The Clemson fans who are privileged enough to get tickets to the ACC Tournament probably aren't hurting for money, so the following statement really doesn't matter all that much.
But when you add in all the expenses it takes to attend the tournament, how much money has been spent by Clemson fans per minute of the Tigers' trips to the tournament since 1954?
Uh, a lot.
Yesterday's big comeback against Florida State fell short, sealing Clemson's 46th one-and-done trip in the ACC Tournament over 63 visits. Wow.
Got a state-of-the-program column on basketball coming later today, but for now here's the transcript of the postgame presser:
COACH BROWNELL: Just didn't play well enough to win today. Thought we played pretty well in the first half, and missed some shots at the rim that you need to make. Obviously their size was a factor. Just disappointed with the way we played in the second half. I thought we didn't play very well, and I didn't think our competitive spirit was where it needed to be.
Certainly proud of the way our guys at the end fought. We played great at the end in the last four minutes when our backs were against the wall, and I had two chances to tie. Just a little bit unlucky. But give Florida State credit. They outplayed us today.
Q. Obviously, too little too late there at the end, but what you guys did especially on the inbounds it was clear that that's something you all had worked on and you got what you wanted to out of that, correct?
COACH BROWNELL: Yeah, we got a good look. Everybody knows you need three. It's hard to get a great three, and we had two looks there. Grantham found Gabe DeVoe off a little screening action, and it was a deep shot, but he can make those, and it just didn't go in.
Q. What do you think was the difference? Why do you think your guys responded the way they did late and didn't have that kind of energy earlier in the game?
COACH BROWNELL: I think it's just normal, to be honest with you. I think in the last four minutes of a game when you're up 12 or 15, and the other team is pressing, it's hard not to get a little tight, especially in a tournament. When your back's against the wall, you just kind of let go and it doesn't matter. So you can shoot freer. Guys just attack more.
I think it happens in more tournament basketball than people realize. It's hard to hold on to a double figure lead late. If one or two things go against you early in that situation and the other team builds any momentum, it's tough. Our guys did a good job of fighting. We were active, aggressive. We trapped some. We fouled appropriately to get some of the shooters we wanted shooting. Rod did a great job of being in attack mode in those late minutes and making plays for himself and others.
Q. You had talked about Rathan Mayes many times this season, and your worst fear in this game is he would go off the way he did today.
COACH BROWNELL: He's a good player. Rod has done a great job on him the other two games that we played him. Tonight he made threes, which he doesn't always do. When he makes threes, it makes it doubly tough. Some of those are guarded shots, but he's a super player. He made five today, I think, and that's just entirely too many. He's
done that against a bun of teams in our league, and I guess it was our turn today.
Q. Rod, you had that lay up there that just didn't fall. It was a two point game and you had a chance there. Just how emotional was that not to see that go down and know this is your last ACC game?
ROD HALL: It was very tough for me. I wanted to put my team in a good position to win this game. But I mean, the ball rolled the opposite way I wanted it to. It just didn't fall.
Q. Changing gears a little bit. The NABC and the NBA have proposed a new proposal for an invitational only combine for underclassmen and moving the day of the withdrawal for the NBA draft to late May. What is your assessment of that?
COACH BROWNELL: This is the first I've ever heard of it, and I really don't know that I have a comment right now.
This probably isn't a great time for me to be thinking about it. So I'm sorry, but I don't really have a good comment on that right now.
Q. Rod, what made it so tough when you got down by so many? What's going on mentally when you're trying to wage comeback like that? It's like fighting upstream, isn't it?
ROD HALL: I think the tougher thing is just getting everybody to believe. Basketball turns on a possession. Any possession anything can happen. It was just tough trying to keep everybody going, but in the end my teammates didn't give up and they kept fighting. I'm proud of them for that.
Q. What did you see from the defensive standpoint? Were they just constantly making shots or do you feel your guys didn't bring the same amount of energy they usually do?
COACH BROWNELL: You know, I don't know. I think it was a combination of things. I thought their post players made some big time plays. Their two four men, Smith and Cofer both made big threes. I know it only sounds like one basket each, but that's six points, and they don't normally do that consistently. One of those or two of those happened
late clock when we kind of guard them for 20, 25 seconds, and really guard them the way you want and you end up giving up a shot that's a three to those guys and they capitalized.
I just thought they had good mix to their game today. Mays was special, and they got enough from other players. Cofer and Smith both played well, a little bit from their center position, and we were struggling a little bit. So just a combination of a lot of little things certainly Mayes' 30 is the big thing. But they got some good baskets from other players that supplemented their offense.
A few Thursday links
-- N.C. State fans are irked about a conspiracy, er, typo in the ACC Tournament program.
-- Andy Staples chats up Bernie Machen about college athletics, and it's amazing how honest a guy can be when he's, you know, no longer a university president.
"We're backing our way into a pay-for-play model for football and men's basketball," Machen said. "I think this is a Hail Mary from Delany to say, 'Wait a minute. What if we do it the way it used to be?'"
To Machen, Delany's idea is less a product of nostalgia for the way things were before the freshman ban was lifted in the early 1970s and more a product of a practical need to prove that the wealthiest athletic programs aren't just running quasi-professional football and basketball programs without paying taxes on the revenues. Would Machen have made the above statement if he still sat in his old office at Florida's Tigert Hall? Maybe. He was always brutally frank, but that may have been too bold an admission for a sitting president to make.
Machen believes the collegiate model works. For evidence, he points to graduation rates for athletes in every sport except football and men's basketball. Most of the others outpace the general student body, and the success beyond graduation for former college athletes is well documented anecdotally. The problem, Machen said, is anyone can see that football and men's basketball at the highest level aren't using the collegiate model. Players are essentially required to practice year-round, which makes it tough for the NCAA's lawyers or lobbyists to keep a straight face when they call college sports an avocation that enhances the college experience. "You look at the schedules of these kids," Machen said. "They are essentially in a full-time mode."
-- Pat Forde of Yahoo! writes why N.C. State will be dangerous in the NCAA Tournament.
-- Jay Bilas on his absurd shoe collection, his affinity for Young Jeezy lyrics, and much more.
Jay Bilas' side of the closet is larger than his wife Wendy's. It has to be this way because of the shoes. He has so many shoes. About 50 pairs. Most of them sneakers.
He likes suede shoes best, and customizes his own through the Nike ID website. The footwear obsession started when Bilas bought his first pair in 1975 at age 12. He saved up some money, went over to Whitmores, a sporting goods store, and got some suede Nike Bruins. The only color they had in his size - a 9 or 10, he couldn't recall exactly - were yellow. He didn't care.
"It's like the one ridiculous indulgence I have," Bilas told For The Win. "I don't know what it is. I shouldn't have this many shoes. But I like them."
For The Win had exclusive access to Bilas on Saturday before he called the regular season finale of Duke-North Carolina. He wore blue suede Nikes that day. Though they looked more like Blue Devils colors than Tar Heel, Bilas said he didn't do this on purpose. One Carolina fan in the College GameDay crowd did call him out for this, however.
That pair back in 1975 cost less than $20.
"I think I paid for them in cash with a $20 bill and I got change back!" he said. "I walked out of Whitmores with those shoes and wore them out and put my other shoes in the box. Man, those were the coolest things."
-- It's been a crazy few months for the Buffalo Bills.
A little over two months ago, as a new year began, the Bills were a franchise in chaos. Their coach and starting quarterback had just quit. The plan to bring in a football czar had stalled when Bill Polian decided he wasn't interested in returning to Buffalo to oversee the operation.
Things sure turned around in a couple of months, though. When NFL free agency got officially underway Tuesday, the Bills were already in fine shape, having traded for one elite player, running back LeSean McCoy, and locked up another by re-signing free agent pass rusher Jerry Hughes.
It's hard to believe that just a short time ago, there were people (OK, me) calling the Bills a dysfunctional mess and wondering if new owners Kim and Terry Pegula, who faced the daunting task of running two major sports teams, had swum in over their heads.
This proves anything is possible in our great country if you have the money. I wouldn't start polishing the Lombardi Trophy, but it's clear that while the Pegulas are free-falling to the bottom in one sport, they'll spend whatever it takes to race to the top in the other.
-- And at ESPN, Wayne Gallman has renewed confidence.
"I just feel like I got a lot more comfortable with the whole system, and really just trusted myself and what I can do to help the offense and just having fun and having a positive mindset," Gallman said.
How did he make the switch?
"At the beginning of the year, it was hard trying to deal with a lot," Gallman said. "Everybody was expecting me to just come in, help out and do all these things. It didn't work out that way. It came in practice, having to learn how to control my speed, just talking to Coach [Dabo] Swinney how to control myself running the ball. Then I just let it out at the end of the season."
LW
This post was edited on 3/12 8:58 AM by Larry_Williams
