The good news is that everyone else in the Atlantic is a dumbass, too.

This Article pretty much sums up the weekend and the irrelevant ramblings of the ACC hype machine that the ACC is a competitor!! Uh…..yeah, not so much guys. Alabama still PWNS the ACC in the seemingly apparent “Alabama whips up another ACC” opener. NC State was just outright painful to watch. Virginia had 7…..yes 7 turnovers against powerhouse William and Mary. Do I need to go on? Amazingly, Clemson and it’s win over MTSU is the only “bright point” over the entire weekend. I will give Maryland a slight pass in that they went west coast and had some jet lag…..or some lame excuse.

Meanwhile in the SEC, they all won except for Georgia who lost to a higher ranked opponent on their field. But the rest won…..like they are supposed to against the paycheck game.

CREDIT FOR DESIGN:

The background logo is assembled via logos found over at Chris Creamer’s Sports Logo Page.

So, in hopes to save the “ACC is overrated” hype no saturating the media, the conference now lays its hopes on UNC. Dear Lord, what has this come to? I just can’t root for the ‘heels, I’m sorry. I was a Duke fan before I was a Clemson fan. I have to root for my conference though as I now live up near ‘Nova and out of the southern conference lands. This is gonna be tough.

And I just realized that if I start now, I might just be able to get the helmet schedules complete by seasons start. Of course, that would mean that my procrastinating ass would have to dismiss his taxpayer duties. I figure that my tax dues/refunds are going to be less than what Geithner “missed” on his taxes and, as I am using TurboTax, he won’t mind me skipping a year. Any other takers on this plan?

How to describe the basketball season?

First, for some perspective, here’s what I wrote at mid-season, on January 7th:

At the halfway point the team is undefeated at 15-0, which is impressive and fantastic. But it is not something that hats can be hung on. There are games left, all of which are in-conference, and we know from past experience that ACC play in the 2nd half of the season isn’t the same as OOC play in the first. At this point, the correct way to judge this team is based on how well they do in the 2nd half. Good/great starts are fine, but they’re worth almost nothing with a bad/horrible finish.

So what about that 2nd half? The Tigers failed to seize control of the ACC when they had the chance and went on to record an 8-7 conference record after I wrote that post (The win against Miami occurred earlier in the season). It was then followed by tournament losses to the worst team in the ACC and to a #10 seed in the NCAA. After starting 15-0, the team went 8-9 in the last 17 games. Based on the criteria I described, I’d call that a pretty significant, if not monumental failure.

OK. I’ll shut up about the basketball season now.

Clemson managed another resounding thud today, losing to #12 seeded Georgia Tech in their opening round game of the ACC Tournament. Clemson had beaten GT in two games earlier this season.

The Tigers are 1-4 in their last 5 games, having lost just about every game of importance, and a luke-warm 8-8 since out-of-conference play ended.

On the upside… oh fuck it. There is no upside.

Unless you’ve been living in a cubicle shaped hole the last few days like this blogger, you’re well aware that the basketball team was unable to overcome Wake Forest who shot a ridiculous 60% from the floor on Sunday.

The good news is that the ACC Tournament starts tomorrow and we play Georgia Tech at 2PM. Georgia Tech finished last in the conference and Clemson beat them twice already this season. Unfortunately playing GT is also bad news because it means that we don’t get a bye in the first round. It also means that, if the Tigers win as they should, they will face Florida State at 2PM on Friday. FSU, you may recall, has already beaten the Tigers twice this year.

Note: Clemson mayor Larry Abernathy is working to save the Astro. He “has proposed that the theatre be refurbished for a three-screen complex, featuring foreign films [ed from Canada?], as well as a concert venue allowing local individuals to showcase their talents.” I wish him no luck in his task as I suspect the building is worth more as scrap and new parking places than it is as a venue for foreign films. Last I checked, Clemson was not lacking in venues to show movies, nor was there an outrageous demand for foreign films. Moreover, the old building isn’t even nice to look at. Unless someone can come up with better ideas and the funding to implement them, I’ll be more than happy to contribute to the demolition costs.

My apologies for the conference standings being out-of-date. The reason they’re out-of-date is a matter of me being both lazy and outgoing at the same time. Being as the process requires weekly updating, the outgoing me set up a mostly automated system. That system relies on the CSTV conference standings page, which simply hasn’t been updated lately. Lazy me refuses to manually update the standings, so until CSTV (#1 in college sports, or so they claim) updates their site, I won’t update ours.

But how screwed up are the standings anyway? Every team has at least 1 conference loss, and it is almost hard to believe that any of those one-loss teams (FSU, Maryland, and Virginia) will be able to avoid dropping another league game. FSU still faces GT, BC, Clemson and Maryland. Maryland still has VT, UNC, FSU and BC. Virginia still faces Miami, Wake, Clemson and Virginia Tech. Two of the teams could finish with only 1 league loss, but I’m not willing to bet that any of the three will. That means that practically every team, minus Clemson and NC State, has a pretty decent chance of being able to win their division. That doesn’t say much for the conference this year, nor does it say much for Clemson.

Update: I gave up on CSTV and modified standings process to run off yahoo instead. The standings should be updated. However, as I say that, I still see the old version, which means that at this point I don’t have a clue what’s going on.

Hey look guys, I got the schedules up and posted before Monday!!

Anyway, bad week to be a Tiger (Clemson, Auburn, LSU) and good week to be anyone else in the ACC (although 50% of the conference was off). UNC took it to the Domers while Vandy lost to the bottom of the SEC.

Blah blah blah, the football season just rolls along and I just feel numb. I get more joy watching the conference games and family teams than my own Tigers. ANYONE ELSE IN THIS PREDICAMENT!!!

EDIT: Oh yeah…..this is on Auburn’s Rivals page:

From a No. 9 ranking and preseason SEC West favorite to losing back-to-back games to Vanderbilt and Arkansas, Auburn has fallen a long way in just seven weeks. And now coach Tommy Tuberville’s job security has come into question. Get a full update inside

Hmm….#9 with preseason expectations to win the division? Clemson was there…..we know how it feels Auburn, but they were supposed to win THE CONFERENCE!!! Hey, let’s swap Tommy’s! Oh, you wouldn’t want ours huh?