I fucking hate overtime.

• The baseball team had gained some momentum before the Hurricanes came to town. That momentum is now gone, as the ‘Canes took the first and the third games of the series. Sunday’s Game 3 score was 7-6.
• The 8th ranked women’s tennis team went to Chapel Hill and kicked some baby blue ass this weekend. The #13 Tar Heels lost 6-1.
• Men’s tennis, on the other hand, lost on Friday to #2 Virginia 5-2. And they also lost to Virginia Tech 4-3. The lesson to be learned is that people from Clemson just don’t belong in Virginia.
• The bad news continues on into the world of men’s golf. The team finished 10th at the Administaff ASU Invitational. Coastal was first, UNC was 2nd. USCe finished 4th. The team did finish 8 shots better than 15th place USC-Aiken.

And for the golf team alumni at the Shell Houston Open:

• Lucas Glover missed the cut.
• J. Byrd earned $66,660 by finishing tied for 19th at -8.
• Matt Hendrix had three solid and one “oh my god what happened” rounds en route to winning $34,100 and finishing at -5.
• Charles Warren fared less well, but still made the cut. He finished tied for 66th at 2 over. His check was for $11,300.
• Finally, DJ Trahan finished all alone in the 8th spot. He was 10-under for the weekend and 11-under for the tournament. That performance was worth $170,500.

It may be worth noting that the 5 golfers above combined to win $282,500. I’m fairly certain they won more in a weekend that all the Gnomes make combined in a year. Which all goes to show that the time spent in the classroom would have been better spent harassing the cart girl.

[Note: More up-to-date college basketball spreads can be seen on the frontpage, at VegasInsider, or ESPN's daily line. Thanks for visiting.]

Vegas has the spread for tonight’s game set at Clemson +4.

North Carolina is #4 in both polls, #5 in the Sportsline RPI, and #2 in the overall Sagarin ratings.

Clemson is #19 in the AP, #16 in the Coaches poll, #9 in the RPI, and 7 in the overall Sagarin ratings.

Sagarin’s predictor rates UNC at #1 with a 95.25 value. Clemson is #16 in the predictor with a 87.31 value. Even giving Clemson the 4.31 home advantage, North Carolina is favored to win.

Anything can happen, but damn I wish we didn’t have to play teams just as they come of upset losses.

Thanks to NC State blog Section Six for serving up this gem of officiating negligence.

Section Six has been on the link list for a while. I like their statistical analysis of games, which you typically don’t find in a box score or anywhere else.

Also recently added are Tar Heel Fan and ScalpEm. Both are worth checking out for getting a non-Clemson perspective of sports in the ACC.

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.

OK kids, I finally got time to write some thoughts down on the UNC massacre. Here are some notes:

- First off, punch your friendly weatherman in the mouth for his bass ackwards forecast of 30% rain in the afternoon. The rain came in at 5AM and was done by 8AM. The game was uber hot and I am pretty sure I was dehydrated, or at least that is what my first responder training told me when you stop sweating.

- Thomas Hunter is a beast and finally got the breakout plays that I have been waiting for from the pre-season-prophesized Tight End play. For all those TE’s looking to commit to Clemson, Thomas Hunter’s play will be essential through the rest of the season. When he caught the big pass down the middle and rumbled through for a few more yards I was screaming my brains out for the big guy. I just wish that a secondary player had got in his way so that he could have gone through him like a tank through a brick wall.

- Running Backs galore. James ran all first half and sat back the second. Reggie ran through the second and twisted his ankle. CJ ran for two TD’s and kept running. Demerick got in the second half and took over. I have been a fan of Demerick and the RB’s as a whole as they seem to be a team of their own. When one scores, they ALL congratulate him with high fives and jumping chest bumps. Seeing Demerick succeed just shows the extensive depth that we have. Reggie may be leaving but the depth has no evidence of hurting next year. Once again, for those kids who are looking at Clemson at the RB position, using multiple backs in every game gives them hope at the depth chart.

- Speaking of backfield, Alex Pearson is a blocking FREAK! He and Thomas Hunter are awesome support men for the plethora of running backs. As shown in the final play of the FSU game when Hunter jacked the line and Pearson followed him in forcing the hole for James to get in, these guys have the drive and heart to get the team where they need to be. Pearson is one of those guys that doesn’t get reconized but his efforts always are part of the scoreboard. Keep an eye out for this kid.

- Offensive line, well nothing much to say there other than these guys eat nails for breakfast and probably foam at the mouth on the line. I read one article that said that Nathan Bennet tells Proctor every game that he has his back. I see these guys like rabid dogs that the defensive line hates to line up against and probably wets their pants when they see the stats that the line is putting together. Once again, an under appreciated group of guys, but this year they ARE getting alot of press. The 2s and 3s are also getting their reps in so we should be good next year when most of the line graduates.

- Defense in general is just scary. Imagine what would have been if they were 100% in manning. Good Lord! Would anyone stand a chance. We are into the 2s and they are playing like first stringers. Seriously young talent on the field and Koenning is cycling through them like crazy so experience is spread as well. Chris Clemmons and Dwayne Coleman are serious players and hit with all they’ve got. LB’s patrol as the D-Line does their job straight up. With Merling and Adams destroying lines the LB’s pick off prey with ease. Lots of BOOOM on the field when this D is on.

- The crowd knows it, the team knows it and thanks to UNC, FSU and NCStates win over BC the rest of the ACC knows it: Clemson is a serious threat this year, they got their jitters out in the close game at BC and now they are glaring at the rest of the conference. LaTech should be another FAU/UNC game and then Wake, who by the way will probably be a 5-0 undefeated Atlantic Conference leader, will feel the pain as the high hoped Orange faithful (including Broken and myself) travel to flood the away stadium to exact revenge. Death Valley was sold out for UNC and the 81 reunion, GT is sold out, I look for the rest of the home games to be sold out as well. Secure your tickets now cause it’s about to be a fun ride.

GO TIGERS!!!