Ingles Countdown to Tipoff #89 - Clemson vs NC State 2-17-2024

The Tigers gear up to face down the Wolf Pack 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!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
W E s E FM, Greenville, Spartanburg, Andersen. Time for the
Ingles Countdown to tip Off show broughtto you Pie Ingles Markets, low prices,
love the savings, Blue Ridge ElectricCooperative, Harley Davidson of Greenville,
Greer Flooring Center, the Surgery Centerat Pella McGhee eating an air pan by

(00:21):
Palmeadow State Armory. Now Here areyour hosts, John Alism Richman Weaver.
Welcome back into the Ingles count Down, a tip off show, Ladies and
gentlemen. So good to be withyou on this beautiful weekend. We've got
some evening basketball here on a Saturday, Clemson taking on NC State, down
a little John coming off another bigwin. We're going to recap that and

(00:45):
much much more. And there's RichmondWeaver, the expert of all things.
Here we go the man I willbe leaning on so much as my brackets
have been terrible for years. Howyou doing, my friend? I'm doing
absolutely fantastic here on this Saturday.And speaking of brackets, yes, we
are just a few weeks away fromhaving our brackets. But I can tell

(01:06):
you because college basketball has changed overthe years with increased parody, and we've
talked about it several times. Itis out. It's astounding how I have
gotten so bad at bracketology over thepast several years, as far as in
terms of having teams advance, andit's so hard to predict these days.

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It is absolutely amazing. And whata lot of the guys on the networks
too, the guys destruct yourself.It's such a crapshoot these days. It's
a lot like the NFL. Treyand I would do these picks on game
on Fox Sports Upstate Richmond Weaver Showas well three pm all the way to
six pm. Our shows a runon one O four point nine. There's
your plug for the day. Butlisten to us because we do pick games.
We fancy ourselves as experts. I'mthe NFL guy, you're the college

(01:52):
basketball guy. And sure enough,the NFL season had me spinning in circles.
I had a losing record with mypicks. Same thing right now,
Dow in college hoops. That's whathappens because it is you. There's almost
this aspect also, especially for me, and I've talked about it, paralysis
by analysis, and I will diveso deep into the weeds, into the

(02:15):
stats, and that does a disserviceto my picks because I overanalyze things.
And when you start overanalyzing things,that's when you're going to have trouble because
you're looking for any little sliver ofinformation, tidbit of something that will give
you, you know, that edge, so to speak. I look back

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at every year, I look backat my picks, and I'm like,
man, I had these two teamsin the Super Bowl or in the Final
four, and I thought, no, let's think twice about this. Go
with your instincts, but go withyour gut. Go with your gut.
Well, and a lot of timesthe people who win the March Madness brackets,
it's because they went with colors ofthe uniform arms. Course, of

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course, something crazy like that.He says. Peanut butter one here and
when there, let the dog gochase the bracket team, he once.
We'll get to that much later aswe head into March. It is the
middle of February here, and wegot a big time game today as Clemson
tangles with the wolf Pack. Moreon that matchup later. We got Will
Vandervoort Clemson Insider joins this year shortly, and you'll hear some comments from Brad

(03:20):
Burnell as always after the game againsta very good Miami team. As we
get into that game, a Miamiteam that was shooting lights out the first
time they played earlier this season.Yes, different story this time around.
It was all about defense for Clemson. It was all about energy as Brad
Brunell was getting the crowd into it. And how about the performance once again

(03:40):
of the new dad, Chase Hunterleading all scores of twenty points in this
game. This was an opportunity onValentine's Day, which was Clemson's twenty sixth
in program history. There a winon Valentine's Day, that is, And
for Chase Hunter. I think we'vebeen waiting when is Chase hern Hunter going
to have one of those big games. We saw some early signs of that

(04:04):
at the beginning of the season insome of those non conference games, and
then a slump in terms of whatChase Hunter, what he's capable of doing,
what his ceiling is. And that'swhat was frustrating, because I still
believe when Chase Hunter, when he'son offensively and then combine him with Joe

(04:25):
Girard the third ye it's the mostunderrated backcourt in the nation. There's no
question from that standpoint, and Iknow you can say, oh, well,
how much do you really know?I'm also leaning on some of the
other pundits out there. They're sayingthe same thing that I'm saying, seeing

(04:45):
the same thing that I'm seeing.I've been around the game long enough and
I can understand that this backcourt isvery special. But it does mean that
Chase Hunter has to play offensively.We know defensively what he can do,
but when you combine his offense withJoe Girard's offense, and again, we
know Chase Hunter can penetrate. Weknow he can attack the rim, he's

(05:09):
so good at that. But whenhis outside shot is on, watch out.
Yeah, that's a different dimension thatClemson has on one week and another
week you got a player has tostep in for Chase Hunter who might be
slumping. Look, he's a newdad too, so there's that element.
And Brad Burnel talks about that allthe time. It's all about family first.
But certainly you love seeing the seniorat six' four getting it done

(05:32):
in this game, leading all scoreswith twenty points. And I don't want
to say there's a slump going onwith PJ. Hall. I wouldn't categorize
it as that, but what Iwill say is we did against that Syracuse
team. Much like in this Miamigame. When Pj's not putting up twenty
twenty five to thirty points, it'sgood to see others that are stepping into
the fold, guys like Jack Clarkcoming off the bench and others that are

(05:54):
making up for that scoring deficiency.What are your thoughts on PJ. How
is he looking to you and therest the team rallying around that? Well,
that's obviously a big part of theadvantage for Clemson when you do have
depth, when you can have aguy like Jack Clark be able to showcase
some of his talents, and obviouslythe NC State transfer being able to come

(06:15):
over to Clemson and what he's beenable to provide. Obviously he was in
a scenario missing a few games thisseason also, so I think he's getting
his legs back under him. He'sgetting back into the rhythm of playing basketball
again, and there is something tobe said about that. And now PJ.
Hall, you can say slump,but now he's been under the weather

(06:35):
a little bit, so that didaffect him on Wednesdays. So I think
that is part of it. ButPJ Hall is PJ Hall. You're going
to continue to get effort from PJ. Hall. And so I don't have
any issues with PJ. Hall.He can get himself out of a quote
unquote slump whatever it might be.But there's certain scenarios, certain nights where

(07:00):
he doesn't have to be the guythat's dominating. And that's what makes Clemson
again offensively, a different team thanwhat we have seen in the past,
because you have other guys like aJoseph Gerard the third, you have a
Jack Clark, and then when youcan have a Chase Hunter be another scorer
and especially being able to hit fromthe outside, that makes this Clemson team

(07:23):
very dangerous. And then obviously weknow Clemson's going to play defense. Holding
Miami to sixty points in this gameand going on a twenty nine to six
run over the last nine and ahalf minutes in that game. That was
the difference in this game because theywere able to combine the offense and also

(07:44):
the defense. And that's what obviouslymakes Clemson difficult to beat. Yeah,
it really does. And Brebenel talkedabout this after the game. Defensively,
he was happy. You know,Brad's gonna do some coach speak, He's
gonna, you know, pump thebrakes on giving out too many flowers.
But I think he's deep down veryhappy because let's just look at this for
a second. On the third dayof the brand new year, the first

(08:07):
of the month in January ninety fiveeighty two, Miami just wiped the floor
with Clemson in the second half andNigel Pack was eight of thirteen of that
game, three or four from downtownin this game, by the way,
that was one of his best gamesof the year's second highest scoring game in
this game, Richmond, Nigel Packwash of seven of four from the perimeter,
didn't get to the line once,had a couple of rebounds, but

(08:31):
needless to say, not only Pack, but the rest of their scoring crew
there and they can put up pointsunless they're playing Virginuine. With that story,
what a performance defensively was for thisteam. They got after it,
and on the other side, theturnovers went away, and that was a
big issue Offensively against Syracuse. Ithought it was a pretty clean game defensively
and offensively for Clemson. Yeah,and we've talked about several times. I

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do want to mention turnovers. Notall turnovers are created equals. You have
to dive into the stats a littlebit more when you look at turnovers,
because it's easy to say, oh, whatever team has the most turnovers in
a game, that's the team that'sgoing to lose or they're going to have
a higher probability of losing. Andyes, that is technically correct because you're

(09:16):
losing possessions and so you might nothave as many possessions and giving the team
more possessions because of these air turnovers. But in this game, Clemson had
eight turnovers compared to Miami's twelve turnovers, so there's really only a four turnover
difference there, so that's not thatsignificant. But what is significant is what

(09:37):
you do with those turnovers. Andfor Miami, they were only able to
convert those eight turnovers from Clemson intoten points, where Clemson was able to
convert those twelve turnovers from Miami intotwenty points. Wow, So that is
a ten point swing right there,just in turnovers. And that's why you

(10:00):
can go on a twenty nine tosix run to end the game because you're
that defensive pressure from Brad Renell andthe Tigers puts the opponent in a tough
situation and then they turn the ballover and then you capitalize on those turnovers
and converting them into points. Whata great one to two punch it was.
You mentioned Gerard and Hunter when they'reboth on in the first half.

(10:22):
The story was Girard, he hadeighteen points in the game. Uh had
a lot of shots from downtown thatmissed in the second half, and that's
where Hunter came in, stepped up, and the energy was great in this
game. And Rich, I keeplooking at this team when you have that
type of run to close out thegame. You mentioned the scoring run that
closed this thing out twenty nine tosix. That's a football score and that's

(10:46):
against a very good Miami team.I think these are little nuances to get
the attention of people who were incharge of deciding, Hey, Clemson,
you're going to be a five seedor a three seed? Are you not
going to the tournament at all?Which we think they are those moments I
think do Matt Oh they matter quitea bit. And again it's the resume
building that you're doing and how youalso respond from a loss to a particular

(11:09):
team. So it was imperative thatClemson gets a split with Miami just from
a resume standpoint, because again havingto win, especially at home, and
then you're able to lock down Miami, and especially in that second half,
also getting things going offensively as theTigers thirteen to thirty from beyond the arc

(11:30):
forty three percent, and when theyshoot over forty percent from the three,
they're eight and oh this season.So that is obviously going back to what
we've always said, this game's easy. You make sut see, you're going
to have a good chance to win. I Yes, try to play,
it might work out. Just putit in the basket. Just put it
in the basket. And all thestrategy for the Tigers under Brad Burnell,

(11:52):
when they shoot over forty percent frombeyond the arc, the record is one
hundred and one and twenty six,And that's some Bill Cower numbers right there.
Right there, you can you canunderstand that you can hit from beyond
the arc, you're gonna have achance to win. Because we know now
in college basketball and in basketball ingeneral, the three point shot is so

(12:15):
important. Yeah, it's here tostay. I think you talk about perimeter
shooting to that level, and thenthe defense you can clamp down on after
that is a greade one to twopunch. Burnell plays good defense with that
team. He coaches good defense,and he's got a great crew of guys
right now that are hungry for abig win. And next on the DAKA
today it's in C State coming totown. They're seven and six in the
ACC. We'll talk about them.Kevin Keatson's team has a lot on the

(12:39):
line of this game. Clemson alsoseven and six, jockeying for position as
the ACC tournament is right around thecorner. You got Richmond Weaver, you
got John Ellis, Trey Facco inthe house. It's the Ingles count Down
a tip Off Show, ninety twopoint five WSC ninety two point five WDSC
is the Upstate's new home with aClemson Tigers. It's Clemson, It's in

(13:11):
C State. It's another big showtoutin the ACC. Got it locked and
loaded to the Ingles Countdown to TipballShow. Welcome in friends, John Elis,
Richmond Weaver, Trey Falco in theHouse. We are brought to you
by Ingles Low Prices, love theSavings, Ingles Dash Markets dot Com.
Of course, this game coming uptonight, huge implications for both teams a

(13:31):
bit of a game in terms ofreuniting players with their former programs. Of
course Jack Clark, the former NCState product now on Clemson and Ben Middlebrooks,
the former Tiger now playing up therefor Kevin Keats at NC State.
As he does every single week,Brad Burnell takes us through his thoughts with
his postgame comments. We got himfor you here, and he opened up

(13:52):
the press conference with some thoughts onthe second half of that game, in
which Clemson went on a scoring run. But one player in particular who he's
had his ups and downs, buthe's a new dad, He's got a
new sense of purpose. Here's BradBrunell on Chase Hunter. Obviously really fun
second half, last ten minutes.Just played unbelievable level. Really happy for

(14:13):
Chase. He's been working, beenshooting the ball extra for you know,
months, really and just for whateverreason, hasn't been able to maybe be
as fortunate and tonight the good fortunefollowed him. All his hard work paid
off, and certainly his shot makinglate was huge. I thought we just

(14:33):
kind of hung in there, reallyproud of our team. You know,
the game was I thought we wereplaying pretty well. It's kind of one
of those back and forth games earlyand we had that little seven point lead
and then we had a really badstretch the last five minutes, and I
thought we took some quick shots,and obviously halftime was even or they're up
one or whatever it was, andyou know, second half back and forth,

(14:58):
and they had that six point leadand we had a little gut check
time. But I thought we madea couple of adjustments helped our guys,
and then they just made big playsdown the stretch, and fortunate to get
a win and give a lot ofcredit to our crowd and want to thank
them for their juice and energy tonight. We needed it. That's that's the

(15:18):
kind of help that you need.You know. They called two timeouts because
the crowd was roaring as we madea couple of shots and trying to get
it to settle back down. Soagain, thank our students and the fans
that came to the game tonight.I think they made a big difference.
You love to see it from Hunteragain, a player who has had some
highs and lows. Here six offourteen in this game against Miami, led

(15:39):
all scorers with twenty points in thecontest brenew once again highlighting Chase Hunter's play
from this game as well as Ohhe was cooking the chef he and Cheffin,
Yeah, they did. They werepacking it in, making it hard,
and we talked about that early inthe first half that you know,
we're going to have to see someother things and other guys are gonna have

(16:00):
to be shot ready, and wekind of knew that might happen. So
yeah, that you know, certainlythere were shots available, and you know,
Chase was really rolling. Ian Madeyhughes three. I think at the
top of the key. I thoughtour post did a better job in the
second half. Thought we got postgot a little stagnant in the first half
and we got them moving a littlebetter and that helped us. So yeah,

(16:25):
it was it was terrific. Yeah, the chef brought down eleven rebounds,
was good inside the paint there interms of physicality, and you love
seeing that. Only five points forCheflin in the game, and again PJ.
Hall only thirteen for him in thisgame. Encouraging though that you're seeing
other guys like Hunter, like JackClark who will get to in a minute,
and of course Joe Girard with thegame at Syracuse a few days ago.

(16:49):
Coming up big and providing some scoringdefense has always been a staple of
a Brad Burnell team. Here's Bradon their defensive play of late. I
don't know that was anything. Youknow, We've we've worked on our defense,
our defense. I've said this,and I think our numbers are probably
skewed a little from a couple ofbad games. I don't think we're as

(17:10):
bad defensively as maybe what we looklike in Ken Palm. We're not as
good as we want to be ormaybe have been some years in the past.
I think our guys have been fightingand competing, and I think when
our bench plays well, I thinkthat helps us on the defensive end because
we've got guys like Josh and RJand Dylan Chauncey, who you know,
those guys bring a level of athleticismto our team, and that also keeps

(17:37):
our starters a little bit, youknow, more fresh, and then that
helps us late in games like tonight. And we mentioned Jack Clark once again,
who has had a nice run offthe bench here of late, now
that he's healthy. Jack Clark goingagainst his old wolf Pack program that he
played so many games for. Here'sBrenell after the game talking about the impact

(17:59):
that j Clark brings to the court, not only in terms of scoring,
but how he positions others for successon the court. Really big. Yeah,
you know, we didn't have Jackin the first game, and it
just helps with matchups. It helpsus when we need, you know,
when when we need to play smaller, he can play some four. We
can play three guards to match them, and you know, it just it

(18:23):
changes our team a little bit.You know, we can play he and
Wiggins together occasionally. Obviously he canbe the big three when he's playing with
Ian or RJ. And so hishis six defensive rebounds, I think he
had. You know, he hadno turnovers. He had three assists,
in a great steal and layup,made a three. You know, there's

(18:45):
one shot I didn't like. ButI thought he played a really good game.
And he's older guy, so he'sbeen through some things, and you
know, he was significant tonight.Now, despite the win at Syracuse a
few days ago, turnovers were anissue. Did a nice job distributing the
ball, great job in terms ofball security, not turning it over.

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Here's the coach on what that meansmoving forward. Yeah, we uh,
you know, we've done a prettygood job most of the year. Obviously
Syracuse is very poor. But sometimeswe get going and we're trying to play
a little faster than we need to, and it's you know, everybody says
throw it inside, throw it inside, and that's fine, but you know

(19:30):
it's those are those passes aren't aseasy as some of just making passes around
a perimeter sometimes and so there's goingto be you know, for everyone you
get in there, or to thecouple that you get in there, you're
going to have one that's not goingto be an easy pass. And if
you don't make the right read orput it exactly where it needs to go,
it's going to get deflected. Andso you know that takes a real
skill to deal with that. Wealways have a couple of turnovers that way,

(19:52):
but you know, I feel likemore times than not we get it
down there or create something because ofour post play. Moon had a bit
of an interesting week some days offfrom practice there. Brad talked about that
after the game, the challenge andthe balance between rest versus rust. In
a critical portion of their season,we were off Sunday. They didn't practice

(20:12):
Monday. You know, you're gettingthem in and out a little bit on
Tuesday. And you know, it'sfunny. I thought at Syracuse a little
bit when you don't practice and thenall of a sudden, those dudes aren't
exactly the quickest guys, and sonow you're in a game with some high
level athletes and the game is goingquick if you haven't practiced and you're not

(20:33):
quite used to it sometimes and youknow, but that's kind of just where
we are. They won't practice tomorrow. We will do very little tomorrow,
and they probably won't do it verymuch on Friday, just so they can
have their legs for what it'll bea hard game against an athletic group at
NC State on Saturday. Hey,look, February might as well be reunion

(20:56):
month for Clemson basketball. We talkedabout Jark, you know about Joe Girard.
How about Ben Middlebrooks. Yeah,one of Brad's favorite players here at
Clemson is now featured with the wolfPack. Here's Brad Burnell on reuniting today
with Ben Middlebrooks. I mean,I've seen him in spot time, I
haven't There been a couple of gameswhere we've watched, like I watched some

(21:18):
of their game for Miami. Yeah, Ben's doing a nice job. You
know. I'm happy for Ben,and he's a good player, and that's
why we recruited him, and we'renot surprised at that he's helping their team
in the least. So you know, I'll say hello to him right before
the game and then we'll both getgo about the business of trying to win.
We mentioned so many players who havestepped up big of late. How

(21:41):
about Josh Beadle kicking in six pointshad to assist. Brenell had some thoughts
about Beatle and how he contributed tothe win against Miami. I met when
I met with our team on Sundaya while back, the week prior.
You know, we had a goodmeeting, but then I didn't think leading
into Syracuse, he didn't practice verywell, you know, and so it

(22:03):
was guys were just playing well andwe were kind of rolling. I just
didn't get him in there. Youknow. We when we met and talked
about it on Sunday again or Monday, I should say, and I just
said, hey, man, Ireally think this week you can help our
team. We need you. Butyou've got to practice well, and you
know, Josh had good practices andso you know, I told him you're

(22:26):
going in early, you know,and not surprised by his performance. I
think Josh is a good player,you know. He gives us another dynamic
with some speed and playmaking, andwhen he's locked in defensively, he can
he can be a factor on bothends. So happy for Josh, really
proud of him. Those were bigminutes, really big. Again, how

(22:48):
many times do we talk about it? With this team shooting shooting, shooting,
they have to be effiicient first halfnot so much thirty five percent.
Second half. Poinson was fifty fivepercent shooting for the game. Here's coach
Brenell on what that means to himas a coach and what it means for
the team to be knocking down theseshots as they head closer and closer to

(23:11):
tournament play. Here. Yeah,we've had some tough days shooting in here,
and so yeah, it's important.I mean obviously it changes everything,
right, I mean, you makea couple of threes and crowd gets into
the game and gives your guys alittle more juice to guard. You know,
It's just it's exciting, right.It pumps everybody up. And we've

(23:33):
had some games. Obviously, wemade one and we made four, and
we actually defended well in both thosegames. But we're not going to win
when you make that that few anumber, and so you got to you
got to have a good mix toyour game if you want to play,
you know, play well, orplay at a high level. Tonight we
did. Yeah, we've had sometough days shooting in here, and so

(23:56):
yeah, it's important. I meanobviously it changes everything, right, I
mean, you make a couple ofthrees and crowd gets into the game and
gives your guys a little more juiceto guard. You know. It's just
it's exciting, right. It pumpseverybody up. And we've had some games.
Obviously we made one and we madefour, and we actually defended well

(24:18):
in both those games. But we'renot going to win when you make that
few a number. And so yougotta have a good mix to your game
if you want to play, youknow, play well or play at a
high level. Tonight we did.Hey, look, Brunelle was fired up
in this game too. He wasgetting the crowd up. You could see
his arms were raised and there's anenergy quotient at Little John especially when this

(24:40):
team is at home and they're shootingwell, there's excitement brewing. Here's Brad
Burnell on the advantage of having somenoise and what that can do to rattle
an opponent. You know, it'sfunny. I love our fans, but
we don't always know that. Isaid to some folks on the radio,
like, hey, guys, it'sthird down, let's go. It's third

(25:02):
down, its third and long.We need to stop, like let's you
know, And it's amazing how thatchanges everything. Then the offense, they're
trying to call out plays they're notsure if they can hear them. You
know. It puts a little anxietythere and making the right play, and
it sometimes causes a turnover, causea bad shot. And then sometimes the

(25:22):
opposing coach, like you call timeout, And so they called two timeouts
because the crowd noise was loud.And then at the end of the game
they don't have any in the lasttwo minutes because they've had to use it
because your crowd is so loud thatwe're trying to all and I do the
same thing you try to when thebuilding gets loud. Sometimes you just got
to try to as a coach.We're not trump playing against this. We're

(25:45):
gonna call time out and see ifthey'll get rev back up again. And
most fans don't, you know,And so it's huge and obviously it energizes
our players. I mean, ourguys are on their toes bouncing around to
play defense, and you know,it's like, why can't we be this
way all the time? Guys likeyou know what I mean. Like,
But so, yeah, that washuge. We've had great, great fan

(26:07):
turnout all year. You know,there have been a couple of games we
haven't made enough shots to help keepthem excited. But tonight they were huge.
Thanks to our marketing folks and allthe students and everybody that came out.
We talk about it all the timetoo. Dabo Sweeney has that windshield
mentality. Somebody asked coach Brenell afterthe game, are you excited about the
winning streak? Here you back ontrack, and here's Brunell on Yes,

(26:30):
we're excited, but one game ata time. Yeah, but every game
is its own I think that's onething. You know. You don't get
to bottle this up and take itwith you Saturday. You start ground zero,
and you know, all the shotsthat guys made like they're going to
be in ground zero. Now,you hope that their psyche is good,
right, that they come into thegame with more positive vibes and spirit and

(26:53):
all those kinds of things. Butthat's you know, that's one of the
things about basketball. It's it's artsback again. We got to we got
to get all geared back up,and we've got to recharge our battery and
and uh fill our tank and getready to go again. So but I
do think, you know, havingwon, I reminded our guys at halftime,
Guys, we've you know, lasttwo games have come to the final

(27:15):
four minutes tied. We've been onthe road, and we've been able to
execute. Because it was almost likeat halftime our team was a little I
don't want to say down, butit's like, oh man, we just
lost that lead, and like youcould tell, like the emotional energy level
was low, and there's a littlebit of like, let's get get our
swagger back here now, like let'swe're fine. Like we played pretty well

(27:37):
for most of the half and uh, you know, and then it was
hard back and forth there early inthe second half and Miami's credit, they
played well first ten minutes and theyhad to lead. But our guys,
we kept encouraging that, Hey,we're fine, we've been here, we've
come from behind, we're you know, we're gonna make a couple of threes
with the Crowdill get going, Let'sjust keep playing and uh, thankfully and

(28:00):
certainly their hands are full today againstNC State. Tip off coming up here
shortly from Little John, Don Munson, Tim Burray on the call, ninety
two point five WEESC and the ClemsonAthletic Network. Coming up next, Will
Vandervoort stops five from the Clemson Insider. It's the Angles Countdown A tip Off
Show, ninety two point five WSCninety two point five wd S is the

(28:22):
Upstate's new home with a Clemson TigersWelcome back to the Eagles count Down,
a tip Off Show primetime edition heregetting you ready for Clemson, a big
time game in the ACC. TheACC at large has been a bit of

(28:48):
a hard puzzle to figure out.So far, Clemson has stabilized things a
little bit and they look to getanother win here in the ACC tonight.
In advance of that, let's joinour friend Will Vandervoort from The Clemson Insider,
noted Steelers fan by the way,but also does a great job covering
all things Clemson sports at the ClemsonInsider. Well, Van Dervoard, what's
up, my friend? Well,what's going on? John? You're doing

(29:08):
well today? Doing great, myfriend. It's the weekend. Bracketology's in
full form here and you've got obviouslythe net rankings for Clemson. I'm more
agreeable this year than this time lastyear. I know everybody was on the
edge of their seat, including coachBrunell. Let's go back to that game,
obviously against Sarracuse. Again, there'sa couple of games I want to
talk to you about in terms ofwhat Clemson did. Joe Girard I heard

(29:32):
his postgame presser there and we playedsome of that audio last show here on
the Engles count Down, a tipoff show, and Brenell, in particular
the fact that there were some boozeat the j Anda Wireless Dome. I
thought that was a little bit tasteless, and Brunell agreed with that in the
post game, but the way Girardhandled the moment with high efficiency with his

(29:53):
family in the stands, including hisgrandmother, by the way, that was
a real turning point type of momentfor him here at Clemson. I thought
so. And there was a momentthere in the second half. Syracuse was
making a run earlier in the halfand they ended up making running time in
the game, but earlier they madea run and they got it to three,

(30:14):
and then Gerard just hit this deepthree and as he looked at the
crowd as he's running back down thecourt, he just, you know,
did the shish, told him toshish, to quiet down his index finger
Rover's mouth. And I thought thatwas a good moment and kind of kind
of like kind of set the itwas already set because he played so well,
but he kind of told the storyof the day that he was coming

(30:36):
there to show the people Syracuse thathe still was as good, not that
they didn't believe he wasn't, butthat you know, he was coming in
for business and his job now.As much as he loves Syracuse, where
he got his undergrad at and grewup as an Orange fan, that he
wanted to show that, you know, hey, look, I'm here to
beat you this time, and I'mgoing to do everything I can to do

(30:57):
that and he had a great game, as you guys mentioned, and just
was lighted out four to five fromthree point range. I mean, he
was just bombinant. Man. Itwas like it was a good performance and
obviously kind of showed his, ifyou will, his allegiance to Clemson now
that Clemson is his new team,this is this is his school now,

(31:17):
and as much as he loves Syracuse, he's a Clemson Tiger too, and
he proved it in that game.And I think that that really, like
you know, not only brown Eland the staff who already knew that,
but it really I think was goodfor Clemson fans to see that they now,
you know, they've now I think, adopted him as one of their
own. Now Clinton people have,and that's good to see. Yeah,

(31:38):
no doubt. They've got some characterson this team this year, between the
chef and Gerard and obviously pg Halllarger than life. We'll talk more about
PGA here. Of course, Gerardwon ACC Player of the Week honors for
his performance. We'll get to theMiami game in a minute, a game
that obviously Clemson had had some strugglesagainst Miami, particularly this season in terms

(32:00):
of all of a sudden this Hurricanesteam couldn't miss a shot in that second
half of that last game. Butback to the Syracuse game and the team
in general and Girard in particular.Brunelle talked about this extensively after the game,
and I spoke with Don Munson beforethat particular game about Girard's path to

(32:20):
Clemson. Do you have some insightinto how that went? Because Don was
talking about he had a visit withDabosweeney was on campus and he fell in
love with the place right away.Obviously, I think the temperature difference between
Syracuse, New York and Clemson thistime of year is a big win.
But talk about the path that ledGirard from Syracuse to Clemson from your reporting
and also the booze. Look,here's what I'll say about that. It's

(32:45):
a different kind of transfer here.He lost his coach last year, so
this is not like we eye chasingthe money. Just your thoughts on Gerard's
path from Syracuse to Clemson. Whatwent into that whole deal there? Yeah,
so we'll start with that. Youknow, Jim bay Hein, who
he always wanted to play for,grew up as a fan of obviously being

(33:05):
an Orange fan, he's from theSyracuse area. People don't a lot of
people may not know that. Sohe's he grew up like right down the
road from Syracuse, and you know, was went to a lot of basketball
games and football games growing up andwanted to play for Jim Beahin and so
you know, he got that opportunityand did that. Became a fan favorite,

(33:29):
was one of them, probably stillone of the more beloved, uh
you know, and if you ifyou watched you know, and I was
listening to Don and Tim and coachbrown ll talk about it, you know,
when they went there, like hewas treated as a celebrity, like,
you know, one of the Syracusegreats. I mean, just lots

(33:49):
of people from the athletic apartment,you know, boosters and fans just greeted
him and and gave him a warmreception. You know. But you know,
when Behan retired, he decided thathe wanted a fresh start. He
also wanted to show It was veryimportant to him that he could show he
could play defense and that he couldgo somewhere else and be successful in another

(34:13):
system, because that's what you're goingto have to do at the professional level.
And I think that was big forhim to go and do that here
at Clemson and have the success he'shad, So he came down here.
He said he was looking for hisschool that was a big time football program.
That was important to him when hemade the transfer because he kind of
wanted to experience big time college football. Not that Syracuse is a big time

(34:35):
college football it is, but notto the level of Clemson, and he
wanted to experience that because that's adifferent thing for him. You know,
Syracuse is considered a basketball school andhe wanted to come to the school that
was more football school, and soClemson kind of fit that. And then
he said he loved loved coach brownl and loved the staff and he thought,
hey, look, you know thisis a perfect place for me.

(34:57):
It's warmth. You know, Idon't have worry about, you know,
being cold all the time or gettingdressed most of the time. And Dick
closed. So he said he jokedaround about that a little bit too when
he talked to us about it.But you know the main reason that that
he liked Clinston was because brown Aleplays the band aman defense and that he
could come and get on the teamand it was important to get on a

(35:17):
team that could be an NC DoubleA tournament team and also make a run
in the n C Double A Tournament, And so that was important to him
as well, and that's why heultimately picked Clemson. And by the way,
the only fans that were booting himwere the student section. Yeah,
the regular Syracuse fans. They wereThey were very appreciative of them, and

(35:38):
they applauded him a lot, especiallyin pregame, I was told. So
it was mainly just the Syracuse studentsection, by the way, which is
the future broadcasters of America all trainingright now up there. Good point.
Yeah, the next wave of sportsPlaybay play announcers. And look, I

(35:59):
love sarahcu I love people from there, but I thought it was a bit
of a reach. But student sectionswill student section as you know there Will
Vanderwart's our guest here on the EnglishCountdown to tip Off show. Okay,
let's talk about that Miami win.Third straight win in the ACC for Brunell's
team, and looked there was someconcern about Clemson coming into February, January,
December obviously was a great stretch youget into conference play. It's not

(36:21):
just Clemson though, it's the entireconference. We're going to talk about this
Miami game in a minute, butjust the conference in general. Obviously there's
some games going on right now ona Saturday, but talking about what happened
last week, I mean, theVirginia obviously goes down to pitt and then
North Carolina goes down again, andyou've got so many teams right now,
they're jockeying back and forth. Ithink the bigger thing for Clemson here is

(36:44):
not the ACC standings. You wantthat fourth position for the double bye,
but really it's the net rankings andwhere you are in the quads. Right
Yeah, I mean Clemson sitting rightnow in a very pretty as far as
conference goes, they're sitting pretty goodshape right now. They're you know,
came into today's game fifth in theconference, and they got a chance to

(37:06):
move up here this week, thisweekend and this week to come, and
so they'll have an opportunity to getthemselves in position to maybe getting that top
four, right, which is whatyou want to do from a conference standpoint.
So that gives you one less dayyou have to play basketball, or
two less days, I should say, So it only takes two days to
get to the championship game as opposedto five days if you're in the lower

(37:28):
seeds, right, or four daysif you're you know, five or below.
So they got that's big. Thatis a big deal to get into
the top four, and so hegives you a chance to actually win a
championshiping. I think Clinton's a teamthat you've got to look at one of
the three. I think Clemson's isone of the three best teams in the
conference. I can argue for youput Virginia in there. Obviously two,

(37:52):
but I think it's going to comedown to Clemson, Duke, North Carolina,
and Virginia to win the ACC,I think. And so that's there,
right, So that's s important.And then you got, as you
mentioned, you want to keep winningbecause you want to and you want to
do it the way you ended theMiami game. You want to be efficient
doing so, so those things domatter. Unfortunately. Yeah, well,

(38:13):
it's not just about wins and losses. As we know, it's more about
losses than wins. It really isloss. When you win a game,
you need to win it in thebest possible way possible. I don't mean
by blowing teams out, but Imean by shooting the basketball well an well
on the right. In the caseof the Miami game, will start interrupt.

(38:36):
Will Vandervoord joins us here from theClemson Insider. In the case of
the Miami game, this will raisesome eyebrows against if very good Miami team
that's beaten some good teams already thisyear, beat the pulp out of Clemson
earlier twenty nine to six run toclose that game out. That's the kind
of stuff that, you know,any type of committee that's in charge of
selecting any type of tournament, it'sgonna look at and say, Okay,

(38:57):
that's one of those eye raising moments, are raising moments to say, you
know what, Yeah, that team, as we all know Will We've talked
about it, highly talented, hashad some injury issues along the way here,
But how about that finish against Miami. That is impressive. Yeah,
Well, then you throw the finishin Miami. You throw the way they
finished against Alabama, yep, whenthat game was tight on the road.

(39:21):
You go and look on the roadand how they finished against North Carolina where
the game gets tied with about threeminutes to go, and then Clemson goes
on a seven up and run andtakes the game away from North Carolina.
The same thing at Syracuse. Thegame is tied at sixty with about six
minutes to go, and Clemson goeson a run and takes control of that
game and it's over. So yeah, that shows that strength and those numbers,

(39:46):
believe that are not pop up inthe net rankings. And I know
fans are like, well, howis that number popping up? And not
like you get a win. It'sbecause of your efficiency in which you did
it, and how you shore pointsand so fast, how on each possession
and what I call weird stats thatI don't really count as real stats,

(40:06):
but the analytical nerves out there lovethem. But I'm not a big fan
of analytics. But that's what it'sbased off of, is analytical stuff,
and unfortunately it plays a big rolein the net ranking. So that's why
finishing those kind of games that way, especially at Alabama and especially at North
Carolina, it really is a bigdeal. And I found out today,

(40:29):
guys that Clemson is the only tool, Like if you take I think it's
the SEC the Big East, tryingto think of another Missouri Valley or whatever.
There's like three or four conferences thatare head of the ACC and the
net rankings, and Clemson is nota single one of those teams. Excuse

(40:50):
me, only one of those teamshas one top twelve win on the road.
Clemson has two of the h that'sfifty five teams. Clemson has as
that are ranked higher the conferences ofranked higher that Clinton actually has two more
wins than all those teams combined onthe road, and that shows you how
big that is and how big BigPunch's resume is as they go down the

(41:13):
stretch. Here, those two winsloom large for Clinton and a Syracuse win
with Syracuse beating North Carolina, howbig that Syracuse win on the road was
last Saturday. Yeah, it's it'sa little bit of a mix between what
we see in college football in termsof, well, we beat that team
and now they're looking good, andjust the longer stretch of schedule. In

(41:34):
the world of basketball, you getmore games packed into a shorter window.
It's compelling the way it works withnet rankings, with the way they're selecting
these teams. And last year itcame down to the wire for Clemson and
we felt like it probably wasn't gonnahappen, and there's gonna be a lot
of pissed off people about it.I think they're well on their way,
but it starts tonight, of coursein c State, coming into Little John
Tonight, big time game and you'relooking at again a conference that is so

(41:58):
unpredictable. Tell me a little bitabout this wolf packed team. What can
we expect from them, what's theirstory up to this point, and what
challenges do they present for Brunelle's teamtonight. Well, they got four players
averaging double digits, and it startswith DJ Horn. You know, obviously
sixteen seventeen points the game. Basicallya lot of people will remember DJ Burns,

(42:21):
the big guy in the middle whojust basically backs you down and it
just pushes the ball to the basket. Very good passor one of the better
big man passers I've seen. He'sgot sixty one assists, by the way,
which Lee is a second on theteam, only behind Michael O'Connell and
in terms of assists, so youknow, that tells you a lot about

(42:42):
who he is as a passer,that he's second on the team and assists,
so that's where he kind of he'llback you down and then he'll look
and find the open shooter. Sowhat they want to do is they want
to get the ball down the post. It all starts with Burns, yep,
and then they try to find oneof the perimeter guys that maybe you
know, flashing or cutting. Ifnot a guy's open on the perimeter,

(43:04):
they'd like to get him on thewings more than the corners. They struggle
shooting at the corners from what I'venoticed, So you know that they're going
to present some problems from from thatstandpoint. But I think I think Clinton
on the other ends, outside ofBurns, can really do some damage in
the post as well. And andhey, Will, how about this just
real quick to interrupt you. Ishould have brought this up earlier, but

(43:25):
we had the Joe Girard game lastweek. How about the Jack Clark game.
He's been incredible since he's been inthe lineup, but he's a former
NC State kid. Yeah, wellthat's what I was about to go down
there, because not only is theJack Clark game, but Ben Middlebrooks is
the former Clinton player that'll be playingthrough the state in this game. And
so he comes off the bench.He's averaging five points a game, so

(43:47):
uh, you know, we'll seethat's gonna be interesting dynamic right to this
game. But Jack Clark, man, you're right, I mean, dude,
he was what six point or eightpoint six rebounds, two steals,
and two blocks the day on hisbirthday, by the way, his birthday
on Valentine's Day, Yeah, onhis birthday exactly what a what a performance
for that young man. And he'sbeen since he's came back to the lineup

(44:10):
and been healthy, Clemson has gottenbetter defensively. He makes Clemson way better
defensively. He can cover the bestman on the wing or in the post.
He's good on the board. Thathelps another guy, that helps Ian
Shefflin on the defensive boards. Hecleans things up. Guys. Those six
rebounds all defensive rebounds, So that'ssixth shot extra possessions he eliminated. That's

(44:34):
huge, and that's gonna be bigin this game with Burns because that's what
NC State likes to do with Burns. They'd like to get those extra possessions.
So we'll see if if Clark canbe a difference maker when it comes
to least trying to defend mister Burns. Well, we got a bit of
a late night tip off here.Relatively speaking, it's not grit after dark,
but it's grit Ish after dark ish. I guess you could say seven
forty five tip off at Little Johnn C State Clemson and giving us the

(44:59):
full low down on life from LittleJohn is our good friend. Will Vandervort
from the Clemson Insider. Always apleasure to catch up, man. Enjoy
the game, and let's see ifthe Tigers can bring home yet another win.
Bud Hi yues, I appreciate it, man. We'll talk at you
later. There it goes Will Vandervardfrom the Clemson Insider as the Ingles Countdown
to tip Off Show rolls on nexton ninety two point five WeSC ninety two

(45:21):
point five wd S is the Upstatesnew home for the Clemson Tigers. Get
your closer to an evening tip offdown in beautiful Little John Coliseum. John

(45:43):
Ellis Richmond, we were taking youhome here on the Ingles Countdown to tip
Off Show, ninety two point fiveWeSC. We've got final thoughts on this
matchup. It's the seventy first meetingall time between these teams in Clemson,
and in those games, Clemson leadsthirty seven to thirty three in the series.
Bradvurdell all time against NC State fourteenand ten. None of that matters

(46:04):
because it's a new year. There'sbeen a lot of movement Richmond. When
you look at this NC State team, your thoughts on this team and Kevin
keats the job he's done so far. Yeah, when you look at him
fifteen to nine overall, seven andsix in the ACC, and you talked
about how important it is with thesestretch games down, I should say,
these games down the stretch and fightingfor the opportunity of climbing the ACC standings

(46:27):
and how important that's going to befor the ACC Tournament and especially now I
know this is not going to affectanything for this year, but moving forward,
the news came out that with theaddition of the new teams coming into
the ACC, not every team isgoing to make the ACC Tournament moving forward.
So the last three teams in theACC Tournament are in the ACC standings

(46:50):
next year will not make the ACCTournament in it for all the top Yeah,
so it is going to be alittle bit different obviously this year.
Yes, you're trying to fight forposition in the ACC and try to get
especially one of those top four spots, so you could get a double buy.
And so they're still outside shots forboth Clemson n c State, but

(47:12):
a lot of things have to happen. And NC State's coming off of a
heartbreaking loss against Wake Forest, andyou know, so that is one of
those tough scenarios, you know,from that perspective. So you look at
INC State, They've had a weekto rest, They've had a long time.
Yes, they've had a week toget things going. And DJ Horn
is a guy who averaging almost seventeenpoints a game. Then they've got their

(47:36):
other DJ, DJ Burns, thebig man in the middle. And I
love DJ Burns from his personality standpoint, and I've called several of his games
when he played at Winthrop and heis just a guy who always has a
smile on his face and is acrowd favorite there at NC State and he
can be tough to contend with.So PJ. Hall, that's going to

(47:58):
be a good matchup, you know, from that perspective. But Kevin Keats
always has NC State playing really well. And I know there's slumping right now
to a certain degree, though,remember Keats back in twenty nineteen, they
just missed out with the net rankingsin the tournament. And of course last
year the storyline was NC State getsin Clemson. Just not. These coaches
know what it means right now toperform at their best, and these teams

(48:19):
are going at it. Coming uphere shortly, Don Munson, Tim Burray
on the call ninety two point five. Weesc's coverage continues here. It's the
Ingles count Down to tip Off Showfor Richmond Weaver, Trey Falco, I'm
John Ellis. Enjoy the big gametonight and we'll see you next time on
The Ingles Countdown to tip Off Showninety two point five WSC