January 20, 2024 • 48 mins
The Tigers gear up to face down the Seminoles in today's matchup! As always, John and Rich preview today's game, and set the scene with interviews, clips from the players, and more!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
W E S E F M.Greenville, Spartanburg, Andersen. Time for
the Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show, brought to you Pie Ingles Markets,
Low Prizes, Love the Savings,Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Harley davioton of
Greenville Rare Flooring Center, the SurgeryCenter at Palla McGhee eating an air fan
(00:21):
by Palla Meadow State Armory. NowHere are your hosts, John Alism Redcombe
Weaver. Well, there's a chillin the air, a bit of a
chill. I would say it's theArctic blast of a chill. As we
come to you life from the cozyconfines of the Ingles Studios downtown Greenville,
ninety two point five w SC's ownIngles Countdown to tip Ball Show. I'm
(00:44):
John Ellison, as I said onour show Game on one of four nine
Fox Sports Upstate, which comes rightafter the Rich and Weavers Show. I
lean on this man every day forcollege basketball knowledge. I'm merely the game
show host. This is the manwith the plan. Richmond Weaver. It's
been another crazy week in the ACCNthe top twenty five. How you doing.
I'm doing absolutely fantastic, Trying tostay warm and so hopefully the Tigers
(01:08):
will have hot shooting down in Tallahasseethat the temperatures will be a little bit
warmer down there. Uh. Andthis is one of those scenarios. Though,
I don't mind the cold because itis winter. So I'm okay,
wait a minute. For years now, the first time I've ever heard you
say anything I never resembles I don'tmind the cold, isolate that audio Falco.
(01:32):
I don't mind the cold, butwhen you have it as a meat
locker in here in the studio,that's a different story. Because there's also
this aspect though, if it isgoing to be this cold, though,
I would have to say so,there's caveats to all this. Yeah,
if it's going to be this cold, yes, why is there not snow?
Seriously, there needs to be snowif it's going to be this cold,
(01:53):
that's just the prerequisite. If it'sgoing to dip down into the team,
I need snow. That's the realityof it. Whether on the eighth
wraps up here, I'll tell youthis, the next few days, it's
going to be like a sixties rain. I mean, when did we move.
There's a coma. I want somesnow, my friends. Otherwise,
let's go on to March madness exactly. That's right, Yes, we can
(02:13):
easily fast forward, but it doesseem like, just even from a perspective
you talk about fast forward, Imean, how are we already now January
twenty and we're moving at light speed, warp speed? However you want to
describe it just in terms of theseason sounds better, Yeah, yeah,
it does. And this is nowa scenario where for the Clemson Tigers coming
(02:35):
off of that loss against Georgia Tech. There, yeah, you do start
thinking about the pressure of how importanteach and every game is and obviously not
having the opportunity to close that dealagainst Georgia Tech, especially at home,
that's a game that could come backthat you look at as a pivotal point,
(02:57):
pivotal point in the season, andhopefully it's a positive one that you
take that. Okay, hey wedidn't win that game, but now we're
refocused, and that's somewhat of thegame that gets the Tigers back on track
because we thought maybe it was theBoston College game and then obviously you're not
able to follow that up with avictory against Georgia Tech. But there's still
(03:19):
a lot of basketball left and we'vetalked about that several times here on the
Ingles count Down to tip Off Show, But it is true. There still
is a lot of basketball left andknowing that you have an opportunity of going
on the road and beating a FloridaState team who is surging right now under
Leonard Hamilton. And how many timeshave we talked about just the aspect of
(03:43):
Leonard Hamilton as a coach somehow continuesto get his team in the mix.
I know last year was a downyear relative to what the past four or
five years have been for Florida State. But here, once again, Leonard
Hamilton is sitting there with the FloridaState seminoles sitting there at five and one
in the conference, and they're incontention, and obviously it's going to be
a tough test for the Tigers onthe road Richmond Educating. Here is Leonard
(04:08):
Hamilton over seventy five years old,Yes he is? Is he over eighty?
He's not over eighty, Okay,he looks the same. I'm telling
you, there's only a few guyslikes out of this world. Richmond Weavers
waterfo I'm sure, Oh yeah,youager, Trey Falco as well, not
so much for me. Yeah,that FSU team, they are trending in
a very good direction up there ontop of the ACC with the rest of
(04:29):
some of the behemoths we expected,and we see Clemson as that type of
team. Obviously, we got totalk about this game, and we're gonna
get into some more in the nextsegment. We've got some audio from both
Brad Burnell and PJ. Hall,and I found it interesting in their press
conferences. Not only did they speakto hey, you know, give Georgia
Tech credit for some of the shotsthey made down the stretch, because yeah,
you got to, but the factthat they brought up fatigue, I
(04:51):
don't want to get your perspective onthat as well, because Hall even went
so far as to say, look, I got classes, I've got this.
It's getting to the dog days ofthe season, where boy, the
stretch they just had rich. Beforewe dive into the box score, you're
in the stats of the notes fromthis Georgia Tech game. That was a
brutal stretch and they finally looks likeahead of them get a little bit of
a breather. But as Brenell said, there's no guarantees, there no there's
(05:12):
not. And obviously you have thegame this afternoon against Florida State and then
you have some time off, muchneeded time off until you're back on the
road. Though it's at Duke,so you do have that ability to get
a little bit of time off.But when you have guys that are going
into double overtime and you've got guysplaying over forty minutes, I mean,
that's a difficult scenario, especially comingoff of you just had a game against
(05:38):
Boston College. Again, you getthat victory, but it's that cumulative effect
that how the season is progressing,and especially once you get into conference play,
and how many times we've talked aboutit that with conference play it is
amped up differently and so each andevery night you have to be ready to
go at full force. And it'sone of the scenarios where there's been some
(06:01):
injuries with a Jack Clark and Alexhim and way that those type of guys
can come in and give you somebreathers. Now, Jack Clark, he
can be a starter what we've seen, but it's having the ability to be
a little bit deeper on the benchand not that you have to have guys
that are coming in and playing fifteenminutes. It's just hard to get a
(06:21):
rotation when you have so much depth. You really want eight or nine guys
that you can rotate in and out. Now Brad Burneld has the luxury.
If fully healthy, he can bringmore guys in there. But even if
it's just four, four to eightminutes, that helps, just from a
perspective of having some of these otherguys limit their minutes based on the cumulative
(06:46):
effect that continues throughout the season.You go back to the Hokies game and
we'll talk about this game against GeorgiaTech and concrads to coach Damn Statamar.
He's done a great job down there, thirty nine to thirteen advantage on bench
points. I mean, it's kindof where this whole thing started. And
even the chef Ian Sheffleck my guy, Yeah, the Will Ferroclearter. He's
got to be played by Will Ferrellin the movie. I love this kid.
He got cramps in the game.This was a huge deal. But
(07:08):
Brenell even said, look, wehad to take him out of had to
take him out rather not. That'sright. Yes, And this is a
guy who had twenty points and fifteenrebounds in this game played thirty eight minutes,
and yeah, you would like tohave him out on the court at
all times if possible, just basedon his production right now. And that's
why we'll dive into this matchup againstFlorida State in much more detail. But
(07:30):
this is one of the scenarios wherebench points is going to be critical here
in this game. Florida State hasthe best bench points production right now in
the ACC, averaging thirty one benchpoints per game in their last six games.
So you can see that they havethe ability to really have some guys
(07:51):
contribute coming off the bench and comein waves, and that's what we've seen
with Florida State over the years.So that is a big perspective here for
Clemson that they've got to be ableto get some production off the bench.
Also, well, listen, thisgame was disappointing. You're gonna hear PJ.
Hall talk about this later in termsof shot selection. But look,
a nine point lead with just undera buck fifty left in the game,
(08:15):
buck forty three, one forty threein regulation, you're up by nine,
and you just have to look atthat in a number of ways, I
guess as an analyst, as acoach, I looked at it as a
fan, kind of stunned that.Okay, wow, give Georgia Tech a
lot of credit. And even thefact that before regulation PJ. Hall talked
about, man, I'd be itwas a Christian Leader type of moment almost
(08:35):
where it felt good coming off thehand. Every shot he took there at
the end that could have an impactcould have been there for him. They
felt good, The shots were good, but it kind of stunning loss.
I guess at home against Georgia Tech. I mean, all of a sudden,
you turn around. But Brad Bruneldid say, I don't think the
defense was bad. They just madetheir shots in the defense. Overall,
we liked what we did in thatfirst half, but man, you blow
(08:56):
that lead in the last minute anda half, that's that's tough. You
have to give Georgia Tech credit.There is that aspect and as we talked
about on our sister station, oneof four nine Fox Sports Upstate this past
week with the Dallas Cowboys losing tothe Green Bay Packers and not to turn
it into a football show, It'sstill going to be a basketball show,
(09:18):
but the perspective of give credit tothe Green Bay Packers because they played really
well. As bad as the Cowboysplayed, the Packers played really well.
So also for Georgia Tech, givethem a lot of credit for not giving
up because we also talked about itthese nine o'clock games. I'm not a
(09:39):
big fan of the nine o'clock gamesthat started with so late, double overtime
each law, of course it's goingto happen. So I'm watching the game.
Didn't go to the game. Gavemy son the tickets there and he
stayed to the bitter end. Sokudos for him for staying there to the
bitter end. So I'm watching itcomes in up by nine, it's already
(10:01):
late. Did you make the mine? Oh you don't. Have you ever
done that in a game that's underten points that late? Is that?
Was that a first? Have youdone that before? Now? I've done
it a couple of times, especialhaunt you. Yes it hasbody. This
is definitely one that it's come backto halt me. And you know it
actually has a couple of times,you know. So that's why you have
(10:22):
to watch it. You had to. I've never got it. I'm one
of those guys like me and mybrother would go to Panthers games. Oh
that's fun these days, to thebitter end. We sit there, even
if it's like thirty one to ten. There's sometimes we go but that's brutal.
And look, I think a lotof people were in agreement this Clemson
machine this year. Offensively, defensively, you get up by nine against a
team you think you can handle ithome, you got to put them away.
(10:43):
You got to put them away.How about that game from the young
man Again, he just continues toimpress so many people. Ian Shefflin,
PJ. Hall. They have somuch depth there with this team. But
I'm gonna tell you there's one particularplayer for Georgia Tech that raise some eyebrows
from everybody. And I know I'mkind of new to this whole thing in
terms of what Georgia Tech is.But Nathan George, Oh yes, my
goodness, how clutch was that youhad double digit scores across the board,
(11:07):
five of them, to be exact, Ninety three points gets a little skewed
when you're looking at a double overtime, that's right, But again, to
get to that point where you hadit, it's key. And I think
the one thing that that coach Brundellhad talked about as well in this whole
thing. He has a very calmdemeanor about of course, there's a lot
of the fan base out there thatI think is a little misinformed about how
valuable he might be to this program. That's just my opinion. You got
(11:30):
to win in the tournament. Youhad to get to the tournament. But
that kind of loss will amplify thatpressure. We're not here to do that.
That's not our show. I dolike how calm he is in those
press conferences. I like how heexplains things to the media. He doesn't
fire off of the mouth. Hewas obviously frustrated, but he did say,
look, we've got a lot ofguys on this team that have a
lot of character, a lot ofheart this and he's talked about this before,
(11:52):
and I do feel this way,this moment for Clemson can serve them
well if they use it in theright way, if they mold it in
shape into something positive. But there'sno getting around the fact that statistically from
the Ken Palm, the rankings,it stinks. How frustrating is that for
you as a guy that loves thisprogram and for fans out there, that's
like man, can we just locka few of these acc wins up because
(12:13):
we know we got tough sledding ahead. That's right, and that's why you
look at the schedule, and that'swhy it's so important to win those games
at home, and especially when you'reup nine with a minute and forty three
seconds to go, or you're upfive with twenty two seconds to go.
You have to be able to putthose games away again, especially at home,
knowing that you're on the road atFlorida State, then you're following out
(12:33):
on the road at Duke and itdoesn't get an easier. Yes, you
come back home to end the monthof January against Louisville, but on any
given night, these teams can beatanother team. And that's the craziness about
college basketball right now is the parodyamongst not only within conference, but just
nationally. I mean, there's somuch fluctuation between who wants to be number
(12:58):
one in the country and that wetalked about it last time, who is
the best team in the country.Well, it's too far to discern right
now because there's so much parody.And that's why it's also you know from
a perspective that you can look atall of these teams, and even from
a national perspective, some of theseteams that have the ability to go on
(13:20):
and win a national championship, youmight have a national champion this year that
has five to eight losses. Andthat's just the reality of it in college
basketball, and even in the YEAH, and even in the ACC. I
mean, you could see a scenariowhere a team that wins the ACC Tournament
championship, they might have three orfour losses on the season. So there
(13:41):
is that aspect there's really not adominant team also within the conference, and
then nationally now some teams are startingto separate themselves from the different tiers in
terms of top three, you know, the top third tier, the bottom
third tier. So you're having someof that happen right now. That's why
(14:01):
Clemson, as much as we saythere's still a lot of basketball left,
and yes there is, but timeis going to be one of your enemies
as far as if you continue tohave losses mount up, and that's the
scenario right now for Clemson. You'vegot to be able to get a victory
(14:22):
on the road, and obviously youwere able to do that against Pittsburgh,
but that was technically in twenty twentythree, so you haven't done that in
twenty times. So that's why thisgame on the road against Florida State,
and again we'll talk about much moreof this matchup, but this is a
(14:43):
Florida State team as you look atthe roster on paper, this is a
game that Clemson should win. That'sjust the reality of even though Florida State
has a five game winning streak rightnow, I understand that, but this
and coming off of a big winagainst Miami, but this is a team
that Clemson should go and beat onthe road. Even though how difficult it
(15:07):
is to win on the road,we know that they should maybe come the
road Warriors down the stre ats.Home has been a little bit of a
tough sled here, but we'll seewhat happens. It's on the road today
in Tallahassee tip off at four pmright here on WeSC Don Munson on the
call with Tim Burray coming up next. PJ Hall put up career highs in
the rebounds and scoring in that loss. We're gonna hear from PJ. But
(15:28):
we're gonna hear from coach Brad Burnellsome interesting comments and we'll share our perspective
on that, a little more detailabout what's going on in the top twenty
five, a deeper dive into theACC and of course, the matchups between
Florida State and Clemson, tipping offat four pm today on ninety two point
five WSC Betty two point five wd S is the Upstate's new home for
(15:50):
the Clemson Tigers, and Tigers aren'tcold as ice tonight, tree foulo,
thank you for this one, butit is chili outside. Let's heat it
up, definitely need hold. Okay, that's the worst basketball song ever.
(16:11):
What are you doing tonight? No, okay, it is a bad basketball
song. And so I have afunny still tip off show. By the
way, I'm John. That's rich. Go ahead. I have a funny
story. So I remember, uh, in my middle school it was actually
seventh, eighth, and ninth,and so high school was tenth, eleventh,
and twelfth. And so in middleschool you had a seventh and eighth
(16:33):
grade team, so seventh and eighthgraders played together, and then you had
a ninth grade team. And ourninth grade team was really good, ended
up winning the county championship. Allof that, uh, and we lost
one game, and I'll never forgetit. I actually filed out of the
game and we just could not makea shot as a team, So I
(16:56):
file out of the game. Mybuddy fouls out of the game, and
we're sitting on the bench and hestarts singing cold as Ice on the bench.
Yes, man, and the headcoach is walking down and he hears
the song. I'm singing the song. Here's gold his eyes And that was
(17:18):
a magical moment. And we'll usemagical there and but yeah, so that
was. Yeah, remembories cold asif a three of twenty one night the
other night wants to hear that,but get in his cold outside. So
there you have it there. Whowasn't called in that game was our good
friend PJ Hall, of course,uh, the all world performer for Clemson,
(17:42):
and again PJ Hall had such anexceptional game. Brad Brunel did have
some comments after the game, andhe started by opening up with his thoughts
on Georgia Tech and really what thatteam did to overcome Clemson's nine point lead
in that game. Heck of abasketball game, and they made some incredibly
(18:02):
timely shots at the end of thegame, multiple threes with their back against
the wall and that you know,got it, gave them the opportunity to
win the game. We we justdidn't quite close it out. Hate it
for my guys. I thought wepoured a lot into it, had good
prep. I thought, you know, we guarded them very well for a
(18:26):
while, a long while. They'vebeen very dynamic here offensively recently they were
outstanding against Duke. But obviously whenyou look at the stats, the easy
thing to look at again is youknow, we're three for twenty one,
maybe from three, and they're fifteenfor thirty five and twelve three difference is
(18:48):
just thirty six points. It's alot to overcome. So you know,
we just got to hang in here. We got off to the great start
this year. We were stumbled herea little bit, but there's still room
to get it figured out. Thisone hurts because, you know, we
had a nice win on Saturday.We're trying to build something and then didn't
(19:10):
quite close this one out. Wehad it in our grasp and again to
Georgia Tech's credit, they made theymade a lot of shots. Obviously a
coach that's frustrated trying to get thisteam moving the right direction with a lot
of things going on besides basketball,like guys going to classes, you have
family obligations. It's a life livethat's complete. He did talk about,
you know, losing the late gamelead, and Brad Burnell brought an interesting
(19:33):
perspective to that particular conversation. Here, it is, obviously we could have
filed up three. It was kindof in that we you know, sometimes
I file, sometimes I don't file. I've won and lost both ways.
You know, it was kind ofin that that zone where there could still
be enough time. I think theygot the ball back with twelve seconds and
(19:53):
you know, you'd love to tellyou guys, all right, file with
four, right, but it youknow, then then in the lower the
clock gets, the more guys areabout ready to shoot it, and you're
you're bringing in filing a three pointshooter, and so you know, we
just decided to try to guard him, and I think Dylan got screened,
(20:14):
made a mistake and uh, youknow, they made a big shot.
Yeah. I mean, in hindsight, maybe we should have tried to zone
or done something and something, youknow a little bit because it didn't work.
So I mean we'll look at it, and you know, I think
to their credit. I just Ithink they do. Think they made some
some big time shots too. Obviously, they made some changes, switched the
(20:37):
line up a little bit on bothsides, and one particular player we mentioned
earlier the show, Nathan George,did go off in the second half.
Brad Brunelle was quite impressed. Youknow, they've their their guard play has
been outstanding. That kid, NathanGeorge. Wow, what a talented freshman.
I said halfway through the first halfor late in the first half,
I told my staff that kids unbelievablydepressive because he the way he carries himself
(21:02):
during the game, you can tellhe thinks he's maybe the best player out
there. And you know, hewas one of the best ones out there
today. He was just supremely confident, and so you know, we started
dialing to help our defense. Ithink defensively, you know, if you
take away the last shots, maybein the last two to three minutes,
(21:26):
our defense was pretty good. Ithink we had him at sixty with I
don't even know. I remember maybethere's two thirty three minutes to go,
four minutes maybe, but I thinkit was less than four minutes. We're
up sixty eight to sixty, sowe're guarding the heck out of him,
but obviously we couldn't finish it.We had a couple of mistakes on some
pistol action that they ran late thatwe've guarded in the past, and we
(21:52):
just had a couple of mental lapsesand they made some shots. And Nathan
George is one of those guys thatyou're going to hear his name quite a
bit in the ACC a freshman andhaving the ability to make a big shot
the way he did there in doubleovertime, that big three, and not
only just from a perspective of scoring, but he had six assists for Georgia
Tech. Yes, so this isa guy who is multi talented in different
(22:17):
ways and a big reason obviously whyGeorgia Tech was able to win, no
doubt about it. Fatigue has beenan issue and the busy schedule. Of
course, it's a guys are backto school and a lot's going on right
now in the lives of student athletes. Brad Brunella addressed that when talking about
how busy this team has been andmaybe a little break on the horizon there,
I think that's you know, that'swhat's hard about college basketball is you
(22:38):
you can do that and it doesn'talways work out. And uh, you
know, but as a competitor,you got a man up. You got
to you gotta, you know,recharge your battery and you gotta get ready
to go again. Obviously, thewe're off tomorrow, which is good.
We need an off day. Ithink this is our ninth day in a
row. And guys are fatigued obviously, not just physically but mentally the stress
(23:03):
of all the meetings and everything thatwe do and the walkthroughs in the film.
And you know, I've just gotto keep reminding our team that we're
a good team and you know,we we can put together another wind streak,
but we do have to fix afew things. We got to get
a little bit better. I thoughtwe got better defensively tonight. That was
(23:26):
what we've been talking about, uh, trying to fix. And uh,
you know, we also have tomake some more timely shots. I mean
at the end of the day,Like you go back and watch our Alabama
game and the shot making we madein the last ten minutes of the game
was huge and it's why we wonthe game in Alabama. We we made
the big time shots, the bigtime threes, you know, so there
(23:49):
does come an element of here.You know, on offense, you got
to finish some plays and then defensivelyyou got to stop them. And you
know, I thought we did enoughof both for you know, thirty seven
minutes. That's not forty or fifty, which is what we needed. Busy
schedules, indeed, a guy who'shad a busy schedule of late busier than
(24:11):
before. Jack Clark getting back intothe mix, and Brad Brunelle shared his
thoughts on Jack Clark's challenges in termsof where he's come from and what he
still needs to do to reach apoint where he gets more playing time.
Yeah, he did fine, youknow right now. Defensively, you know,
I think he can help us withhis length and size and experience.
He's an experienced guy. You know, he's still kind of learning all of
(24:33):
our offensive stuff because he really hasn'tunfortunately, he hasn't practiced very much.
You know, it's it's been areal challenge both for him and for our
staff. So but at least hewas able to get out there and play
a few minutes and get his feetwet, and you know, I'm hopeful
that the trainer says on Thursday,that he's going to be okay to you
(24:56):
know, I might have to managesome things again with just but hopefully he'll
be okay to keep going. It'sa player that rich and I've talked about,
even defensively right now, they coulduse. They could use all the
bench production they can get a guythat's not on the bench. PG Hall
career high and look, he misseda few shots late. And it was
interesting to hear Richmond his response tothe question from the media about those shots,
(25:18):
Did they feel good coming off thehand? Well, you'd be the
judge. I think the play weran to one more down three is the
same play we ran that A mirrormade the shot at North Carolina when we
went up there down three and weran the same play for a mirror and
he knocked it in and PJ justmissed it, you know. I mean,
it's that's part of it. Imean, I give him another look
(25:38):
like that tomorrow, but unfortunately todayit didn't go. Yeah, And of
course PJ. Hall, he's atype of guy, a ultimate competitor,
and that's the way you have tohave that mentality that you are going to
make every shot you go out thereand not have that type of confidence or
not have that mental thought that process. Then yet you're going to struggle,
(26:02):
and we know the cliche, shootor shoot, and obviously he missed,
and it's an opportunity where you haveto be able to make some of those
shots. But you can't continue todwell on a misshot. You have to
be able to have the confidence tomove forward and again shoot or shoot.
Well, he's not afraid to shoot, that's for sure. PJ. Hall
(26:22):
not a bashful shooter, and coachBrindlehood talked about some of the challenges there
with maybe getting him inside the paintthere. PJ spoke to the media after
the game and talked about the sizeand physicality that stood out for Georgia Tech.
They have some good, big guys, physical They play a pretty packed
in defense, so it's kind oftough to get inside sometimes. But you
know, late in the game,especially whenever they're starting, went out with
(26:44):
five, probably should have done abetter job, continue to go inside,
played through a little more contact andstuff. But you know, it's no
I thought thought we played right allaround. Yeah, sometimes it's just you
know, don't happen. Yeah,And this is a Georgia Tech team that
they're starting to understand the identity thatDamon Stottamayer is trying to bring to Georgia
Tech. And even as a smallerguy, Damon Stottamayer he was a physical
(27:08):
type of player and was not afraidof contact. And when you have some
of the size that Georgia Tech hasand then you start believing in the aspect
of being physical and trying to bethat bully, then that's one of the
things that breeds confidence for Georgia Tech. And again we've talked about it,
Georgia Tech is a team that theycan win games. They beat Duke,
(27:30):
they took Duke to the wire asecond time. So this is a team
that has shown that they can winsome of these games in the ACC,
especially on the road. I wasgoing to say the confidence building this does
for coach Stoudemayer right now, toknow they've beaten Duke, they came close
another time. And the fact thatthis Clemson team, when you look them
and we're not biased, we knowthe whole ACC. You've got dogs everywhere.
(27:52):
As we talk about in terms ofSheeplin what he could do double doubles,
You've got Joseph Gerard who had itoff night there, but he had
thirty one I think the other night, and he can always go off for
big scoring. And then PG Hallis such an imposing figure. But we
talked about Jorge Text there. They'realways physical. It seems like they've always
had guys that could match up wellwith guys in the paint for Clemson,
and Haul is a versatile guy.And when you get down to the end
(28:12):
of a game, the end ofregulation, we talked about the CERLEI brad
Burnel's comments on we thought we hada good look. PJ. Hall often
times will make a shot that justmakes you go wow, Yes, well
he almost did that a couple oftimes in this game. Haul on those
shots right here, absolutely, especiallythe one was it the full hour pass
(28:33):
right caught it over the top ofthe guy. I thought I was gonna
rip the net off. I thoughtit was straight through. And the first
free throw that I missed that rattledout felt perfect off my hands. The
last screen in three that I tookkind of came off third finger a little
bit too much instead of my lasttwo or my first two. But other
than that, they all felt great. I mean, when I shoot a
(28:56):
ball, I shooting to make itand you know, they just didn't fall
account when they go in, PJ. And you know that, and so
does Richmond. So obviously Clemson fallsin this game, but they gave it
a good effort at the end thereand almost Christian Latner like the full court
pass there. The fatigue, itkeeps coming up and a lot of teams
I hear around, not just collegebasketball. You're here in the NFL late
in the season, the rookies hipat Wall. PJ is kind of like
(29:18):
the team leader of this group.And he talked about the fatigues of not
just the games, but going toclass, the academics, dealing with relationships
whatever it might be, and howhe leans on his faith for that.
It was an interesting minute and ahalf of conversation there. Here's PJ.
Hall on the challenges right now ofbeing a college basketball player this time of
year. I need to fight,continue to know that. You know,
(29:38):
we're a good team. We havegreat guys, guys who are willing to
fight every single day. It's notjust you know, pouring into a game.
You know, you play a doubleovertime game and you pour so much
into that, but it's I mean, I woke up at an eight am
class this morning. I came straightto shoot around, got a couple of
shots up. After that, whenyou go your lunch, tried to get
(30:00):
a nap and came back for walkthrough, try to get in some more
food before the game. And we'reout here warming up for two hours for
the game. And there's so muchinvested in just more than just playing.
That's everybody. That's not just me. I mean, it's that's what hurts.
And whenever don't it doesn't go yourway, it's tough. But you
know, at the end of theday, whenever stuff like that's happening,
it's, uh, you gotta rememberthat. You know, this is basketball,
(30:23):
and it's it's for me. It'sa platform glorifying a Lord and savior,
Jesus Christ. And you know anytimesomethings you know not so you go
on my way. I know thatthis is not the sole reason why I'm
here. It's uh to glorify Him. And so in this long stretch of
a season, it's uh just continueto fight and continue to work towards a
(30:44):
big goal, and the bigger goalof shedding light on my Lord and Savior.
And that's a difficult thing for alot of these players is the time,
commitment and just trying to balance everythingin their life. And as much
as we try to look at itin a vacuum that, oh, these
players they have it so easy.You know, they get all of these
advantages. And yes, there areobviously some advantages that they do have as
(31:08):
student athletes. But the other sidethat you don't see, it's those long
days, those early mornings they earnedyou the privileges, those scenarios that they
want to be in the gym,they're watching film, they're getting up,
you know, five hundred shots andthen you throw in. Then they're playing
thirty minutes per game at a highlevel physical basketball. Yes, there's there's
(31:32):
a lot that goes into it,and you have to, you know,
admire some of these guys that canhave that mindset of overcoming some of the
obstacles that they have just from aphysicality standpoint and the time aspect to in
you know. So it's a scenariothat as a coach you're trying to balance
because as much as you want yourguys to be working to come in there,
(31:56):
getting shots up, watching film,you also have to a certain times
say, hey, you need abreak, you need to get some rest
because at the end of the day, especially as you get later on in
the season, obviously you're gonna haveto lean on some of that rest.
How fascinating was it? And inBreno talked about this week the shot that
they lined up there for haul.One of the shots at the end was
(32:19):
the same play they drew up fromyour sims when they went to North Carolina
and win. It's so cool asa coach, and you've been here before
to sort of pull those plays outof the book there and it's probably a
little different basketball. No football.You don't see this often because you know
there's just so much volume in theplaybook. But I thought that was an
interesting comment from Brad and say,and we pulled that out and almost worked.
And PJ is such a specimen,like you just give him something,
you let him high point it likea I was gonna say, George Pickens,
(32:43):
but not so much. Let's gouh maybybe DK Metcalf. How about
that? Yes, high point?And we know PJ he can hit some
of those shots. And and Ithink there's an aspect obviously Joe Gerard the
third, he's going to get alot of attention when he's out on the
court, even when he's struggling.But I did question watching some of those
(33:07):
highlights because again, as I said, I didn't watch the end of the
game because I thought the game wasover when Clemsone was up by nine with
about a minute and forty three secondslast, because everything else in between was
like I'm on a commercial again,coming on well, And I wondered why
there wasn't more attention a play drawnup for Joe Girard. I know he
(33:27):
hadn't been playing that well from theuh shooting perspective, but this is a
guy who can get hot at anygiven moment. He's shooting forty two percent
from beyond the arc, and Iknow PJ has improved his shooting percentage right
now, but he's shooting thirty threepercent from beyond the arc here in this
season. So again it's one ofthose things. You know, PJ is
(33:52):
your guy, he's your dude.You can lean on him to make some
of those big shots. But couldthere been an opportunity to create a little
bit more space and opportunity there forJoe Girard to try to see if he
could get a shot off. Theydidn't, and coach Bnolgan talked about up
three, maybe he should have foiledat the very end. Strategy comes in
and you know, you go withyour gut at that point, and that's
(34:12):
one of those things. And hetalked about that. You know, he's
had it both ways where he's wonsome games by doing that and he's lost
some games by doing that. AndI think from a coaching perspective, and
this it's very difficult, but Ithink you have to get to a point
where, regardless of what the scenarioshave played out in history, you just
(34:37):
need to stick with one philosophy andgo with it. You're either you're going
to foul in those scenarios or you'renot, because if you keep going back
and forth again, you never youdon't know what philosophy is going to work
from a statistical standpoint. Long term, he can go right across the hall
(34:59):
and talk to his buddy Davos Swineyabout that, because there's a coach that
over the years has been steadfast,right or wrong or whatever you think about
him, he don't change much.Let me tell you this lastly from hall
here talking about shots selection, youknow, defensive play down the stretch was
a talking point for media of headsout there, but he just credits Georgia
Tech here for shooting late here yougo. Obviously they hit big shots.
(35:22):
They were times that I mean,yeah, we had either a sax or
an eight point lead with I don'tknow a min and a half left and
regulation excuse me, I foul athree point shooter. Then we've give up
a twist three pointer as well,And then you know, it's they made
big shots, they made free throws, credited their big guys who aren't necessarily
(35:45):
a great free throw shooters. Ibelieve, I'm not could be wrong,
but they I mean, they bigguys hit a lot of free throws and
they made shots. But you know, along with that, it's you know,
these are the games that you gotto find a way to win.
We've we've won him in the past, We've want them, We're gonna win
more in the future, and it'sjust you know, it hurts still that
one. Get out of your getout of your grasp, and look,
(36:07):
I think there's a lot of truthin that, and it's a classy move
by PJ. He's frustrated, youcan hear in his voice. But somebody
asked him at the end of thepress conference, or what do you think
about FSU And he kind of chuckleshere and says, well, maybe it's
time to look at things a littledifferently. Man. It's it's just as
important as the last Uh. Youknow, these guys, man, we
(36:28):
want to win so bad we uhmyself included, but our coaches, our
staff, our managers, our gas. Everybody's pouring everything they want, every
everything they have into it. Andso it's not just you know, when
this nice game, obviously that's whatwe want, but we're focused on ourselves
and getting better every single day,and then once we get there, we're
gonna go all out at it again. Yeah, and I think what PJ
(36:51):
is really saying here is that it'sall about you play to your standard and
don't worry about the other uniform fromthe opposing team. Obviously they're going to
understand that as they watch film breakdown, making sure they know what type
of offensive sets defensive sets they're goingto be. The reporter was so sure,
Yeah, maybe not, dude.It was five minutes ago we just
(37:14):
walked off from double overtime, andthat's a tough scenario. As a reporter,
you're wanting to ask some extuctions andthese guys again, it's it's very
difficult. It's late. They justhad a double overtime loss. You know,
the game started at nine o'clock.Yeah, so, I mean,
these guys aren't going to get home, you know, in their apartment and
uh and and in bed until reallyreally late. Castle for a world fan
(37:37):
for it out there. Yeah,that's right. Well, at least at
least they didn't ask it, youknow about playing outdoors versus indoors. Oh
there is, Oh my, yeah, it will's always we'll call the other
day. He's like, I can'tstand these not kickoffs. I can't because
I'm my deadlines and I hate it. Like I like me a three thirty
kickoff. I think you and Iboth agree that's the prime time. But
nine pm for any sport on theEast Coast, it's difficult. It's pretty
(38:00):
tough. This Clemson tank is fatigued. They go down to Tallahassee today to
take on the Florida State Seminals,a team that's streaking right now. When
we return. More on that game, more on the ACC, and more
on college basketball at large right hereon the Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show
ninety two point five WSC ninety twopoint five WDSC is the Upstate's new home
(38:21):
with a Clemson Tigers. I guessthis is an honor of Dan Campbell this
weekend hosting the first Divisional Round playoffgame in about one hundred and twenty eight
(38:42):
years for the Detroit Lions. Kida kid, This is gonna be a
good weekend for football, but greatweekend for basketball. As down in Tallahassee,
the agels went Leonard Hamilton and hisgroup of very talented players that are
taking on this Clemson Tigers team thatI wouldn't say they're desperate for. That's
not how they view it. Butlet's face it, Richmond, it's a
talented group that was viewed very highlyby Minny analysts, including yourself, Jay
(39:07):
Billis and others, and they stillshould be. That's the narrative I want
to ask you about as we startthis segment here, Dick the deeper dive
into this matchup. It's the samething with every other sport. It happens
a lot in the NFL. Youknow, like a few weeks ago,
just as an example, you know, half these coaches in the Division Round
we're either going to be fired fiveweeks ago. Our teams didn't want them
(39:28):
back last year, and here wego into the home stretch, and I
guarantee you a team like Clemson,maybe not Clemson, but the team like
Clemson, no fleet is them thatis loaded with talent as they are,
will start getting healthy and they'll makethat push and it'll be the defining moment
for them, or they won't makeenough of a push and they'll end up
right there and the Ken Palm basementonce again waiting all those we love Ginbal
(39:52):
there are what's our guys, friendthat's been on your show, said Lenardi.
In Lonardi last year, he wasjust he wanted to tell you,
but it's like Rich, I justdon't know. No, it was correct,
and they've gotta nail some of thesegames. This could turn out to
be a high resume game for them. Florida State's playing well, it's on
the road. Your initial thoughts onjust this losing streak and where Clemson is
(40:14):
right now? We talked about themiddle side, but physically do they need
some guys healthier? I mean,what's going on? Cheflin's looking great and
Pj's playing well. Gerard I thinkhas been a little bit inconsistent at times.
They just getting a feel for eachother at this point. All right,
So let's take a look at Clemsonand rewind a little bit. So
before January they look like one ofthe best teams in the conference. They
(40:36):
ranked as high as thirteenth in theAP pole and we're sitting at eleven and
one and their only loss was atwo point loss on the road to a
really good Memphis team. Now,I know Memphis just had a game where
they had a twenty point lead inthe second half and lost to UCF,
but that just shows you again thatanything can happen. Don't turn off the
(40:57):
TV. There is beating every Yes, it's crazy. But since then they're
one and four with losses at Miamiversus un C, at Virginia Tech,
and again, obviously we talked aboutthe home loss against Georgia Tech in double
overtime, and again Clemson had aninety nine point three percent chance of winning
that game, up nine with aminute and forty three remaining in regulation.
(41:22):
But I think when you look atClemson, we know from a perspective offensively,
they are a really good offensive team, and according to Ken Palm,
they're a top fifteen offense, andthey're very efficient from anywhere on the floor.
They shoot thirty six percent from three, fifty six percent on their twos,
(41:43):
and seventy seven percent from the freethrow line, have a top forty
in turnover rate so they don't turnthe ball over. They're fifty five percent
effective field goal percentage. So itis a very hard offense to contain and
quickly for Brad Brunell team that's typicallybeen defense first, that's a welcome signed,
but there's something missing here in theselast few It's a small sample size,
(42:04):
but if it grows into six sevengames, then you've got a problem,
Houston. I mean, that's wherewe are. Well, here's the
problem, because it's their defense thathas let them down, and we haven't
seen that from a Brad Burnell teamhistorically. In their last five games,
Clemson is giving up an average ofeighty three point six points per game.
Now, I know you went intodouble overtime against Georgia Tech. I get
(42:25):
that, but that also includes thoughthink about it, they held North Carolina
to sixty five and so exactly youhave to see that they're giving up way
too many points to some of theseother teams. And again it's a scenario
that right now Clemson, especially outon the perimeter, where's that defense they're
(42:46):
giving up, Teams are shooting thirtyfive percent from beyond the arc, and
are in a scenario right now wherethe opposing teams they're not having difficulty maintaining
possession of the ball. It's alow turnover rate right now against Clemson,
and that's not a good thing,especially if you're a brad Renell team.
And how many times have we talkedabout it, just the defensive pressure and
(43:09):
the advantage of getting into that andturning the ball over. Obviously we know
it's one less possession for the opposingteam, So the more times they don't
have the ball or have an opportunityto try to score, then that helps
you. But more importantly is thatif you can get some turnovers, you
get into transition offense. And it'svery difficult for teams to have transition defense
(43:36):
because typically after a turnover, youhave a numbers advantage, whether it's four
on two, three on two,whatever it is, you typically have that
advantage. And that's why it's verydifficult to play transition defense like that,
and that's something we haven't been ableto see the Tigers take advantage of It's
strange. It's like seeing again infootball terms, to see a powerhouse defensive
(44:00):
team, maybe like I don't know, an old Notre Dame team all of
a sudden become five wide and they'reput up forty points, but they can't
stop anybody. It's it's sudden andit's not permanent. But do you think
for a minute here there's an identitycrisis with this team and that they've known
for so long how they play andwhere they play. Or is it just
good shooting? Because I'm looking atit, forty five to what nine advantage
(44:21):
terms of scoring from downtown they shotjust again, just to put in perspective,
I know we go three of twentyone and it was fifteen of thirty
five. Fifteen of thirty five.That's crazy. There's a thirty nine point
disc thirty six discreptions, thirty sixpoint discriptions see that game and then some
And that's what Brenell was saying atthe game. At the end of the
game, is shooting. He justkept saying, it's there's only so much
you can do. I think defensivelyand correct me if I'm wrong. To
(44:44):
prevent these guys that are just comingin hot. It's the ultimate equalizer.
Oh it is. And we've talkedabout it so many times that the three
point shot, how it's changed collegebasketball and also even the NBA, So
there is that aspect of the threepoint shot has changed the game completely and
you can stay in games. Andwe're seeing that if you can get a
(45:07):
guy that can start hitting from beyondthe arc, then that extends the defense
out. You've got to go outthere and pressure that player, and then
what happens is then you have anotheropportunity as the defense is not able to
pack in. Now there's obviously someteams like Virginia with their pack line defense,
and they do a great job notonly defending out on the perimeter,
(45:28):
but really packing it in and makingit very difficult because they're so good at
closing out. But for the mostpart, it gives you another opportunity if
you can hit from the outside.And I know I'm staying in the obvious
for all the basketball people out there, they know that if you can hit
from the outside, it's going toopen up the inside and then vice versa.
If you can really get some insidegame going, and that's where PJ
(45:51):
Hall has been so effective, andI think that's another opportunity where continue to
lean on PJ Hall down low,run the offense you can through and he
does, no question about it,PJ does it. I think PJ now
has shown he can step out whenneed be. We get it. Basically,
he needs to be able to geton the low block, get in
(46:14):
the high post, and he cando so many things from both of those
positions because he's such a great distributorand has really good vision there on the
court that he can find the openguys because what's typically going to happen is
he's going to be double teamed becausehe's playing at an All American type of
level right now. And that's whyyou have to continue running the offense through
(46:38):
PJ Hall. And that's why Ilove the aspect. Whenever I see Joe
Girard out there on the same sideas PJ Hall and PJ Hall, even
in a low block or on thehigh post, when they're on the same
side, that puts that defense ina quagmire because they don't know what to
do because if they double team PJHall from the wing right there in that
(47:00):
high post, that's gonna leave aguy open. Even if they bring a
guy from that weak side over,then PJ. He's so good he can
just reverse the ball. And that'swhere you've got to have some of these
other guys step up. And that'swhere the scenario when you don't have a
Jack Clark, when you don't havean alex heimanway out there who can also
hit some of those big time shots, that leaves you at a disadvantage.
(47:22):
And that's why it's important. Andeven for this game today against Florida State,
you're gonna have to have somebody likea Chase Hunter. He's going to
have to get in an offensive rhythmand hit some of these big shots.
Time to step up a little bittit is. Yeah, he have to
be critical, but it's time forhim and others to sort of step into
the freight there and become a biggerpart because PJ and Shefflin can't carry the
(47:43):
load. Every game in Gerard isgoing to be hot and cold when we
return. One final look at thematchups here between Florida State and Clemson tip
off at four pm. Don MunsonTim Bray on the Cult right here on
WSC as the Engles countdown to tipOff Show continues right here on ninety two
point five WEESC ninety two point fivew d S is the Upstate's new home
(48:04):
with a Clemson Tigers coming down thehome stretch. Here for the Ingles Countdown
to tip Off show, John EllisRichmond, We were Trey Falco and studio
here. Don Munson, Timbrey takethis thing over from us here in about
about a minute or so as weare brought to you by Ingles Low Prices,
love the savings, Ingles dash marketsdot Com. A quick reminder you
(48:30):
can catch us every single weekday,Trey Falco and I at four pm Fox
Sports Upstate. It's our sister station. It is a station we have a
lot of fun with in terms ofinteraction. We talk college hoops, we
talk a little football. Join usMonday, four pm on Fox Sports Upstate
and enjoy the game today. Righthere on ninety two point five, we SC
W E S E F M.Greenville, Spartanburg, Andersen. Time for
the Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show, brought to you Pie Ingles Markets,
Low Prizes, Love the Savings,Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Harley davioton of
Greenville Rare Flooring Center, the SurgeryCenter at Palla McGhee eating an air fan
(00:21):
by Palla Meadow State Armory. NowHere are your hosts, John Alism Redcombe
Weaver. Well, there's a chillin the air, a bit of a
chill. I would say it's theArctic blast of a chill. As we
come to you life from the cozyconfines of the Ingles Studios downtown Greenville,
ninety two point five w SC's ownIngles Countdown to tip Ball Show. I'm
(00:44):
John Ellison, as I said onour show Game on one of four nine
Fox Sports Upstate, which comes rightafter the Rich and Weavers Show. I
lean on this man every day forcollege basketball knowledge. I'm merely the game
show host. This is the manwith the plan. Richmond Weaver. It's
been another crazy week in the ACCNthe top twenty five. How you doing.
I'm doing absolutely fantastic, Trying tostay warm and so hopefully the Tigers
(01:08):
will have hot shooting down in Tallahasseethat the temperatures will be a little bit
warmer down there. Uh. Andthis is one of those scenarios. Though,
I don't mind the cold because itis winter. So I'm okay,
wait a minute. For years now, the first time I've ever heard you
say anything I never resembles I don'tmind the cold, isolate that audio Falco.
(01:32):
I don't mind the cold, butwhen you have it as a meat
locker in here in the studio,that's a different story. Because there's also
this aspect though, if it isgoing to be this cold, though,
I would have to say so,there's caveats to all this. Yeah,
if it's going to be this cold, yes, why is there not snow?
Seriously, there needs to be snowif it's going to be this cold,
(01:53):
that's just the prerequisite. If it'sgoing to dip down into the team,
I need snow. That's the realityof it. Whether on the eighth
wraps up here, I'll tell youthis, the next few days, it's
going to be like a sixties rain. I mean, when did we move.
There's a coma. I want somesnow, my friends. Otherwise,
let's go on to March madness exactly. That's right, Yes, we can
(02:13):
easily fast forward, but it doesseem like, just even from a perspective
you talk about fast forward, Imean, how are we already now January
twenty and we're moving at light speed, warp speed? However you want to
describe it just in terms of theseason sounds better, Yeah, yeah,
it does. And this is nowa scenario where for the Clemson Tigers coming
(02:35):
off of that loss against Georgia Tech. There, yeah, you do start
thinking about the pressure of how importanteach and every game is and obviously not
having the opportunity to close that dealagainst Georgia Tech, especially at home,
that's a game that could come backthat you look at as a pivotal point,
(02:57):
pivotal point in the season, andhopefully it's a positive one that you
take that. Okay, hey wedidn't win that game, but now we're
refocused, and that's somewhat of thegame that gets the Tigers back on track
because we thought maybe it was theBoston College game and then obviously you're not
able to follow that up with avictory against Georgia Tech. But there's still
(03:19):
a lot of basketball left and we'vetalked about that several times here on the
Ingles count Down to tip Off Show, But it is true. There still
is a lot of basketball left andknowing that you have an opportunity of going
on the road and beating a FloridaState team who is surging right now under
Leonard Hamilton. And how many timeshave we talked about just the aspect of
(03:43):
Leonard Hamilton as a coach somehow continuesto get his team in the mix.
I know last year was a downyear relative to what the past four or
five years have been for Florida State. But here, once again, Leonard
Hamilton is sitting there with the FloridaState seminoles sitting there at five and one
in the conference, and they're incontention, and obviously it's going to be
a tough test for the Tigers onthe road Richmond Educating. Here is Leonard
(04:08):
Hamilton over seventy five years old,Yes he is? Is he over eighty?
He's not over eighty, Okay,he looks the same. I'm telling
you, there's only a few guyslikes out of this world. Richmond Weavers
waterfo I'm sure, Oh yeah,youager, Trey Falco as well, not
so much for me. Yeah,that FSU team, they are trending in
a very good direction up there ontop of the ACC with the rest of
(04:29):
some of the behemoths we expected,and we see Clemson as that type of
team. Obviously, we got totalk about this game, and we're gonna
get into some more in the nextsegment. We've got some audio from both
Brad Burnell and PJ. Hall,and I found it interesting in their press
conferences. Not only did they speakto hey, you know, give Georgia
Tech credit for some of the shotsthey made down the stretch, because yeah,
you got to, but the factthat they brought up fatigue, I
(04:51):
don't want to get your perspective onthat as well, because Hall even went
so far as to say, look, I got classes, I've got this.
It's getting to the dog days ofthe season, where boy, the
stretch they just had rich. Beforewe dive into the box score, you're
in the stats of the notes fromthis Georgia Tech game. That was a
brutal stretch and they finally looks likeahead of them get a little bit of
a breather. But as Brenell said, there's no guarantees, there no there's
(05:12):
not. And obviously you have thegame this afternoon against Florida State and then
you have some time off, muchneeded time off until you're back on the
road. Though it's at Duke,so you do have that ability to get
a little bit of time off.But when you have guys that are going
into double overtime and you've got guysplaying over forty minutes, I mean,
that's a difficult scenario, especially comingoff of you just had a game against
(05:38):
Boston College. Again, you getthat victory, but it's that cumulative effect
that how the season is progressing,and especially once you get into conference play,
and how many times we've talked aboutit that with conference play it is
amped up differently and so each andevery night you have to be ready to
go at full force. And it'sone of the scenarios where there's been some
(06:01):
injuries with a Jack Clark and Alexhim and way that those type of guys
can come in and give you somebreathers. Now, Jack Clark, he
can be a starter what we've seen, but it's having the ability to be
a little bit deeper on the benchand not that you have to have guys
that are coming in and playing fifteenminutes. It's just hard to get a
(06:21):
rotation when you have so much depth. You really want eight or nine guys
that you can rotate in and out. Now Brad Burneld has the luxury.
If fully healthy, he can bringmore guys in there. But even if
it's just four, four to eightminutes, that helps, just from a
perspective of having some of these otherguys limit their minutes based on the cumulative
(06:46):
effect that continues throughout the season.You go back to the Hokies game and
we'll talk about this game against GeorgiaTech and concrads to coach Damn Statamar.
He's done a great job down there, thirty nine to thirteen advantage on bench
points. I mean, it's kindof where this whole thing started. And
even the chef Ian Sheffleck my guy, Yeah, the Will Ferroclearter. He's
got to be played by Will Ferrellin the movie. I love this kid.
He got cramps in the game.This was a huge deal. But
(07:08):
Brenell even said, look, wehad to take him out of had to
take him out rather not. That'sright. Yes, And this is a
guy who had twenty points and fifteenrebounds in this game played thirty eight minutes,
and yeah, you would like tohave him out on the court at
all times if possible, just basedon his production right now. And that's
why we'll dive into this matchup againstFlorida State in much more detail. But
(07:30):
this is one of the scenarios wherebench points is going to be critical here
in this game. Florida State hasthe best bench points production right now in
the ACC, averaging thirty one benchpoints per game in their last six games.
So you can see that they havethe ability to really have some guys
(07:51):
contribute coming off the bench and comein waves, and that's what we've seen
with Florida State over the years.So that is a big perspective here for
Clemson that they've got to be ableto get some production off the bench.
Also, well, listen, thisgame was disappointing. You're gonna hear PJ.
Hall talk about this later in termsof shot selection. But look,
a nine point lead with just undera buck fifty left in the game,
(08:15):
buck forty three, one forty threein regulation, you're up by nine,
and you just have to look atthat in a number of ways, I
guess as an analyst, as acoach, I looked at it as a
fan, kind of stunned that.Okay, wow, give Georgia Tech a
lot of credit. And even thefact that before regulation PJ. Hall talked
about, man, I'd be itwas a Christian Leader type of moment almost
(08:35):
where it felt good coming off thehand. Every shot he took there at
the end that could have an impactcould have been there for him. They
felt good, The shots were good, but it kind of stunning loss.
I guess at home against Georgia Tech. I mean, all of a sudden,
you turn around. But Brad Bruneldid say, I don't think the
defense was bad. They just madetheir shots in the defense. Overall,
we liked what we did in thatfirst half, but man, you blow
(08:56):
that lead in the last minute anda half, that's that's tough. You
have to give Georgia Tech credit.There is that aspect and as we talked
about on our sister station, oneof four nine Fox Sports Upstate this past
week with the Dallas Cowboys losing tothe Green Bay Packers and not to turn
it into a football show, It'sstill going to be a basketball show,
(09:18):
but the perspective of give credit tothe Green Bay Packers because they played really
well. As bad as the Cowboysplayed, the Packers played really well.
So also for Georgia Tech, givethem a lot of credit for not giving
up because we also talked about itthese nine o'clock games. I'm not a
(09:39):
big fan of the nine o'clock gamesthat started with so late, double overtime
each law, of course it's goingto happen. So I'm watching the game.
Didn't go to the game. Gavemy son the tickets there and he
stayed to the bitter end. Sokudos for him for staying there to the
bitter end. So I'm watching itcomes in up by nine, it's already
(10:01):
late. Did you make the mine? Oh you don't. Have you ever
done that in a game that's underten points that late? Is that?
Was that a first? Have youdone that before? Now? I've done
it a couple of times, especialhaunt you. Yes it hasbody. This
is definitely one that it's come backto halt me. And you know it
actually has a couple of times,you know. So that's why you have
(10:22):
to watch it. You had to. I've never got it. I'm one
of those guys like me and mybrother would go to Panthers games. Oh
that's fun these days, to thebitter end. We sit there, even
if it's like thirty one to ten. There's sometimes we go but that's brutal.
And look, I think a lotof people were in agreement this Clemson
machine this year. Offensively, defensively, you get up by nine against a
team you think you can handle ithome, you got to put them away.
(10:43):
You got to put them away.How about that game from the young
man Again, he just continues toimpress so many people. Ian Shefflin,
PJ. Hall. They have somuch depth there with this team. But
I'm gonna tell you there's one particularplayer for Georgia Tech that raise some eyebrows
from everybody. And I know I'mkind of new to this whole thing in
terms of what Georgia Tech is.But Nathan George, Oh yes, my
goodness, how clutch was that youhad double digit scores across the board,
(11:07):
five of them, to be exact, Ninety three points gets a little skewed
when you're looking at a double overtime, that's right, But again, to
get to that point where you hadit, it's key. And I think
the one thing that that coach Brundellhad talked about as well in this whole
thing. He has a very calmdemeanor about of course, there's a lot
of the fan base out there thatI think is a little misinformed about how
valuable he might be to this program. That's just my opinion. You got
(11:30):
to win in the tournament. Youhad to get to the tournament. But
that kind of loss will amplify thatpressure. We're not here to do that.
That's not our show. I dolike how calm he is in those
press conferences. I like how heexplains things to the media. He doesn't
fire off of the mouth. Hewas obviously frustrated, but he did say,
look, we've got a lot ofguys on this team that have a
lot of character, a lot ofheart this and he's talked about this before,
(11:52):
and I do feel this way,this moment for Clemson can serve them
well if they use it in theright way, if they mold it in
shape into something positive. But there'sno getting around the fact that statistically from
the Ken Palm, the rankings,it stinks. How frustrating is that for
you as a guy that loves thisprogram and for fans out there, that's
like man, can we just locka few of these acc wins up because
(12:13):
we know we got tough sledding ahead. That's right, and that's why you
look at the schedule, and that'swhy it's so important to win those games
at home, and especially when you'reup nine with a minute and forty three
seconds to go, or you're upfive with twenty two seconds to go.
You have to be able to putthose games away again, especially at home,
knowing that you're on the road atFlorida State, then you're following out
(12:33):
on the road at Duke and itdoesn't get an easier. Yes, you
come back home to end the monthof January against Louisville, but on any
given night, these teams can beatanother team. And that's the craziness about
college basketball right now is the parodyamongst not only within conference, but just
nationally. I mean, there's somuch fluctuation between who wants to be number
(12:58):
one in the country and that wetalked about it last time, who is
the best team in the country.Well, it's too far to discern right
now because there's so much parody.And that's why it's also you know from
a perspective that you can look atall of these teams, and even from
a national perspective, some of theseteams that have the ability to go on
(13:20):
and win a national championship, youmight have a national champion this year that
has five to eight losses. Andthat's just the reality of it in college
basketball, and even in the YEAH, and even in the ACC. I
mean, you could see a scenariowhere a team that wins the ACC Tournament
championship, they might have three orfour losses on the season. So there
(13:41):
is that aspect there's really not adominant team also within the conference, and
then nationally now some teams are startingto separate themselves from the different tiers in
terms of top three, you know, the top third tier, the bottom
third tier. So you're having someof that happen right now. That's why
(14:01):
Clemson, as much as we saythere's still a lot of basketball left,
and yes there is, but timeis going to be one of your enemies
as far as if you continue tohave losses mount up, and that's the
scenario right now for Clemson. You'vegot to be able to get a victory
(14:22):
on the road, and obviously youwere able to do that against Pittsburgh,
but that was technically in twenty twentythree, so you haven't done that in
twenty times. So that's why thisgame on the road against Florida State,
and again we'll talk about much moreof this matchup, but this is a
(14:43):
Florida State team as you look atthe roster on paper, this is a
game that Clemson should win. That'sjust the reality of even though Florida State
has a five game winning streak rightnow, I understand that, but this
and coming off of a big winagainst Miami, but this is a team
that Clemson should go and beat onthe road. Even though how difficult it
(15:07):
is to win on the road,we know that they should maybe come the
road Warriors down the stre ats.Home has been a little bit of a
tough sled here, but we'll seewhat happens. It's on the road today
in Tallahassee tip off at four pmright here on WeSC Don Munson on the
call with Tim Burray coming up next. PJ Hall put up career highs in
the rebounds and scoring in that loss. We're gonna hear from PJ. But
(15:28):
we're gonna hear from coach Brad Burnellsome interesting comments and we'll share our perspective
on that, a little more detailabout what's going on in the top twenty
five, a deeper dive into theACC and of course, the matchups between
Florida State and Clemson, tipping offat four pm today on ninety two point
five WSC Betty two point five wd S is the Upstate's new home for
(15:50):
the Clemson Tigers, and Tigers aren'tcold as ice tonight, tree foulo,
thank you for this one, butit is chili outside. Let's heat it
up, definitely need hold. Okay, that's the worst basketball song ever.
(16:11):
What are you doing tonight? No, okay, it is a bad basketball
song. And so I have afunny still tip off show. By the
way, I'm John. That's rich. Go ahead. I have a funny
story. So I remember, uh, in my middle school it was actually
seventh, eighth, and ninth,and so high school was tenth, eleventh,
and twelfth. And so in middleschool you had a seventh and eighth
(16:33):
grade team, so seventh and eighthgraders played together, and then you had
a ninth grade team. And ourninth grade team was really good, ended
up winning the county championship. Allof that, uh, and we lost
one game, and I'll never forgetit. I actually filed out of the
game and we just could not makea shot as a team, So I
(16:56):
file out of the game. Mybuddy fouls out of the game, and
we're sitting on the bench and hestarts singing cold as Ice on the bench.
Yes, man, and the headcoach is walking down and he hears
the song. I'm singing the song. Here's gold his eyes And that was
(17:18):
a magical moment. And we'll usemagical there and but yeah, so that
was. Yeah, remembories cold asif a three of twenty one night the
other night wants to hear that,but get in his cold outside. So
there you have it there. Whowasn't called in that game was our good
friend PJ Hall, of course,uh, the all world performer for Clemson,
(17:42):
and again PJ Hall had such anexceptional game. Brad Brunel did have
some comments after the game, andhe started by opening up with his thoughts
on Georgia Tech and really what thatteam did to overcome Clemson's nine point lead
in that game. Heck of abasketball game, and they made some incredibly
(18:02):
timely shots at the end of thegame, multiple threes with their back against
the wall and that you know,got it, gave them the opportunity to
win the game. We we justdidn't quite close it out. Hate it
for my guys. I thought wepoured a lot into it, had good
prep. I thought, you know, we guarded them very well for a
(18:26):
while, a long while. They'vebeen very dynamic here offensively recently they were
outstanding against Duke. But obviously whenyou look at the stats, the easy
thing to look at again is youknow, we're three for twenty one,
maybe from three, and they're fifteenfor thirty five and twelve three difference is
(18:48):
just thirty six points. It's alot to overcome. So you know,
we just got to hang in here. We got off to the great start
this year. We were stumbled herea little bit, but there's still room
to get it figured out. Thisone hurts because, you know, we
had a nice win on Saturday.We're trying to build something and then didn't
(19:10):
quite close this one out. Wehad it in our grasp and again to
Georgia Tech's credit, they made theymade a lot of shots. Obviously a
coach that's frustrated trying to get thisteam moving the right direction with a lot
of things going on besides basketball,like guys going to classes, you have
family obligations. It's a life livethat's complete. He did talk about,
you know, losing the late gamelead, and Brad Burnell brought an interesting
(19:33):
perspective to that particular conversation. Here, it is, obviously we could have
filed up three. It was kindof in that we you know, sometimes
I file, sometimes I don't file. I've won and lost both ways.
You know, it was kind ofin that that zone where there could still
be enough time. I think theygot the ball back with twelve seconds and
(19:53):
you know, you'd love to tellyou guys, all right, file with
four, right, but it youknow, then then in the lower the
clock gets, the more guys areabout ready to shoot it, and you're
you're bringing in filing a three pointshooter, and so you know, we
just decided to try to guard him, and I think Dylan got screened,
(20:14):
made a mistake and uh, youknow, they made a big shot.
Yeah. I mean, in hindsight, maybe we should have tried to zone
or done something and something, youknow a little bit because it didn't work.
So I mean we'll look at it, and you know, I think
to their credit. I just Ithink they do. Think they made some
some big time shots too. Obviously, they made some changes, switched the
(20:37):
line up a little bit on bothsides, and one particular player we mentioned
earlier the show, Nathan George,did go off in the second half.
Brad Brunelle was quite impressed. Youknow, they've their their guard play has
been outstanding. That kid, NathanGeorge. Wow, what a talented freshman.
I said halfway through the first halfor late in the first half,
I told my staff that kids unbelievablydepressive because he the way he carries himself
(21:02):
during the game, you can tellhe thinks he's maybe the best player out
there. And you know, hewas one of the best ones out there
today. He was just supremely confident, and so you know, we started
dialing to help our defense. Ithink defensively, you know, if you
take away the last shots, maybein the last two to three minutes,
(21:26):
our defense was pretty good. Ithink we had him at sixty with I
don't even know. I remember maybethere's two thirty three minutes to go,
four minutes maybe, but I thinkit was less than four minutes. We're
up sixty eight to sixty, sowe're guarding the heck out of him,
but obviously we couldn't finish it.We had a couple of mistakes on some
pistol action that they ran late thatwe've guarded in the past, and we
(21:52):
just had a couple of mental lapsesand they made some shots. And Nathan
George is one of those guys thatyou're going to hear his name quite a
bit in the ACC a freshman andhaving the ability to make a big shot
the way he did there in doubleovertime, that big three, and not
only just from a perspective of scoring, but he had six assists for Georgia
Tech. Yes, so this isa guy who is multi talented in different
(22:17):
ways and a big reason obviously whyGeorgia Tech was able to win, no
doubt about it. Fatigue has beenan issue and the busy schedule. Of
course, it's a guys are backto school and a lot's going on right
now in the lives of student athletes. Brad Brunella addressed that when talking about
how busy this team has been andmaybe a little break on the horizon there,
I think that's you know, that'swhat's hard about college basketball is you
(22:38):
you can do that and it doesn'talways work out. And uh, you
know, but as a competitor,you got a man up. You got
to you gotta, you know,recharge your battery and you gotta get ready
to go again. Obviously, thewe're off tomorrow, which is good.
We need an off day. Ithink this is our ninth day in a
row. And guys are fatigued obviously, not just physically but mentally the stress
(23:03):
of all the meetings and everything thatwe do and the walkthroughs in the film.
And you know, I've just gotto keep reminding our team that we're
a good team and you know,we we can put together another wind streak,
but we do have to fix afew things. We got to get
a little bit better. I thoughtwe got better defensively tonight. That was
(23:26):
what we've been talking about, uh, trying to fix. And uh,
you know, we also have tomake some more timely shots. I mean
at the end of the day,Like you go back and watch our Alabama
game and the shot making we madein the last ten minutes of the game
was huge and it's why we wonthe game in Alabama. We we made
the big time shots, the bigtime threes, you know, so there
(23:49):
does come an element of here.You know, on offense, you got
to finish some plays and then defensivelyyou got to stop them. And you
know, I thought we did enoughof both for you know, thirty seven
minutes. That's not forty or fifty, which is what we needed. Busy
schedules, indeed, a guy who'shad a busy schedule of late busier than
(24:11):
before. Jack Clark getting back intothe mix, and Brad Brunelle shared his
thoughts on Jack Clark's challenges in termsof where he's come from and what he
still needs to do to reach apoint where he gets more playing time.
Yeah, he did fine, youknow right now. Defensively, you know,
I think he can help us withhis length and size and experience.
He's an experienced guy. You know, he's still kind of learning all of
(24:33):
our offensive stuff because he really hasn'tunfortunately, he hasn't practiced very much.
You know, it's it's been areal challenge both for him and for our
staff. So but at least hewas able to get out there and play
a few minutes and get his feetwet, and you know, I'm hopeful
that the trainer says on Thursday,that he's going to be okay to you
(24:56):
know, I might have to managesome things again with just but hopefully he'll
be okay to keep going. It'sa player that rich and I've talked about,
even defensively right now, they coulduse. They could use all the
bench production they can get a guythat's not on the bench. PG Hall
career high and look, he misseda few shots late. And it was
interesting to hear Richmond his response tothe question from the media about those shots,
(25:18):
Did they feel good coming off thehand? Well, you'd be the
judge. I think the play weran to one more down three is the
same play we ran that A mirrormade the shot at North Carolina when we
went up there down three and weran the same play for a mirror and
he knocked it in and PJ justmissed it, you know. I mean,
it's that's part of it. Imean, I give him another look
(25:38):
like that tomorrow, but unfortunately todayit didn't go. Yeah, And of
course PJ. Hall, he's atype of guy, a ultimate competitor,
and that's the way you have tohave that mentality that you are going to
make every shot you go out thereand not have that type of confidence or
not have that mental thought that process. Then yet you're going to struggle,
(26:02):
and we know the cliche, shootor shoot, and obviously he missed,
and it's an opportunity where you haveto be able to make some of those
shots. But you can't continue todwell on a misshot. You have to
be able to have the confidence tomove forward and again shoot or shoot.
Well, he's not afraid to shoot, that's for sure. PJ. Hall
(26:22):
not a bashful shooter, and coachBrindlehood talked about some of the challenges there
with maybe getting him inside the paintthere. PJ spoke to the media after
the game and talked about the sizeand physicality that stood out for Georgia Tech.
They have some good, big guys, physical They play a pretty packed
in defense, so it's kind oftough to get inside sometimes. But you
know, late in the game,especially whenever they're starting, went out with
(26:44):
five, probably should have done abetter job, continue to go inside,
played through a little more contact andstuff. But you know, it's no
I thought thought we played right allaround. Yeah, sometimes it's just you
know, don't happen. Yeah,And this is a Georgia Tech team that
they're starting to understand the identity thatDamon Stottamayer is trying to bring to Georgia
Tech. And even as a smallerguy, Damon Stottamayer he was a physical
(27:08):
type of player and was not afraidof contact. And when you have some
of the size that Georgia Tech hasand then you start believing in the aspect
of being physical and trying to bethat bully, then that's one of the
things that breeds confidence for Georgia Tech. And again we've talked about it,
Georgia Tech is a team that theycan win games. They beat Duke,
(27:30):
they took Duke to the wire asecond time. So this is a team
that has shown that they can winsome of these games in the ACC,
especially on the road. I wasgoing to say the confidence building this does
for coach Stoudemayer right now, toknow they've beaten Duke, they came close
another time. And the fact thatthis Clemson team, when you look them
and we're not biased, we knowthe whole ACC. You've got dogs everywhere.
(27:52):
As we talk about in terms ofSheeplin what he could do double doubles,
You've got Joseph Gerard who had itoff night there, but he had
thirty one I think the other night, and he can always go off for
big scoring. And then PG Hallis such an imposing figure. But we
talked about Jorge Text there. They'realways physical. It seems like they've always
had guys that could match up wellwith guys in the paint for Clemson,
and Haul is a versatile guy.And when you get down to the end
(28:12):
of a game, the end ofregulation, we talked about the CERLEI brad
Burnel's comments on we thought we hada good look. PJ. Hall often
times will make a shot that justmakes you go wow, Yes, well
he almost did that a couple oftimes in this game. Haul on those
shots right here, absolutely, especiallythe one was it the full hour pass
(28:33):
right caught it over the top ofthe guy. I thought I was gonna
rip the net off. I thoughtit was straight through. And the first
free throw that I missed that rattledout felt perfect off my hands. The
last screen in three that I tookkind of came off third finger a little
bit too much instead of my lasttwo or my first two. But other
than that, they all felt great. I mean, when I shoot a
(28:56):
ball, I shooting to make itand you know, they just didn't fall
account when they go in, PJ. And you know that, and so
does Richmond. So obviously Clemson fallsin this game, but they gave it
a good effort at the end thereand almost Christian Latner like the full court
pass there. The fatigue, itkeeps coming up and a lot of teams
I hear around, not just collegebasketball. You're here in the NFL late
in the season, the rookies hipat Wall. PJ is kind of like
(29:18):
the team leader of this group.And he talked about the fatigues of not
just the games, but going toclass, the academics, dealing with relationships
whatever it might be, and howhe leans on his faith for that.
It was an interesting minute and ahalf of conversation there. Here's PJ.
Hall on the challenges right now ofbeing a college basketball player this time of
year. I need to fight,continue to know that. You know,
(29:38):
we're a good team. We havegreat guys, guys who are willing to
fight every single day. It's notjust you know, pouring into a game.
You know, you play a doubleovertime game and you pour so much
into that, but it's I mean, I woke up at an eight am
class this morning. I came straightto shoot around, got a couple of
shots up. After that, whenyou go your lunch, tried to get
(30:00):
a nap and came back for walkthrough, try to get in some more
food before the game. And we'reout here warming up for two hours for
the game. And there's so muchinvested in just more than just playing.
That's everybody. That's not just me. I mean, it's that's what hurts.
And whenever don't it doesn't go yourway, it's tough. But you
know, at the end of theday, whenever stuff like that's happening,
it's, uh, you gotta rememberthat. You know, this is basketball,
(30:23):
and it's it's for me. It'sa platform glorifying a Lord and savior,
Jesus Christ. And you know anytimesomethings you know not so you go
on my way. I know thatthis is not the sole reason why I'm
here. It's uh to glorify Him. And so in this long stretch of
a season, it's uh just continueto fight and continue to work towards a
(30:44):
big goal, and the bigger goalof shedding light on my Lord and Savior.
And that's a difficult thing for alot of these players is the time,
commitment and just trying to balance everythingin their life. And as much
as we try to look at itin a vacuum that, oh, these
players they have it so easy.You know, they get all of these
advantages. And yes, there areobviously some advantages that they do have as
(31:08):
student athletes. But the other sidethat you don't see, it's those long
days, those early mornings they earnedyou the privileges, those scenarios that they
want to be in the gym,they're watching film, they're getting up,
you know, five hundred shots andthen you throw in. Then they're playing
thirty minutes per game at a highlevel physical basketball. Yes, there's there's
(31:32):
a lot that goes into it,and you have to, you know,
admire some of these guys that canhave that mindset of overcoming some of the
obstacles that they have just from aphysicality standpoint and the time aspect to in
you know. So it's a scenariothat as a coach you're trying to balance
because as much as you want yourguys to be working to come in there,
(31:56):
getting shots up, watching film,you also have to a certain times
say, hey, you need abreak, you need to get some rest
because at the end of the day, especially as you get later on in
the season, obviously you're gonna haveto lean on some of that rest.
How fascinating was it? And inBreno talked about this week the shot that
they lined up there for haul.One of the shots at the end was
(32:19):
the same play they drew up fromyour sims when they went to North Carolina
and win. It's so cool asa coach, and you've been here before
to sort of pull those plays outof the book there and it's probably a
little different basketball. No football.You don't see this often because you know
there's just so much volume in theplaybook. But I thought that was an
interesting comment from Brad and say,and we pulled that out and almost worked.
And PJ is such a specimen,like you just give him something,
you let him high point it likea I was gonna say, George Pickens,
(32:43):
but not so much. Let's gouh maybybe DK Metcalf. How about
that? Yes, high point?And we know PJ he can hit some
of those shots. And and Ithink there's an aspect obviously Joe Gerard the
third, he's going to get alot of attention when he's out on the
court, even when he's struggling.But I did question watching some of those
(33:07):
highlights because again, as I said, I didn't watch the end of the
game because I thought the game wasover when Clemsone was up by nine with
about a minute and forty three secondslast, because everything else in between was
like I'm on a commercial again,coming on well, And I wondered why
there wasn't more attention a play drawnup for Joe Girard. I know he
(33:27):
hadn't been playing that well from theuh shooting perspective, but this is a
guy who can get hot at anygiven moment. He's shooting forty two percent
from beyond the arc, and Iknow PJ has improved his shooting percentage right
now, but he's shooting thirty threepercent from beyond the arc here in this
season. So again it's one ofthose things. You know, PJ is
(33:52):
your guy, he's your dude.You can lean on him to make some
of those big shots. But couldthere been an opportunity to create a little
bit more space and opportunity there forJoe Girard to try to see if he
could get a shot off. Theydidn't, and coach Bnolgan talked about up
three, maybe he should have foiledat the very end. Strategy comes in
and you know, you go withyour gut at that point, and that's
(34:12):
one of those things. And hetalked about that. You know, he's
had it both ways where he's wonsome games by doing that and he's lost
some games by doing that. AndI think from a coaching perspective, and
this it's very difficult, but Ithink you have to get to a point
where, regardless of what the scenarioshave played out in history, you just
(34:37):
need to stick with one philosophy andgo with it. You're either you're going
to foul in those scenarios or you'renot, because if you keep going back
and forth again, you never youdon't know what philosophy is going to work
from a statistical standpoint. Long term, he can go right across the hall
(34:59):
and talk to his buddy Davos Swineyabout that, because there's a coach that
over the years has been steadfast,right or wrong or whatever you think about
him, he don't change much.Let me tell you this lastly from hall
here talking about shots selection, youknow, defensive play down the stretch was
a talking point for media of headsout there, but he just credits Georgia
Tech here for shooting late here yougo. Obviously they hit big shots.
(35:22):
They were times that I mean,yeah, we had either a sax or
an eight point lead with I don'tknow a min and a half left and
regulation excuse me, I foul athree point shooter. Then we've give up
a twist three pointer as well,And then you know, it's they made
big shots, they made free throws, credited their big guys who aren't necessarily
(35:45):
a great free throw shooters. Ibelieve, I'm not could be wrong,
but they I mean, they bigguys hit a lot of free throws and
they made shots. But you know, along with that, it's you know,
these are the games that you gotto find a way to win.
We've we've won him in the past, We've want them, We're gonna win
more in the future, and it'sjust you know, it hurts still that
one. Get out of your getout of your grasp, and look,
(36:07):
I think there's a lot of truthin that, and it's a classy move
by PJ. He's frustrated, youcan hear in his voice. But somebody
asked him at the end of thepress conference, or what do you think
about FSU And he kind of chuckleshere and says, well, maybe it's
time to look at things a littledifferently. Man. It's it's just as
important as the last Uh. Youknow, these guys, man, we
(36:28):
want to win so bad we uhmyself included, but our coaches, our
staff, our managers, our gas. Everybody's pouring everything they want, every
everything they have into it. Andso it's not just you know, when
this nice game, obviously that's whatwe want, but we're focused on ourselves
and getting better every single day,and then once we get there, we're
gonna go all out at it again. Yeah, and I think what PJ
(36:51):
is really saying here is that it'sall about you play to your standard and
don't worry about the other uniform fromthe opposing team. Obviously they're going to
understand that as they watch film breakdown, making sure they know what type
of offensive sets defensive sets they're goingto be. The reporter was so sure,
Yeah, maybe not, dude.It was five minutes ago we just
(37:14):
walked off from double overtime, andthat's a tough scenario. As a reporter,
you're wanting to ask some extuctions andthese guys again, it's it's very
difficult. It's late. They justhad a double overtime loss. You know,
the game started at nine o'clock.Yeah, so, I mean,
these guys aren't going to get home, you know, in their apartment and
uh and and in bed until reallyreally late. Castle for a world fan
(37:37):
for it out there. Yeah,that's right. Well, at least at
least they didn't ask it, youknow about playing outdoors versus indoors. Oh
there is, Oh my, yeah, it will's always we'll call the other
day. He's like, I can'tstand these not kickoffs. I can't because
I'm my deadlines and I hate it. Like I like me a three thirty
kickoff. I think you and Iboth agree that's the prime time. But
nine pm for any sport on theEast Coast, it's difficult. It's pretty
(38:00):
tough. This Clemson tank is fatigued. They go down to Tallahassee today to
take on the Florida State Seminals,a team that's streaking right now. When
we return. More on that game, more on the ACC, and more
on college basketball at large right hereon the Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show
ninety two point five WSC ninety twopoint five WDSC is the Upstate's new home
(38:21):
with a Clemson Tigers. I guessthis is an honor of Dan Campbell this
weekend hosting the first Divisional Round playoffgame in about one hundred and twenty eight
(38:42):
years for the Detroit Lions. Kida kid, This is gonna be a
good weekend for football, but greatweekend for basketball. As down in Tallahassee,
the agels went Leonard Hamilton and hisgroup of very talented players that are
taking on this Clemson Tigers team thatI wouldn't say they're desperate for. That's
not how they view it. Butlet's face it, Richmond, it's a
talented group that was viewed very highlyby Minny analysts, including yourself, Jay
(39:07):
Billis and others, and they stillshould be. That's the narrative I want
to ask you about as we startthis segment here, Dick the deeper dive
into this matchup. It's the samething with every other sport. It happens
a lot in the NFL. Youknow, like a few weeks ago,
just as an example, you know, half these coaches in the Division Round
we're either going to be fired fiveweeks ago. Our teams didn't want them
(39:28):
back last year, and here wego into the home stretch, and I
guarantee you a team like Clemson,maybe not Clemson, but the team like
Clemson, no fleet is them thatis loaded with talent as they are,
will start getting healthy and they'll makethat push and it'll be the defining moment
for them, or they won't makeenough of a push and they'll end up
right there and the Ken Palm basementonce again waiting all those we love Ginbal
(39:52):
there are what's our guys, friendthat's been on your show, said Lenardi.
In Lonardi last year, he wasjust he wanted to tell you,
but it's like Rich, I justdon't know. No, it was correct,
and they've gotta nail some of thesegames. This could turn out to
be a high resume game for them. Florida State's playing well, it's on
the road. Your initial thoughts onjust this losing streak and where Clemson is
(40:14):
right now? We talked about themiddle side, but physically do they need
some guys healthier? I mean,what's going on? Cheflin's looking great and
Pj's playing well. Gerard I thinkhas been a little bit inconsistent at times.
They just getting a feel for eachother at this point. All right,
So let's take a look at Clemsonand rewind a little bit. So
before January they look like one ofthe best teams in the conference. They
(40:36):
ranked as high as thirteenth in theAP pole and we're sitting at eleven and
one and their only loss was atwo point loss on the road to a
really good Memphis team. Now,I know Memphis just had a game where
they had a twenty point lead inthe second half and lost to UCF,
but that just shows you again thatanything can happen. Don't turn off the
(40:57):
TV. There is beating every Yes, it's crazy. But since then they're
one and four with losses at Miamiversus un C, at Virginia Tech,
and again, obviously we talked aboutthe home loss against Georgia Tech in double
overtime, and again Clemson had aninety nine point three percent chance of winning
that game, up nine with aminute and forty three remaining in regulation.
(41:22):
But I think when you look atClemson, we know from a perspective offensively,
they are a really good offensive team, and according to Ken Palm,
they're a top fifteen offense, andthey're very efficient from anywhere on the floor.
They shoot thirty six percent from three, fifty six percent on their twos,
(41:43):
and seventy seven percent from the freethrow line, have a top forty
in turnover rate so they don't turnthe ball over. They're fifty five percent
effective field goal percentage. So itis a very hard offense to contain and
quickly for Brad Brunell team that's typicallybeen defense first, that's a welcome signed,
but there's something missing here in theselast few It's a small sample size,
(42:04):
but if it grows into six sevengames, then you've got a problem,
Houston. I mean, that's wherewe are. Well, here's the
problem, because it's their defense thathas let them down, and we haven't
seen that from a Brad Burnell teamhistorically. In their last five games,
Clemson is giving up an average ofeighty three point six points per game.
Now, I know you went intodouble overtime against Georgia Tech. I get
(42:25):
that, but that also includes thoughthink about it, they held North Carolina
to sixty five and so exactly youhave to see that they're giving up way
too many points to some of theseother teams. And again it's a scenario
that right now Clemson, especially outon the perimeter, where's that defense they're
(42:46):
giving up, Teams are shooting thirtyfive percent from beyond the arc, and
are in a scenario right now wherethe opposing teams they're not having difficulty maintaining
possession of the ball. It's alow turnover rate right now against Clemson,
and that's not a good thing,especially if you're a brad Renell team.
And how many times have we talkedabout it, just the defensive pressure and
(43:09):
the advantage of getting into that andturning the ball over. Obviously we know
it's one less possession for the opposingteam, So the more times they don't
have the ball or have an opportunityto try to score, then that helps
you. But more importantly is thatif you can get some turnovers, you
get into transition offense. And it'svery difficult for teams to have transition defense
(43:36):
because typically after a turnover, youhave a numbers advantage, whether it's four
on two, three on two,whatever it is, you typically have that
advantage. And that's why it's verydifficult to play transition defense like that,
and that's something we haven't been ableto see the Tigers take advantage of It's
strange. It's like seeing again infootball terms, to see a powerhouse defensive
(44:00):
team, maybe like I don't know, an old Notre Dame team all of
a sudden become five wide and they'reput up forty points, but they can't
stop anybody. It's it's sudden andit's not permanent. But do you think
for a minute here there's an identitycrisis with this team and that they've known
for so long how they play andwhere they play. Or is it just
good shooting? Because I'm looking atit, forty five to what nine advantage
(44:21):
terms of scoring from downtown they shotjust again, just to put in perspective,
I know we go three of twentyone and it was fifteen of thirty
five. Fifteen of thirty five.That's crazy. There's a thirty nine point
disc thirty six discreptions, thirty sixpoint discriptions see that game and then some
And that's what Brenell was saying atthe game. At the end of the
game, is shooting. He justkept saying, it's there's only so much
you can do. I think defensivelyand correct me if I'm wrong. To
(44:44):
prevent these guys that are just comingin hot. It's the ultimate equalizer.
Oh it is. And we've talkedabout it so many times that the three
point shot, how it's changed collegebasketball and also even the NBA, So
there is that aspect of the threepoint shot has changed the game completely and
you can stay in games. Andwe're seeing that if you can get a
(45:07):
guy that can start hitting from beyondthe arc, then that extends the defense
out. You've got to go outthere and pressure that player, and then
what happens is then you have anotheropportunity as the defense is not able to
pack in. Now there's obviously someteams like Virginia with their pack line defense,
and they do a great job notonly defending out on the perimeter,
(45:28):
but really packing it in and makingit very difficult because they're so good at
closing out. But for the mostpart, it gives you another opportunity if
you can hit from the outside.And I know I'm staying in the obvious
for all the basketball people out there, they know that if you can hit
from the outside, it's going toopen up the inside and then vice versa.
If you can really get some insidegame going, and that's where PJ
(45:51):
Hall has been so effective, andI think that's another opportunity where continue to
lean on PJ Hall down low,run the offense you can through and he
does, no question about it,PJ does it. I think PJ now
has shown he can step out whenneed be. We get it. Basically,
he needs to be able to geton the low block, get in
(46:14):
the high post, and he cando so many things from both of those
positions because he's such a great distributorand has really good vision there on the
court that he can find the openguys because what's typically going to happen is
he's going to be double teamed becausehe's playing at an All American type of
level right now. And that's whyyou have to continue running the offense through
(46:38):
PJ Hall. And that's why Ilove the aspect. Whenever I see Joe
Girard out there on the same sideas PJ Hall and PJ Hall, even
in a low block or on thehigh post, when they're on the same
side, that puts that defense ina quagmire because they don't know what to
do because if they double team PJHall from the wing right there in that
(47:00):
high post, that's gonna leave aguy open. Even if they bring a
guy from that weak side over,then PJ. He's so good he can
just reverse the ball. And that'swhere you've got to have some of these
other guys step up. And that'swhere the scenario when you don't have a
Jack Clark, when you don't havean alex heimanway out there who can also
hit some of those big time shots, that leaves you at a disadvantage.
(47:22):
And that's why it's important. Andeven for this game today against Florida State,
you're gonna have to have somebody likea Chase Hunter. He's going to
have to get in an offensive rhythmand hit some of these big shots.
Time to step up a little bittit is. Yeah, he have to
be critical, but it's time forhim and others to sort of step into
the freight there and become a biggerpart because PJ and Shefflin can't carry the
(47:43):
load. Every game in Gerard isgoing to be hot and cold when we
return. One final look at thematchups here between Florida State and Clemson tip
off at four pm. Don MunsonTim Bray on the Cult right here on
WSC as the Engles countdown to tipOff Show continues right here on ninety two
point five WEESC ninety two point fivew d S is the Upstate's new home
(48:04):
with a Clemson Tigers coming down thehome stretch. Here for the Ingles Countdown
to tip Off show, John EllisRichmond, We were Trey Falco and studio
here. Don Munson, Timbrey takethis thing over from us here in about
about a minute or so as weare brought to you by Ingles Low Prices,
love the savings, Ingles dash marketsdot Com. A quick reminder you
(48:30):
can catch us every single weekday,Trey Falco and I at four pm Fox
Sports Upstate. It's our sister station. It is a station we have a
lot of fun with in terms ofinteraction. We talk college hoops, we
talk a little football. Join usMonday, four pm on Fox Sports Upstate
and enjoy the game today. Righthere on ninety two point five, we SC
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.