RSS Feed (xml)
Clemson BASKETBALL!?!?!
That's right, all you diaper dandies out there. March Madness is upon us. Today is Selection Sunday, when the NCAA debuts it's field of 65 teams that will compete in the greatest championship tournament in the world, the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament (otherwise known as the Big Dance).
Most years in March Clemson is hyped up on baseball. With the 9th winningest program in the nation, Clemson baseball is perennially in the top 10 and eyeing a chance to go to Omaha for the second best championship tournament in the world, the College World Series. However, this year is quite different. Baseball is in a rebuilding year and looking rough. Basketball is what the orange faithful are watching these days (and only the orange faithful will realize how dramatically unbelievable that statement is).
The experts say we had a bid to the Big Dance locked up a few weeks back. We played a great nonconference schedule that only included two losses (one to a good Ole Miss team). Then, we finished all alone at third in the ACC (one of the top basketball conferences year in and year out). Along the way we took UNC, the #1 team in the country, into overtime twice before finally falling. Both games we had and let slip away. But we beat the people we were supposed to beat and only had a couple goof ups along the way. Just getting that at large bid is enough reason to have any Tiger excited, but that's just the beginning.
Being third in the ACC gave us a first round bye in the ACC tournament. Friday night we kicked off our ACC tourney run with a blasting of BC. The final score ended up being 82-48. Yes, you read that right, 82-48. The press defense forced 22 turnovers and kept the fighting Jesuits from getting any rhythm on offense. Again, this is enough to be considered a monumental year in Clemson basketball. But the ride continues.
Yesterday we played Duke in the semifinals for the right to play UNC in the finals. I got home from a fabulous dinner just in time to tune in (via the internet) to the last 5 minutes of the game. When I turned it on, we were up 7 and Duke looked beat. But Duke is never really beat. They stormed back to within two before I knew what was happening. All the memories of close calls and major collapses came rushing back to me, and trust me, there are a lot of them. But these Tigers proved that this year is something special. They hit shots when they needed to and, against all statistical odds, hit 7 of their last 8 free throws to hang on to the win. The defense held Duke, the best 3 pt. shooting team in the league, to just 6 of 26 behind the arc. And, again, after hitting only 62% of our free throws in the regular season, we hit 7 of our last 8 to ice it. Absolutely amazing.
Now we get our third chance at UNC. The first two times we had them all but beat before they stormed back on us. Let's finish the job this time and bring home that ACC Championship!
GO TIGERS!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment