So far today, the Tampa pod has seen upset wins by Western Kentucky (best game of the tourney so far), San Diego (guttiest performance of the tourney so far, winning after 2 best players fouled out in OT), and Siena (surprising rout of Vandy). We’ll see if the court has enough mojo to lift the Wildcats past the Tigers…but I don’t think it does. I feel confident that this will be the rarest of rarities around here - a happy liveblog.
10:01 - I like what I see so far. Great defensive intensity and an early 9-2 lead. Clemson playing with such passion you might think Nova slapped their mothers or something.
Naturally, UNC and Duke get cushy draws. Duke won’t play a good team before the Elite Eight. The other teams in their way? All are very weak relative to seed - #3 Xavier, #6 Purdue, #7 West Virginia, #10 Arizona. UNC doesn’t fare quite as well, despite their #1 overall seed. Still, only one decent opponent in their half of the regional bracket, #4 Washington State. I said “decent”, not good.
Our valiant Tigers’ path to the Sweet Sixteen goes through Villanova and Vandy. Kansas would be very tough to beat if OP’s Tigers are to top Rick Barnes’ best run at Clemson.
Despite the love for our newly adopted Tigers you shouldn’t believe that NC State was not today. In fact, it appears the Charlotte Observer was talking directly to NC State’s coaching staff with the following comments from this blog entry after the game.
Wow, these guys are a lot of fun to cheer for. I haven’t seen a team play this hard all year. Currently on a 35-10 run. Everybody on the team is committed to defense, even if they aren’t particularly big, quick, or athletic. Maybe we should have adopted them sooner, and shaved a few points off our blood pressure.
On a side note, I can’t remember a less dramatic ACCT. The games have been consistently boring, and there’s at least one more beatdown (UNC over VT) still to come.
Yes, as I predicted yesterday, Dr. Kevorkian visited the Pack dressed like the Miami Hurricanes. JJ Hickson put up a lonely fight, but the 2007-08 season is finally, mercifully over for NC State.
But that doesn’t mean giving up basketball and waiting for football season! Our fun-loving SFN community can just adopt a team to follow during March Madness. One that’s likeable and culturally similar. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…the Clemson Tigers. Tough as nails. Twice screwed against Carolina, they got off the mat and fought back like we begged (in vain) for our Wolfpack to do.
The Ray Ray McElrathbey story is a special one. The Clemson reserve tailback gained national fame for taking custody of his 11-year-old brother Fahmarr in 2006, then received a rare waiver from the NCAA that allowed him to get assistance from the university and the public in taking care of his younger brother and still maintain his football eligibility.
We are updating what was once the ‘open entry’ for Sunday with more fallout from Sunday’s Clemson-Carolina basketball game.
I’ve been swamped with work and and just haven’t had any time to be focused on the blog…so, it wasn’t until I went home for lunch and heard everyone on sports radio talking about the officiating last night until I realized that it really wasn’t just me who saw what I thought I saw on Sunday night. (You know, sometimes I worry).
This is a preview of Clemson Sets NCAA Record for Futility, Officiating Takes the Spotlight (Updated 3:15 pm). Read the full post (729 words,)
Frank Haith’s Miami Hurricanes beat Clemson, 75-72, today in a key ACC match-up that may ultimately serve to support NC State’s slim chances to earn an NCAA Tournament bid when the 2007-2008 college basketball regular season comes to a close.
I definitely understand that Clemson will have a stronger mathematical impact on NC State’s RPI than Miami in light of the fact that the Wolfpack plays Clemson twice this season and Miami only once. But, as important as I believe a strong RPI is to any NCAA Tournament bid I also recognize the need for any NCAA Tournament resume to include as many ‘good wins’ as possible.
We will have more on the blog later today…but we wanted to link this video for everyone to see and realize (1) the value of having a sharp shooter in your program and (2) the importance for Courtney Fells (or Marques Johnson) to be able to use their athleticism and height on defense tonight.
Clemson is a Top 25 team in both the polls and the RPI. The importance of a road win for NC State in this environment could not be overstated for this team’s emotional strength and potential NCAA Tournament resume. A loss tonight and Saturday night’s game home game against (Top 25) Miami becomes an ABSOLUTE MUST WIN.
With the annual talk of Clemson fans’ disappoiintment with Tommy Bowden — and our Athletics Director thinks OUR fans are difficult? — I am estimating that there will come a time in the future when the information and facts information included here will be of value to a conversation that you may have. So, I just thought that we would post this today for archives.
(Speaking of archives, have you checked out our new archives and the use of “tags” that is accessible by clicking on the archives tab in the top banner?)
The Clemson Tigers take the field tonight in the Chick-Fil-A bowl in what I think will be the ACC’s ‘defining’ bowl game of 2007. The Tigers game tonight against Auburn will only count as one game - the conference is currently a respectable 2-1 in bowls thusfar - but the magnitude of this battle with the SEC will ‘count’ more in most people’s minds than just one game.
With this said, we have posted a video to help ring in the New Year and hopefully to serve as a harbinger for a 2008 bowl appearance for Tom O’Brien’s Wolfpack!
