Wednesday Email Bag

by Mickey Plyler - Radio Host - Wed Dec 30 09:28:49 GMT-05:00 2015

Wednesday Email Bag

Each Friday I publish your comments and answer your questions, but we will be off the next two days. Next week we will get back to this being the Friday blog. To submit a comment or questions please email me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com.

Hi Mickey,

I have enjoyed reading everything you have to say about Clemson over the years and always enjoy your visits to Charleston with recruiting news. I highly respect your opinion as it is unbiased as humanly possible. My comment/question regards my perception of a general disrespect by much of the Media, the Oklahoma following, and even some of our fans. What exactly is it that has created the recent lack of confidence in this team by everyone except a few diehard fans? Going into the Orange bowl it seems the consensus is Clemson is overmatched. I have gone over the season multiple times in my mind and can only see the positive. I have read the comparisons of the teams player by player and position by position. Except for the obvious special teams issue, it appears to me that we are at least as good and probably better at almost all positions. I tend to look at things through those orange colored glasses, so I hope you can set me straight. I am not and X's and O's kinda guy so I must be missing something. Thank you so much and have a great time at the Orange bowl and I might as well say it Arizona too! I'll be there with you. Go Tigers!

Cal

Cal,

I think all of the talk plays right into Clemson's hands. The Tigers are the better team, but the underdog role suits this program. It helps motivation. I imagine it would be different motivation if the Tigers had just beat OU 40-6 a year ago and were a favorite. I think Clemson plays well and beats the Sooners and I think Dabo and his staff love the underdog role and the trash talking by Oklahoma.

Mickey,

I am a little late responding to your article on Clemson basketball. I was in attendance at the USC game with my grandson Friday night.

It might have been a new low for me, losing to them the way we did with more of their fans in attendance than we had.

Like you, I love Clemson basketball and remember some really good, fun times when Rick Barnes, Oliver Purnell, Cliff Ellis and others were here.

As such, I am a major contributor to the basketball program with court side seats.

I think you have summarized things very well. The success in football numbs us to the complete meltdown in basketball as was exhibited yet again in Athens. We should not let that happen. Winning basketball can be as much fun as winning football at Clemson. We have experienced that.

I really felt that Brad Brownell could be the answer to building and sustaining a good, competitive program for us. It appears that I was wrong, and we must continue to try and find the key. We did it in football, and we can do it in basketball. But, it must become a much more important priority.

Please continue in your role as a writer and radio host to beat this drum.

Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the email. The Clemson basketball job is difficult but it is not impossible. The margin for error is small but the culture has to change. It has to change within the program and outside the program. The facilities will help. The support should get better. But this program needs to change from within first. It is time to raise the expectations of Clemson basketball.

Mickey,

After the new year when football is over and we've won the national championship and the only focus is basketball, I would love to see a blog expanding on Dabo's thoughts during a presser after the Miami game when he said "It's great to be a part of a program that has the board, the head coach, the AD, and the president all pulling in the same direction." He is proud to be a part of a program where everyone is on the same page. Clearly this is not the case everywhere and I bet in most cases this is not how it is. Your blog may get a little dicey if you are being critical of particular presidents or ADs in the past but I'd love to hear your thoughts on past programs over the last 15 years or so and which of the powers were pulling against each other at different times and why that held us back, or kept our program from being able to upgrade facilities or recruit at the highest level with regards to academics. I know we were critical of the president with regards to the academic review board during the Bowden era for example. This would make for a heck of a read!

Michael

Michael,

Thanks for writing. I will do this sometime in January. Thanks for the suggestions.

Mickey,

I hope your Christmas was good one. I read your article about being disappointed in the Clemson men's basketball team this year and Stuart's insightful reply and I will defer to Clemson's history and ask what would give anyone cause to have any optimism period? Based on spending over $60 million on a revamped Littlejohn, someone is convinced that Field of Dreams is going to somehow show up in Clemson and bring basketball success. Those people are wrong.

There was no question that coach Brownell was not going to be fired last year because who in the world would want to come in and lead a team that does not have a place to play. Let's face it, Clemson is and has been a non factor in the ACC for years and the buck stops on the desk of the coach. Will recruits look differently at Clemson after the "new" (again) Littlejohn opens, will fans and students look differently on taking time to go to a game? No,unless there is a product worth looking at. Clemson must back up it's Littlejohn investment with writing a check and hiring a coach that recruits players that have a shot at the NBA and can be relevant in the ACC or we will have a $60 million storm shelter that we can be proud of. The task is a huge but hopefully there is a coach out there can do the job. A look back at history will show you there have been NBA players from Clemson and there can be again with the right coach in place.

Andy

Andy,

I don't think they are even close to having the conversation about firing Brownell, but when Clemson does go an a search for its next coach, the facility improvement will help attract very good candidates.

Mickey,

Why is the #1 team in the nation not playing in the primetime TV slot @ 8pm

They did last year.

Seems a bit disrespectful to me.

Jerry

Jerry,

I think geography has something to do with it. The Orange Bowl is east of the Cotton Bowl. That is my guess.

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