Yesterday’s win over Duke was certainly enjoyable.

But I really want to beat these eggheads.

UPDATE: Damn it!

Reportedly this past Wednesday Steve Spurrier was spoted on a college campus other than USC’s. The News & Observer out of Raleigh has discovered that Spurrier has been seen on Duke’s campus and has been meeting with the AD. A school spokes person has outwardly commented that they are looking for a replacement for Ted Roof. Check the articles out, 1 and 2.

NOT A GOD DAMN THING’S been working for us.”

About last night’s game:

The good: Clemson outscored Duke 45-29 to handily win the second half.

The bad: 9 for 18 free throw shooting… for a crowd pleasing 50%.

The ugly: The Tigers spent most of the first half stumbling around like newborn giraffes trying for the first time to use their legs. Sam Perry knotted the score at 13 with 11:54 remaining in the half. 11:52 later the Tigers claimed their next field goal when Hammonds hit a three. Getting doubled-up and outscored by 21 in the first half is about as bad as it can get.

Final score, Duke 71 Clemson 66.

The team has lost its heart and I blame this guy.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not saying we should have won this game. While reviewing the gametracker it is obvious Clemson played a great game, minus our rebounds in comparison to Duke’s. What I am upset over is the clock management at the end of the game. Bottom line here is this game should have gone to overtime. The timeline is as follows: McRoberts(Duke) passes the ball inbounds to Hamilton (clock should start at the moment Hamilton touches the ball) and the clock stops after the shot is in the net. The five seconds that were on the clock tick to 1.8 seconds (time should have been replaced here-1.5 seconds). The refs in all their wisdom decide to place 2.6 seconds back on the clock giving Duke their 4.4 seconds they managed to win the game in. I’m not a VERY smart man, I have my limitations, but I know simple math. Giving the clock 2.6 seconds to equal 4.4 on a play which previously started with 5.0 seconds on the clock means Hamilton received the ball, set behind the 3-point line, loaded and made a twenty foot shot in less than .6 seconds………HORSESHIT. Was Ron Cherry a ref last night, anyone? The game should have gone to overtime and what happened then should have gone to the books, win or lose.

 

Update: ESPN.com is all over this. Go here to see the latest including an official comment from the ACC indicating a mistake was made. For my two cents, I watched the last 10 seconds with Walker. I noted time should be added once the ball went through the hoop. I didn’t catch the lack of clock used on Hamilton’s three. You think, maybe, the extra run off was a clock operators way of making up for the front end? Too bad the officials, nor most of the rest of us, thought of this during the game.           ~ Bowman

It’s an off year for Duke. They’ve got a bunch of young, unexperienced players. What does that mean? It means a 3-2 conference record. Unfortunately, they’re 16-3 overall and rated ahead of Clemson in just about every (if not all) published ranking system in what is a historically successful season for the Tigers. That really underscores the gulf between the two programs over the years.

Duke is favored by 8 tonight at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Tonight’s game will be as meaningful as it is tough. The ACC has 3 one-loss teams, and tonight’s loser sinks into three-loss conference mediocrity. The winner stays on the scent trail left by the league leaders.

You can watch on ESPN at 7. How the hell am I supposed to get any work done today when I have to worry about this damn game?

Clemson’s future out-of-conference opponents are always up in the air, but at least we know which ACC teams we’ll play through 2015 (assuming the conference stays together).

2007 Clemson Football Scheduled Opponents (in no particular order)::
@Maryland
Wake
@ NC State
FSU
BC
@ Ga. Tech
@ Duke
Va. Tech
(OOC: Furman, UL-Monroe, some MAC team, SC)

Read the rest of this entry »

With all the regular season travels completed for the Tigers, everyone is glad that the team can stay home and play only in Death Valley. But just how important is playing at home? I decided to look into the numbers to see.

To keep things relevant, I looked at only the statistics since Tommy Bowden became coach

starting in the ‘99 season. Since that time his teams have gone 36-12 at home, 19-20 on the road, and 1-0 at neutral sites during the regular season. That leaves the bowls as neutral site games, in which Bowden is 3-3. Road trips are clearly a 50-50 proposition.

For simplicity, I’ll leave out neutral site games.

In percentage form, the home winning percentage is 75, with the road being 48.7. So the chances of winning by playing at home are improved by about 54%.

However, with two important league games looming, I went ahead and took only league games into consideration. Here, Bowden is 20-10 at home, and 16-16 on the road. Compare that 66.7% home winning percentage to the 50% road winning percentage, and the team is only about 33% more likely to win any given league game at home.

There is some bad news to be added to this year’s 4-0 start at home. So far under Tommy Bowden, we’ve never had an undefeated home season. And through 7 full seasons, there have been only three 1 loss seasons. However if we consider only home conference games, there is a lone season where the team did not drop a conference game at home. That year was 2003.

So how does Clemson compare to other ACC teams under their current head coaches? Read on…
Read the rest of this entry »

The remaining ACC schedule is about 50% resolved on paper. The following results are this gnomes view on how the games should play out to favor the Tigers chances at the ACCCG and rankings.

Duke v FSU
Since the ‘Noles have dug themselves a hole I will be rooting for them so that our win over them and our division come out looking better. I say that as if there is a chance that the ‘Noles could lose but ya never know, the Tigers lost to the Dukies on their home field once!

Maryland v Virginia
Once again another team that the Tigers will play versus one that they won’t see in the season. And again, the way Virginia has been playing this year, I don’t think that there really is any question that the Terps won’t run away with it. After a close loss to the Jackets, the Terps should be looking to keep their season in tact with a win in UVA. Of course the loss could be demoralizing and have the Terps in a slump. A loss for the Terps would separate them from the top of the division with 2 losses in conference, but I don’t see that happening so if anything as win would strengthen Clemson’s schedule when they play the Terps in the Valley later in the season.

Miami v Fla Intl
Seriously, let’s just get to the remaining good ACC game. There hasn’t been a game besides VT and BC this week that isn’t already decided on paper. Miami needs to get some good press and needs to light up FAI. No Coker hotseat heat here for once.

UNC v South Fla
I would say that this game is an ACC lock but UNC is on a downhill slide this year and USF usually has a good team rolling for them. From my developing stats page USF has #54 overall offense and #28 overall defense. This could be Buntings farewell song and could be a good bottom dweller game to watch a small school get some props by playing and possibly defeating an ACC team.

NC State v Wake Forest
This is the ACC game, besides VT/BC, that Clemson fans will have their eyes on this weekend. After the undefeated streak ending, 4th quarter meltdown against the Tigers, the Deacs head to Raleigh, the giant killing field, to face a hot Wolfpack team. NC State may be on a high after knocking BC and FSU down a notch over the previous weeks and may not see Wake as that much of a threat. I look for Wake to keep their smoke and mirror offense alive and take the pack down for their first ACC loss thus propelling them to the 1 loss familiarity that is the Atlantic division.