10-8 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But Tiger fans are still crestfallen over what might have been …
“What if” Clemson had won an early-season road game against SEC also-ran Auburn? “What if” they had showed up to play against a struggling North Carolina squad six weeks ago? “What if” junior guard Rod Hall had connected on both of his free throws with 4.6 seconds left against Notre Dame on the road last month – delivering a regulation victory for the Tigers as opposed to what would become a double overtime loss. And “what if” the Tigers hadn’t blown a five-point lead with only five seconds left on the clock at home against Pittsburgh – leading to another overtime collapse.
Those are painful contemplations for bleeders of orange and white … as Clemson now must run the table in the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C. this week to have any real shot at an invitation to the “Big Dance.”
And with national powerhouses Syracuse, Duke and Virginia standing in the way … that’s a highly unlikely prospect.
In other words, expect Clemson to find itself without a dance ticket for the third straight year after reaching the NCAA second round in 2011 during Brownell’s first year in Tigertown.
Of course as frustrating as that may be, Clemson fans have nothing on their long-suffering arch-rivals.
South Carolina’s 2013-14 regular season came to a cacophonous close last week … with second-year head coach Frank Martin being suspended for an outburst toward a player during the Gamecocks’ second-half meltdown against top-ranked Florida.
Real questions are being asked not only about Martin’s ability to rebuild the Gamecock program … but about his sanity.
Crazy or not, Martin has extended by two seasons South Carolina’s ten-year NCAA tournament drought – and a forty-year drought since its last NCAA tournament victory.
Ouch …
One South Carolina team that has punched its ticket to the dance? Coastal Carolina … which got 22 points (and seven assists) from junior guard Warren Gillis en route to a 76-61 victory over Winthrop in the Big South Championship game on Sunday.
16 comments
What about the Lady G’s? 2 seed it looks like in the big dance?
What about ’em?
I side w/ Clemson on this one . The NCAA, thanks to a bunch of Eric Hyman liberal ADs, is socialism..
You got Kiss-@$$ U playing a D-II schedule all year taking up half the field. If you play big-time schools in-conference, as Clemson does, you DESERVE to go to the Dance over some one-done wonder from the Central Mid-Valley-Butt-Pack Conf.
Geez, get your head out of your vagina for once. Not everything belongs in your liberal bad conservative good paradigm. Something can suck or be stupid without it requiring a liberal/conservative label.
What has to P!$$ off you liberal little Sissies…you made everything political..and I take it and slap the living $#!* out of you with it…
You thought you wanted to be defined by your politics, until I actually DEFINED you..now you $#!* all over yourselves, when caught in the act…
PS: Tell me why you think college ADs, and Hyman, are not F*#k-up liberals…instead of whining for being called out…
“If you play big-time schools in-conference, as Clemson does, you DESERVE to go to the Dance over some one-done wonder from the Central Mid-Valley-Butt-Pack Conf.”
WORD, Brotha!
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“T” is onto something here.
Shut up and let the MAN speak, dammit!!!
cough, gag, cough… While that seems to be the sound of the Clemson team choking yet again, it is in fact Squishy going down on yet another player in the shower from that big D2 he claims (with no proof) that he played with, I mean for. (and yes I know USC basketball sucks)
“Those are painful contemplations for bleeders of orange and white … as Clemson now must run the table in the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C. this week to have any real shot at an invitation to the “Big Dance.”
The ACC has an automatic bid for its conference champion. If they run the table, they’re in.
Props to K.J. McDaniels as a 1st Team All ACC selection.
From whence did this “heat” on Brownell’s seat come from? Anyone in a decision making position? Not from any that I heard.
Clemson during Football season, “The SEC is not that tough of a conference.”
Clemson during Basketball season, “We have to play against realy good teams!”
Clemson during Baseball season, “Goddamn it!”
Penus Williams to Fits News – “I have a small penis and this post proves it.”
Guess they should have re-hired Cliff Ellis. He’s taking Coastal to the big dance this year.
Yo’ hair still curly, Bill, or is it all gone now?
If Cliff Ellis couldn’t do more with all the talent he had at his disposal then (Dale Davis, Eldon Campbell, Harold Jamison just to name a few), then what he could he possibly do now?
Eldon Campbell
MOOOOOOOOOOSE!