TigerNet -- Blogs -- Mickey Plyler's Blog

Red or Blue?
There is a great quote from the movie “Miracle” that I thought of after last night’s disaster in Tallahassee. The movie is about the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team and the “Miracle on Ice” where the Americans upset the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal. Kurt Russell plays Herb Brooks, the head coach of the underdog American squad and during a workout in preparation for the Olympic games Brooks is just killing his players in practice. The line I thought of last night came when Brooks was trying to get his team to understand the value of hard work so he told them, “You don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone!”

The 2007-08 Clemson basketball team is a perfect example of this same situation. The Tigers can play with anyone in the country but not because of talent. Instead, Clemson has to create offense with its defense. The Tigers have to rebound the basketball. They have to box out. They have to force tempo on the opponent. They have to get to loose balls. They have to win the hustle points. They can’t out Mickey D a team since they don’t have any McDonald’s All-Americans.

If the Tigers do the little things, this team can play with anyone in this conference or the country. However, when they don’t play with effort they can be embarrassed by the likes of FSU, Ole Miss and Charlotte.

Unfortunately we saw the bad Tigers last night. We saw a tired look. We saw a lack of effort and intensity. We saw a bad FSU team with a bad coach and only seven scholarship players beat Clemson to put a blemish on the enthusiasm and the talk of ACC and NCAA seeds.

On my radio show this morning we had a tremendous feedback on the subject as I stated that I was a fence-sitter today. Normally I do not take this stance. Normally I take a side and try to convince others. However, today I was in need of advice. I saw both sides of the argument and tried to present both cases. I will present some of each case to Tigernet today and would love to continue to get a pulse and see which side of the fence fans sit on this issue.

Red
The red vote is not the Republican vote. Instead it is a vote for the red, irate feeling. It is the blood boiling after watching a pathetic effort in the first half.

Purnell said the defensive effort in the first half was embarrassing. The Seminoles shot 62% from the field in the first stanza but my contention is that too many shots were uncontested. The effort was missing. The energy was sapped. The team looked tired and appeared to have heavy legs.

I am not upset that James Mays goes 0-10 from the field even though some could be because he appears to just throw the ball up towards the basket from short distances. He is hurt but some of the shots looked like they were just thrown instead of shot.

I am not upset at K.C. Rivers’ night offensively. Anyone can go cold and his 1-10 night from behind the three-point line will happen to the best at any time.

I am not upset at Terrence Oglesby’s 1-7 night. He is a freshman and it was his game in Littlejohn that kept the Tigers from getting swept by the Seminoles.

I don’t want to shoot 31% from the field, 11% from the three-point land and 52% from the free throw line but I am not upset about the shooting because all teams will have a bad night occasionally. I am a little disappointed in the shot selection in that the Tigers shot 27 threes and did not get the ball inside enough.

The main support for the red vote is the idea that Clemson lost a great opportunity last night. FSU is awful and the atmosphere was just as bad. This is not like losing to Duke in Cameron or Maryland in College Park. This was a bad loss to a bad team in a bad atmosphere. The Tigers had a perfect opportunity to continue the momentum of a good season and improve the seedings for the ACC and NCAA tournaments but they laid an egg. This is clearly a missed opportunity and few excuses will suffice today.

Blue
The blue platform is about accepting the loss in a calm and pleasant way.

This agenda relies on the fact that Clemson has played hard in almost every game this season. The Ole Miss, Charlotte and FSU games are now only three that I can point to in terms of questioning the effort.

This team had played three games in six days including two straight road games. We are late in the season so fatigue was a factor.

Also as stated above, shooting success can come and go with any team and if the Tigers would have shot the ball better they could have easily won last night. This party claims that Mays is hurt and that certainly is a consideration.

The blue vote is one that says this is a good team that will rebound from this. It says they split road games this week with NC State and Florida State and that is pretty good. This vote is for less panic and outrage and more of an understanding of why they played with little effort last night.

The Verdict
Fans usually are more emotional and less rational after a loss. On my radio show this morning the vote was 17 red votes, 7 blue votes and a couple of garnets, burgundies and an orange with a shade of blue. I figured we would have a couple of independent votes like we did for John Anderson, Ralph Nader and Ross Perot but for the most part people voted straight down party lines this morning. The people that were disappointed were very disappointed and the people that were not upset seemed to make valid points for their case.

I am still leaning towards a red tint but still can be persuaded. Let the debate continue. Where do you stand?

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

Comments:

The offensive scheme last night was awful from my view. We cannot expect to beat anyone shooting as badly as we did the 1st half or in the last 5 minutes when we can't utilize all the post players to score. Mays is currently unable to catch, hold or shoot the ball. Why throw it to him unless you want a turnover?
Stitt and Potter took ill-advised shots from the perimeter in the last 10 to 12 minutes. Stitt and oglesby had major turnovers in the last 4 minutes. Douglas's steal or Oglesby half-hearted effort to catch the ball was crucial and the final dagger. When you can't chunk it in the ocean from the outside, you have to be able to get production by driving the lanes and from your post players. We got a few nice layups from Cliff H. and nice finishes from Booker but the rest of the lineup was out-ofsync the whole game as I saw it.

Posted by bbrown cren on February 20, 2008 at 10:49 AM EST #

Red and Blue make Purple, right?
I'm definitely Red about certain areas, specifically shot selection and energy, but am also able to see some Blue. So I guess I'm feeling a little Purple today.
Three games in 6 days plus 4 out of the last 5 being on the road can lead to heavy legs. It almost seemed as if the guys were satisfied to get the Win in Raleigh and had the "win out at home and go dancing at 9-7" mentality.
I think Coach will straighten them out and they'll come back strong for these last 4 regular season games. I'd be shocked and dissapointed if we play that flat again the rest of the year.

Posted by GoodFella on February 20, 2008 at 10:59 AM EST #

I would tend to lean "blue", with this caveat: Fatigue should not be excusable for poor conference play. That's not going to be enough in the postseason tournaments, when in order to succeed the players will have to play 2, 3, or 4 games in as many days to advance. They have got to fight through the fatigue. Nobody's going to give them any breaks because they're tired.

Posted by grover173 on February 20, 2008 at 11:49 AM EST #

I'll go with "blue"

Teams miss shots, that happens, but we held FSU to 9 points in a 15 minute stretch of the 2nd half. Shockingly enough, we lost an ACC road game. This team is fine IF

1) we win our remaining home conference games.

2) we win one game in the ACC tournament (2 if we start Thursday) to prove this is not your same old Clemson

and by "fine" I mean not just making the big dance, but with having a legit shot at making the Sweet 16

Posted by MSYNAN on February 20, 2008 at 12:23 PM EST #

Count me as blue, both in spirit and in vote. I've been to the Tucker Center to watch us play before and we never seem to shoot well there. When I looked at the schedule at the beginning of the year, I circled this stretch on the schedule. It's ridiculous that we have to wrap up the season with 6 of our last 9 games on the road. Yes, this was a winnable game, but we just didn't have the energy nor the luck last night. The sky is not falling and we have 4 very winnable games left. To me, it doesn't matter what our ACC record is once we hit 8-8. The key thing is being one of the top 4 seeds for the ACC tournament.

Posted by GlennArch on February 20, 2008 at 12:47 PM EST #

Posted by GlennArch on February 20, 2008 at 12:52 PM EST #

Niether red nor blue Mickey. This team feeds off itself...had half of the first half shots gone thru the net, we'd have run FSU out of the gym.

Unfortunately, it was just one of those nights. I'm betting you will not see this again in 08 !

Posted by dhamm on February 20, 2008 at 12:53 PM EST #

I wouldn't say Leonard Hamilton is a bad coach or FSU is a bad team. FSU just took us to double OT in our prior meeting in our own house. They took UNC to OT. They had a lead over MD for most of the game on sat. And all this with as you mention only 7 scholly players. Thats not a bad team. Clemson played like crap and thus we got embarassed. The players got big heads with all the tourney talk like they were already in and FSU was just supposed to lay down and take their beating. Well surprise! They didnt. Clemson has to play with 100% effort every time on the court or they will lose. We still have too many David Potters and not enough KC Rivers to go out and expect to win on talent alone.

Posted by drock4484 on February 20, 2008 at 02:35 PM EST #

Blue...we will be fine as long as the players believe they have to take one game at a time and play each game as if it were their last game, rather than believing all of the things written about them on the internet leading up to the FSU game.

Posted by Locotiger on February 20, 2008 at 03:13 PM EST #

When I saw this game on the schedule, especially being the 3rd game in 6 days, I knew it was a trap game for us... We were lucky to beat them at Clemson just as we were extremely lucky to beat State on Saturday... So I am kind of Red only because of the defensive effort in 1st half. They got too many uncontested baskets, either lay ups or put backs in 1st half.
Their guard play was phenomenal & for whatever reason we couldn't match up this night.
Thought the effort was better (Blue) in 2nd half, but we can't get in a foul shooting contest with FSU... Other that being upset with the final score, which I thought could happen, I still feel pretty good about this team if we come to play the rest of the games on our schedule...
So overal I am Blue on this team, because on a given night, this bad FSU team, as you put it, can play with any team in the league & win a few of them.

Posted by Fasteddie on February 20, 2008 at 05:25 PM EST #

Posted by Fasteddie on February 20, 2008 at 05:26 PM EST #

I'm a blue man. It's a long season and you are going to have nights where nothing falls. I believe we had about 10 shots that were in and out of the rim. Just one of those nights. But I believe that OP and the tigers are going to rebound from this game. I believe that TIGER NATION will have a HUGE effect on the 2 remaining games at littlejohn, giving the tigers 2 more confernce wins. I also believe they will split their 2 remaining road games. Thats a 10-6 record in conference, which is what I predicted before the season. If you told the tigers they would go 10-6 in conference before the season I believe they would have been happy with that. I don't believe this game will have any lingering effects, just as the loss at chapel hill didn't cause the tigers to lose focus on the next game. This team is mature and will handle business. TIGER BASKETBALL is here and the ACC will have to deal with US!!! Go Tigers

Posted by ErskineGrad on February 20, 2008 at 08:35 PM EST #

Well Micky, I'm staying orange! Just never got it together last night. I think coach will get alot out of this lost! He will remind out team that we let one get away we should and could have won. Our Tigers will be fine and I am just as proud of them today as I was after the NCSU game!

Posted by tyglady on February 20, 2008 at 09:07 PM EST #

I am blue but also orange. We stunk it up in the first half especially. I think we dug deep and put decent effort albeit still without any offense support whatsoever in the second half. This team should be excited every time they play including last night. To be this close to an NCAA bid that is over ten years in waiting should excite even the most placid of players. If we do not make it, the players can only blame themselves for not giving it their all when even a decent sub par effort could have won last night.

Posted by cugrad80 on February 20, 2008 at 09:58 PM EST #