What did we do to deserve this!
The anguish of watching Clemson sports… Why can’t Clemson remember that the game lasts 5 minutes past what they put into it?!?!? I swear after watching the first half that I completely forgot about the final five minute droughts that Clemson had been putting up throughout the season. The game looked like it was in the bag at the half with KC and the boys shooting lights out from the 3 point line. The second half even started strong with the Tigers continuing the momentum to gain a 17 point lead. But alas, similar to the rest of the season the Tigers unraveled in the last minutes of the game giving ‘Cuse a small chance of hope to squeak by after a miserable game. Somehow Clemson eked out a win, much to my surprise as I turned the TV off with 3 minutes remaining as it had turned into a foul fest with people being ejected from the game with every trip down the court. Here are a few thoughts I had on the game:
1. How did Clemson, after hopefully watching an entire series of tapes on Syracuse, not figure out how to break down the deep 2-3 zone that the defense placed on them?
2. Why did Clemson never figure out that if Devendorf got the ball he was going to drive the lane. Even the announcers said it every time the kid got the ball. Someone put a body on the man!
3. That was the worst officiating I have seen in a basketball game in a while. Both sides of the ball got unfair calls and completely missed calls. I mean when someone barely touches a player and gets called on it and then on the next trip down someone gets suplexed on a layup and nothing is called something is wrong.
4. Syracuse, unlike Clemson, obviously watched a lot of Clemson ball tapes and figured out what to do with the Tigers. In a nutshell, here it is: Let Clemson play their kind of ball, full press flash and run ball, until the last five minutes. Then… foul the everloving hell out of them as NO ONE ON THE FREAKIN TEAM CAN SHOOT A FREE THROW. It was(is) absolutely miserable watching teams foul Clemson knowing that they will, at best, hit 50%. It was so bad that our best free throw shooter, Rivers, missed all 3 after getting fouled outside the arc.
5. Clemson has a young team that still has some emotional control issues. Booker was obviously frustrated last night and let it force him into mistakes that cost the team as a whole. On the same thought, Clemson has a young team that loses one of it’s starters for next year. That’s just scary.
In the end, I was glad to see Clemson win it after checking the internet while peeking through my fingers in fear of the disappointment that might occur. I just wish that they had kept the decisive lead on the “Orange” instead of floundering to a weak finish. Hopefully, they will play well against Air Force but with the previously mentioned “young guns” travelling to the Big Apple, it may take a while to get them settled down.
Hey Clemson is something like 17-0 against out of conference opponents, so if they keep that record going they have to win it all… right?!
Oh yeah, my Syracuse coworker and myself decided that neither team should have won but that Air Force should be given a bye for the performance of both teams last night.
The tightness of the game at the end wasn’t that surprising to me based on the history of the season as well as the fact that it is almost impossible to expect Rivers to keep draining threes all game. The situation was made worse by having a couple guys foul out. However, the team did manage to at least score some points in the few minutes. In fact, looking over the play-by-play, they scored 10 points, 8 of them free throws in the last 3 minutes.
I hope the team’s luck holds out when they go to New York.
I was at the game. The plump ref with the neatly gelled-combed hair wasn’t just incompetent, he was shameless in his officiating. Only one of ‘em was making calls but they too were few and far between. Roberts and the two other big men coulda got away with murder with those idiots.
Clemson’s strategy was also suspect - for the first how many minutes were we not able to get inside against the zone. Thankfully we were on fire outside the arc, but Purnell still should take the rap on that.
And as you said on defense, why didn’t anyone even consider getting physical on Devendorf? No one bothered to touch him, as if that cross tattoo on his arm was holding them back or something…
I thought we were gonna lose it, but somehow we made those free throws. Even if we do well in MSG, I’d still be worried for next season…
I wish Trevor Booker woulda man handled that little guy, instead he wasted a few of those fouls, mainly the hanging on the rim. I did love how he blew one guy up on the pick. Classic.