• 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.

• Clemson hosts 10-1 Western Carolina tonight at 7:30 PM. The CBS Sports preview notes that Clemson is 9-0 all time against the Catamounts. It should be a good game.
• Collegiate Baseball Newspaper released its preseason Top40. Clemson checks in at #16. Other notables include Virginia (#3), Georgia Tech (#6), Florida State (#7), Miami (#12) and North Carolina (#13). Such is life in the ACC baseball world: being a top-20 team means being a mediocre conference team.
• Kyle Parker’s future as a football player remains up in the air. As I’ve said before, I’d take the money and run if I were him. Fortunately for Clemson football fans, I’m sure most college athletes don’t think like me.

Outside the lines…

• Clemson is escalating it’s war on the squirrels. I’m not exactly sure what university the squirrels belong to, or even what sport they play, but I support this just war.

  Honestly though, they’re talking about trapping and euthanizing about 200 squirrels, and I’m wondering why they’re going to let anyone eat the goddamn things?

• Clemson’s Mayor Abernathy trots out his standard defense for everything he proposes, “If we only save one life, we’ve done our job.” No you haven’t, you dumb fuck! You’re job is not to intrude in everyone’s life to immeasurable levels to “save one life.” You don’t understand how much I hate this guy. I’d rather the mayorship be run by Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.

  In this case the mayor is defending a proposed text messaging ban. Frankly, the fines for these things tend to be so miniscule, and the chances of being caught so small, that the bans are pretty much symbolic. But let me be very clear about one thing: STAY OFF YOUR GODDAMN PHONE IN ALL CAPACITIES WHEN YOU’RE DRIVING YOU FUCKING DIPSHITS!

  And stay off my lawn, too!

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?

As you’ve probably heard, Oliver Purnell’s team completed the first half of their season last night with a convincing win over a pretty good Alabama team. The 11th ranked Tigers won 66-59 while shooting only 13-22 from the free throw line (perhaps that word, “throw”, causes some confusion for our shooters?).

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.

The 2nd half kicks off with with games against NC State, Wake Forest, and a road trip to UNC. Those teams are a combined 35-4 at this point. Talk about a challenge!

From my perspective, this season is just getting started.

Off of a complaint over at DFIG. It is obvious that there is no favoritism towards the boys in baby blue, even beyond the ACC and Swofford. I mean, look at the brackets! You have everyone in random places such as Denver, Tampa, Detroit and UNC travels all the way to…..Raleigh. Well, ok so they get the first two games right in their back yard but they move on, if they win, to the new location. Looking at the brackets again, we see that the Heels head all the way to…..Charlotte. What the HELL!! I searched the entire bracket structure and can’t find anyone, even the #1 seeds getting that much home court favor. Leading off of DFIG’s comments about UNC bandwagonners and their ticket hoarding, this does not seem anywhere NEAR fair. I hope someone in the colleges that has to put up with this crap complains as the baby blue boys have way too much going for them in terms of favor through the regular season to keep this crap going in the tourneys as well.

But I am a biased Clemson fan, what do I know.

Yesterday’s win over Duke was certainly enjoyable.

But I really want to beat these eggheads.

UPDATE: Damn it!

In the last 10 days, the basketball team has split a set of 4 games. That leaves the team 2-1 in conference while it leaves everyone else wondering how they hell they managed to lose to Charlotte.

In brief summary:
1/6 – UNC – L, 90-88 (OT): stupid fucking overtime
1/9 – Charlotte – L, 82-72: ???
1/12 – FSU – W, 97-85 (2OT): sweet! I love overtime!
1/15 – NCSU – W, 70-54: at least we beat one team from North Carolina

In FT % summary:
UNC – 14/27 = 51.9%
Charlotte – 18/26 = 69.2%
FSU – 14/22 = 63.6%
NCSU – 6/12 = 50%

Next: Duke, in Durham, Saturday at 6PM, with cheating clock operators, and what I predict will be a 16/30 = 53.3 % free-throw shooting performance from Clemson.