It’s hard to win on the road in the ACC. Clemson lost at Wake Forest last night by a final score of 70-65. Clemson came in on a hot streak and Wake had recently been stone cold. With the loss Clemson dropped from being the #3 seed with a bye in the ACC tourney to the #6 seed.

My advice for the Tigers moving forward is to set smaller, albeit no less challenging goals. Namely, don’t try to win the ACC. Set a goal to become good on the road. Achieve that and championships will follow.

• I dare to say it, but Clemson may be peaking at the right time. Last night the Tigers pulled away in the 2nd half to defeat Georgia Tech 91-80 in Littlejohn. The Tigers have won 5 of their last 6 and seem assured of a spot in the NCAA tourney. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 4 of those 5 wins came at home, and it may be that the late season strength is just a reflection of being scheduled well. This is also potentially bad news because the team may relax and lose intensity at just the wrong time now that the NCAA bid seems assured. It’s imperative for the Tigers to go to Winston-Salem on Sunday and put down Wake Forest giving Clemson a very respectable 10 wins in conference.
• Via Examiner.com, there’s a poor quality video of the NFL network’s official 40 runs at the combine. Despite the low-quality, it’s pretty interesting to see the results with Ford and Spiller taking 1st & 3rd places, respectively.
  

  There is some speculation that Spiller could end up being drafted by the Browns. That would likely re-unite him with James Davis. Chansi Stuckey is also with the Browns right now.

• Bleacher Report lays out the case the Michael Palmer should be getting more attention from the NFL than he is. Since Palmer became one of my favorite player’s last season, I would love to see him overcome the odds and make it in the NFL.

• After last night’s road win over FSU, I took a deep breath. However now is definitely not the time for the basketball team to relax. They’re still something of a bubble team with 2 regular season games remaining. Next up is GT, at home fortunately. The last game is Sunday at Wake Forest. Wake is on a three game skid and just lost at home to UNC.
• The baseball team remains undefeated after sweeping Wright State over the weekend. With the wins I can now claim collegiate baseball dominance over my dad, a Miami University alum, and my brother a Wright State alum who even made a decent run to be a walk-on for the Raiders many years ago.
• From the NFL combine, we get some reports of the best 40 times. Per the Buffalo News:
  

  The fastest running back was California’s Jahvid Best at 4.35 seconds. Next was Clemson’s C.J. Spiller at 4.37 seconds.

  The fastest time among receivers was run by Clemson’s Jacoby Ford, who was timed in 4.28 seconds, according to the NFL Network.

• The Bills are apparently taking a look at Charlie Whitehurst. Maybe he’ll end up getting some playing time within the next 5 years.
• Lastly, Khalil Greene’s fresh $750k contract with the Rangers has been voided. Hopefully Khalil can get his shit together.

Road wins in the ACC can be nothing if not few and far between. So it is with no small amount of pleasure that I can say that Clemson beat a pretty good (20-8) Florida State team in Tallahassee.

[Trevor] Booker hit four straight free throws in the final 11 seconds and blocked a 3-point shot by the Seminoles’ Deividas Dulkys with 5 seconds left that could have tied it.

But it was the outside sniping of sophomore guard Andre Young from nearby Albany, Ga., that made the difference. His 3-point basket gave the Tigers a 49-47 lead with 30 seconds left.

Free throws? We won the game on free throws? It certainly looks like it. ESPN says Booker was 7-9 (78%) and the the team was 15-19 (79%). FSU was only 14-24 from the charity stripe.

Good win, Clemson!

I honestly haven’t heard people talking too much about basketball. I’m not sure if people are actively trying to avoid it, or if it’s just happening anyway. Whatever the case may be, the next game is tonight. The Tigers go on the road to BC. ACC road games just make me queasy, not that you needed to know that. However, you probably do need to know that the game starts at 7. ESPN2 has the coverage. Clemson is favored by 3 points.

Why is post titled Wite out? Not because of some now-unoriginal gimmick, fortunately. Wite Out only because I didn’t want to use “News & Notes” again and my handy bottle of quick dry correction fluid was the first thing I saw.

• Duke plays at Clemson at 9PM. USA Today says the Tigers are looking for revenge. The line hasn’t been posted yet, but as game time approaches you should be able to find it at VegasInsider or the Daily Line section at ESPN. This game should be extra fun for me as I’ll be at a party hosted by Duke grads.

  UPDATE 2010-01-23 09:10 AMThe spread shows that Duke is favored by 1 point.

• Willy Korn is heading to Marshall… at least to visit.
• Kevin Steele is staying at Clemson, and he’s even saying the right things about why.
  

  “Regardless of what people might believe, it’s a factual statement that money was never discussed in this process with Clemson University,” he said. “I’ve never talked to (athletic director) Terry Don Phillips or Dabo Swinney about one nickel. Not one nickel. And actually did the other. I told Dabo, ‘Coach, if you want to discuss money it’s going to offend me because it’s not about money.’ “

  To be open about this, when I heard the incorrect news that Steele was leaving, I didn’t care. I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the D’s performance this year. The worst thing about the situation to me was not that he was leaving, but that we’d have to find a replacement on the fly. When news broke that he was staying, all the speculation was that he would be getting a nice raise from Clemson. That didn’t seem like such a good idea to me. He came in and, I would say, met — not exceeded — expectations. So why should he get a raise just for being contacted by alma mater? If it turned out that he was playing that game, and that Clemson played along, then I would have been pretty upset.

  Hopefully the Steele’s defense looks better in 2010.

• Clemson University apparently had extremely high voter turnout in this past election. “‘It is widely recognized that young people influenced the 2008 election by voting in larger numbers,’ said Campus Compact President Maureen Curley.” Seeing how that election came out, I don’t think I’d be bragging about that.

Addendum:

• Bad good PR: Stuckey to donate $10 for each point scored against Duke to Haitian Relief. Look, generosity is fantastic. That’s great. However, getting a press release as an NFL player earning over $400k/yr for committing to an approximately $700 donation is pretty silly. I’m hoping that it was supposed to say $100 per point. Just to be clear, the amount itself is fine, it’s the press release about the amount that bothers me.
• It appears that Kevin Steele will get a huge raise, amounting to a reported $200k on top of his current $375k/yr contract. Look, I don’t have any fucking problem with coaches making a lot of money. But I have a huge fucking problem with coaches getting gigantic raises only 1 slightly-better-than-mediocre year into a 3 year contract. If Kevin Steele deserves more money, give him an incentive based contract, and not this bullshit. If this raise is real, then everyone involved in pushing this raise through deserves a giant FUCK YOU!

• In the immediate aftermath of Clemson’s dominating win over UNC, fans stormed the court. Some people apparently didn’t care for it. I think I can summarize my opinion by relating my thoughts from the time. I never even considered that it was inappropriate. Instead I thought “it would be nice if more people joined in because only about 1/2 the court is covered.
• Clemson’s next game is Saturday @ NC State. Game time is 12 noon. Raycom will have the television coverage. Lines haven’t been posted as of the time of my writing this.
• In other news, mark your calendars for Clemson’s spring game. “Clemson’s Spring football game at Memorial Stadium will be held April 10 and have a 4:00 PM start.“

Line update: Clemson is favored by 4.5.

• The basketball team takes the court tonight against UNC. The game is in Littlejohn, so the Tigers might have a chance. Tip is at 9:05, The OP has your pre-game information and links.
• The assault charges against Trevor Adair have been dropped. Ultimately he will only have to pay a $1100 fine for violating the noise ordinance.
• Greg Wallace speculates that Butch Davis and David Cutcliffe will be considered candidates for the now-vacant Tennessee head coaching gig. Cutcliffe’s ties to UT make it natural that his name would come up, but it will be hard for him to overcome his mediocre tenure at Ole Miss.
• Khalil Green has signed on with the Texas Rangers as a utility infielder. It’s a 1-year contract worth a reported $750k.
• Speaking of baseball, the college season is quickly approaching. Clemson’s first game is scheduled for February 19th against Miami University.

Update: Vegas Insider puts the consensus line at Clemson -4.5.

Update 2: With 7:12 in the game, I just realized that Roy Williams is wearing one of the ugliest ties in recorded history and that Clemson has lost sight of the need to play to win the game.

Update 3: My fears have gone unrealized and Clemson prevailed easily. Trevor Booker is a joy to watch. The on-court, post-game interview with Booker was a bust because the noise made it impossible to communicate.