Wednesday March 04, 2009

Virginia Review

Virginia Review
As expected, senior night got a little emotional. I must admit every year when Oliver Purnell gets emotional on senior night it gets to me. Clemson fans saw tears running down his face in the pre-game ceremonies again this season. If I were a parent of a top ranked high school basketball prospect, I would want my son to play for a guy that cares that much about his players.

The game itself got off to another slow start and quite simply it was a sloppy first half. The Tigers looked as if they lacked confidence in the first half as the shot clock continued to wind down. Clemson turned the ball over too many times in the first stanza.

The second half was a completely different story. Clemson took care of the basketball and had much more productive trips down court. The Tigers were more aggressive in the second half as well.

However, the single biggest key to Tuesday night’s win was defense. Sylven Landesberg was averaging 17.4 points per game but he was held scoreless for the first 36 minutes of the game and had only three points the entire game. Clemson’s K.C. Rivers and David Potter did an outstanding job on the freshman.

Rivers was injured in the first half and played most of the contest with a bum shoulder but he gutted it out with a terrific defensive performance.

The Tigers dominated the boards 36-27 including 15 from Trevor Booker.

Clemson also shot the ball well from the field (50%) and the free throw line (76%). The Tigers free throw shooting efforts were helped by Terrence Oglesby’s 10-10 performance.

Jerai Grant had another strong performance off of the bench with 10 points on 4-5 from the field.

However, the star of the evening was senior Raymond Sykes. The Jacksonville native was 5-9 from the field and 4-6 from the line for 14 points. Sykes also had two blocks, two assists and two steals.

I thought another key to the victory was the Tigers’ interior passing game. When the Cavs came over to help on the interior, the Tigers were able to find the open man for easy dunks and lay ups. Clemson had 18 assists in the game. In many ways, it looked like what Virginia did to Clemson earlier in the year in Charlottesville. The Tigers outscored Virginia in the paint 38-20.

Clemson’s post players were very efficient. Booker was 6-7 from the field, Sykes was 5-9 from the field and Grant was 4-5. The trio combined to make 15 of their 21 field goal attempts.

Senior nights are even better when the home team has enough of a lead to be able to pull the seniors from the game in order to receive one more standing ovation and the boys got their due in the last few minutes of this one.

I also have to admit that I like Purnell’s new tradition of letting his seniors address the crowd after the game and I thought all three Tigers handled themselves with class once again.

So 9-6 in this league, this year is a very good year and 23-6 is even better. Four of the losses have come at the hands of teams currently ranked in the top 25.

Now the Tigers are off to Winston-Salem to play a top ten ranked Demon Deacon squad Sunday night at 6:00. Wake is playing very well lately and will be a tough foe. A win would give Clemson a 10-6 record. A loss means 9-7 and a Thursday game in Atlanta.

Tuesday night’s win might lead to bigger and better things. The Tigers played very little full-court diamond press last night and instead changed its primary defense to a full-court man press. The result was better half-court defense where the Tigers forced Virginia to score in their half-court sets.

Maybe Tuesday’s win provides the Tigers with a renewed confidence on offense as well. Clemson’s second half offense looked more like what we have seen earlier in the season. Maybe the Tigers’ second half performance was a preview of the things to come where Clemson can once again protect the basketball.

The ACC
Wake Forest winning in College Park last night was not good news for the Tigers. The Deacons enter Sunday’s game with a 10-5 mark. Florida State losing in Cameron Tuesday night has the Seminoles tied with Clemson at 9-6 in the league but the Seminoles beat the Tigers twice in the regular season and have the tie breaker over Clemson.

Clemson needs FSU to lose Sunday at home against Virginia Tech.

Also there is a chance for a three-way tie with Clemson, Florida State and Boston College. The Eagles have NC State Wednesday and Georgia Tech. Virginia Tech still has a chance to finish 9-7 and make it a three-way tie. Like the rest of the ACC’s wacky season, we will have to wait until this weekend to straighten everything out.

Without getting into tie breakers: It appears to me that North Carolina can finish first or tied for first but the Heels have wrapped up a first round bye in the ACC tournament. Duke can finish tied for first second or tied for second and have also wrapped up a first round bye in the ACC tourney.. Wake Forest can finish tied for second, third or tied for third but because of multiple ties for third, Wake is not guaranteed a bye yet. There are still scenarios where Florida State, Clemson, Boston College and even Virginia Tech have a chance at a first round bye because they all have a chance at a tie for fourth and the tie breakers are all different for each team.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

Prayer List
We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:
*If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance. The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.
*If you would like to add someone to the list please e-mail me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com
*If you want the reason for the prayer to be added to the name please specify in your e-mails.
*Please let me know when it is appropriate to take the person off of the prayer list

Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, Mrs. Kathleen Bowers, Larry in Naples, FL, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Sandy Wright, Jo Ann Bachman, Frank Taylor, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, Jack Huffman, Nancy Winkler, Dr. Nancy Strom Morgan, Ronnie Queen, Edward Putman, John Reeve, Eileen Woodrum, Ethel Southard, Anna Rawl, Vinnie Brock, Jean-Pierre Bailey, Kaitlyn L, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm.