Sunday links
posted by LW, Sunday, March 01, 2009
The ugliness at Florida State was hard for Tigers fans to stomach. And so were the two hits at home against South Carolina.
There were a lot of glaring deficiencies in the basketball game, including a whopping 23 turnovers, but I thought the costliest was an inability to get Trevor Booker the ball.
Rewind to Clemson's big road comeback wins this season, and Booker's fingerprints have been all over them. The epic turnaround at Virginia Tech ... The dominating second half at Boston College ... The same deal a week ago at Georgia Tech.
Booker was a monster in all three of those games, scoring 21 points apiece. He had eight points yesterday and took eight shots.
He has scored a total of 14 points in the last 60 minutes on 6-of-17 shooting.
Not good.
Here's a look at the ACC standings (not that many of you are particularly interested in seeing them at this point):
UNC 11-3
Duke 10-4
WF 9-5
FSU 9-5
Clemson 8-6
BC 8-6
VT 7-7
MD 6-7
Miami 6-8
NCST 5-8
VA 3-11
GT 1-13
Not long ago, the Tigers had a favorable shot at setting a school record for ACC victories (11). Now they have to win their final two games (Virginia at home on Tuesday, and at Wake Forest a week from today) just to match last year's 10-6 mark.
But the biggest deal is finishing in the top four of the ACC standings and locking up a first-day bye in the tournament. That's obviously slipping through the Tigers' fingers, and that's a nausea-inducing thought for a team that was sitting pretty after that 27-point blasting of Duke.
Who'd have thought the Tigers would proceed to lose four of their next seven games?
Bart Wright sees storm clouds gathering on the basketball season.
Scott Keepfer says the Tigers' gargantuan turnover total was their highest in 107 games.
"We've got to somehow fix our turnover bug," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "We struggled with it at the beginning of the year and seemed to have it fixed."
More on that in the Independent-Mail.
Moving on to baseball, the Tigers' futility against the Gamecocks continued.
The Gamecocks (4-0) have won five in a row against the Tigers (4-1) and eight of the past nine.
It’s the longest winning streak in the series since Clemson won seven in a row from 1995-96. USC had not won five in a row since 1990-91.
The teams plan to meet today at 1:30 p.m., this time at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks can record their longest winning streak in the series since rattling off seven consecutive triumphs from 1983-85.
More on the baseball game here and here.
Ron Morris pens a column on the contrasting recruiting philosophies at Clemson and USC.
And by the looks of this, they're gonna have a hard time getting in a game today in Columbia.
Duke continued its surge by winning at Virginia Tech.
And David Teel says the Hokies aren't doing enough to prove they're NCAA-worthy.
Fascinating story here in the AJC on Paul Johnson, who rescinded a scholarship offer when a silent commit visited Auburn. Wow! Kind of refreshing, actually.
LW
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Boy, not a fun Saturday for Clemson.
The ugliness at Florida State was hard for Tigers fans to stomach. And so were the two hits at home against South Carolina.
There were a lot of glaring deficiencies in the basketball game, including a whopping 23 turnovers, but I thought the costliest was an inability to get Trevor Booker the ball.
Rewind to Clemson's big road comeback wins this season, and Booker's fingerprints have been all over them. The epic turnaround at Virginia Tech ... The dominating second half at Boston College ... The same deal a week ago at Georgia Tech.
Booker was a monster in all three of those games, scoring 21 points apiece. He had eight points yesterday and took eight shots.
He has scored a total of 14 points in the last 60 minutes on 6-of-17 shooting.
Not good.
Here's a look at the ACC standings (not that many of you are particularly interested in seeing them at this point):
UNC 11-3
Duke 10-4
WF 9-5
FSU 9-5
Clemson 8-6
BC 8-6
VT 7-7
MD 6-7
Miami 6-8
NCST 5-8
VA 3-11
GT 1-13
Not long ago, the Tigers had a favorable shot at setting a school record for ACC victories (11). Now they have to win their final two games (Virginia at home on Tuesday, and at Wake Forest a week from today) just to match last year's 10-6 mark.
But the biggest deal is finishing in the top four of the ACC standings and locking up a first-day bye in the tournament. That's obviously slipping through the Tigers' fingers, and that's a nausea-inducing thought for a team that was sitting pretty after that 27-point blasting of Duke.
Who'd have thought the Tigers would proceed to lose four of their next seven games?
Bart Wright sees storm clouds gathering on the basketball season.
Scott Keepfer says the Tigers' gargantuan turnover total was their highest in 107 games.
"We've got to somehow fix our turnover bug," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "We struggled with it at the beginning of the year and seemed to have it fixed."
More on that in the Independent-Mail.
Moving on to baseball, the Tigers' futility against the Gamecocks continued.
The Gamecocks (4-0) have won five in a row against the Tigers (4-1) and eight of the past nine.
It’s the longest winning streak in the series since Clemson won seven in a row from 1995-96. USC had not won five in a row since 1990-91.
The teams plan to meet today at 1:30 p.m., this time at Carolina Stadium. The Gamecocks can record their longest winning streak in the series since rattling off seven consecutive triumphs from 1983-85.
More on the baseball game here and here.
Ron Morris pens a column on the contrasting recruiting philosophies at Clemson and USC.
And by the looks of this, they're gonna have a hard time getting in a game today in Columbia.
Duke continued its surge by winning at Virginia Tech.
And David Teel says the Hokies aren't doing enough to prove they're NCAA-worthy.
Fascinating story here in the AJC on Paul Johnson, who rescinded a scholarship offer when a silent commit visited Auburn. Wow! Kind of refreshing, actually.
LW
For questions or comments on this blog entry, please visit The West Zone message board.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Donnie Patterson. Donnie Patterson is the founder of Patterson Tax Service, located in Easley, S.C. He has been active in tax preparation since 1970, and offers a full range of tax and bookkeeping services.
Larry Williams. Larry has covered the daily beat at Clemson since 2004. Williams, who worked for the Charleston Post & Courier from 2004-08, joined Tigerillustrated.com in November of 2008. He may be reached by email at ldubya08(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @.