Basketball postmortem
posted by LW, Monday, March 22, 2010
This is where the monkey-on-the-back thing takes on a life of its own.
For a while, Oliver Purnell tended to downplay his lack of success in the NCAA Tournament.
Losing to Villanova two years ago was no great sin (the Wildcats ended up being pretty good last year, by the way).
And though last year's defeat to Michigan was embarrassing because of Terrence Oglesby acting like a big baby, you could still see why Purnell didn't make a huge deal of his 0-fer NCAA record in five tries.
Heading into this year's NCAA appearance, he said the barrier was merely the latest obstacle to be overcome at Clemson. A few years ago, after all, the big stigma was simply managing to get to the tournament, period.
But a lot seems different now after Friday's loss to Missouri.
Over the years, Purnell has talked a lot about building a "brand" at Clemson, establishing styles and characteristics with which his program becomes identified not only to fans, but to outsiders across the region and even the nation.
The ideal is for the Tigers to be known as a team that plays stifling, full-court pressure defense, a team that rebounds, a team that gives everyone fits.
Purnell has largely succeeded in building that brand, but the NCAA futility is succeeding at chipping away at it.
It doesn't seem fair that a mere six games can taint what a coach has done over a period of years and decades, but I believe that's the fight Purnell has on his hands at the moment.
So much of this is about perception, and right now Purnell is perceived as a coach who simply cannot get it done in March.
The 0-6 record, as we pointed out last week, is one off the all-time record set by a former coach at Louisiana-Monroe. And four of the defeats have come to double-digit seeds.
And there's also this: Since the loss to Villanova in 2008, Clemson has lost five consecutive openers in the NCAA and ACC tournaments -- all to double-digit seeds.
This does not mean Purnell's body of work at Clemson is not still tremendously impressive. This does not mean any Clemson fans should start beating the drum for this guy to get run out of town.
The guy has posted winning ACC records three straight years for the first time in school history. The guy ranks third in the conference in overall winning percentage, behind two fairly reputable coaches (Krzyzewski and Roy).
So any talk that even remotely suggests Purnell is not the right guy for Clemson is pure lunacy.
Overall, the Tigers have been more than respectable the last three years. And there's not a lot of reason, save the departure of Trevor Booker, to think they're headed for a rapid decline anytime soon.
Still, though ...
The NCAA thing wasn't necessarily a major deal before, but it is now. Purnell is now in danger of being defined by that futility, and that's not a good thing.
Purnell has succeeded in building this program into something to be admired. But taking that next step could be more difficult than the initial rebuilding project.
So much of what Purnell has done at Clemson is based on incremental progress, doing something bigger and better each season. This past season, for instance, was dubbed "The Climb" by Purnell and the team.
The Tigers made tremendous progress two years ago by reaching the ACC Tournament final, winning 10 conference games and earning their first NCAA bid since 1998.
You could argue that they made progress last year in the form of a Top 10 ranking and that 27-point detonation of Duke.
Not so much this year, though. Closing with three straight losses is a tough blow for the program. And another first-round flameout is a tough blow for Purnell.
In the Independent-Mail, Greg Wallace opines that OP still has the Tigers on an upward tick despite the postseason disappointments.
Bart Wright reflects on Northern Iowa's mammoth upset of Kansas, punctuated by Ali Farokhmanesh's knockout punch of a shot.
Wright says defense is what did the Jayhawks in -- and what does in everyone who loses in the NCAA Tournament.
It was a shot for the ages, sure, but where was the defense? Why would the best team in the country, so desperately needing the ball in the final 30 seconds, leave a good shooter so wide open in transition?
Defense, or lack of it, was the fatal flaw for Kansas, which came into the tournament ranked first among all 334 schools in scoring margin, averaging 18 points more per game than its opponents. The Jayhawks were fifth in the country in scoring, averaging 81.5 per game.
Eh, not sure about that. Kansas used defense to get back into the game, forcing turnovers and quick baskets off its full-court press. The Jayhawks were in their press on the pivotal shot, and Northern Iowa just happened to break it on this occasion.
Offense tends to matter, too, and Kansas was way too sloppy on offense for much of the game.
Take Clemson. As bad as their defense was Friday against Missouri, their offense was just as bad -- and just as costly -- for a large stretch of the second half. For the third straight year in the NCAA Tournament's opening round, they shot less than 40 percent.
Well surprise, surprise. Here we are at the Round of 16, and just one team from the ACC remains.
If the ACC's coaches are going to continue to talk with straight faces about how brutal their league is, their league is going to have to start doing a little better in the NCAA Tournament.
Gotta feel for Maryland, though. Ouch.
Sorry, but I can't bring myself to feel for Paul Hewitt.
“We got to the [NCAA] tournament, and that’s a really major accomplishment. I think our guys played really hard and were really unlucky at times, but their effort never wavered. We had a great year.”
Then, perhaps realizing he’d oversold his case, Hewitt said: “A very good year.”
Gotta hand it to DeMarcus Cousins for keeping his cool against Chas McFarland, the most annoying player in basketball since, like, ever.
The biggest storyline of that game was whether the short-fused Cousins would combust in the face of McFarland's, uh, antagonistic methods.
Cousins passed with flying colors, then he said what everyone in the ACC has been saying privately for years:
"He was doing a lot of cheating. I caught an elbow to the jaw early in the game. He's a dirty player and the whole world knows it, especially after tonight."
And the money quote from Cousins:
"To be honest, he's a terrible trash talker," Cousins said. "I mean, that was the worst job I've seen in my life. He just kept saying the same thing over and over. Come with a momma joke or something."
Duke looks pretty darn good, and I gotta admit I didn't see it coming earlier this year.
And the man subjected to the brunt of my ridicule, Brian Zoubek, is blossoming quite nicely.
We'll close with a Mike Bianchi listing the reasons why college football Saturdays are better than March Madness.
1. We don’t ignore the sport during the regular season and then act like we’re experts during a three-week stretch at the end of the season.
This acting-like-we're-experts thing doesn't apply to the skyrocketing number of Nobracketology adherents, of course.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
This is where the monkey-on-the-back thing takes on a life of its own.
For a while, Oliver Purnell tended to downplay his lack of success in the NCAA Tournament.
Losing to Villanova two years ago was no great sin (the Wildcats ended up being pretty good last year, by the way).
And though last year's defeat to Michigan was embarrassing because of Terrence Oglesby acting like a big baby, you could still see why Purnell didn't make a huge deal of his 0-fer NCAA record in five tries.
Heading into this year's NCAA appearance, he said the barrier was merely the latest obstacle to be overcome at Clemson. A few years ago, after all, the big stigma was simply managing to get to the tournament, period.
But a lot seems different now after Friday's loss to Missouri.
Over the years, Purnell has talked a lot about building a "brand" at Clemson, establishing styles and characteristics with which his program becomes identified not only to fans, but to outsiders across the region and even the nation.
The ideal is for the Tigers to be known as a team that plays stifling, full-court pressure defense, a team that rebounds, a team that gives everyone fits.
Purnell has largely succeeded in building that brand, but the NCAA futility is succeeding at chipping away at it.
It doesn't seem fair that a mere six games can taint what a coach has done over a period of years and decades, but I believe that's the fight Purnell has on his hands at the moment.
So much of this is about perception, and right now Purnell is perceived as a coach who simply cannot get it done in March.
The 0-6 record, as we pointed out last week, is one off the all-time record set by a former coach at Louisiana-Monroe. And four of the defeats have come to double-digit seeds.
And there's also this: Since the loss to Villanova in 2008, Clemson has lost five consecutive openers in the NCAA and ACC tournaments -- all to double-digit seeds.
This does not mean Purnell's body of work at Clemson is not still tremendously impressive. This does not mean any Clemson fans should start beating the drum for this guy to get run out of town.
The guy has posted winning ACC records three straight years for the first time in school history. The guy ranks third in the conference in overall winning percentage, behind two fairly reputable coaches (Krzyzewski and Roy).
So any talk that even remotely suggests Purnell is not the right guy for Clemson is pure lunacy.
Overall, the Tigers have been more than respectable the last three years. And there's not a lot of reason, save the departure of Trevor Booker, to think they're headed for a rapid decline anytime soon.
Still, though ...
The NCAA thing wasn't necessarily a major deal before, but it is now. Purnell is now in danger of being defined by that futility, and that's not a good thing.
Purnell has succeeded in building this program into something to be admired. But taking that next step could be more difficult than the initial rebuilding project.
So much of what Purnell has done at Clemson is based on incremental progress, doing something bigger and better each season. This past season, for instance, was dubbed "The Climb" by Purnell and the team.
The Tigers made tremendous progress two years ago by reaching the ACC Tournament final, winning 10 conference games and earning their first NCAA bid since 1998.
You could argue that they made progress last year in the form of a Top 10 ranking and that 27-point detonation of Duke.
Not so much this year, though. Closing with three straight losses is a tough blow for the program. And another first-round flameout is a tough blow for Purnell.
In the Independent-Mail, Greg Wallace opines that OP still has the Tigers on an upward tick despite the postseason disappointments.
Bart Wright reflects on Northern Iowa's mammoth upset of Kansas, punctuated by Ali Farokhmanesh's knockout punch of a shot.
Wright says defense is what did the Jayhawks in -- and what does in everyone who loses in the NCAA Tournament.
It was a shot for the ages, sure, but where was the defense? Why would the best team in the country, so desperately needing the ball in the final 30 seconds, leave a good shooter so wide open in transition?
Defense, or lack of it, was the fatal flaw for Kansas, which came into the tournament ranked first among all 334 schools in scoring margin, averaging 18 points more per game than its opponents. The Jayhawks were fifth in the country in scoring, averaging 81.5 per game.
Eh, not sure about that. Kansas used defense to get back into the game, forcing turnovers and quick baskets off its full-court press. The Jayhawks were in their press on the pivotal shot, and Northern Iowa just happened to break it on this occasion.
Offense tends to matter, too, and Kansas was way too sloppy on offense for much of the game.
Take Clemson. As bad as their defense was Friday against Missouri, their offense was just as bad -- and just as costly -- for a large stretch of the second half. For the third straight year in the NCAA Tournament's opening round, they shot less than 40 percent.
Well surprise, surprise. Here we are at the Round of 16, and just one team from the ACC remains.
If the ACC's coaches are going to continue to talk with straight faces about how brutal their league is, their league is going to have to start doing a little better in the NCAA Tournament.
Gotta feel for Maryland, though. Ouch.
Sorry, but I can't bring myself to feel for Paul Hewitt.
“We got to the [NCAA] tournament, and that’s a really major accomplishment. I think our guys played really hard and were really unlucky at times, but their effort never wavered. We had a great year.”
Then, perhaps realizing he’d oversold his case, Hewitt said: “A very good year.”
Gotta hand it to DeMarcus Cousins for keeping his cool against Chas McFarland, the most annoying player in basketball since, like, ever.
The biggest storyline of that game was whether the short-fused Cousins would combust in the face of McFarland's, uh, antagonistic methods.
Cousins passed with flying colors, then he said what everyone in the ACC has been saying privately for years:
"He was doing a lot of cheating. I caught an elbow to the jaw early in the game. He's a dirty player and the whole world knows it, especially after tonight."
And the money quote from Cousins:
"To be honest, he's a terrible trash talker," Cousins said. "I mean, that was the worst job I've seen in my life. He just kept saying the same thing over and over. Come with a momma joke or something."
Duke looks pretty darn good, and I gotta admit I didn't see it coming earlier this year.
And the man subjected to the brunt of my ridicule, Brian Zoubek, is blossoming quite nicely.
We'll close with a Mike Bianchi listing the reasons why college football Saturdays are better than March Madness.
1. We don’t ignore the sport during the regular season and then act like we’re experts during a three-week stretch at the end of the season.
This acting-like-we're-experts thing doesn't apply to the skyrocketing number of Nobracketology adherents, of course.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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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 @.