FORMER BAMA LINEBACKER SUCCUMBS TO CANCER

I know we're playing them and all in the dome come Labor Day but I thought this pertinent news given our fan base and many of our present and former figures in Clemson Athletics Alabama pedigrees and ties.  Former Alabama linebacker and graduate Victor Ellis died at age 28 earlier this week according to Tide Druid and Roll Bama Roll.  If you feel like it, check out his foundation's website.  Condolences to the Crimson Tide family.

DANNY DAYS ARE BACK! ER... OR NOT

A Clemson recruit with bundles of cash? Is this 1980?

A minor shitstorm brewed on the internets this morning and piddled dookie throughout messageboards from ACC schools, that rival SEC school, and even some of the bigger sports blargs out there. Apparently carrying around huge stacks of bills is unusual to a number of people. I had to ask a number of friends before I found out that me and Kenneth Page are the only people around who don't leave the house without bricks of dead presidents. A highly touted Clemson OL recruit, the aforementioned Kenneth Page, posted a photo on his MySpace page of him stackin' bundles. After the "Photoshop experts" on Tigernet claimed over and over that it was a fake (it's not), they played the excuse game. I don't know what to say, but a reader copied us on this post from a Clemson message board, take it however you want:

Talked to both Kenneth Page and his head coach Robin Bacon this morning.

Here's the story from them.

Kenneth was recently out in California as one of five finalists for the Alfred M. Watkins Memorial Scholarship. Both his father and mother came along and both have relatives that live in California. They got to see one of his uncles right before he passed away a week later. They also got to see his great uncle on his father's side of the family. This uncle is a very, very wealthy man. He owns nine ATMs and realized two were empty and low were very low. So they went to the bank that morning to get money to fill them up with. Kenneth said he had never seen that much money before so he took a picture with it. He wants to reassure everyone that yes, he didn't take a single cent or keep a single cent of it.

Someone copied this picture off of Page's facebook and tried to spin it into something that it wasn't.

Bacon added this - "It is a shame when people want to tear down a kid who is a good Christian kid and a great role-model for other student-athletes, but that is the society we unfortunately live in today."

PRACTICE? WE TALKIN' BOUT PRACTICE?!?

"When the cops yell 'freeze' make sure to put your hands up like this."

STEPHEN GARCIA: HERO

Drankin, puttin' out "stove fires," what can't this guy do?

HEY PAUL!

Clemson basketball fans: Dorsia is overrated anyways.

I can imagine that I was feeling the same immediate reaction of seething murderous rage that many readers of this website were feeling as the roller coaster that is Clemson basketball finally derailed at its apex and came crashing to the ground in horrible fashion through the second half of the Villanova game. A few thoughts on the game itself:

- I think we played the best basketball we'd played all year long during the first half. I also firmly believe that the refs did a decent job of not falling into basketball politics (i.e. calling fouls that didn't happen and letting obvious chops go uncalled) during the first half.

- Terrence Oglesby got cold throughout the game and it became really hard to watch him take shots. Also, his key areas seem to be free throws and insanely deep threes. He's potty at defense and even worse at any shot worth two points.

- Some readers caught the Purnell call in show and some of them said they thought they heard OP say something to the effect of "Now that Booker is gone, we're going to need Grant to step up." The readers said he kind of choked stumbled over Booker's name but it sounded like he said it. I'm thinking if two people caught it that maybe there is something that should be looked at.
UPDATE: I'm pretty sure he said Booker's name but it was just a slip of the tongue. I think he meant that Booker needed to step up now that Mays is gone.

- The officiating was terrible in the second half. So was the commentary. Those guys were practically blowing Jay Wright, even as he was getting T'ed up for his Coach K-esque sideline language. Nova played a little dirty and got away with it. All in all, it made me wish I had a neighbor who was a Villanova fan so I could knock on his door and then proceed knock his teeth out. Unfortunately, my neighbor is an Auburn fan so I try to avoid eye contact at all costs because I'm really just an internet tough guy. Plus the guy is kinda huge... I'm getting off track and making myself look like a pussy, so back to the post.

- We did check out early in the second half and it cost us dearly. When we stopped using the press, the game was lost. I think one of our reader's commented something like that in the preview post. Credit to whoever said that, take it in the comments section on this post.

- Most of the comments from the last post were from 1am to about 5am. Way to go guys. Good showing. It's nice to know we're your choice of reading material after coming home late from downtown.

On the season I think we did great. We were third in the ACC for the regular season. We made it to the finals in the tournament for the first time since the 60's. We made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in ten years. We resigned OP for a millenia. We're starting to recruit kids who can play AND shoot free throws. We're on the up and ups and I'm excited about it.

To all those who are still pissed... NEWSFLASH: BESIDES INTERMITTENT FLASHES OF BRILLIANCE, CLEMSON HAS NEVER BEEN GOOD AT BASKETBALL. EVER. Be happy with what we've got. It takes years to decades to build a program and it's rare for a program to be built overnight. That being said, I can't wait to see what we can do in 2009.

VILLANOVA BASKETBALL PREVIEW

#22 Clemson (24-9, 5 seed) vs. Villanova (20-12, 12 seed). Friday, March 21st, 9:50 PM, CBS HD, XM Radio Channel ???, WCCPFM 104.9 in the upstate (Live feed).

Line: Clemson -6, Over/Under 145

The More You Know: This is the first trip Clemson has made to the NCAA tournament since their opening round loss to W. Michigan back in 1998. This is Villanova's fourth straight tournament bid. Check out more insanely useless Clemson tourney facts authored by presumably Tim Bourret.

Insanely useless opinions authored by two drunk guys with an internet bullhorn:

Chili: Willy Korn walks on to the basketball team to lead our troops to victory and turnS the Clemson NCAA tournament experience into a spectacle one could only liken to Space Jam meets the Harlem Globetrotters mashed up with NBA Jam. HE'S ON FIRE! No, but seriously, Clemson loses.

Willy Mac: We play a fairly good defensive team in Villanova, but at the same time a younger and less talented team than us. At first when I saw that we had drawn Nova on the selection show my heart dropped. Then I remembered that this team isn't as scary as teams they've produced in years past. From what I've seen on television this past season, they have some pretty good guard play but are just unorganized on offense (not that we're organized in any manner) and they run themselves ragged playing non-effective defense. Also, teams that can shoot the three can usually beat them and we can make it rain all day long. I have no idea what their free throw percentage looks like but I'm sure it's better than ours. Lastly, basic fact is that they only have two guys averaging over 10 points a game... we have five. I expect us to beat the upset hype and win this one... and cover the spread.

NCAA TOURNAMENT NEWS & NOTES

The Clemson Tigers earned the #5 seed in the Midwest Regional and will face the #12 seed Villanova Wildcats from the Big East. Clemson will play Friday night at 9:50 PM on CBS.

Deadspin has a fantastic rundown of the game for your perusing pleasure.

If you've not done so already, JOIN THE EXTREME BRACKET EXPLOSION!
League ID: 55284
Password: korn

Clemson has locked up Coach Oliver Purnell through 2014. He's 94-67 in five years at Clemson and has improved the team every year. Coach P will now be in the upper third of the conference in terms of compensation. This is a great move for Clemson, and hopefully Purnell will break the string of coaches who build the Tigers only to ditch them for a bigger payoff at another school.

Pat Forde writes about best-case and worst-case scenarios for all 64 tournament teams in this article. His worst-case for the Tigers: losing to 'Nova. Best-case: Tigers crash the Final Four.

THE B-BALL POST WE SHOULD'VE POSTED DAYS AGO

Weeeeeeee!!

Wow, so much Clemson news has transpired since our last real post. Sometimes real life steps in and makes it hard to post, our bad.

Here's what went down in Charlotte at the ACC tournament:

Clemson coldcocked Boston College, 82-48. Their relentless defense stifled the Eagles and never let them get anything going.

Clemson snapped their 22 game losing streak to Duke by downing the Devils 78-74.

The Tigers went on to lose to UNC by a score of 81-86. The game went back and forth for a while but the Tigers couldn't quite overcome the Tarheels and lost in their first appearance in the ACC Tournament Final since 1962.

Clemson placed 2 players on the 2008 ACC All-Tournament Team: K.C. Rivers and Trevor Booker. James Mays and Cliff Hammonds made the 2nd team. Terrell McIntyre was the last Tiger to make the first team, doing so in 1998.

Some thoughts about the ACC Tournament:
- I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cringe every time Mike Hogwood was forced to mention "Shawty Get Low." The league needs to think really damned hard before they choose another "official song."
- Sticking with announcers, Jeff Capel has no business being in any profession where insight and articulation are key. I overheard someone ask "Who the hell is this mushmouthed idiot?" during the games. Plus he's a Tarheel and the last thing we need are more of those guys doing color commentary.
- Sticking with Tarheels, somethings gotta be done about the number of Carolina fans who get their grubby paws on tournament tickets. I understand that they had better odds of any team to win the whole thing, which would lead more fans to want to attend, and that they have more fans than most schools (bandwagon FTW!), but this is a conference tournament and shouldn't be a home-court advantage for one team. Fans from other schools are bound to sell their tickets after their teams bite it, but could we come to an agreement not to sell them to anybody in baby blue? By the time the final game came around, 75% of the arena was filled with a delicate mixture of Tarheel wine and cheese alumni and foothills bandwagoners rooting for the bad guys.

SCHEDULE CHANGES AND NOTES

- The baseball game against Furman originally scheduled to be played tonight at 7:15 in Doug Kingsmore has been postponed till tomorrow afternoon at 5 o'clock due to rain & etc.

- Don't forget to check out our guys on the court Friday night when they play 12 seed Villanova in Tampa. The game should be on CBS.

NEWS & NOTES

- The Georgia Sports Blog has a post up detailing the longest tenured coaches without a BCS bid and our very own Tommy Bowden is #1, having gone since 1999 without getting to sit at the cool kids table. Tommy fans: *shakes fist* "DAMN YOU, OBJECTIVE FACTS!"

- Today's ACC Headlines features a fascinating look at the Tiger basketball team's free throw woes and how, by sinking just 26 free throws away from being 27-3 and 13-3 in the league instead of their current 22-8, 10-6 clip. Before people step up and say this sounds mysteriously like Tardnetter's claims of Clemson only being 3 pts away or 4 plays away from an ACC title in football in recent years, I submit that it's harder to compare these sort of tough-earned plays to a gimmie at the free throw stripe.

- The Ray Ray situation is continuing to snowball and be picked up by multiple national and local news outlets, often with misreported facts on the matter and in virtually every case but one with extreme prejudice against Bowden and Clemson. Tony Barnhart of the AJC nails the situation fairly and objectively in his piece "No Tears for Ray Ray."

- The ACC Tournament is this weekend, with Clemson playing Friday night at 9:30 against the winner of the BC-Maryland game played today. Results will be posted here.

EXTREME BRACKET EXPLOSION!!!!!!

Are you man enough to step up to the EXTREME BRACKET EXPLOSION? ARE YOU??!??


DIAL UP YAHOO ON THE INTERWEB AND STEP THE HELL UP.


Group ID: 55284
Password: korn

NEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

NEWS

- Of course, the men's basketball team beat Virginia Tech this past Sunday afternoon on Senior Day. Both sides battled back and forth and Oglesby yet again drained some more monster threes (5/7 on the day, 17 points total) and Demontez Stitt won the game in the final seconds by making two free throws. Great game. KC Rivers and Cliff Hammonds received all ACC honors. Oglesby was honorable mention for the freshman team and James Mays got honorable mention for the defensive team. Check the team out Friday at 9pm for our first tournament game. We get a bye for Thursday since we are third seed

- Four NCAA track & field National Championship invites have been garnered by the following:

Men's: Travis Padgett (60 meter), CJ Spiller (60 meter), and Mitch Greeley (Pole Vault).

Women's: Patricia Mamona (Triple Jump)

Congratulations and good luck!

- The baseball team nearly blew it at home against UNC-Greensboro by a score of 11-10. They went 11-0 until same late game rallies including one in the ninth cost them the game. Some of our pitchers need to get it together after the Wake Forest debacle. We can't keep winning by scoring into the double digits and barely squeaking by everytime. Stoneburner had yet another great outing as well as Kyle Parker. If Kyle Parker is anything like this on the football field, we're gonna have a battle. Chris Epps, Ben Paulsen, and Mike Freeman continue to be absolute ballers. Get over to the game at 4pm today if you can and are in the area.

- The AAFL will probably fold before training camp opens a la their wikipedia entry. It was a cool concept while it lasted but because of the bad economy, no major backer, and no television contract it looks like our friend Marcus Katz will be needing to find himself a new job. Marcus, if you're out there and still have us on google alert, let us know whats up in the comments section.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Willy Mac: Pat O'Briens - Whether you're in Memphis (sorry that you'd be there), San Antonio, Cancun, Orlando, or New Orleans (the one I went to), you're bound to get a good stiff drink. For some reason they're stable drink is a non-Irish hurricane (which I ironically pounded in New Orleans). This thing was so strong and so sweet that I nearly had to get Liberty Medical on the phone cause it nearly gave me the Beetus. Also, mixed drinks are your best bet as singles are usually a tad more than a half and half and doubles are pretty much just full glasses of alcohol stirred with a Q-Tip dipped in the desired mixer. Best shots in New Orleans too. Also, you get to take some of the glass ware with you and they even package it up so you look extra touristy. If you'd like to dry their hurricane mix you can go to just about any grocery store and buy their death in a bag. Best served on rocks and not blended. Also, check out their online store as they sell hats, t-shirts, hurricane glasses, and several mixers as well. Just follow the link up top.

Chili: My recommendation is Montana Ale Works in Bozeman, MT for all the Fat Tire you can drink and some good billiards. Seriously Willy Mac you could've just posted "HEY Y'ALL I JUST WENT TO NEW ORLEANS!" instead of recommending a quasi chain bar that 95% of our readership isn't within 200 miles of. My recommendation this week is that Willy Mac shuts the fuck up. I'm just kidding, pal. My actual recommendation is for the hilarious blog Stuff White People Like. It's funny because it's true! Swimwalk!!

BOWDEN & CO. DROPS TROUGH, PROCEEDS TO GIVE RAY RAY A STEAMER HAT

Bowden: Not really a Clemson guy.

After reading a couple of articles about it, and listening to EDSBS's take, I took a few days to mull over my initial reaction of the whole "Ray Ray McElrathbey scholarship" situation.  My initial gut reaction was to gather a West Virginia-esque mob and chase Bowden and his staff out of town with pitchforks and torches ("Not much has changed in Clemson."  Just thought I should go ahead and get that terrible Gamecock chain email joke out of the way).  Now that I've slept on it a few days, my current gut reaction is to find Bowden and put my thumbs into his eyes and press as hard as I can.  Seriously, he claims to be such a good person and has shown a bit of the "Second Chance" mantra that his father has, then he will turn around and do something like this.  

Now keeping this in mind, Ray Ray plays running back and took a back seat to Davis, Spiller, and Sadat Chambers last year due to an injury and separation of talent.  Now that we signed two huge recruits to add to our running back stable, we need to shave some fat from the ass of our ball carrying squad.  Chambers gets moved to safety and Ray Ray gets dropped and is supposed to eat shit and grin.  I could understand if the guy's situation was different, but at least give him a chance.

Here are some stream of consciousness statements from my point of view:

- Ray Ray's rough past and his decision to adopt his little brother and the accompanied situation is a huge public relations boost for Clemson.  Doing this is really bad PR for us.

- The injury didn't help, but people tend to forget he did start 13 games on special teams as a freshman and did alright.  

- He's graduating as a JUNIOR with two years of eligibility left.  He had some troubles with academics a bit back, but got on the honor roll while taking 21 hours last semester.  Also, he seems to be in good enough graces to be a potential candidate for graduate school.

- Clemson has said that as long as he pursues a degree here, they will honor his scholarship.  There is not a specific time frame on this so I'm taking from this that if he took seven years to graduate they'd give him the money but if he graduates in three then screw him if he wants to stay here and play football.

- Why not cut a lower level player that will probably never make an actual impact and has enough money to go here as a normal student.  For instance, someone who joined as a walk on and got a scholarship, why not cut them?  They've proven that they have enough money to pay for Clemson by themselves and the usual trend for walk ons is to never actually make it happen (sub Aaron Kelly and Tommy Sharpe).

- They have offered him a Graduate Assistant job in the athletic department, but no further chance to continue his football career.

- Ray Ray was a three star athlete coming out of high school and if I'm not mistaken he was moved to running back before he was injured.  Why not move him to safety (a position we;re pretty thin at for the future) like we did with Chambers and cut that walk on player.

- Our community (that more than likely wants the kid to stick around and finish out his career) has invested too much time and effort in this situation for one person who represents and makes decisions for us as a whole to tell him to just hit the bricks.

-Now what? We're just going to shut the door on someone who has worked hard to pull himself up?  We're going to make him and his little brother move their life somewhere else just because a few guys drawing on a whiteboard don't like how he fits in?  If anything this guy should be rewarded.  We have to think about Fahmarr as well.  This much change and instability could be a terrible thing to go through after all he's already been through.

- Bowden's logic is backwards.  If you're going to play the Bobby Role and give people more chances in life after mistakes, you don't fucking turn around and let the people that do well for themselves eat shit.  

- Word is that Ray Ray started slacking off on the football side of things but I think I would to if I could see the picture that was being painted in front of me.  Move me to another position or something.  

- Even if this whole football thing didn't pan out for him, a graduate degree as well as a Sociology Undergraduate degree from Clemson would open so many doors for this guy that would normally be closed to this guy based on his background.  I mean, this really reminds me of the whole Yusef Kelly ordeal (in which Bowden had disagreements with Kelly and wanted him gone but didn't have many reasons till the brawl, but by then it was too late.  Also the fact that Kelly was a graduate student gets in my head too, among other similarities).

[ Side note: Much respect to James Davis who stuck up for Ray Ray in this whole situation.  It could cost him some carries due to locker room politics, but that was yet another stand up gesture from our best running back.  ]

Honestly, I have stirred emotions about this whole thing, but I don't like it.  It's a very weaselish move on behalf of Bowden and it just solidifies the fact that Bowden has no idea who his troops are and could care less about their well being to boot.  He's just putting on this academic graduation front for his own resume and will drop Clemson in a heart beat if he wins the ACC Championship this year (or hold us hostage for more money).  He's not a Clemson guy, I don't like him, I want him out.  Seriously, maybe it'd be best if he found some place else to go should he get some more offers.  

Best of luck, boys. 

FANTASY BASEBALL

Reminder: Please sign up for fantasy baseball now, we've only got 4 participants at this time. The draft has been moved until March 15th at 530(EST), so you've still got a week if you want to play.
We need at least 4 or 5 more teams to make it interesting. If we get at least 10, I will personally donate a bottle of liquor (TBD) to the winner. Since this is a long competition, I think it will only be fair to offer an incentive. Once again, the league info is:

League ID: 122123
Password: HDDVD

It's hosted by yahoo, as normal for our fantasy events, in case y'all forgot. Clemson Baseball update to follow in the next day or so.

DSOT 20: NO COUNTRY FOR DUMB POSTS

While you were pimping your duck, I was trolling Tigernet.

I've heard this same Sakerlina joke in a dozen chain emails and, no, it's not funny there either.




Some places put fluoride in the water, in Ninety-Six they add lead.




If you are a high school graduate there are only 2 reasons to watch a high school football game: you have a family member on one of the teams, or you are a coach. If you are attending to watch recruits for your college team of choice then it is almost a given that you are a mouthbreathing creep. I also love it how this guy asks who else will be attending, like droves of other fans can't wait to go watch mediocre football from aluminum bleachers. "Gonna follow any recruits?" uh... not back to their houses to stare through the windows like this guy probably will.




Because inquisitive drunks want to know.




Reminiscing about a "classic" zinger from the morning's comic pages in real life would get you open-mouth stares like you had a dick growing out your ear. Doing it on a messageboard just gets you DSOTed. There have been some terrible and nonsensical Spurrier on Tigernet but this one might beat all.




I LOVE LAMP. EMOTING IS HARD.




Victory=Turtlehead.




And I leave you with this gem from the Fighting Gamecock Forum, where every post is dumb shit. It is nice to see a little self analysis from the cluckers, even though this guy probably got banned for his troubles.

TIGERS LOSE A TOUGH ONE TO GT

Clemson traveled to Atlanta last night to face Georgia Tech for their senior night game and fell hard 80-75. The game was close than even the score indicates, with both teams trading leads throughout the game until Tech took a slim lead with 10 left to play and hung on. Clemson hung on to the very end. A bit o' bullshit occurred when Cliff Hammonds ran into another Tiger teeth first and hit the ground hard, lying face down. The officials failed to stop play, as the NCAA rules clearly dictate when a player is injured and in a situation where he could be further harmed. I think a Clemson player sprawled out on his stomach, barely moving, in the fucking paint is cause for an officials' time out. However no such pause was called, and Tech used its 5 on 4 advantage to drain a three and extend their tiny lead with 2:41 to go. Add this to a blatant no-call on a foul on an attempted KC Rivers layup near the very end of the game and you have just cause to be a little pissed about the officiating.

FREE THROWS. FREE THROWS. FREE THROWS. FREE THROWS.

So I said I thought there were some deficiencies in the way the game was called. I feel that that's true, but it is not the reason Clemson lost. Again the Tigers lose a game down the stretch that they should've had well in hand if they could hit their damned free throws. Clemson was 9-17 at the charity stripe (basketball lingo!), a stat that doesn't include the missed frontends of one-and-ones. For whatever reason, Cliff Hammonds (DFIG's favorite Tiger cager) was handling the ball in the last minute of the game. A 44% career free throw shooter should not be the guy streaking to the basket and getting to the line when it counts. I'm not taking anything away from Cliff, he is a monster. He played with a broken wrist and still put up 15 and 8 and came right back into the game after breaking a tooth. Nonetheless he shouldn't have been the guy shooting FTs at the end.

The bigger picture we're looking at is whether or not Clemson can hang on to a top-4 spot in the league to get that valuable first round bye in the ACC Tournament. A victory against Virginia Tech on Clemson's senior night is really a must. Damnit Tigers, you lost to a 12-16 team and played absolutely sloppy and flat most of the time, and had no excuse not to seal the deal with this game. We will be doing a Q&A with a VT blog about the game, that should be up soon.

TUESDAY NEWS

Hopefully everyone caught the Tigers' amazing comeback in College Park on Sunday night. The State has a summary of how the Tigers came back from a 20 point deficit and how freshman Terrence Oglesby drained a 3 with just seconds remaining to seal the deal on a 73-70 win. Clemson had three heroes in the second half: Cliff Hammonds for his tremendous block, James Mays for his steal and game-tying dunk, and TO for his coldblooded three that clenched the game.

Hammonds is one of the most versatile players in Clemson history, and is -- to reuse an overused sports cliche -- the glue that holds the team together. He is the model of a student-athlete and I feel he deserves for his jersey to hang in the Littlejohn rafters. Unfortunately, it looks like Cliff will be finishing out his memorable career with a broken wrist.

Catch Clemson's next game this Thursday at Georgia Tech, 7 PM on ESPN.

For your viewing pleasure: an upstanding Maryland fan has a snack then watches his team choke.

And..... WHAMMY