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!

We’ve already burned through most of the first half. Clemson has a 6 point lead and 6:27 left. The team is playing well, but probably not well enough.

33-21 at the half. A 12-point lead is certainly appreciated, but it still seems like Clemson needs to figure out how to be frenetic on defense and patient on offense.

14:05 left in the 2nd half, Clemson’s up 20. Grant has made some good plays. I’m a little surprised with some of the stuff the refs have been letting go.

12:52 left. Smith called for a charge. The calls can certainly start going against Clemson real quick. Don’t think that I think that Duke is out of this one yet.

Roughly 8 minutes left: Oglesby hit a bit 3. Sheyer walked without a call (and put up a duck). Then Booker had a wide open dunk. Booker is playing to make a statement. 61-39 right now.

2:00 left: Oglesby missed a dunk. Purnell just shakes his head. I’d have liked to see Clemson play smarter.

I can’t believe Duke just folded like this. They remind me of the bully from A Christmas Story right now.

Game over. First home win against Duke since ’97. The Tigers played like they expected Duke to adjust to their game plan rather than vise versa. And they pulled it off.

It’s still a bit unbelievable. I can empathize with my Duke friends right now, but I’m still going to take some joy from their misery.

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.

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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)

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