TigerNet -- Blogs -- Mickey Plyler's Blog

Cause for Concern
Last night was a wakeup call. A wakeup call with a pleasant evening but nevertheless a wakeup call.

I would say this blog is fairly positive a large majority of the time because I think it is appropriate to focus on some of the positive things happening in our athletic program. Just 24 hours ago I wrote about the half full approach I will take for the rest of the year in terms on free throw shooting.

But I also hope to be objective enough to point out concerns when they arise and I am now very concerned. No, I am not talking about free throw shooting as we covered that yesterday. Instead, I am very concerned about some issues that continue to show up with our basketball program. Two things showed up again last night and I think it is OK to address both.

Effort
I think we all have come to the realization that teams and players cannot play at the highest level every game. We talk like that is a possibility but we all realize that will not happen and probably has never happened. The New England Patriots may go 19-0 but my guess is that most players would admit they have not had the same intensity for the first 18 games this season. The 1972 Dolphins probably would admit the same thing if they were honest.

Outside of my dog, I don’t know of anyone who brings their “A game” everyday. I don’t know of anyone who works at the highest intensity each day. Obviously a few people who have built my cars in the past did not have a high intensity throughout the entire assembly process. I know the fast food workers don’t always bring 100% every time I go through the drive thru. I can only hope that my surgeon and anesthesiologist don’t have an “off day” the next time I go under the knife.

The fact is that on most occasions 100% isn’t needed most of the time in life. My cars still ran after some work. I still get my food and carbs and I am hoping my next surgery will be minor and 100% isn’t required just in case.

It’s hypocritical for fans to expect 100% effort from their teams when we as fans don’t give 100% every game. If we are honest then we will all admit that we just get more hyped for the UNC’s of the world in basketball and FSU’s in football. Last night was a glaring example of just that. Littlejohn Coliseum sounded more like the Cooper Library in the first half last night.

With that said, I thought the team’s effort was way off last night. When Charlotte played harder and faster than Clemson in its upset of the Tigers a couple of weeks ago I just blew it off to the UNC hangover.

Last night was different. Clemson last played on Saturday and Wake played Sunday. The Demon Deacons had only one day to prepare for Clemson but they physically took the game to the Tigers. Like Charlotte, Wake Forest was the more aggressive team last night. They were the road team but they looked like the more inspired team. Wake took the fight to the dog and probably should have taken home an upset.

Clemson is not the Patriots or the 72 Dolphins. This Clemson team is not talented enough to win on talent alone. This program is built upon the pressure defense and everything that comes with its blue collar mentality. This program is not to the point where it can go out and sign McDonald’s All-Americans so they have to out scrap and out work the opponent.

I was extremely surprised and disappointed to see Wake Forest play harder than the Tigers last night. I am thankful Clemson was able to steal the victory but this game and the Charlotte game have me concerned.

Points in the Paint
Wake Forest did what Maryland and others were able to do last season and what Charlotte was able to do earlier this season. The Deacs were able to destroy the Tiger defense with points in the paint. Time and time again Ish Smith was able to dribble drive and penetrate the Tiger defense as the Deacons pounded Clemson inside.

The Tigers had no answers for Smith. They tried Demontez Stitt. They tried Cliff Hammonds. They even tried Sam Perry. But no one had any answers for Smith’s quickness. But the main issues for me came from a couple of items. First, I am not sure why the Tigers tried to pick up Smith 35 and 40 feet from the basket. Also I am not sure what has happened to the Tiger’s help side defense. Clemson has been exposed on this front and now the Tigers have to adjust or get ready for another disappointing finish to the season. The rest of the ACC is good enough to make Clemson pay if the Tigers don’t have an answer for the points in the paint.

The Positive
I have mentioned several times that there would be a few games this season where the Tigers would benefit from Sam Perry’s effort and last night Clemson would not have won that contest without Perry. His defense and rebounding were a huge lift.

Also it was another incredible effort from Terrence Oglesby. His three-pointers made a big difference again especially in overtime and he continues to develop as contributor in other ways. I believe Oglesby is the best passer on the team and his entry passes to the post are a key to the offense.

The Tigers were fortunate to save their season last night but I hope the effort and defense improve for Sunday’s game in Miami.

The free throw shooting thing is still an issue but we discussed the strategy there yesterday. In my opinion it is OK to question the effort because we have seen better and should expect more in the future.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

Comments:

Exactly. The ACC might be "down" this year but they are still good teams that will beat us unless we have our "A" game every night. We are not that good to show up with a "C" game and skate by with a win.

And as far as Terrance Oglesby. Those two 3's were big in OT, but they were the type of shot that shouldnt have been taken. I have to believe thats why OP sat him down after that one moon shot. Dumb shots in a tight game will get you beat more often than not.

Posted by drock4484 on January 23, 2008 at 10:14 AM EST #

Mickey, I couldn't agree with you more. Two areas that concerned me about last nights game were 1) transition defense and 2) "being cute."

With our reputation as a blue-collar, hard-working team, you'd think we could get back on defense. Numerous times last night Wake beat us down the floor and got an easy bucket.

At times in the past two games, we look like we're trying to be the Harlem Globetrotters. We are trying to make too many "cute" passes when we drive or simply get the ball in the paint. It happened a lot more against Duke than Wake, but we've got to stop trying to make that last "Sportscenter" pass and just finish at the hoop.

You're right, we stole that victory last night. There's no reason Wake should not have won that game when they had a 3 on 1 at the end of regulation that they couldn't convert.

Posted by WakeBdr on January 23, 2008 at 10:14 AM EST #

Mickey,

You guaranteed at least 66% FT for the full season. Tigers are 246/395 for the season for 62.3%. Tigers have averaged 20 FT in the five ACC games played to date. At this same rate of attempts per game for the remaining 13 games (11 plus 2 tourney), the team will have 260 FT attempts. In order to shoot over 66% for the entire season, they will have to shoot 71.9% (187 of 260). This would make the season total 433 of 655 or 66.2%. Just some stats to chew on. I do NOT see this happening.

Posted by Bowden's 12th+man on January 23, 2008 at 10:19 AM EST #

If CTB could only get our football team to bring 100% for 12 games we would have 3 or 4 ACC championships!

Fire him!

Posted by you on January 23, 2008 at 11:02 AM EST #

You would think a "blue collar" team would play intense defense. I like our press and the way it speeds up the pace of the game, but we give up 80 points to almost every team we play. I agree that our half court defense needs to tighten up so that we don't have to score 80+ points to win every night.

Posted by shirsch on January 23, 2008 at 11:06 AM EST #

I thought that last night was one of the worst efforts that our team has given in quite some time. I was very disappointed throughout the game at how easy it was for Wake to drive uncontested to the basket. One of our post players has to slide over and at least get in the way(or take a charge) of the man slashing to the basket.

We also have been doing a lot of standing around on offense. Whoever is in the game at point gaurd has to take charge in those situations and get us into an effective offense. We almost blew it at the end of the game on the offensive side of the ball b/c we couldn't get set up into any kind of structured offense.
We were very lucky to win that game last night. We have to play harder than that if we want to be a factor come tourney time.
Good article and good observations, Mickey.

Posted by wdinkins39 on January 23, 2008 at 11:19 AM EST #

Clemson hasn't distanced itself through results from Wake, or any other ACC team. Clemson had a few non-conference decent wins but all in all the jury is still out. With a home loss to Charlotte and a double OT thriller vs. FSU, I don't see how Clemson is really a favorite against the vast majority of in-conference teams.

I guess home court gave the advantage, but all in all it wouldn't have been a big upset.

Posted by Justwannaread on January 23, 2008 at 12:14 PM EST #

We won, dude.

Posted by otisman on January 23, 2008 at 12:30 PM EST #

Oglesby was incredible at times offensively, but he sure needs to improve defensively. It appears that he can't keep up with quicker guards that he faces & takes a step or 2 to stop with them.
Otherwise I think he has the potential to be a great player especially since he is a freshman.

Posted by Fasteddie on January 23, 2008 at 01:21 PM EST #

Posted by Fasteddie on January 23, 2008 at 04:34 PM EST #

Had Ish Smith driven on us a couple more times, I may broken my tele.

Posted by RyJcc on January 24, 2008 at 11:30 AM EST #

I see good effort at times from all the players but to many times I've seen seniors standing out of position on defense as if they didn't know what to do and often don't hustle at critical times. There is know reason a point guard starts a drive from half court and our base players stand there until he's beside them to move to stop penitration. Bench these guy's and play the others and let them know this is not acceptable. You may lose games now but will send a message, put out or sit the bench.

Posted by cudanny26 on January 24, 2008 at 12:56 PM EST #