February 27, 2024 • 48 mins
The Tigers gear up to face down the Panthers 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!
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(00:00):
W E, S E F M. Greenville, Spardenburg, Andersen. Time
for the Ingles Countdown to tip OffShow, brought to you pie Ingles Markets,
Low Prices, Love the Savings,Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Harley Davidson
of Greenville, Rare Flooring Center,the Surgery Center at Pella McGhee eating an
air pan by pal Meadow State Armory. Now Here are your hosts, John,
(00:25):
Alism, Richman and Weaver. Welcomeback to the Angles Countdown, a
tip off show. You've got abig one tonight in the acc down there,
Little John tipping off at seven pmbetween a nine and seven team in
Clemson Tigers and another nine and sevenconference team in the pitt Panthers. Coming
(00:45):
to town with Jeff Capele Squad onfire. Right now. This is the
Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show,brought to you by your friends at Ingles,
Low Prices, Love the Savings.I'm John Ellis Tree Falco Producing,
and that is Richmond Weaver and hehad a big night last night, my
friend, Thank you, thank you. Here we go. Yeah, so
I had the big premiere for BetterTogether Furman's Championship Quest, which is a
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five episode limited series that highlights thetwenty twenty two to twenty three Furman men's
basketball season and their magical run towin their first Southern Conference Tournament championship in
forty three years, and obviously getinto the Big Dance and the game that
they had against Virginia down in Orlando, and obviously being able to beat Virginia
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on the last second shot by JPPegeese. And we were able to embed
a film crew with the team forthe entire season and be able to chronicle
just what it was like throughout theseason and being able to relive that,
and so it was a great opportunityto showcase two of the episodes, which
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are about thirty minutes. We wereable to showcase those there at the Peace
Center in the Gunter Theater last nightand had a great turnout there. The
entire team was there and I dida little Q and a session with Coach
Bob Ritchie up on stage in betweentwo of the episodes, and it was
a great evening. I would haveto say there was, you know,
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a little bit of nervousness just fromthe standpoint of obviously you want the event
to go well, but also thatnervousness from a standpoint I'm hoping people like
how I've put this story together,because this is not a story about victories
and defeats on the basketball court.It transcended beyond the boundaries of the basketball
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court. This was more about facingadversity and how you respond to that and
the trials and tribulations that happened throughoutthe course of the season. And that's
why you can view it from anoutside perspective thinking, oh, yeah,
well they were picked preseason number one, they had Jalen Slosson and Mike bothwell
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back of course, yes, theywere easily going to win the Southern Conference
Tournament championship, and that was notthe case. It was a little bit
of a roller coaster ride, andso you know, I wanted to be
able to capture that and then tosee how the shot, which was when
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they lost in the Southern Conference TournamentYEP to Chattanooga and David John Baptiste hit
that thirty thirty five foot shot tobreak the hearts of Furman fans all over
the world. To then a yearlater you have a completely new definition of
the shot, and that's JP Pegeesehitting that shot against Virginia. But in
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all reality, that shot against Virginia. That was just icing on the case.
That was just bonus, because thereal triumph was winning the Southern Conference
Tournament championship for the first time inforty three years since nineteen eighty, which
is absolutely crazy when you think aboutit, and it was one of the
longest droughts in college basketball history.I think Furman was third on that list
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as far as the last time thatthey've won a conference championship. So obviously
it had been a long time,and so obviously put a lot of work
into it and have gotten a lotof great feedback and again just wanting to
be able to create a living legacyof that remarkable season, and I greatly
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appreciate everybody that has worked on it, and obviously big things to Furman,
Furman Athletics, and Bob Ritchie andthe basketball team for in all reality,
John allowing us to enter their worldand invading their privacy. You know,
yes, they're not easy, yes, and be early on there was scenarios
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that played out. You could tellthe players were not comfortable with cameras around,
and then by midway through the seasonit was completely different. You could
tell just the ease and then atthe end of the season. I mean
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it was like we were part ofthe team, you know, just side
by side, and so all thecameramen too, that helped out. And
Brian Fanning, the cinematographer, Uh, he did a great job. And
even coach Ritchie had talked about that. Uh, it really hit him in
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terms of how invested these guys were. That when they're at the Sanford game
in Birmingham at the end of theseason, the Furman bus pulls up there
to the hotel, and so this, I mean, we were really intentional
about capturing behind the scenes content,stuff that you don't see, hearing audio
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that you don't hear in the courseof a season. And so Richie talked
about that when the bus is pullingup to the hotel and then all of
a sudden he sees these camera guysjumping out of the bushes. He's like,
all right, yep, these guysare dedicated, you know. But
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it was a it was a fantasticevent and very excited that we're going to
be able to to get this seriesout and uh, there will be a
big push once the final date isannounced, but it is coming Amazon Prime,
so stay tuned here in the nextcouple of weeks it will be available
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on Amazon Prime again. Better TogetherFurman's Championship Quest five episode limited series,
and very excited for everybody to beable to view this. So thank you
for asking. John Ravo, myfriend. Yeah, let's take a look
back while we got some time here. Clemson in Florida State. Obviously,
Clemson's got a big game against pittand I coming up next. Will Van
Dervore joins us from the Clemson Insider. But this is a big win for
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Clemson, a game that again whenyou can win when things aren't perfect,
and they certainly weren't. PG.Hall gets into foul trouble, Joseph Gerard
has a big night. Just yourimpressions on this win. It wasn't pretty,
but it's great to get the ninewins in the ACC. Oh,
no question. I mean you hadto have this type of win at home
just to keep pace with all ofthese other teams that are in this you
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know, scenario of being a logjamor whatever they're in the ACC, and
you had to have that. AndI did like the fact that you could
win one of these games when youdidn't have PJ Hall at his best because
of that foul trouble. It onlyplayed sixteen minutes. Yeah, you know,
I mean, so you know thereis that. And you know,
Jack Clark did Yeoman's work on theboards with eleven rebounds, but he was
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over in this game except that thefree throw line. He was over five
from the field, over three fromthree point line, and the chef Ian
Shefflin just wasn't himself, you know, from a perspective as far as what
we've seen offensively, but he again, he had eleven rebounds, so you
have that opportunity of guys stepping up. And then Chase Hunter though and Joseph
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Gerard the third. It was thosetwo who really set the tone at least
offensively there for the Tigers. AsChase goes six to twelve from the field,
Joseph five of twelve, but he'sfour of eleven from beyond the arc,
and then ten of ten perfect fromthe free throw line. And this
guy, I mean, it ismoney on the free throw line. And
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what I love about him also isthat every player has their routine when they're
on the free throw line, andit can be you know, varied to
a one hundred different degrees, buthe is so efficient. There is no
wasted motion whatsoever. The ref throwshim the ball, he catches it,
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and he just shoots it. Hedoesn't you know, some guys will,
you know, they'll shimmy their shows, they'll trouble three times, they'll spin
the whatever. He just he justgets up there and shoots it and that's
it. And I do love thatfrom that perspective. But I did love
the fact that they're in the secondhalf. Florida State did make their run.
And these teams John, as youknow, they always make runs,
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they really do. And we've seen, unfortunately Clemson, They've had these scenarios
where these teams make runs and Clemsonjust hasn't been able to get some defensive
stops there. But Clemson was ableto do that as they were. The
Seminoles cut the lead there in thesecond half to five, and you're thinking,
oh, here we go, what'sgoing to happen here? But it
did seem like a game that wasnever really in question from that standpoint that
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Clemson was in control of this game, and as a great win for the
Tigers Saturday night there in Little JohnColiseum, and so now you know,
moving forward, you've got to getthis victory here in Little John tonight against
the Pitt Panthers and can you sweepthis series? And it's going to be
difficult task when you have Blake Hensonon the other side, who he can
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match Gerard in terms of shooting,because that guy can light it up and
we've seen him do that throughout thisseason. We got about sixty seconds.
We've got a short break here becausewe've got Will Vanvore coming up. But
the idea of court storming, he'sbeen in the news here, just a
quick thought on that before we inviteWill van Voorden into the conversation. Yeah,
you know, I think it's oneof those things where I think we
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have to evolve in terms of howwe're viewing court storming. And you know,
is there too many potentials of somethinggoing wrong versus you know, what
the positive aspect might be of courtstorming. And because at the end of
the day, if there's a scenariothat plays out and a player he pushes
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back on a student or a fan, whatever the age is, that player
is going to be the villain.Yeah, and they're going to say,
oh no, you've got to keepyour emotions in check. And I just
don't know if we want to continueto be in those type of scenarios from
that standpoint. Good thoughts as alwaysfrom Richmond Weaver. I'm John Ellis.
Coming up next. We're going tobe joined by Will Vandervoort from the Clemson
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Insider for a nice lengthy chat aboutthe Clemson Tigers and we're going to keep
diving into the conversation that everybody's talkingabout in college basketball court storming. This
is the Ingles count Down to tipOff Show, getting ready for Clemson basketball
on ninety two point five. TheWUSC ninety two point five WDSC is the
Upstate's new home for the Clemson Tigers. It's the Clemson Tigers versus the Pitt
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Panthers Tonight tip it off coming uphere shortly at seven pm, ninety two
point five WSC joining us now asalways to talk about these Clemson Tigers,
the journey they've been on this seasonand what lies ahead. Is our good
friend Will Vandervoort from the Clemson Insiderdot com. Well, welcome to the
show, my friend, Hey John, how you doing man? You guys
doing good? We are doing well. We're doing good. I know.
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Coach Brunellen, the entire Tigers programis feeling better right now after their performances
of late, especially what happened theother day against Florida State. Talk about
that win a little bit, yeah, I mean, it wasn't a pretty
win by any stretch. You know. The PJ. Hall got in foul
trouble as you know, early andreally wasn't a factor at all in the
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game. But luckily for Clemson,you know, I and Sheflin and Jack
Clark grabbed up the defensive rebounds theyhad to combined twenty two rebounds and that
really helped a lot. So Clemson, you know, wasn't a great win,
but they I mean, it wasn'ta pretty win, but a good
win, as what I was tryingto say, because they did get the
victory they needed. They're still sittingin that fifth place spot, tied with
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coincidentally Pittsburgh for that number five spot. And so I got a big game
as you mentioned here a little bitat Little John tonight. And I believe,
if I'm not mistaken, Clemson's goingfor Clinton hasn't won back to back
home games in conference play, Idon't believe in a long time this season,
So if they had it all tobe honest, I'm looking at the
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schedule now and I don't really seewhere they've won back to back home home
a SEC games, So this isgoing to be They're trying to do something
HA done all year, which iswhen back to back home conference games.
So we'll see if they can pullit out. Maybe the bad game was
the other day against Pittsburgh, Imean against Florida State, and maybe they'll
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play well gets fit because John,as you know and I know, they
have to play well tonight if theywant to win this basketball game, because
pitt is a road killer. Theygo on the road and they beat the
best. Yes they do. Andwe're joined by Will Vandervoort of the Clemson
Insider, and so we'll talk aboutalso just what we saw from the Tigers
in this Florida State game where therewas that scenario playing out that I know
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Clemson fans were questioning there in thesecond half as Seminoles whittle that lead down
to five points, but it wasthe Clemson defense that really suffocated them there,
and then obviously they were able topush that lead back to double digits.
And that's just so reminiscent of BradBurnel's teams that you can shut somebody
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down defensively, and that's what Itook away as such a positive there for
the Tigers, especially at home,being able to finally get some defensive stops.
Yeah, and they did a realgood job again on the perimeter for
a second straight game, Richmond.It's good to hear your voice, by
the way, and you know thatthey were I think flor State just two
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of nine twenty two from the fieldfrom the three point range, I should
say, and that was huge becauseyou know, earlier in the season,
Clinton has given up those kind ofshots to everybody. Now that's back to
back games where they you know,Georgia Tech they held one for nine in
the second half and three point range. So what you're seeing is Clemson has
really turned up the pressure defensively inthe second half more so, and that's
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allowed them to keep those big leadsthey've had in those two games where I
believe the other night, Florida State, even though I think fans got a
little anxious, Florida State never gotcloser than six points. I don't believe
the other night, and I thinkthat's you know, every time Florida State
got where they were getting with thesestriking distance Clemson would make a play and
stretching back out past end. Soto me, it kind of kept things.
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It wasn't as in intent because ithadn't been another home games like the
NC State in Virginia and Georgia Techwhere they blew those leads and then all
of a sudden there was a onepossession game going down the stretch. That
wasn't the case against Florida State.They were able to keep it around a
three to four possession game most ofthe night. And and and I thought
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it was, like I said,it wasn't pretty, but it was a
good win. And defensively, withthe reason why you mentioned Richmond, they
were able to hold on to thatgrasp of the game late in the game.
And so they're gonna need to dothat tonight because obviously they're gonna play
one of the best shooters in theACC in Blake Henton. Yeah, he
lift the Tigers up for six often three pointers up there in Pittsburgh earlier
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this season, scored a game hightwenty seven points in that game. He's
one of the he let Duke whatwould he go seven for seven against Duke?
You know, he lit up NorthCarolina. I know as well,
and I believe Virginia too. Sothis guy is capable of beating anybody.
So Clemson the key tonight is theygot to get somebody on him and not
letting him just shoot willy nilly fromthree point range, or it could be
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a long night for Clemson, especiallywhen you consider the health of PJ.
Hall and and Jepplin where you know, well keeps talking about it. They're
not one hundred percent. They don'tpractice all the time. And I think
you see that right now. You'reseeing like Cheflin missing shots at the goal,
right at the goal that he wasmaking earlier in the year. You're
seeing PJ seems like he's more tiredgoing down the stretch of games than he
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has been in the past, AndI think that's got a lot to do
with whether or is ailing them.You know, I've heard some things,
but nothing's been officially reported about whatthose elements are. They're able to play
through it, and that's the goodthing, But just getting them to the
game, brown Nell says, hasbeen hard to get these two guys ready
to play because they have to givethem some time off the rest, and
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you know, when you're playing basketball, that's hard to do because you're playing
multiple times a week. So youknow, we'll see how they do that's
gonna be big tonight, and howthey guard Blake Kempton's going to be huge,
Yeah, no question. And obviouslywhen you're looking at PJ. Hall
and Ian Shefflin the chef, it'sa quick turnaround for these guys playing on
Saturday and then quickly here on Tuesdaynight. But it was that defense against
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Florida State, holding the Seminoles tosixty three points, which was the third
fewists that Clemson has allowed in accplay. And obviously, yes, we're
going to talk about Blake Kenson andjust how effective he has been, but
I think we're starting to see justhow good this backcourt can be for the
Tigers. Will when you've got ChaseHunter, when he can get into the
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offensive action and hit some shots fromthe perimeter, that opens things up just
even more so. And it makesit even better because then you have Joseph
Gerard the third. Yes I'm goingto use his full name here because he
earned that with twenty four points,four threes and perfect ten for ten from
the free throw line. And Ithink this is a really underrated backcourt when
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Chase Hunter is able to contribute againoffensively. But just talk about what Joe
Girard the third has meant to thisTigers team this season and how he is
playing really well the last few gamesyear. Yeah, for the most part,
he's been steady, Eddie, andhe's averaging almost sixteen points a game.
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As you mentioned twenty four to thenight when they played Pittsburgh up there,
probably his best game of the seasoncame against pitt Back in that game
in December of the third he wasseven to ten overall, six of nine
from three point range, of course, as almost always five for five from
the through foul line. He finishedwith twenty five points that night. They're
gonna need that again from him.But and like you mentioned, they're gonna
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need Chase Hunter the last two games. Brown El has clearly said it.
You know, Chase Hunter has beenthe best basketball player on the floor the
last two games. Yeah, Andwhen Chase Hunter plays that way, it
will give you an example. Upthere at kitt he was one for nine
and was zero for five from threepoint range, going scored four points.
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Now, he had five assists inthat game, and that's good. But
when Chase Hunter gives you sixteen pointsand four or five assists as much much
better and it's way better. That'swhat he've been doing the last few games
here for Clemson. Even in thatVirginia game, he played well and that
one point lost they had. Sothey need Chase Hunter to play well because
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he does compliment Joe Gerard. Andwhen Chase is playing well, as you
mentioned Richmond, then most of thetime it opens up things for Gerard.
Yes, and it also takes pressureoff the inside guy. New question,
pj and Ian and Godfrey. Sothat's that's a big deal right there.
If those two guards are playing well, When Clemson's two guards are playing at
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a high level, they're one ofThey're tough team to be and they're going
to be a hard out that thesetwo guys continue to play this way well.
Vandervoord is our guests from the ClemsonInsider dot com. And Will Cameron
Burnett, one of your colleagues there, had talked about in an article here
that Brad Burnell refers to that groupsort of in that upper middle pack as
the glob, and they're trying tobreak up the glob a little bit in
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terms of teams battling for that doubleby in the eight CC. But the
vitality of this game tonight, theimportance of this game tonight, can't be
understated when you're talking about where pittstands in the standings, where Clemson stands
in the standings right now in termsof getting to that top four. Just
talk a little bit about trying tonavigate that and how Clemson could potentially work
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their weight out of the glove intothe top four. Yeah. So here's
the thing for some people that understandof court of we'll talk about the glove.
If you beat Pittsburgh tonight, youseparate yourself from the glove. There
you go. And if you gotto go on and take it on the
road and win against Notre Dame thisweekend too. But if you win,
you move to ten and seven inconference play. Pitt who's tied with you
right now, they're going to fallback to nine to eight and they're going
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to fall back into the glove.So the loser of this game falls back
into the to the middle of thatglob because you got n C State,
Florida State, the loser of thisgame, Syracuse. They're all sitting there
with nine to eight conference wins,right, So if you're Clemson, you
can get up in that double digitcategory, separates yourself. Now you're sitting
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clearly by yourself with the ten winsandok, clearly in fifth place by yourself.
And then it presents this opportunity,guys, if Clemson wins out,
no matter what, if Virginia does, Clemson is the number four seed.
So if Virginia, because I don'tthink Virginia's gonna lose three games. But
if Virginia loses two and wake Forestonly loses to Clemson at the end of
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the year, if it's a threeway tie, Clemson will beat wake Forest
in the three way tie because itwill first go to Virginia as the number
three seed because there'll be two toone against both of those guys against wake
Forest and Clemson, and then Clemson. Then they moved the head to head
and Clinton would have that head tohead win against wake Forest, which would
give them the number four overall seed. So if Clemson wins out, they're
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no worse than the number four seedin the ACC Basketball Tournament. And that's
huge because I think Clemson can makea run in the tournament if they can
get that two days by. Ireally do believe that, especially with the
health of the end and those guysthat have those two extra days off would
be huge. Clinton's for those twoguys are Ian and PJ. So that's
that's what's on the line for Clemsonright now. It's everybody's talking about Clemson's
(23:07):
in the NCAA basketball term, noquestions, and they're gonna They're gonna win
more games this year. They're gonnabe in right now. If you're a
Clemson fan, you have to wantto be in position to do something the
program has never done. Yeah,and that's when an AEC baseball basketball term
dog gone it. If Virginia Techin Florida State and Miami can come in
and win the Dog on a SECbasketball tournament, don't you think it about
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crime? Clemson does it, Yes, And I know the fans rout there
like it'll never happen. Look,it's gotta happen. It can happen,
and I think this is the bestopportunity for Clemson to do it. But
they got to get that number fourseed. I think you could put themselves
in that position. Yes, theydo. Will Van der Voard of the
Clemson Insider is our guest, asyou're listening to the Ingles count Down to
(23:51):
tip Off show right here on ninetytwo point five w s C, the
Clemson Tigers is getting ready to takeon the Pittsburgh Panthers, and it is
a massive game from that perspective.Will, we just talked about that,
obviously, and I do believe thatthis is a team that can make a
run, not only in the NCAAtournament, but doing something that you just
talked about that hasn't been done ina long time, just even getting to
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the ACC final, and then obviouslyit's never been done being able to win
an ACC tournament championship. But thisteam, because you have an All American
player PJ Hall, and then youhave the backcourt with Chase Hunter and Joseph
Gerard a third, that you dohave some of those key components. But
Will, I do need to askyou about what we saw this past weekend
with Duke in wake Forest and thecourt storming and how all of that is
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being played out. And obviously,you know, I don't know what we
would be talking about in sports rightnow if we didn't have this court storming
issue, because obviously there's not reallyfootball, but this is the heart and
the heat of college basketball. Butyour thought on where we are with court
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storming, because I have been inthe middle of that when I was there
with the team in nineteen eighty nineninety season and we beat Duke and win
the ACC regular season title there andLittle John was electric and fans, students,
everybody storming the court there and itwas crazy and I loved it,
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but there was a little bit ofangst also, like, oh man,
this is a little bit insane.And obviously we've seen Caitlin Clark get bumped,
We've seen obviously Duke Kyle Philapowski andsomewhat injured knee ankle. We really
don't know one hundred percent, butit looks like he's going to be fine.
(25:48):
Minor injury there, but it couldhave obviously been worse. But your
thoughts on should we ban court stormingor what should we do with that?
Well, Richmond, if you wouldhave took out Christian Layton or back in
nineteen eighty ninety ninety, you wouldhave you would have ended it there.
Yes, exactly. That was theopportunity. Richard saw he was there and
(26:11):
you could have just took him out. I missed it. Yes, but
no in all seriousness though, Imean it's something I think Brants did at
best the other day. As coaches, their job is to take care of
They promised the parents that when theiryoung man's coming to their schools, they're
going to take care of them inall aspects, including their well being.
(26:34):
Right, And he's right, He'slike when the fans stormed the court and
the players aren't given the time toget off the court, you put those
opposing players in bad situations. Inother words, like, I'll take it
for this instance, guys. Lastyear, Clemson of course always does it.
Clinton does a good job for themost part with the gathering at the
(26:55):
pall and win or lose, theycome on the field, right. Yeah,
And I remember the Florida State gamethis past year. The uh,
the the defensive end for Florida State, the big what's his name? He's
in the draft? Yeah, verseVerse was walking around the field giving the
Clemson fans, you know, alittle extra salute with the number one there,
(27:18):
if you know what I mean.And and and to me, that's
fine, he's enjoying it. He'scelebrating with his team, his fans and
stuff. But what if there's analtercation where a player a fan walked up
to him and said something to him. What could have happened? Yeah,
yeah, and and and is it? Is it now? I know,
versus making a rude gesture his faultthat a fan is getting up in his
(27:41):
face when he's like, you know, celebrating with his fans and doing you
know, just being being a youngman. You know, that's what That's
what Brad's talking about, is likewhen you when the stort comans and stuff
happened the fans. There's sometimes altercationshappening. There can be an altercation that
could happen between a player and theand in all seriousness, the fan.
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It's the fan's fault in any ofthese cases because this is the basketball player's
court feels will work. You know, basketball players or football players don't go
and storm their work job. Theirjobs right at work where we're working stuff
with their classrooms. So this iswhere they're working, getting up in their
face and they're saying things to them, and they're being rude. They're being
(28:23):
crude. Trust me, I've seenit, Richmond, you you've seen it.
We've all seen it. Now.Luckily, most players are good.
They just kind of blush, blowit off and they walk away, But
what if they don't. Sometimes,well, are we putting the players and
the fan in that situation to possiblysomething happens, And so that's what you
worry about practice. Those are somethings he's thought about. He says he's
(28:45):
always been okay with storming, butstort court storming, he said lately,
He's said, lately he's been thinkingabout it, that maybe he's leaning towards
not liking it as much because he'sworried about the safety of his players,
both what happened to Philipawski the otherday, what happened to Catherton Clark,
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and then also the possibility of analtercation could happen if one fan does something
that's rude or pushes a player orsomething of that nature. So if it's
definitely something you got to talk aboutme personally, guys. Look, I'm
a Clemson traditionalist. You guys knowthat I'm in history. I have no
issue. I'd never really like sayI just like the gathering at the Paul
(29:30):
or anything like that. But Ido see that there's a chance things could
happen, and so would I beokay if they eliminated gathering at the Paul
Clemson and all that stuff just becauseof things like this happened. I would
be because I'm worried about the safetyof the student athlete, the coaches,
and of course the fans, becauseI think safety's first and if you can
prevent it, I think that's thebest measure anything you can do. Yes,
(29:52):
we are still continuing with Will VanDervoord of the Clemson Insider right here
on ninety two point five WSC andso Will. The other side to this
too, is what you talked about, could there be an altercation? And
it is different Now you've got socialmedia. You've got some of these students,
these individuals, they're wanting stuff togo viral. They're running out there
(30:14):
with their phones in their hands,you know, recording as they're running out
there. And I just think aboutif there's a scenario that happens, and
we could see it potentially playing outthere where a fan comes up and if
they shove a player or they're runningafter a player and you can see Philipowski
gets pushed in the back. There'sa fan he's intentionally pushing Philipowski in the
(30:40):
back, and so what happens thenif a player gets pushed, they feel
threatened, and they respond, Guesswho the villain is. It's the player.
It's not the student, it's theplayer. And then we have havoc
that breaks out, right, socialmedia will be yes, social media,
and probably that would be the villain. But the villain's actually the thing,
(31:03):
I know. Yeah, and that'sbecause again, as Brad said, this
is their court. It's the playersbasketball court, not the fans. Yes,
exactly, and the players on everyright, especially in Philipapski set where
there was three seconds still on thecloth, I know, he's like,
he's got every right to get offthat court before the fans starts storming.
And that's something they got to workthrough. I think in this day and
(31:25):
age, it's just different. LikeI hate to say this, and I
don't mean it to say this way, but I think it's like we got
a little bit more sense fact inthe old days, Richmond, so we
would come after guys that are waybigger than us and try to intimidate them
or anything. I found that there'ssome guys that did that much. That's
maybe when they got liquid courage inthem, they would do that. But
(31:45):
and when you're when you're not you. You just had a little more sense
to you when we were younger,and so you just wanted to go celebrate
with your players, right, notreally say anything to the yeah, exactly,
it was more about celebrating with yourteam and your yes. Right,
if I'm that fan, I knowit's hard to dodge a seven foot guy,
but you know what, you stilltry to dodge them, you know.
(32:07):
And you see that he's getting offthe court, stop and let him
get off the court exactly. Andpeople wanted to blame field praxy to the
other. Then'm like, what ishe supposed to do? The guy's running
at hm, He's gonna embrace likeany of us would and push somebody off
of it. That's what you woulddo, what anybody else would do.
That fan is getting in his business, not the other way around. And
so you know, and people say, why wuldn't be off the court already
(32:30):
because the game was still going on. That's why Y understand the situation,
you know, And and and soyou know, people just they get to
up in the air about things.There was invitation to indications that happened to
clinch the football the last couple ofyears with fans storming the football field at
NC State, there was a situationwhere a fan got up into Justin Ross's
(32:52):
face and said something pretty crude.You go back and find it. You
can find it. And then therewas a situation where a fan did the
same thing I want to say todj Oui under the lay Notre Dame dune
COVID when he ran on, sothat they had to remember Notre Dame.
Fans rushed the field. I rememberthat. Yeah, yeah, And and
(33:13):
remember these are places where fans aren'ta lot on the field, like the
art Clemson. Uh so you knowtwo interests where that I know personally where
I saw because I was there,and Clemson football. Obviously people want to
beat Clemson football, so there's alwaysa rush when they do. You know,
I saw it personally where two playersby fans, and it's like,
(33:37):
that's what I worry about, isthat because what if dj you know,
did something, or what if youknow Justin Ross, you know, he
sort of did do something, butit didn't get too pubblic subsicized. But
but you know, but I thinkbecause most people understood Justin Ross was actually
the victim, not not He didn'tstart it. He was trying to get
(33:57):
off the field and the guy gamethat started it with them. So I
think most people understood that and theydidn't make a big deal about it,
but they shouldn't be putting that situationto begin with Richmond. And I think
that's the point you're making. That'ssomething we got to worry about. Is
the safety of the players, thestudent athletes, and the coaches that are
the visiting team that's trying to getoff the field and off the court.
They need to be taken care of. And I think there's a way Clinton
(34:19):
does the best. So they sayyou need to wait thirty seconds before rushing
the field, and I think,you know, not rushing the fields.
They don't rush the field of Clinton, but you know what I mean,
Yes, I think I think otherteams need to start putting that rule in
place too, regardless of who they'replaying. They need to come out and
say there'll be a thirty minute,there'll be a thirty second window before you
can get on the court or geton the field. He's the best court
stormer analysis on the beat. Hereit's Will Vandervoord from the Clemson Insider giving
(34:45):
us a perspective on that and thebig game tonight against pitt Will Van Dervard,
thanks for joining us, my frienda guys, thanks so much for
having me. Man. I hopeI didn't go too deep. No,
no, Man, the more thebetter, Will vandervoort from the Clemson Insider
right here on ninety two point fiveweec Ingles count Down a tip off show.
You and I and Will and TreyFalco have all struggled with saying court
(35:07):
storming. It's one of those that'sbeen tripping us all off and tripped me
up yesterday on one of four nineFox Sports Upstate. I got you earlier
before we went on air, andthen Will tangled with it for a little
bit. He wrestled with it,but we got through some great analysis there
from Will. Yeah, it reallyis in this English language can be very
difficult at times. Yes, becausealso when you start having something that people
are very passionate about and you're tryingto get your point across, that does
(35:30):
happen from that standpoint, But Ido agree with Will on a lot of
things that as much as I dolike tradition also, but I'm a big
believer that things evolve. I mean, we've seen that in society. We've
seen that obviously just from looking atyour carrying a phone. Now, I
mean technology evolves, we have allof that, and I know that's not
(35:53):
the same analogy as far as traditionsand that evolving, but I do think
you need to change with the timeand make sure you're understanding that how important
is that to the game and isthere more probability that something negative could happen
(36:13):
versus the positive aspect of that.And I just think we're it could be
in a scenario of opening yourself up, and we talked about it earlier,
that you're opening yourself up to scenarioswhere you could have a bad situation.
And again it's the players are goingto be the villains. They just are.
(36:37):
Now there'll be some people and againhow it might play out if they're
protecting themselves you know or whatever,but they're still going to be the villain
because how many times do we hear, oh, they got to keep their
emotions in check, you know,there they they can't do that. Well,
what about these fans, these studentsthat they can't keep their emotions in
(36:58):
check? And you know, goafter had the luxy've had a few beverages,
maybe yes, whatever it might be. Yes, players do not Yeah.
And you just see it in someof these fans how they think that
because they've purchased a ticket that theycan say anything they want to. And
(37:19):
I've been around the fans in LittleJohn and it's amazing to me, and
across the country and other arenas.So this is not just Little John or
Clemson fans, but it's amazing tome the energy that is spent vilifying the
opponents versus how about using that energyto lift up your team and be that
(37:42):
positive standpoint rather than yelling at therests or being very negative to the opposing
team, celebrate your team. That'smy point. As sports talkers, we
appreciate the topic at hand. Wehope Kyle's okay, but we appreciate it
because it's that time of the yearwhere underal sports talk framework, there's not
a whole lot to talk about,but we certainly have a lot to talk
(38:04):
about. When it comes to thetop twenty five, we'll talk about that.
Some games that are coming up tonight, some games that happened yesterday,
including one against Miami and North Carolina, some big action there. This is
the Angles count Down, a tipoff show we roll on next on ninety
two point five. The WSC ninetytwo point five WDSC is the Upstates new
home for a Clemson Tigers for thefifteenth time all time, Clemson tangles with
(38:37):
Pitt Tonight. Coach Brad Burnell alltime has had success against this team.
Clemson all time eleven and three inthe series at home five and one.
Tip off coming up at seven pmon ninety two point five. We SC
always good to catch up with Willvanderworked from the Clemson Insider go to find
his work at the Clemson Insider dotcom. As always, when you look
at the state of the ACC rightnow, North Carolina squea by Miami last
(39:00):
night, so they remained at thetop of the standings at fourteen and three.
You have that log jam there inthe middle. We'll get to that
in the midt of the glob asBrad Brenew refers to it. Duke is
at twelve and four, Virginia elevenand six and third place alone, Wake
Forest storm in the court as theydid. They are still ten and six
right now, and then you havethe nine win teams Clemson at nine and
(39:22):
seven with the tiebreaker currently over theiropponent. Tonight Pitt also at nine and
seven. You have NC State atnine and seven, and then Syracuse nine
and eight. Florida State. Thatwas a big loss for them against Clemson
because they were right there in thatmix and they're eight and eight now.
And then you have teams that areseemingly out of that mix, Virginia Tech
all the way down to Louisville withlosing records in the conference. When you
(39:44):
look at the status of the ACCright now, Rich it's pretty clear what's
ahead for Clemson. You know,you win tonight, you break that tie
officially the pit, you get toten wins, you got wake Forest ahead
on the schedule. You start tocontrol a little bit of your destiny at
that point. And as we talkedwith Will, how important it is is
to get that fourth place finish inthe ACC, that you know, being
(40:04):
in one of the top four spotsbecause you have the double by and not
to say a team can't win fourgames they're in the ACC tournament in four
days. Yet that is possible,but man, it's a lot easier when
you only have to win three gamesin three days because you're here at the
end of the season, and that'swhat you know from a scenario just looking
at it with PJ. Hall andIan Shefflin, just how much they're wear
(40:29):
and tear on the season have theyendured right now, and you can see
how it is affecting them. Soagain, anytime you can get into a
perspective where you can have a littlebit more rest, and that's why you've
got to have this push right hereat the end of the season. And
so you do have to love thefact that you can control your own destiny
here that you don't have to worryabout scenarios playing out. Well. Team
(40:51):
A and Team B and Team Call have to do certain things for you
can climb up into that spot.So Clemson wins out, they're in good
position. And it's got to starthere in Little John Coliseum tonight at seven
o'clock, trying to get that sweepagainst Pittsburgh. And I do have to
mention though, that North Carolina gameand RJ. Davis. This is again
mister stat guy over here. Ido have to give out some shoutouts here.
(41:15):
So RJ. Davis scored forty twopoints last night, the rest of
the North Carolina team scored thirty threepoints, and it was the first time
a tar Hill outscored the rest ofthe team since January the twenty ninth,
nineteen eighty three. Oh my goodness, by somebody. I think a lot
of people know mister Michael Jordan's whenhe scored a career high thirty nine points
(41:40):
against Georgia Tech. So there yougo, mister R. J. Davis.
He's joined some elite company last night. Well, pat is a team
right now, that's very interesting.They've been hot. I think eight of
ten right now is where they're at. Jeff Caple has that program rolling in
the right direction. They're eighteen tonine right now. Of course they've got
the nine wins in the conference.When you look at this matchup, obviously
(42:00):
Blake Henson is the guy you talkabout. But what are some of the
key standards here for Clemson to stemthe tie tonight and get the win against
pitt Yeah, well again it's BlakeHenson, And I know you can talk
about guard play for sure, andI think Henson is the guy that is
we've seen hitting big shot after bigshot, and so I think for Pittsburgh
(42:25):
they go as far as Blake Kensongoes, and I think that's a big
part of it. Now another guyis Zach Austin. He seems to be
the wild card for Pittsburgh and he'shelped in numerous different areas of the game.
And I think you know, oneof the things that you've seen from
him is that you know, itwas a scenario playing out where they didn't
(42:45):
play as well in the post forPittsburgh against that first matchup with the Tigers.
And so we know PJ. Hallhad a double double in that game.
So can the Tigers be able toexploit that? And how healthy is
PJ Hall? But also so don'tforget Joseph Gerard the third. I mean,
he was seven to ten from beyondthe arc in that first matchup against
(43:05):
Pittsburgh, and so can he haveanother offensive explosion like that? I think
you're going to need that, youknow, from that perspective, But I
do believe that it's going to beBlake Kenson. Can you slow him down
and you cannot let him get intoa groove early on in this game,
no doubt about it. Coming upnext, we'll take a look at the
top twenty five scoreboard for tonight,What's ahead, what's going on in the
(43:30):
ACC will take a look at theAC standing standings one more time and give
you some final thoughts on this matchupbetween Pitt and Clemson, the fifteenth meeting
all time between these programs. That'sRichmond Weaver. I'm John Ellis. This
is the Eagles count Down to tipOff Show ninety two point five WSC ninety
two point five WDS is the Upstatesnew home with a Clemson Tigers got a
(44:14):
big but tonight at the ACC Clemsonposting Pitt coming up at seven pm.
Don Munson, the Dapper Don aswe call him here, along with Tim
Burray, will be on the callon the Clemson Athletic Network. Keeping locked
in the nine to two point fiveWeSC all evening long for all the Clemson
men's basketball action this evening. Elsewherein the top twenty five this evening,
(44:37):
Davidson, they're fifteen and twelve rightnow. They're tipping off at seven pm
at number twenty one, Dayton,the Flyers are twenty one and five on
the season. Tip Off begins atseven pm on CBS Sports Network, Number
sixteen. Kentucky at nineteen and eight, traveling to Starksville to take on Mississippi
State. Also at nineteen and eight, a couple of teams looking to get
(44:57):
the twenty wins overall in the SECtip off at seven pm on ESPN Number
one Houston, they remain number one. They are twenty four and three right
now hosting Cincinnati, looking to remainnumber one. To get their twenty fifth
win of the season, they'll haveto beat the Bearcats. At seven pm
to night tip off on ESPN two. You've got number seven Kansas, big
(45:19):
game against BYU byu is looking forwin number twenty Kansas looking for win number
twenty two. That's eight pm onthe Big twelve Network, Number twenty two.
Utah State they are twenty two andfive right now. Take it on
Fresno State. Presno State. Nota good season so far. They're eleven
and sixteen. Utah State twenty twoand five right now. That tips off
late night at ten pm. Andyou've got San Jose State nine to nineteen
(45:45):
right now. Traveling to San DiegoState they are twenty one and seven.
That's an eleven pm tip off.Wow, that's late now. I won't
be watching that one on CBS SportsNetwork around the Atlantic Coast conference. We
mentioned the standings earlier. We'll giveyou a recap of that in a minute
because it's getting down to crunch time. In the ACC. Of course,
you have Clemson and Pit tipping offat seven pm. Also Syracuse eighteen and
(46:08):
ten overall tipping off with Virginia Techat seven pm in c State traveling to
Florida State. That's a nine pmtip off on ESPN two. It's a
big one for wake Forest now onthe road. Never easy in the ACC.
On the road, although it isNotre Dame and they've had a tough
season, be a big challenge forWake Forest emotionally after the big win against
(46:28):
North Carolina to come back and getthe one o North winover Duke. I
should say, to come back andget a win over Notre Dame. They
are eighteen to nine right now.That is a nine pm tip off on
the ACC network. When you lookat the standings right now in the Atlantic
Coast Conference, we talked about itearlier. North Carolina, with the big
win over Miami last night, remainson top of the standings at fourteen to
three. You have twelve and fourDuke right now in second position, Virginia
(46:52):
eleven and six third spot. Rightnow, each of those teams with twenty
plus wins overall Wake Forest ten andsix right now in the fourth spot with
their big win over Duke they justhad. They're traveling to Notre Dame tonight.
Let's see theyn go to eleven andsix and then the glob as Brat
Brundell has talked about the teams vyingfor that four spot that are just kind
(47:13):
of glued together. You got atrio of teams at nine and seven,
Clemson and Pitts. Somebody will breakthat tie tonight, obviously, as they
face off here shortly nine and seven, nine and seven for Clemson in pit
each NC State who we mentioned earlier, They've got a big game tonight.
They're also at nine and seven,Syracuse at nine and eight, Florida State
is eight and eight, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Miami, Notre Dame,
(47:36):
Georgia Tech, and Louisville all teamswith a losing record right now in
the ACC and seemingly jocking for sometype of position down there in the bottom
half of the conference, but certainlynot going to be playing for the four
seed right now and the double byand in some unrelated basketball news but related
to Clemson, if you're a fanof T. Higgins, I know many
of you are. I know TreyFalco here a Steelers fan is not happy
(48:00):
about this news. T Higgins,this news broke since we last spoke on
this show has been franchise tag.So one of the greats for Clemson in
terms of wide receiver heritage will bestaying put in Cincinnati. Falco, your
thoughts real quick on this. Asa Steelers fan, you love it right,
Mah, he should come to Heshould come to Pittsburgh. Come to
(48:22):
Pittsburgh, come to Carolina for thatbetter. It's been fun for Ritchman Weaver,
for Trey Falco. I'm John Ellist. Don't forget. We are sponsored
by Ingles Low Prices, love thesavings, Ingles, Dash Markets dot Com.
This has been Ingles Countdown to tipOff Show. Stay tuned. Don
Munson and Tim Burray takeover for playby play action for Clemson against pitt A
huge game in the ACC for everybodyhere. We'll see you next time on
(48:44):
Ingles Countdown to Tipboff Show right hereon ninety two point five WSC
W E, S E F M. Greenville, Spardenburg, Andersen. Time
for the Ingles Countdown to tip OffShow, brought to you pie Ingles Markets,
Low Prices, Love the Savings,Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Harley Davidson
of Greenville, Rare Flooring Center,the Surgery Center at Pella McGhee eating an
air pan by pal Meadow State Armory. Now Here are your hosts, John,
(00:25):
Alism, Richman and Weaver. Welcomeback to the Angles Countdown, a
tip off show. You've got abig one tonight in the acc down there,
Little John tipping off at seven pmbetween a nine and seven team in
Clemson Tigers and another nine and sevenconference team in the pitt Panthers. Coming
(00:45):
to town with Jeff Capele Squad onfire. Right now. This is the
Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show,brought to you by your friends at Ingles,
Low Prices, Love the Savings.I'm John Ellis Tree Falco Producing,
and that is Richmond Weaver and hehad a big night last night, my
friend, Thank you, thank you. Here we go. Yeah, so
I had the big premiere for BetterTogether Furman's Championship Quest, which is a
(01:11):
five episode limited series that highlights thetwenty twenty two to twenty three Furman men's
basketball season and their magical run towin their first Southern Conference Tournament championship in
forty three years, and obviously getinto the Big Dance and the game that
they had against Virginia down in Orlando, and obviously being able to beat Virginia
(01:36):
on the last second shot by JPPegeese. And we were able to embed
a film crew with the team forthe entire season and be able to chronicle
just what it was like throughout theseason and being able to relive that,
and so it was a great opportunityto showcase two of the episodes, which
(01:59):
are about thirty minutes. We wereable to showcase those there at the Peace
Center in the Gunter Theater last nightand had a great turnout there. The
entire team was there and I dida little Q and a session with Coach
Bob Ritchie up on stage in betweentwo of the episodes, and it was
a great evening. I would haveto say there was, you know,
(02:20):
a little bit of nervousness just fromthe standpoint of obviously you want the event
to go well, but also thatnervousness from a standpoint I'm hoping people like
how I've put this story together,because this is not a story about victories
and defeats on the basketball court.It transcended beyond the boundaries of the basketball
(02:46):
court. This was more about facingadversity and how you respond to that and
the trials and tribulations that happened throughoutthe course of the season. And that's
why you can view it from anoutside perspective thinking, oh, yeah,
well they were picked preseason number one, they had Jalen Slosson and Mike bothwell
(03:07):
back of course, yes, theywere easily going to win the Southern Conference
Tournament championship, and that was notthe case. It was a little bit
of a roller coaster ride, andso you know, I wanted to be
able to capture that and then tosee how the shot, which was when
(03:30):
they lost in the Southern Conference TournamentYEP to Chattanooga and David John Baptiste hit
that thirty thirty five foot shot tobreak the hearts of Furman fans all over
the world. To then a yearlater you have a completely new definition of
the shot, and that's JP Pegeesehitting that shot against Virginia. But in
(03:53):
all reality, that shot against Virginia. That was just icing on the case.
That was just bonus, because thereal triumph was winning the Southern Conference
Tournament championship for the first time inforty three years since nineteen eighty, which
is absolutely crazy when you think aboutit, and it was one of the
longest droughts in college basketball history.I think Furman was third on that list
(04:17):
as far as the last time thatthey've won a conference championship. So obviously
it had been a long time,and so obviously put a lot of work
into it and have gotten a lotof great feedback and again just wanting to
be able to create a living legacyof that remarkable season, and I greatly
(04:40):
appreciate everybody that has worked on it, and obviously big things to Furman,
Furman Athletics, and Bob Ritchie andthe basketball team for in all reality,
John allowing us to enter their worldand invading their privacy. You know,
yes, they're not easy, yes, and be early on there was scenarios
(05:03):
that played out. You could tellthe players were not comfortable with cameras around,
and then by midway through the seasonit was completely different. You could
tell just the ease and then atthe end of the season. I mean
(05:24):
it was like we were part ofthe team, you know, just side
by side, and so all thecameramen too, that helped out. And
Brian Fanning, the cinematographer, Uh, he did a great job. And
even coach Ritchie had talked about that. Uh, it really hit him in
(05:46):
terms of how invested these guys were. That when they're at the Sanford game
in Birmingham at the end of theseason, the Furman bus pulls up there
to the hotel, and so this, I mean, we were really intentional
about capturing behind the scenes content,stuff that you don't see, hearing audio
(06:10):
that you don't hear in the courseof a season. And so Richie talked
about that when the bus is pullingup to the hotel and then all of
a sudden he sees these camera guysjumping out of the bushes. He's like,
all right, yep, these guysare dedicated, you know. But
(06:31):
it was a it was a fantasticevent and very excited that we're going to
be able to to get this seriesout and uh, there will be a
big push once the final date isannounced, but it is coming Amazon Prime,
so stay tuned here in the nextcouple of weeks it will be available
(06:53):
on Amazon Prime again. Better TogetherFurman's Championship Quest five episode limited series,
and very excited for everybody to beable to view this. So thank you
for asking. John Ravo, myfriend. Yeah, let's take a look
back while we got some time here. Clemson in Florida State. Obviously,
Clemson's got a big game against pittand I coming up next. Will Van
Dervore joins us from the Clemson Insider. But this is a big win for
(07:15):
Clemson, a game that again whenyou can win when things aren't perfect,
and they certainly weren't. PG.Hall gets into foul trouble, Joseph Gerard
has a big night. Just yourimpressions on this win. It wasn't pretty,
but it's great to get the ninewins in the ACC. Oh,
no question. I mean you hadto have this type of win at home
just to keep pace with all ofthese other teams that are in this you
(07:40):
know, scenario of being a logjamor whatever they're in the ACC, and
you had to have that. AndI did like the fact that you could
win one of these games when youdidn't have PJ Hall at his best because
of that foul trouble. It onlyplayed sixteen minutes. Yeah, you know,
I mean, so you know thereis that. And you know,
Jack Clark did Yeoman's work on theboards with eleven rebounds, but he was
(08:03):
over in this game except that thefree throw line. He was over five
from the field, over three fromthree point line, and the chef Ian
Shefflin just wasn't himself, you know, from a perspective as far as what
we've seen offensively, but he again, he had eleven rebounds, so you
have that opportunity of guys stepping up. And then Chase Hunter though and Joseph
(08:24):
Gerard the third. It was thosetwo who really set the tone at least
offensively there for the Tigers. AsChase goes six to twelve from the field,
Joseph five of twelve, but he'sfour of eleven from beyond the arc,
and then ten of ten perfect fromthe free throw line. And this
guy, I mean, it ismoney on the free throw line. And
(08:45):
what I love about him also isthat every player has their routine when they're
on the free throw line, andit can be you know, varied to
a one hundred different degrees, buthe is so efficient. There is no
wasted motion whatsoever. The ref throwshim the ball, he catches it,
(09:09):
and he just shoots it. Hedoesn't you know, some guys will,
you know, they'll shimmy their shows, they'll trouble three times, they'll spin
the whatever. He just he justgets up there and shoots it and that's
it. And I do love thatfrom that perspective. But I did love
the fact that they're in the secondhalf. Florida State did make their run.
And these teams John, as youknow, they always make runs,
(09:31):
they really do. And we've seen, unfortunately Clemson, They've had these scenarios
where these teams make runs and Clemsonjust hasn't been able to get some defensive
stops there. But Clemson was ableto do that as they were. The
Seminoles cut the lead there in thesecond half to five, and you're thinking,
oh, here we go, what'sgoing to happen here? But it
did seem like a game that wasnever really in question from that standpoint that
(09:54):
Clemson was in control of this game, and as a great win for the
Tigers Saturday night there in Little JohnColiseum, and so now you know,
moving forward, you've got to getthis victory here in Little John tonight against
the Pitt Panthers and can you sweepthis series? And it's going to be
difficult task when you have Blake Hensonon the other side, who he can
(10:16):
match Gerard in terms of shooting,because that guy can light it up and
we've seen him do that throughout thisseason. We got about sixty seconds.
We've got a short break here becausewe've got Will Vanvore coming up. But
the idea of court storming, he'sbeen in the news here, just a
quick thought on that before we inviteWill van Voorden into the conversation. Yeah,
you know, I think it's oneof those things where I think we
(10:37):
have to evolve in terms of howwe're viewing court storming. And you know,
is there too many potentials of somethinggoing wrong versus you know, what
the positive aspect might be of courtstorming. And because at the end of
the day, if there's a scenariothat plays out and a player he pushes
(10:58):
back on a student or a fan, whatever the age is, that player
is going to be the villain.Yeah, and they're going to say,
oh no, you've got to keepyour emotions in check. And I just
don't know if we want to continueto be in those type of scenarios from
that standpoint. Good thoughts as alwaysfrom Richmond Weaver. I'm John Ellis.
Coming up next. We're going tobe joined by Will Vandervoort from the Clemson
(11:22):
Insider for a nice lengthy chat aboutthe Clemson Tigers and we're going to keep
diving into the conversation that everybody's talkingabout in college basketball court storming. This
is the Ingles count Down to tipOff Show, getting ready for Clemson basketball
on ninety two point five. TheWUSC ninety two point five WDSC is the
Upstate's new home for the Clemson Tigers. It's the Clemson Tigers versus the Pitt
(11:56):
Panthers Tonight tip it off coming uphere shortly at seven pm, ninety two
point five WSC joining us now asalways to talk about these Clemson Tigers,
the journey they've been on this seasonand what lies ahead. Is our good
friend Will Vandervoort from the Clemson Insiderdot com. Well, welcome to the
show, my friend, Hey John, how you doing man? You guys
doing good? We are doing well. We're doing good. I know.
(12:18):
Coach Brunellen, the entire Tigers programis feeling better right now after their performances
of late, especially what happened theother day against Florida State. Talk about
that win a little bit, yeah, I mean, it wasn't a pretty
win by any stretch. You know. The PJ. Hall got in foul
trouble as you know, early andreally wasn't a factor at all in the
(12:39):
game. But luckily for Clemson,you know, I and Sheflin and Jack
Clark grabbed up the defensive rebounds theyhad to combined twenty two rebounds and that
really helped a lot. So Clemson, you know, wasn't a great win,
but they I mean, it wasn'ta pretty win, but a good
win, as what I was tryingto say, because they did get the
victory they needed. They're still sittingin that fifth place spot, tied with
(13:03):
coincidentally Pittsburgh for that number five spot. And so I got a big game
as you mentioned here a little bitat Little John tonight. And I believe,
if I'm not mistaken, Clemson's goingfor Clinton hasn't won back to back
home games in conference play, Idon't believe in a long time this season,
So if they had it all tobe honest, I'm looking at the
(13:28):
schedule now and I don't really seewhere they've won back to back home home
a SEC games, So this isgoing to be They're trying to do something
HA done all year, which iswhen back to back home conference games.
So we'll see if they can pullit out. Maybe the bad game was
the other day against Pittsburgh, Imean against Florida State, and maybe they'll
(13:50):
play well gets fit because John,as you know and I know, they
have to play well tonight if theywant to win this basketball game, because
pitt is a road killer. Theygo on the road and they beat the
best. Yes they do. Andwe're joined by Will Vandervoort of the Clemson
Insider, and so we'll talk aboutalso just what we saw from the Tigers
in this Florida State game where therewas that scenario playing out that I know
(14:13):
Clemson fans were questioning there in thesecond half as Seminoles whittle that lead down
to five points, but it wasthe Clemson defense that really suffocated them there,
and then obviously they were able topush that lead back to double digits.
And that's just so reminiscent of BradBurnel's teams that you can shut somebody
(14:35):
down defensively, and that's what Itook away as such a positive there for
the Tigers, especially at home,being able to finally get some defensive stops.
Yeah, and they did a realgood job again on the perimeter for
a second straight game, Richmond.It's good to hear your voice, by
the way, and you know thatthey were I think flor State just two
(14:58):
of nine twenty two from the fieldfrom the three point range, I should
say, and that was huge becauseyou know, earlier in the season,
Clinton has given up those kind ofshots to everybody. Now that's back to
back games where they you know,Georgia Tech they held one for nine in
the second half and three point range. So what you're seeing is Clemson has
really turned up the pressure defensively inthe second half more so, and that's
(15:20):
allowed them to keep those big leadsthey've had in those two games where I
believe the other night, Florida State, even though I think fans got a
little anxious, Florida State never gotcloser than six points. I don't believe
the other night, and I thinkthat's you know, every time Florida State
got where they were getting with thesestriking distance Clemson would make a play and
stretching back out past end. Soto me, it kind of kept things.
(15:43):
It wasn't as in intent because ithadn't been another home games like the
NC State in Virginia and Georgia Techwhere they blew those leads and then all
of a sudden there was a onepossession game going down the stretch. That
wasn't the case against Florida State.They were able to keep it around a
three to four possession game most ofthe night. And and and I thought
(16:06):
it was, like I said,it wasn't pretty, but it was a
good win. And defensively, withthe reason why you mentioned Richmond, they
were able to hold on to thatgrasp of the game late in the game.
And so they're gonna need to dothat tonight because obviously they're gonna play
one of the best shooters in theACC in Blake Henton. Yeah, he
lift the Tigers up for six often three pointers up there in Pittsburgh earlier
(16:30):
this season, scored a game hightwenty seven points in that game. He's
one of the he let Duke whatwould he go seven for seven against Duke?
You know, he lit up NorthCarolina. I know as well,
and I believe Virginia too. Sothis guy is capable of beating anybody.
So Clemson the key tonight is theygot to get somebody on him and not
letting him just shoot willy nilly fromthree point range, or it could be
(16:52):
a long night for Clemson, especiallywhen you consider the health of PJ.
Hall and and Jepplin where you know, well keeps talking about it. They're
not one hundred percent. They don'tpractice all the time. And I think
you see that right now. You'reseeing like Cheflin missing shots at the goal,
right at the goal that he wasmaking earlier in the year. You're
seeing PJ seems like he's more tiredgoing down the stretch of games than he
(17:15):
has been in the past, AndI think that's got a lot to do
with whether or is ailing them.You know, I've heard some things,
but nothing's been officially reported about whatthose elements are. They're able to play
through it, and that's the goodthing, But just getting them to the
game, brown Nell says, hasbeen hard to get these two guys ready
to play because they have to givethem some time off the rest, and
(17:36):
you know, when you're playing basketball, that's hard to do because you're playing
multiple times a week. So youknow, we'll see how they do that's
gonna be big tonight, and howthey guard Blake Kempton's going to be huge,
Yeah, no question. And obviouslywhen you're looking at PJ. Hall
and Ian Shefflin the chef, it'sa quick turnaround for these guys playing on
Saturday and then quickly here on Tuesdaynight. But it was that defense against
(17:59):
Florida State, holding the Seminoles tosixty three points, which was the third
fewists that Clemson has allowed in accplay. And obviously, yes, we're
going to talk about Blake Kenson andjust how effective he has been, but
I think we're starting to see justhow good this backcourt can be for the
Tigers. Will when you've got ChaseHunter, when he can get into the
(18:19):
offensive action and hit some shots fromthe perimeter, that opens things up just
even more so. And it makesit even better because then you have Joseph
Gerard the third. Yes I'm goingto use his full name here because he
earned that with twenty four points,four threes and perfect ten for ten from
the free throw line. And Ithink this is a really underrated backcourt when
(18:45):
Chase Hunter is able to contribute againoffensively. But just talk about what Joe
Girard the third has meant to thisTigers team this season and how he is
playing really well the last few gamesyear. Yeah, for the most part,
he's been steady, Eddie, andhe's averaging almost sixteen points a game.
(19:06):
As you mentioned twenty four to thenight when they played Pittsburgh up there,
probably his best game of the seasoncame against pitt Back in that game
in December of the third he wasseven to ten overall, six of nine
from three point range, of course, as almost always five for five from
the through foul line. He finishedwith twenty five points that night. They're
gonna need that again from him.But and like you mentioned, they're gonna
(19:30):
need Chase Hunter the last two games. Brown El has clearly said it.
You know, Chase Hunter has beenthe best basketball player on the floor the
last two games. Yeah, Andwhen Chase Hunter plays that way, it
will give you an example. Upthere at kitt he was one for nine
and was zero for five from threepoint range, going scored four points.
(19:52):
Now, he had five assists inthat game, and that's good. But
when Chase Hunter gives you sixteen pointsand four or five assists as much much
better and it's way better. That'swhat he've been doing the last few games
here for Clemson. Even in thatVirginia game, he played well and that
one point lost they had. Sothey need Chase Hunter to play well because
(20:14):
he does compliment Joe Gerard. Andwhen Chase is playing well, as you
mentioned Richmond, then most of thetime it opens up things for Gerard.
Yes, and it also takes pressureoff the inside guy. New question,
pj and Ian and Godfrey. Sothat's that's a big deal right there.
If those two guards are playing well, When Clemson's two guards are playing at
(20:36):
a high level, they're one ofThey're tough team to be and they're going
to be a hard out that thesetwo guys continue to play this way well.
Vandervoord is our guests from the ClemsonInsider dot com. And Will Cameron
Burnett, one of your colleagues there, had talked about in an article here
that Brad Burnell refers to that groupsort of in that upper middle pack as
the glob, and they're trying tobreak up the glob a little bit in
(20:56):
terms of teams battling for that doubleby in the eight CC. But the
vitality of this game tonight, theimportance of this game tonight, can't be
understated when you're talking about where pittstands in the standings, where Clemson stands
in the standings right now in termsof getting to that top four. Just
talk a little bit about trying tonavigate that and how Clemson could potentially work
(21:18):
their weight out of the glove intothe top four. Yeah. So here's
the thing for some people that understandof court of we'll talk about the glove.
If you beat Pittsburgh tonight, youseparate yourself from the glove. There
you go. And if you gotto go on and take it on the
road and win against Notre Dame thisweekend too. But if you win,
you move to ten and seven inconference play. Pitt who's tied with you
right now, they're going to fallback to nine to eight and they're going
(21:40):
to fall back into the glove.So the loser of this game falls back
into the to the middle of thatglob because you got n C State,
Florida State, the loser of thisgame, Syracuse. They're all sitting there
with nine to eight conference wins,right, So if you're Clemson, you
can get up in that double digitcategory, separates yourself. Now you're sitting
(22:02):
clearly by yourself with the ten winsandok, clearly in fifth place by yourself.
And then it presents this opportunity,guys, if Clemson wins out,
no matter what, if Virginia does, Clemson is the number four seed.
So if Virginia, because I don'tthink Virginia's gonna lose three games. But
if Virginia loses two and wake Forestonly loses to Clemson at the end of
(22:22):
the year, if it's a threeway tie, Clemson will beat wake Forest
in the three way tie because itwill first go to Virginia as the number
three seed because there'll be two toone against both of those guys against wake
Forest and Clemson, and then Clemson. Then they moved the head to head
and Clinton would have that head tohead win against wake Forest, which would
give them the number four overall seed. So if Clemson wins out, they're
(22:45):
no worse than the number four seedin the ACC Basketball Tournament. And that's
huge because I think Clemson can makea run in the tournament if they can
get that two days by. Ireally do believe that, especially with the
health of the end and those guysthat have those two extra days off would
be huge. Clinton's for those twoguys are Ian and PJ. So that's
that's what's on the line for Clemsonright now. It's everybody's talking about Clemson's
(23:07):
in the NCAA basketball term, noquestions, and they're gonna They're gonna win
more games this year. They're gonnabe in right now. If you're a
Clemson fan, you have to wantto be in position to do something the
program has never done. Yeah,and that's when an AEC baseball basketball term
dog gone it. If Virginia Techin Florida State and Miami can come in
and win the Dog on a SECbasketball tournament, don't you think it about
(23:29):
crime? Clemson does it, Yes, And I know the fans rout there
like it'll never happen. Look,it's gotta happen. It can happen,
and I think this is the bestopportunity for Clemson to do it. But
they got to get that number fourseed. I think you could put themselves
in that position. Yes, theydo. Will Van der Voard of the
Clemson Insider is our guest, asyou're listening to the Ingles count Down to
(23:51):
tip Off show right here on ninetytwo point five w s C, the
Clemson Tigers is getting ready to takeon the Pittsburgh Panthers, and it is
a massive game from that perspective.Will, we just talked about that,
obviously, and I do believe thatthis is a team that can make a
run, not only in the NCAAtournament, but doing something that you just
talked about that hasn't been done ina long time, just even getting to
(24:15):
the ACC final, and then obviouslyit's never been done being able to win
an ACC tournament championship. But thisteam, because you have an All American
player PJ Hall, and then youhave the backcourt with Chase Hunter and Joseph
Gerard a third, that you dohave some of those key components. But
Will, I do need to askyou about what we saw this past weekend
with Duke in wake Forest and thecourt storming and how all of that is
(24:41):
being played out. And obviously,you know, I don't know what we
would be talking about in sports rightnow if we didn't have this court storming
issue, because obviously there's not reallyfootball, but this is the heart and
the heat of college basketball. Butyour thought on where we are with court
(25:02):
storming, because I have been inthe middle of that when I was there
with the team in nineteen eighty nineninety season and we beat Duke and win
the ACC regular season title there andLittle John was electric and fans, students,
everybody storming the court there and itwas crazy and I loved it,
(25:27):
but there was a little bit ofangst also, like, oh man,
this is a little bit insane.And obviously we've seen Caitlin Clark get bumped,
We've seen obviously Duke Kyle Philapowski andsomewhat injured knee ankle. We really
don't know one hundred percent, butit looks like he's going to be fine.
(25:48):
Minor injury there, but it couldhave obviously been worse. But your
thoughts on should we ban court stormingor what should we do with that?
Well, Richmond, if you wouldhave took out Christian Layton or back in
nineteen eighty ninety ninety, you wouldhave you would have ended it there.
Yes, exactly. That was theopportunity. Richard saw he was there and
(26:11):
you could have just took him out. I missed it. Yes, but
no in all seriousness though, Imean it's something I think Brants did at
best the other day. As coaches, their job is to take care of
They promised the parents that when theiryoung man's coming to their schools, they're
going to take care of them inall aspects, including their well being.
(26:34):
Right, And he's right, He'slike when the fans stormed the court and
the players aren't given the time toget off the court, you put those
opposing players in bad situations. Inother words, like, I'll take it
for this instance, guys. Lastyear, Clemson of course always does it.
Clinton does a good job for themost part with the gathering at the
(26:55):
pall and win or lose, theycome on the field, right. Yeah,
And I remember the Florida State gamethis past year. The uh,
the the defensive end for Florida State, the big what's his name? He's
in the draft? Yeah, verseVerse was walking around the field giving the
Clemson fans, you know, alittle extra salute with the number one there,
(27:18):
if you know what I mean.And and and to me, that's
fine, he's enjoying it. He'scelebrating with his team, his fans and
stuff. But what if there's analtercation where a player a fan walked up
to him and said something to him. What could have happened? Yeah,
yeah, and and and is it? Is it now? I know,
versus making a rude gesture his faultthat a fan is getting up in his
(27:41):
face when he's like, you know, celebrating with his fans and doing you
know, just being being a youngman. You know, that's what That's
what Brad's talking about, is likewhen you when the stort comans and stuff
happened the fans. There's sometimes altercationshappening. There can be an altercation that
could happen between a player and theand in all seriousness, the fan.
(28:03):
It's the fan's fault in any ofthese cases because this is the basketball player's
court feels will work. You know, basketball players or football players don't go
and storm their work job. Theirjobs right at work where we're working stuff
with their classrooms. So this iswhere they're working, getting up in their
face and they're saying things to them, and they're being rude. They're being
(28:23):
crude. Trust me, I've seenit, Richmond, you you've seen it.
We've all seen it. Now.Luckily, most players are good.
They just kind of blush, blowit off and they walk away, But
what if they don't. Sometimes,well, are we putting the players and
the fan in that situation to possiblysomething happens, And so that's what you
worry about practice. Those are somethings he's thought about. He says he's
(28:45):
always been okay with storming, butstort court storming, he said lately,
He's said, lately he's been thinkingabout it, that maybe he's leaning towards
not liking it as much because he'sworried about the safety of his players,
both what happened to Philipawski the otherday, what happened to Catherton Clark,
(29:06):
and then also the possibility of analtercation could happen if one fan does something
that's rude or pushes a player orsomething of that nature. So if it's
definitely something you got to talk aboutme personally, guys. Look, I'm
a Clemson traditionalist. You guys knowthat I'm in history. I have no
issue. I'd never really like sayI just like the gathering at the Paul
(29:30):
or anything like that. But Ido see that there's a chance things could
happen, and so would I beokay if they eliminated gathering at the Paul
Clemson and all that stuff just becauseof things like this happened. I would
be because I'm worried about the safetyof the student athlete, the coaches,
and of course the fans, becauseI think safety's first and if you can
prevent it, I think that's thebest measure anything you can do. Yes,
(29:52):
we are still continuing with Will VanDervoord of the Clemson Insider right here
on ninety two point five WSC andso Will. The other side to this
too, is what you talked about, could there be an altercation? And
it is different Now you've got socialmedia. You've got some of these students,
these individuals, they're wanting stuff togo viral. They're running out there
(30:14):
with their phones in their hands,you know, recording as they're running out
there. And I just think aboutif there's a scenario that happens, and
we could see it potentially playing outthere where a fan comes up and if
they shove a player or they're runningafter a player and you can see Philipowski
gets pushed in the back. There'sa fan he's intentionally pushing Philipowski in the
(30:40):
back, and so what happens thenif a player gets pushed, they feel
threatened, and they respond, Guesswho the villain is. It's the player.
It's not the student, it's theplayer. And then we have havoc
that breaks out, right, socialmedia will be yes, social media,
and probably that would be the villain. But the villain's actually the thing,
(31:03):
I know. Yeah, and that'sbecause again, as Brad said, this
is their court. It's the playersbasketball court, not the fans. Yes,
exactly, and the players on everyright, especially in Philipapski set where
there was three seconds still on thecloth, I know, he's like,
he's got every right to get offthat court before the fans starts storming.
And that's something they got to workthrough. I think in this day and
(31:25):
age, it's just different. LikeI hate to say this, and I
don't mean it to say this way, but I think it's like we got
a little bit more sense fact inthe old days, Richmond, so we
would come after guys that are waybigger than us and try to intimidate them
or anything. I found that there'ssome guys that did that much. That's
maybe when they got liquid courage inthem, they would do that. But
(31:45):
and when you're when you're not you. You just had a little more sense
to you when we were younger,and so you just wanted to go celebrate
with your players, right, notreally say anything to the yeah, exactly,
it was more about celebrating with yourteam and your yes. Right,
if I'm that fan, I knowit's hard to dodge a seven foot guy,
but you know what, you stilltry to dodge them, you know.
(32:07):
And you see that he's getting offthe court, stop and let him
get off the court exactly. Andpeople wanted to blame field praxy to the
other. Then'm like, what ishe supposed to do? The guy's running
at hm, He's gonna embrace likeany of us would and push somebody off
of it. That's what you woulddo, what anybody else would do.
That fan is getting in his business, not the other way around. And
so you know, and people say, why wuldn't be off the court already
(32:30):
because the game was still going on. That's why Y understand the situation,
you know, And and and soyou know, people just they get to
up in the air about things.There was invitation to indications that happened to
clinch the football the last couple ofyears with fans storming the football field at
NC State, there was a situationwhere a fan got up into Justin Ross's
(32:52):
face and said something pretty crude.You go back and find it. You
can find it. And then therewas a situation where a fan did the
same thing I want to say todj Oui under the lay Notre Dame dune
COVID when he ran on, sothat they had to remember Notre Dame.
Fans rushed the field. I rememberthat. Yeah, yeah, And and
(33:13):
remember these are places where fans aren'ta lot on the field, like the
art Clemson. Uh so you knowtwo interests where that I know personally where
I saw because I was there,and Clemson football. Obviously people want to
beat Clemson football, so there's alwaysa rush when they do. You know,
I saw it personally where two playersby fans, and it's like,
(33:37):
that's what I worry about, isthat because what if dj you know,
did something, or what if youknow Justin Ross, you know, he
sort of did do something, butit didn't get too pubblic subsicized. But
but you know, but I thinkbecause most people understood Justin Ross was actually
the victim, not not He didn'tstart it. He was trying to get
(33:57):
off the field and the guy gamethat started it with them. So I
think most people understood that and theydidn't make a big deal about it,
but they shouldn't be putting that situationto begin with Richmond. And I think
that's the point you're making. That'ssomething we got to worry about. Is
the safety of the players, thestudent athletes, and the coaches that are
the visiting team that's trying to getoff the field and off the court.
They need to be taken care of. And I think there's a way Clinton
(34:19):
does the best. So they sayyou need to wait thirty seconds before rushing
the field, and I think,you know, not rushing the fields.
They don't rush the field of Clinton, but you know what I mean,
Yes, I think I think otherteams need to start putting that rule in
place too, regardless of who they'replaying. They need to come out and
say there'll be a thirty minute,there'll be a thirty second window before you
can get on the court or geton the field. He's the best court
stormer analysis on the beat. Hereit's Will Vandervoord from the Clemson Insider giving
(34:45):
us a perspective on that and thebig game tonight against pitt Will Van Dervard,
thanks for joining us, my frienda guys, thanks so much for
having me. Man. I hopeI didn't go too deep. No,
no, Man, the more thebetter, Will vandervoort from the Clemson Insider
right here on ninety two point fiveweec Ingles count Down a tip off show.
You and I and Will and TreyFalco have all struggled with saying court
(35:07):
storming. It's one of those that'sbeen tripping us all off and tripped me
up yesterday on one of four nineFox Sports Upstate. I got you earlier
before we went on air, andthen Will tangled with it for a little
bit. He wrestled with it,but we got through some great analysis there
from Will. Yeah, it reallyis in this English language can be very
difficult at times. Yes, becausealso when you start having something that people
are very passionate about and you're tryingto get your point across, that does
(35:30):
happen from that standpoint, But Ido agree with Will on a lot of
things that as much as I dolike tradition also, but I'm a big
believer that things evolve. I mean, we've seen that in society. We've
seen that obviously just from looking atyour carrying a phone. Now, I
mean technology evolves, we have allof that, and I know that's not
(35:53):
the same analogy as far as traditionsand that evolving, but I do think
you need to change with the timeand make sure you're understanding that how important
is that to the game and isthere more probability that something negative could happen
(36:13):
versus the positive aspect of that.And I just think we're it could be
in a scenario of opening yourself up, and we talked about it earlier,
that you're opening yourself up to scenarioswhere you could have a bad situation.
And again it's the players are goingto be the villains. They just are.
(36:37):
Now there'll be some people and againhow it might play out if they're
protecting themselves you know or whatever,but they're still going to be the villain
because how many times do we hear, oh, they got to keep their
emotions in check, you know,there they they can't do that. Well,
what about these fans, these studentsthat they can't keep their emotions in
(36:58):
check? And you know, goafter had the luxy've had a few beverages,
maybe yes, whatever it might be. Yes, players do not Yeah.
And you just see it in someof these fans how they think that
because they've purchased a ticket that theycan say anything they want to. And
(37:19):
I've been around the fans in LittleJohn and it's amazing to me, and
across the country and other arenas.So this is not just Little John or
Clemson fans, but it's amazing tome the energy that is spent vilifying the
opponents versus how about using that energyto lift up your team and be that
(37:42):
positive standpoint rather than yelling at therests or being very negative to the opposing
team, celebrate your team. That'smy point. As sports talkers, we
appreciate the topic at hand. Wehope Kyle's okay, but we appreciate it
because it's that time of the yearwhere underal sports talk framework, there's not
a whole lot to talk about,but we certainly have a lot to talk
(38:04):
about. When it comes to thetop twenty five, we'll talk about that.
Some games that are coming up tonight, some games that happened yesterday,
including one against Miami and North Carolina, some big action there. This is
the Angles count Down, a tipoff show we roll on next on ninety
two point five. The WSC ninetytwo point five WDSC is the Upstates new
home for a Clemson Tigers for thefifteenth time all time, Clemson tangles with
(38:37):
Pitt Tonight. Coach Brad Burnell alltime has had success against this team.
Clemson all time eleven and three inthe series at home five and one.
Tip off coming up at seven pmon ninety two point five. We SC
always good to catch up with Willvanderworked from the Clemson Insider go to find
his work at the Clemson Insider dotcom. As always, when you look
at the state of the ACC rightnow, North Carolina squea by Miami last
(39:00):
night, so they remained at thetop of the standings at fourteen and three.
You have that log jam there inthe middle. We'll get to that
in the midt of the glob asBrad Brenew refers to it. Duke is
at twelve and four, Virginia elevenand six and third place alone, Wake
Forest storm in the court as theydid. They are still ten and six
right now, and then you havethe nine win teams Clemson at nine and
(39:22):
seven with the tiebreaker currently over theiropponent. Tonight Pitt also at nine and
seven. You have NC State atnine and seven, and then Syracuse nine
and eight. Florida State. Thatwas a big loss for them against Clemson
because they were right there in thatmix and they're eight and eight now.
And then you have teams that areseemingly out of that mix, Virginia Tech
all the way down to Louisville withlosing records in the conference. When you
(39:44):
look at the status of the ACCright now, Rich it's pretty clear what's
ahead for Clemson. You know,you win tonight, you break that tie
officially the pit, you get toten wins, you got wake Forest ahead
on the schedule. You start tocontrol a little bit of your destiny at
that point. And as we talkedwith Will, how important it is is
to get that fourth place finish inthe ACC, that you know, being
(40:04):
in one of the top four spotsbecause you have the double by and not
to say a team can't win fourgames they're in the ACC tournament in four
days. Yet that is possible,but man, it's a lot easier when
you only have to win three gamesin three days because you're here at the
end of the season, and that'swhat you know from a scenario just looking
at it with PJ. Hall andIan Shefflin, just how much they're wear
(40:29):
and tear on the season have theyendured right now, and you can see
how it is affecting them. Soagain, anytime you can get into a
perspective where you can have a littlebit more rest, and that's why you've
got to have this push right hereat the end of the season. And
so you do have to love thefact that you can control your own destiny
here that you don't have to worryabout scenarios playing out. Well. Team
(40:51):
A and Team B and Team Call have to do certain things for you
can climb up into that spot.So Clemson wins out, they're in good
position. And it's got to starthere in Little John Coliseum tonight at seven
o'clock, trying to get that sweepagainst Pittsburgh. And I do have to
mention though, that North Carolina gameand RJ. Davis. This is again
mister stat guy over here. Ido have to give out some shoutouts here.
(41:15):
So RJ. Davis scored forty twopoints last night, the rest of
the North Carolina team scored thirty threepoints, and it was the first time
a tar Hill outscored the rest ofthe team since January the twenty ninth,
nineteen eighty three. Oh my goodness, by somebody. I think a lot
of people know mister Michael Jordan's whenhe scored a career high thirty nine points
(41:40):
against Georgia Tech. So there yougo, mister R. J. Davis.
He's joined some elite company last night. Well, pat is a team
right now, that's very interesting.They've been hot. I think eight of
ten right now is where they're at. Jeff Caple has that program rolling in
the right direction. They're eighteen tonine right now. Of course they've got
the nine wins in the conference.When you look at this matchup, obviously
(42:00):
Blake Henson is the guy you talkabout. But what are some of the
key standards here for Clemson to stemthe tie tonight and get the win against
pitt Yeah, well again it's BlakeHenson, And I know you can talk
about guard play for sure, andI think Henson is the guy that is
we've seen hitting big shot after bigshot, and so I think for Pittsburgh
(42:25):
they go as far as Blake Kensongoes, and I think that's a big
part of it. Now another guyis Zach Austin. He seems to be
the wild card for Pittsburgh and he'shelped in numerous different areas of the game.
And I think you know, oneof the things that you've seen from
him is that you know, itwas a scenario playing out where they didn't
(42:45):
play as well in the post forPittsburgh against that first matchup with the Tigers.
And so we know PJ. Hallhad a double double in that game.
So can the Tigers be able toexploit that? And how healthy is
PJ Hall? But also so don'tforget Joseph Gerard the third. I mean,
he was seven to ten from beyondthe arc in that first matchup against
(43:05):
Pittsburgh, and so can he haveanother offensive explosion like that? I think
you're going to need that, youknow, from that perspective, But I
do believe that it's going to beBlake Kenson. Can you slow him down
and you cannot let him get intoa groove early on in this game,
no doubt about it. Coming upnext, we'll take a look at the
top twenty five scoreboard for tonight,What's ahead, what's going on in the
(43:30):
ACC will take a look at theAC standing standings one more time and give
you some final thoughts on this matchupbetween Pitt and Clemson, the fifteenth meeting
all time between these programs. That'sRichmond Weaver. I'm John Ellis. This
is the Eagles count Down to tipOff Show ninety two point five WSC ninety
two point five WDS is the Upstatesnew home with a Clemson Tigers got a
(44:14):
big but tonight at the ACC Clemsonposting Pitt coming up at seven pm.
Don Munson, the Dapper Don aswe call him here, along with Tim
Burray, will be on the callon the Clemson Athletic Network. Keeping locked
in the nine to two point fiveWeSC all evening long for all the Clemson
men's basketball action this evening. Elsewherein the top twenty five this evening,
(44:37):
Davidson, they're fifteen and twelve rightnow. They're tipping off at seven pm
at number twenty one, Dayton,the Flyers are twenty one and five on
the season. Tip Off begins atseven pm on CBS Sports Network, Number
sixteen. Kentucky at nineteen and eight, traveling to Starksville to take on Mississippi
State. Also at nineteen and eight, a couple of teams looking to get
(44:57):
the twenty wins overall in the SECtip off at seven pm on ESPN Number
one Houston, they remain number one. They are twenty four and three right
now hosting Cincinnati, looking to remainnumber one. To get their twenty fifth
win of the season, they'll haveto beat the Bearcats. At seven pm
to night tip off on ESPN two. You've got number seven Kansas, big
(45:19):
game against BYU byu is looking forwin number twenty Kansas looking for win number
twenty two. That's eight pm onthe Big twelve Network, Number twenty two.
Utah State they are twenty two andfive right now. Take it on
Fresno State. Presno State. Nota good season so far. They're eleven
and sixteen. Utah State twenty twoand five right now. That tips off
late night at ten pm. Andyou've got San Jose State nine to nineteen
(45:45):
right now. Traveling to San DiegoState they are twenty one and seven.
That's an eleven pm tip off.Wow, that's late now. I won't
be watching that one on CBS SportsNetwork around the Atlantic Coast conference. We
mentioned the standings earlier. We'll giveyou a recap of that in a minute
because it's getting down to crunch time. In the ACC. Of course,
you have Clemson and Pit tipping offat seven pm. Also Syracuse eighteen and
(46:08):
ten overall tipping off with Virginia Techat seven pm in c State traveling to
Florida State. That's a nine pmtip off on ESPN two. It's a
big one for wake Forest now onthe road. Never easy in the ACC.
On the road, although it isNotre Dame and they've had a tough
season, be a big challenge forWake Forest emotionally after the big win against
(46:28):
North Carolina to come back and getthe one o North winover Duke. I
should say, to come back andget a win over Notre Dame. They
are eighteen to nine right now.That is a nine pm tip off on
the ACC network. When you lookat the standings right now in the Atlantic
Coast Conference, we talked about itearlier. North Carolina, with the big
win over Miami last night, remainson top of the standings at fourteen to
three. You have twelve and fourDuke right now in second position, Virginia
(46:52):
eleven and six third spot. Rightnow, each of those teams with twenty
plus wins overall Wake Forest ten andsix right now in the fourth spot with
their big win over Duke they justhad. They're traveling to Notre Dame tonight.
Let's see theyn go to eleven andsix and then the glob as Brat
Brundell has talked about the teams vyingfor that four spot that are just kind
(47:13):
of glued together. You got atrio of teams at nine and seven,
Clemson and Pitts. Somebody will breakthat tie tonight, obviously, as they
face off here shortly nine and seven, nine and seven for Clemson in pit
each NC State who we mentioned earlier, They've got a big game tonight.
They're also at nine and seven,Syracuse at nine and eight, Florida State
is eight and eight, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Miami, Notre Dame,
(47:36):
Georgia Tech, and Louisville all teamswith a losing record right now in
the ACC and seemingly jocking for sometype of position down there in the bottom
half of the conference, but certainlynot going to be playing for the four
seed right now and the double byand in some unrelated basketball news but related
to Clemson, if you're a fanof T. Higgins, I know many
of you are. I know TreyFalco here a Steelers fan is not happy
(48:00):
about this news. T Higgins,this news broke since we last spoke on
this show has been franchise tag.So one of the greats for Clemson in
terms of wide receiver heritage will bestaying put in Cincinnati. Falco, your
thoughts real quick on this. Asa Steelers fan, you love it right,
Mah, he should come to Heshould come to Pittsburgh. Come to
(48:22):
Pittsburgh, come to Carolina for thatbetter. It's been fun for Ritchman Weaver,
for Trey Falco. I'm John Ellist. Don't forget. We are sponsored
by Ingles Low Prices, love thesavings, Ingles, Dash Markets dot Com.
This has been Ingles Countdown to tipOff Show. Stay tuned. Don
Munson and Tim Burray takeover for playby play action for Clemson against pitt A
huge game in the ACC for everybodyhere. We'll see you next time on
(48:44):
Ingles Countdown to Tipboff Show right hereon ninety two point five WSC
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