March 5, 2024 • 48 mins
The Tigers gear up to face down Syracuse in today's matchup! As always, John and Rich preview today's game, and set the scene with interviews, clips from the players, and more!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
W E. S. E FM. Greenville, Spartanburg, Andersen.
Time for the Ingles Countdown to tipOff Show, brought to you pie Ingles
Markets, Low Prices, Love theSavings, Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Harley
Davidson of Greenville, Rare Flooring Center, the Surgery Center at Pella McGhee,
Eating in Air and by Palmeadow StateArmory. Now Here are your hosts,
(00:25):
John Alice, M. Grinchman andWeaver, and welcome in to another edition
of the Ingles Countdown to tip OffShow. Get you set for another big
night of Clemson basketball. I'm yourhost, John Ellis Richmond Weafer is off
tonight here with you for the nexthour, getting you ready for a big
time acc game with some pretty significantimplications. We'll get into some of those
(00:49):
here momentarily. Good to be withy'all, Happy Tuesday evening. I want
to remind you we are brought toyou by your friends at Ingles, Low
Prices, Love the Savings or InglesDash Markets dot Com. Find out more
about what they're doing in your communityright now and stop in and get everything
you need for your March Madness partiesahead. As one of many teams in
(01:11):
the state will be dancing this particularMarch Madness season, Clemson being one of
the low prices, love the savingsIngles, Dash Markets dot Com joining us
in a little bit, our goodfriend Will Vandervoort from The Clemson Insider gives
us his perspective on this Clemson teamnow sitting there at twenty and nine,
ten and eight in the ACC takingon Syracuse tonight. A eleven to eight
(01:37):
team in the ACC. They're alsotwenty wins overall ten losses on the season,
and as Senior Night, we'll talka little bit about some of the
key seniors that we will celebrate tonightfrom this Clemson team. Obviously, when
you look back at what happened againstNotre Dame, a disappointing loss for Clemson,
Brad Burnell has talked about the challengesthat have lied ahead for this team
(02:00):
over the past couple of weeks interms of injuries, guys not practicing,
and they certainly looked a little rustyin this game in which they fell sixty
nine to sixty two at the handsof Notre Dame, a road game that
we had talked about Rich and Iboth on the last episode of this show
that would be tough, as isevery game in the Atlantic Coast Conference,
(02:23):
and obviously you see PJ. Halldoing his part twenty one points in this
game. Ian Shefflin, who hasbeen on a tear of late, got
the double double, but again justnot enough, too little, too late.
Chauncey Wiggins with twelve points. JosephGirard, who will face his former
(02:44):
team Syracuse again tonight, had elevenpoints. In this game. Clinton did
lead thirty four to thirty one afterthe opening Stanza. Notre Dame made a
late run in the second half.Tigers couldn't overcome that. Tigers finished five
of twenty eight from three in thegame. We'll get into some of the
stats here in just a minute.And this is a big one. Tonight
Senior Night tip off by the ways, at seven pm. Our good friend
(03:07):
Don Munson and Tim Burray on thecall for this monumental game in so many
ways, Senior Night is so bigit always is, but it has implications.
We'll go through the acc standings giveyou some scenarios here. As we
get closer to tournament time, quickreminder, want to give you a quick
heads up. We're gonna be liveon our sister station one to four point
(03:29):
nine Fox Sports Upstate. You canhear us every weekday on game on four
to six pm on one of fourpoint nine. Check us out on Friday,
we'll be live from the Eagles soCon Basketball Championships up there in beautiful
Nashville. Get in March Madness officiallytipped off. So join us on one
of four point nine Fox Sports Upstateevery single weekday afternoon, four to six
(03:50):
pm. John Ellis and Trey PaullyWallerts falco for the show Game On.
We love being with you guys everysingle weekday afternoon. That's gonna be a
good time going up to ash Andwe certainly appreciate our friends at Angles for
not only sponsoring this fine show,but the work they do with the Southern
Conference and putting on one of thepremier events in college basketball every single season.
(04:12):
So let's dive into the Notre Damegame here. Obviously, the final
score not the Clemsons liking sixty ninesixty two. The record now for Notre
Dame seven and eleven in the conference, twelve and seventeen overall we mentioned earlier,
the Tigers sitting at twenty and nine, ten and eight overall, and
again the lead early was there forClemson. They stemmed the tide. The
biggest lead of the game, withabout seven and a half minutes left in
(04:35):
the first period, was seven points. Notre Dame by the end of the
game led by as much as ninepoints. Both teams went on about a
seven points scoring run at one pointor another in this game. The first
was by Clemson with about seven anda half in that first period, and
then right after that we talked aboutNotre Dame's seven ozero run they won on.
(04:56):
There were eleven lead changes, thegame was tied six times. Clemson
led the majority of the game twentyfive minutes thirty nine seconds. But once
again, just the opportunity to sortof put your stamp on that four seed
and maintain control of what Brad Burnellhas called the glob just slipped through their
(05:17):
fingers a little bit. Here.You look at the total statline here,
Ian Shefflin, very solid performance,ten points, fourteen rebounds in all.
Offensive boards were a little bit downthis particular game. Defensive rebounding was very
good for Notre Dame overall, andagain you had three guys for Notre Dame
that fared very well. Three playersin double digits, led by Marcus Burton,
(05:41):
who we had talked about in thelead up to last week's show.
Twenty one points, eight of sixteenfrom the floor for Burton, who also
grabbed six rebounds. Each of thosewere defensive. For the Clemson side,
we mentioned PJ. Hall nearly hada double double again twenty one points,
seven rebounds, all defensive. Shefflinwe talked about him, ten and fourteen
(06:01):
in this game, Wiggins twelve points. Chase Hunter had been playing very well
of late, had been shooting verywell defensively. There have been some solid
elements to his game as well leadingup to the Notre Dame game. Not
very good from the floor in thisgame, one of eight, zero of
three from downtown four points in thisgame, three rebounds and missing Jack Clark
(06:26):
sort of hurt them as well.Clemson didn't have their full arso of bench
players. That was evident in thescoring, as Notre Dame outscored Clemson's bench
eleven to four in this game andagain sixty nine to sixty two. When
you break down the first half interms of shots selection, sometimes the shots
just don't fall, and Brad Burnellhas talked about this throughout the season.
(06:49):
There's just so much you can doin terms of getting the shooting right.
You can only do so much.Three to thirteen from behind the arc in
the first half for Clemson, that'sonly twenty three percent, whereas Notre Dame
they shot seventeen threes in the firsthalf. They were only twenty nine percent,
but they hit five of those,and they were more measured in terms
(07:10):
of their approach in the second halffive of eleven, so ten three pointers
in all for the Fighting Irish,and that's a thirty five percent clip there,
so round average ten of twenty eightin this game. We mentioned earlier
one of the key stats for Clemsonfive of twenty eight from downtown seventeen point
nine percent. Clearly, that won'tcut it, and I don't think there's
(07:32):
a lot of panic. I thinkBrad Brunel has expressed some frustration and some
of the things that are going onin terms of not having the full arsenal
of people to practice with throughout theweek. There's only so much again,
you can do to control that.And onward they march to Syracuse here,
but this is certainly a game they'lllook back on and they'll try to fix
(07:54):
some things in terms of what happenedin a lot of areas. Defensively,
it's not too bad you hold NotreDame under seventy points and Notre Dame.
Look, we have talked about thisteam, the Fighting Iris, have had
success of late. They just beatWake Forest not too long ago. They
came into this game with a lotof confidence, and so it's gonna be
(08:15):
interesting. You look back at thelast time Clemson faced Syracuse. Obviously,
it was a huge night for JosephGerard, who in this game against Notre
Dame not his best stuff three oftwelve two of eight from downtown, finished
with eleven points. But again,the efficiency was just not there for Clemson
in the first half. They shotforty four percent from the field second half,
(08:37):
like we have seen from a coupleof games in this season. Miami
comes to mind, where one teamgets everything to fall in the second half
and the other team, being Clemson, can't buy a shot. Only ten
of thirty from the field in thesecond half, got to the free throw
line fourteen times. As a team, they nailed down eleven of those six
(08:58):
or seven in the second half,so that was clean both teams. In
fact, we're eleven to fourteen fromthe charity stripe. But again between Marcus
Burton, you also had some greatproduction from Tay Davis from Notre Dame eighteen
points five rebounds, Carrie Booth,who was a steady performer several games coming
into this one, eleven points fiverebounds in this game just came down to
(09:20):
efficiency in the second half and that'swhere Clemson let this one get away a
little bit. But still sitting thereat twenty and nine, ten and eight
in the conference, and when youlook at the standings, will take a
deeper dive into this momentarily, thereis that glob once again that Clemson is
looking to work their way out ofit into It's gonna be tough. As
we move along in the program,we'll start talking about those standings. The
(09:43):
implications of the games that lie aheadfor Clemson will give you a little more
detail in terms of bracketology where teamsincluding not just this Clemson team, but
a very good team down there inColumbia, South Carolina, the Game Cocks
and other teams of interest are slatedright now in terms of the bracketology projections,
and a little more about this Syrahcuseteam as it's Senior Night live from
(10:07):
Little John Coliseum. Get you readyfor a big matchup in the ACC.
It's Clemson, it's Syracuse. It'sthe Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show.
I'm your host, John Ellis.We'll be back in a minute, joined
by our good friend Will Vandervoort fromthe Clemson Insider. Right here, ninety
two point five w e SC ninetytwo point five wd S is the Upstate's
(10:28):
new home with a Clemson Tigers.As we roll on with Angeles count Down
(11:01):
to tip Off Show, John Ellisflying solo today. Richmond Weaver is off.
He's back for his next go roundas Clemson is getting closer and closer
to ACC tournament season. Right now, the Tigers at home on Senior Night
tonight, tipping off against Sarah Cutch. You can hear all the action right
here on ninety two point five WSC. Don Munson, Tim Burray on the
(11:22):
call. Tip off coming up shortlyat seven pm. We'll hand it off
to Don and Tim here in alittle bit, but first let's bring in
one of our favorite people to speakwith every single week on this show.
It's our good friend from the ClemsonInsider and noted Steelers fan Will Vandervoort,
And Will I want to start hereby just reviewing our options for quarterback as
(11:43):
we're into tag and franchise season andwe're into free agency season. Will the
Steelers be employing Russell Wilson next year? No? And thank goodness, no,
no. And I mean, youknow that Russell Wilson's man. I
don't know if anybody wants to employhim. You know, he's he is
(12:05):
bad. I don't know, youknow, what's the situation is there,
But he obviously he's not the sameguy he was back in the day when
he's at Seattle, and you know, he's older, you know, and
it happens to the best of us, right and so but yeah, no,
my Steelers aren't touching that. Andthey're not getting they're not getting justin
fields either. That's not happening.So, as The Athletic reported confirmed,
(12:28):
I should say a guy get ado life story up in Pittsburgh a few
weeks back. But the Steelers weren'tinterested in bringing in these big times main
quarterback they're going to stick with.They got try to sign Mason Rudolph and
try to get a quarterback competition there. Between him and to the tickets.
So support local journalism is the keyhere. You always get the best story
when it's local. You follow thenget all sorts of globs of information,
(12:50):
right exactly. That's why you shouldcall the Clemson Insider right when you're sports.
You know that we got the lowangle for you. So don't listen
to those national guys. Listen towhat the local guys don't. Always.
That's a professional segue right there.Hey, just quickly before we dive into
this. Look. I talked aboutthis yesterday on our sister station one O
(13:11):
four nine Fox Sports Upstate on GameOn. You can hear us every day
four pm. And you've been afrequent guest on that show, frequent guest
on this show, and are alsoingles Tailgate show on ninety two point five
w SC. But you and Ihave talked a long bit about the world
of journalism, the state of journalism, and we lost a good one this
week. And Chris Mortenson, Iknow he was probably highly influential to your
(13:33):
career the way you look at journalism. If you want to just take him
in and talk about your thoughts onone of the great journalists of our time,
Chris Mortensen. Yeah, you know, he was a guy that he
comes from the newspapers there and isa true journalist from the standpoint that you
know, he started as a writerand covered the Falcons, I believe,
(13:54):
for the Line Journal Postitution for along time and that's how he got his
feet wet in the business. Anda lot of people know him from ESPN
and TV and stuff. But youknow, a lot of these guys,
even a guy like Adam Scheffner anda couple others, uh, you know,
Peter Schweer and you see on NFLnetwork as well. These guys they
start off as writers and they worktheir way up and they just happened to
(14:15):
be in the right place, righttime, and and because they're good at
what they do and they get thatopportunity to uh to do that and and
and Chris was one of them.And I never met him personally, obviously
I saw him in a couple ofgames I was covering, but you know,
he's working. I never bothered him. And but but but you know,
here's a guy that was that wasa professional, uh, through and
(14:35):
true, and and his stuff wasalways good and he did it the right
way and the way you're supposed toas a journalist and making sure you're getting
double triple confirmation before you report things. And you know, he's the guy
that you kind He's one of thoseguys that you put up there and you
say, Okay, this is howyou do things. You do it this
(14:56):
way, and that's who he was. And that's why guys like myself and
yourself included, we look at aguy like him and we just like,
you know, that's that's what wetry to teach other young professionals as they
come along. And I say that, you know, in journalism, like
people who actually want to be journalists, not people who you know, maybe
start a website and don't they tryto do it all themselves, and they
(15:18):
try to act like their journalists todifferent things, you know, you know,
you know, I went to journalismschool and communication and stuff and all
that and trained to do what Ido and have others to work on the
Climson beat with me. But thereare a few also that haven't. And
you know, unfortunately that's the worldjournalism has come to in some circles.
So yeah, me and You've talkedabout this a lot. I have my
(15:39):
thoughts about it, but it iswhat it is right, Yeah, no
doubt well, well, said WillVandervoort here from Clemson Insider, giving us
a perspective on the loss of ChrisMortenson. We all mourn that this week
as fans of sports and information andinformation gathering, and it's just one of
those things is as a fellow journalist, I look at it and say,
one of the greats has gone onward. We march here, and I think
(16:02):
that's what mord would want us allto do here in terms of analyzing the
world of sports, and certainly theClemson Tigers in terms of basketball entering a
fascinating stretch here is he had acouple of games left here against some game
opponents. But when you look backat what happened against Notre Dame in Richmond,
and I talked about this a coupleof days ago, and I'm sure
you had thought the same thing maybeat a certain point, And you guys
(16:25):
wrote about this at the Clemson Insiderdot com with Cameron Burnett headlining this.
The wear and tear that Brad Burlhad talked about and the amount of players
that had not been practicing, itfelt like it could have been the perfect
storm because Notre Dame has been ona tear of lade. They've beaten some
good teams and sure enough, withoutJack Clark in the lineup, with limited
practice throughout the week, that's aboutwhat it can look like. Yeah,
I mean, you know, theyjust didn't first of all, that I
(16:48):
think one thing that happened and Ithink with that game John, what they
did was they panicked a little bit, I thought because Notre Dame was intentionally
playing every possession, especially in thesecond half, down to the last five
seconds and before they would decide tomake a shot. So they were very
patient and their intent and what theywere doing. And I think Crimson understanding
(17:11):
and the players understanding that that meansit's gonna be the limited opportunity to score.
And I think they kind of rushedsome things. You saw where they
were shooting three pointers with eighteen secondsto go in the shot clock, and
that was clear like for a veteranteam. I was surprised to see they
panic so much and in a doul'tAnd I know Brad talk to him about
(17:33):
it, you know, because asthey did. You know, I had
postgame and talked about it, butyou know, you know, but you
could Telly talk about it in game, because they would come out of a
timeout and they immediately go inside,immediately get the ball inside. They work
the ball around, get the ballinside, and they score almost every time
they came out of a timeout.But then they immediately on the next possession,
(17:53):
they go straight back to what theywere doing before, and they're jacking
up threes with eighteen seconds to goon the clock. And when they weren't
going in, I think it startedbecoming psychological, especially for Gerard and Chase
Hunter, who just I thought combinedhad their worst two games of the season.
And and and that really hurt.When you get PJ Hall, who
(18:15):
didn't play that good in the secondhalf, but he played well the first
half. You know, you justdidn't have anybody to compliment PJ. And
I think that started pressing PJ alittle bit as well. And I think
it was the perfect storm and NotreDame was able to give Notre Dame credit.
First of all, they made shotsin the second half, and they
played very efficiently on the offensive endof the court, and they played really
(18:36):
well on the defensive end of thecourt. And then when you throw in
the fact, you know, JackClark went in the game and that's so
that you know, now you justlost your best on ball defender not playing,
and of course their guy goes offin that game scores eighteen second half
points. That mess the guy Clarkwould have been guarding. You know,
it all kind of added up.And then throw in the fact where I
(18:57):
Brad say only five players practice five, that they only had seven guys practicing
the game, right, yeah,So I mean that's hard. That's hard
to have a practice only seven guysto practice. That means you're throwing team
managers in their stuff just still space. You know, you got to get
(19:17):
bodies in there at that point.That's tough, right. Will Vandivor joins
us from the Clemson Insider. ClemsonInsider dot com is where you can go
to find all of his great work. Coming up at a minute here we'll
talk about a little bit of Clemsonfootball with you. But let's finish off
some thoughts here on well lies aheadfor this team tonight on Senior Night,
a big game against Syracuse, andgo back to the point of wear and
tear and a little bit of afeeling I think from coach Brunell and camera
(19:42):
Burnett did a nice job of chroniclingthis that Burnell was kind of ahead of
the curve in terms of calling thisthat hey, he was concerned about it.
Give you a quote here, quote. Our practices are not very good
right now, said Burnell. They'reextremely limited, and when they're limited,
you're not going to be as effective. I'm disappointed. We have some older
players we got out of who wewere a bit of times and try to
(20:02):
shoot our way out of things,like you just said, Will And is
there a concern I mean, obviously, what's ahead of them right now?
You get a couple of wins herein the last week of the season,
you get that double bye, Butis there a feeling from your perspective that
they're grinding down a little bit andit's just bad timing and it could lead
to bad things as they get intotournament play. They are they are grinding
(20:23):
down a little bit after the winlast week. I guess it was a
hit. You know, we wereasking them about it, Me and Larry
Williams, one of the other writers, were asking about that wear and tear
and how much are they actually practicing. I try to get PJ to see
if he could tell me, likeexactly what the elements are. I know
(20:45):
it's not anything serious as they're ableto play, but it's serious enough that
they're not practicing and and and that'sa concern, and we're trying to get
some of that information out and thatthey didn't they weren't willing to tell us
at that point in time, andI'm sure they will eventually. But you
know, it's obvious those in andPJ are not healthy. That is very
obvious, and that they're not playingthe level that they were earlier in the
(21:08):
year because of that, And Ithink that has caused some of the problems
of what you're seeing with Clemson rightnow now. Granted every team John's going
through it. That's that time ofyear. You've got to play through pain.
But when you're missing practice consistently andyou can't practice, brown Ell was
worried about. You know, thattakes It takes you like almost a whole
(21:30):
half to get going right and toget in the flow of the game because
you haven't practiced. It hurts yourconditioning, right because now you're going to
have to take more time outs becauseyou know you're not conditioned to play thirty
one minutes again that your body's usedto playing only twenty minutes, so you
got to take more time outs andthings of that nature or rest the player.
(21:51):
It leads to stupid fouls as wesaw that's happened a couple of times
with PJ right because you're tired andfatigue, so you do something you probably
have done if you weren't as tired. So it all kind of adds up.
And I'm not trying to make excuses, and I definitely know Brad's not
trying to make excuses. But thefact of the matter is this is a
beat up basketball team right now.They need a rest and if anybody needs
(22:15):
a double buy in the HC Tournament, this is Clemson basketball team. Now.
With that said, the night's gameis so big because Syracuse is the
one right now sitting in fourth place, and if they win and beat Clemson,
now they're in great position to getthat double buy because they're off Saturday,
so they're gonna sit by and watcheverybody else. So not only are
they off Saturday, they get theycould possibly get the double buy off man
(22:40):
Syracuse can go almost twelve days withouthaving to play a game after the night,
so or maybe not twelve and maybenine or ten game stays without playing
game. So yeah, so that'sa long time. So this is a
huge game for the a SEC standingsand really huge for Clemson because they can
win any then they go to WakeForest with a chance to earn that fourth
(23:03):
and final spot for the double byWill Vanderward from the Clemson Insider is our
guest here getting your primed and readyfor Syracuse against the Clemson Tigers on Senior
Night. On that note, willtalk about some of these seniors that have
been a part of this program,including PJ Hall. I know Brad Burnell
spoke this week about PJ Hall haveany decision ahead of him in terms of
(23:23):
a fifth year or not, butjust overall what these seniors have meant to
this program and what a big nightit is for them playing the potential of
their final game ever at Little JohnColiseum. Yeah. I mean, when
you look at what PJ has donethe last four years, I can't believe
it's already four years. I rememberPJ coming in and was backing up a
(23:44):
mere Sims, yeah right, andtrying to just get on the floor any
way he could because he had thisyou know, all acc guy in front
of him. And now you knowhere it is you know, four years
later and he's a senior and he'sgonna play his last game at Little John
to night, no matter what.This is his last game at Little John
because we know the Tigers are goingto be in the tournament. So you
(24:07):
know, this is, uh,this is kind of a kind of a
sad day for Clemson fans, Iguess, And I know it's really sad
for PJ and his family, whoare great people and you know, not
too far from where you're at rightnow and where they where he grew up,
and so you know, so youknow, I know, this is
a kind of a sad day inthe upstate because PJ has been a Clemson
guy his whole life and you know, committed to Clemson and played here and
(24:30):
you know, you know, sothat's gonna be kind of sad to see.
And then you know, you gotyou got Hunt, Chase Hunter.
There's a guy that's been loyal toClemson that he could have transferred a few
years ago and gone anywhere else andand been a star just like he has
been at Clemson. And he isuh, you know, he's he stayed,
stayed the course and played here atClemson and got himself on the floor
and has become one of the alltime greatest guards Clemson's ever had, and
(24:55):
and so he and he's won alot of basketball games for Clemson. He's
played in a lot of big games. So you know, you're gonna miss
those two guys. Definitely weird nightfor senior night in the sense that Jojaarrard
is going to be honor too,right, right seriously against That's right,
yeah, And so like it's kindof weird that that this game, that
Clemson's last home game is against Syracuse, and you've got Joe there, who
(25:18):
who gave four years of his careerthere and obviously loves Syracuse and always will,
but now he's over Clemson. Andand of course he had the best
game of his Clemson career at Syracusea few weeks ago when he just was
making lights out, So that's gonnabe an emotional kind of game for him
tonight. It's kind of weird thatit just how things work out like that,
right where he was, his lastgame at Clemson is going to be
(25:41):
against his old team, you know, So it's kind of weird. That's
kind of weird how it all worksout. No doubt about it will Vandervorth,
Clemson insider, giving us some goodperspective here in terms of what's going
on with the Clemson Tigers on thehardwood. Let's pivot for a minute and
go to the world of college footballwhen it comes to Clinton. I want
to get your thoughts on a coupleof things before we to let you go.
(26:02):
First of all, spring practice underway. You've been on site reporting Kate
Klubnick making some comments about, youknow, how driven they are right now.
The Gator Bowl is a prequel ofthings to come, as your headline
reads here, What were some ofyour takeaways and some of your takeaways so
far being around the team in thisspring session right now? Yeah, First
of all, with Kate, avery interesting conversation that we all got to
(26:23):
have with him yesterday. You know, he talked about that he feels,
of course, he's a very confidentyoung man. And if you don't believe
we just go back and watch thevideo. You can go watch his press
conference. It is the man.The young man is extremely confident in his
ability and what he can do,and also how he feels like he can
(26:45):
be better. He talked about howhe's gone back and reviewed the notes that
he took last year during the seasonof the mistakes he made and how he
put a lot of thought into,you know, how he can get better
as a quarterback and what he needsto do from his reads, like because
now he's in the second year ofthis offense, that he's reading things a
little bit faster. He sees thingsdifferent because he's kind of doing the same
(27:07):
plays over and over again. Butnow he's understanding what the defense and how
defense is defending them better and that'shelping him with his reads. The really
good way he went in and explainedhow all that works, and then you
know, just you know, hefeels like, you know, I got
to be better with getting rid ofthe football faster, making quicker decisions,
making good decisions, taking care ofthe football, all those things that you
(27:29):
want to hear your quarterbacks say.And we'll see how that comes to fruition.
But the thing that really stood outto me, and you mentioned it,
was in that he talked about howif you watch that last two minutes
of the Gator Bowl, He's like, that's what we're capable of as an
offense. He's like, we didn'tneed a miracle play. We didn't need
a guy like, you know,breaking a tackle, doing a three sixty
(27:52):
and then heaving the ball in theair. Sounds like he's describing Eli Manning's
pass and having this miracle catch,you know, down the helmet to win
the game. He's like, no, we drove down the field. We
were third and eighteen and we founda way to get a first down without
having a miracle, you know.He's like, you know, we got
the ball into the end zone inan efficient manner. We didn't, you
(28:14):
know, we just went down thefield, drove the ball down the field
and scored. There was nothing prettyto it, but it was efficient and
effective. And he's like, that'swhat we are capable of when we do
that. He says, last year, there are kids when we would be
moving the football like that, andthen we'd have a he said, then
I would have a fumble. Well, I would throw an interception, or
somebody would miss a block or something. And he said, it get us
(28:34):
off off schedule, and it wouldchange the dynamics of the game and all
that. He says that Gata Bowlproved not only to us what we're capable
of doing, but maybe to everybodyelse. And he's like, you know,
that's kind of what they're going totake into this season, saying,
hey, look we can do this. If we focused and we're laser focused
like we were in that Gata Bowl, we're going to be okay. So
(28:56):
that was interesting. And then youknow you got you got the offensive line
downeamics. You know what are theygonna do there? You know you've got
a brand new center coming in talkto Brian Linztercom. He's excited about the
opportunity to be the starter there.You know, you got Harris Sewell also,
so you know that you got thatdynamics there, you got the other
guys where you know they're moving someguys like Marcus Tate the spring because of
(29:18):
Walker Parks being out, Marcus Tateis playing a lot of right tap,
I mean right guard right now.And I asked him about that, like,
what's that like playing right guard becauseyou're gonna left guard your whole career,
And he says he likes it becauseit allows him to be able to
see the game differently. It isdifferent playing in that position it's supposed to
playing left. And he's like,that's gonna help him when he gets to
the next level. He knows becauseyou know, you don't know what you're
(29:41):
gonna play when you get up tothe next level and just need to be
efficient at both. So there's alot of things going on, a lot
of moving parts on the offensive line, and then just the conversation about you
know, Matt and Luke and howthese guys are just embracing this coaching and
how they're just so like enthralled,because Marcus Tate talked about he followed Matt
Luke's career when he's at all thisyeah, and all the offensive linemen he
(30:03):
coached there that are now in theNFL. You know, uh, obviously
or is the biggest one that weknow of, and and he's like he
talking about all those guys and thenwhat he did at Georgia, and he's
like, you know, he's justgot this career where he's got guys into
the late League and not only inthe league, but guys that start in
the league and are and are andare very effective in the league. And
so you know, he talked abouthow that's you can't you you kind of
(30:23):
gravitate to that, and then you'relike sitting on everything he says because he's
teaching them how to do different thingswith their hands and their feet and why
it's important they do these things.And he's like, it's just He's like,
it's just a clinic over there everyday at practice, and they just
love it, you know. Andso, uh, very good stuff.
A lot of storylines obviously going on. And you know, you got the
freshman out there, Bryant westcam Manmade a catch yesterday over the shoulder catch.
(30:48):
It was just wow. Yeah,they need that, they need that,
They've been needing that for a while. That type of uh, that
type of playmaking ability exactly. Andand I mean the difficult of that catch.
I can't explain to you guys.It's not like oh us when I
was a shoulder catch. No,it was like him looking back over his
shoulder and watching that ball drop overthe front end of his shoulder for the
(31:11):
catch. It was an extremely difficultcatch. Me and you John would have
probably ran into someone or something.I could guarantee you that very impressive catch.
Now he's got he's got to getsome weight on. He's very thin.
I mean, he's probably you know, buck seventy five. I wish
I could give him some of myweights to help him, you know.
(31:32):
But he's probably about a buck seventyfive eighty, so he's got a long
way to go as far as gettingbigger, but the skills are there obviously,
and we'll see how he does.Hopefully he can make it through spring
training. Everybody will get to seehim in the spring game because I know
the coaches are really excited about whathe brings to the wide receiving for I
know Kate Kludman was talking yesterday abouthim and the other guy, saying,
(31:55):
it's really the first time this yeareverybody's kind of helping and we got like
He's like, I'm sitting over thereand I got this guy, this guy,
and this guy I can throw tohim. You know, he's talking
about Pete Kelly. The kids fromDaniel really excited about him. They were
sad about him last year before hegot hurt, so you know they're you
know, they got all those guysthat were hurt last year, they pretty
much got back now. Adam Randallwas wearing yellow yesterday. He's a little
(32:16):
nicked up, but it doesn't seemlike he's too bad. For what we
could see just using my eyes.He didn't look like it was anything serious.
But you know, we'll see whatcoach twin he says tomorrow. And
then while we were there, though, Troy Stillato tweaked something, you know,
in his inner thigh. I don'tknow what that was, but it
was really bothering him and he hadto go in the sideline and get the
(32:36):
trainer and look at that. SoI don't know what that is or puts
anything serious, but we'll try tofind that out too. And we thought
they're swimming tomorrow. Awesome stuff fromwill Vandervoord Clemson Insider, just real quick
before he let you go on onemore football note. The Combine has come
and gone, and some Clemson guysI believe made themselves a little bit of
money, especially Ruker Rowroe with hisforty time, his athletic testing. Nate
Wiggins ran a great forty time,and Xavier or Tom look, I know
(33:00):
he had the injury before he ranstill a respectable time at his position.
Just your thoughts on this class interms of what they're doing right now getting
ready for the big draft coming up. Well, I can guarantee I can't
run four stix with a hammy.I mean, I mean Thomas like I
mean you if you're I mean,and the fact that he also ran it
(33:22):
while he was hurt. That's goingto stand out too to the guy to
some of the scuffs. So thathe helps himself, I think a little
bit there. We'll see where heends up being drafted, but I think
that definitely helps himself a little bit. But hey, here's what's gonna happen,
John, the Steelers are gonna takeNate Wighams with the first pick there
around twenty twenty one, Okay,and then and then we're gonna take Ruth
Roro there in the second round.Yes, and then we're gonna go and
(33:44):
we're gonna get Jeremiah Trotter in thethird round. You go a lot.
So that's that's what's gonna happen withthose three players right there you mentioned.
I think that's where they're going.Uh No, I like that. Look,
those are all team needs. Theycould use those guys. That's why
I said it. They're right thereand they're falling in the line, and
that's we'll see if that'll boy,I'll tell you what, I'll be happy
(34:06):
if that happens. But but no, in all seriousness, though, I
think you know, I think NateWiggins solidified himself as a first round draft
pick by running that four sub threeI mean four to three. So what
you know I'm trying to say.And you know, he definitely solidified himself
as a first round I think Grouphelped himself definitely as a Day two guy.
(34:27):
And you maybe he jumps into Dayone. I don't think he will,
but I think he's definitely right thereon that cuff where he really shows
out again at Clemson's Pro day andhow he does in those interviews and things,
maybe he moves up into a latefirst round. I definitely think he's
second round though, no doubt.Maybe third round at the worst, but
I think he's going to be thatsecond day guy without a doubt. And
(34:51):
then I think Jeremiah Trotter man.When you looked at all the the skills
and stuff they do so each position, did you recognize Jeremiah Trotter was in
every single one of the top fives. Yes, And he did the bench
press. He did a lot ofguys didn't do the bench press, and
Trotter got in there and did itexactly. I'm telling you, he moved
himself up at least one round.And and he's a guy when you because
(35:15):
everybody knows his dad, they knowhow he plays, and they know he's
built just like his dad and issmart like his dad. And you turn
on the film at Clinton and youwatch how his football iq and you see
it on the field. I'm tellingyou, man, there's man. If
there's anybody I want my feelers toget, it's Jeremi Trotter. I'm telling
you he is a He is amiddle linebacker that's going to play in this
(35:37):
league for a long time. Hecan drop back into coverage, he reads
coverages. He's already ahead of alot of things because of what he's done
under Preventables and also under West Goodwin. So I really like, you know
where he's at from a head standpoint, from a mental standpoint, and I
think his physical presence obviously is there. And so like you know, he's
(36:00):
definitely gonna make somebody an outstanding middlelinebacker for years to come. And so
I'm looking forward to see where hegoes. We covered football, we're covering
basketball as well. It's our goodfriend Will Van Dervolt from the Clemson Insider
dot com. Get you ready forSenior Night tonight. It's Sarahcuse and Clemson
tangling here in a little bit onninety two point five WSC Will as always
Man, appreciate your time, BudeHi, John always Man, Thanks for
(36:22):
having me buddy. Be well,my friend. We'll see you next time.
There he is Will Vandervoort from theClemson Insider. Find his work at
Clemson Insider at the Clemson Insider dotcom just to get the website right there,
because he and his staff do agreat job there reporting on your Clemson
Tigers. And of course there'll beplenty on this one tonight in terms of
recap, review, live coverage fromthe Clemson Insider. As you've got Sarahcuse
(36:46):
traveling to Clemson to night it's SeniorNight, will give you a little more
detail on this game. Coming upnext, it's the Engles Countdown to tip
Off show live here on ninety twopoint five WEESC. Ninety two point five
w is the Upstate's new home witha Clemson Tiger. Count you down to
(37:15):
Senior Night for the Clemson Tigers hostingthe Syracuse Orange. It certainly will be
an Orange crush between those two teams. Big time game in the ACC with
a lot of implications. Are good. Thanks to our friend will Vannervort from
The Clemson Insider for joining us herefor a nice, extensive, twenty five
minute conversation not only about this gametonight, but the season at large for
(37:37):
Clemson. As it's been quite thejourney. Injuries have mounted up, there
have been limited practice windows, limitedpractice time for some on this team.
Brad Brunella has talked about the frustrationwithin that framework right now, but it's
all on the line for Clemson.That double by is still within reach with
a couple of wins here this week, and it all starts the win tonight
(37:59):
on Senior Night at home against Sarahcuse. We'll give you a run out of
what's been going on in the toptwenty five here momentarily. I'm John Ellis,
by the way, thanks for joiningme. Richmond Weaver is off today.
Back with us next time around forthis fine show, which is brought
to you by our friends at InglesLow Prices. Love the savings Ingles dash
markets dot com. They are thetitle sponsor of the Ingles Soacon Basketball Championships.
(38:22):
Don't forget every single weekday, tuneinto our show game on on one
O four point nine Fox Sports Upstate. We will be there live on Friday
four to six pm from the HarrisCherokee Center, giving you a little bit
of flavor of March madness. Onour show, we talk everything on Game
On, a little bit of NFLlot going on in free agency right now.
(38:43):
It's franchise tag day as you know, and of course we talk college
hoops unlike any show out there.Check us out four to six pm Fox
Sports Upstate. The show is GameOn with yours truly, John Ellis and
our good friend Trey Pauly Walnuts Falcoalong for the ride as well. It's
going to be a lot of funas we see these brackets take shape and
(39:05):
I can't wait to fillop my bracket. It's always a bit of a crapshoot.
It's kind of like the NFL Draft. You just never know how things
are going to land in terms ofwho picks what where and how things shape
up. And we saw what happenedlast year. We spoke on one O
four nine Fox Sports Upstate with ourgood friend Dan Scott over there at Furman
who calls their games about this timelast year when they had an amazing run
not only in the SoCon Tournament butin the absolute just stunning fashion in which
(39:30):
they beat Virginia in the first roundlast season. Such an exciting time when
you look at the scoreboard right now, here's what went down on Monday night.
Number nine Duke with a big winover NC State seventy nine sixty four.
They get their fifteenth win in theACC. They're twenty four and six
overall right now in c State,nine and ten in the ACC, seven
(39:51):
and thirteen overall in other Top twentyfive action. Last evening, number eleven
Baylor ninety three to eighty five winover Texas that pushes their record to twenty
two and eight and eleven and sixin the Big twelve. Texas falls to
eight and nine in the Big twelve, and they are nineteen and eleven overall.
And you've got a plethora of bigtime games tonight in the Top twenty
(40:14):
five. Let's start with number three, Perdue with Zach Edyan company. They
are twenty six and three, fifteenand three in the Big Ten, traveling
a champagne to take on number twelveIllinois. They're also thirteen and five in
the Big Ten, twenty two andseven overall. That's a seven pm tip
off on Peacock at seven pm onthe ACC Network. Notre Dame, a
team that Clemson just fell victim toa couple of short days ago, travels
(40:37):
to the Dean Doome to take onnumber seven North Carolina, looking for win
number sixteen in the ACC. NorthCarolina twenty three and six overall. Notre
Dame is twelve and seventeen again.That's a seven pm tipoff on the ACCED
network at seven pm as well onESPN. Big one in the SEC.
Number sixteen Alabama they're twenty and nine, twelve and four conference. Traveling to
(41:00):
Gainesville to take on Florida. They'retwenty and nine as well, ten and
six in conference. Tip off atseven pm on ESPN at seven pm on
ESPN plus two Lane traveling to numbertwenty four South Florida. South Florida's fifteen
and one in the conference right now, big time game for them. Number
thirteen Auburn tangles with Missouri tonight.That's a nine pm tip off on the
(41:21):
SEC Network. Missouri having a hardseason right now. They are winless in
the SEC at o and sixteen,eight and twenty one overall. Auburn right
now eleven and five in conference,twenty two and seven overall again nine pm
tip off on the SEC Network.Coming up at nine pm as well.
Kansas they're fourteenth in the country rightnow, only nine and seven in the
(41:42):
Big Twelve. They're hosting Kansas State, they're seven and nine in conference play.
This will be at Alan Fieldhouse ninepm ESPN. Also at nine pm
on the CBS Sports Network. Numbertwenty five Dayton twenty two and six,
they are twelve and four in conferenceright now, traveling to Saint Louis and
this is going to be a gamethat Dayton is highly favored in. We'll
see what happens. It's March.Anything can happen. Nine pm tip off
(42:06):
on CBS Sports Network. And finally, for you late nighters out there,
you night ols, you guys wouldlike to stay up late eleven pm if
you're so inclined. Number twenty oneSand Diego State twenty two and seven overall
eleven and five in the Mountain WestConference, traveling to the Thomas and Mack
Center in Las Vegas to take onUNLV eighteen and ten overall eleven and five
(42:28):
in the conference right now. It'san eleven pm tip off on the CBS
Sports Network. When we return,a quick look at the ACC standings,
a little look at bracketology right nowas it relates to the Clemson Tigers,
and a final peak at this matchupbetween your Clemson Tigers and Syracuse tonight on
Senior Night. It's the Ingles Countdownto tip Off Show ninety two point five
(42:49):
WSC. Ninety two point five WDSCis the Upstate's new home with a Clemson
Tiles. Getting your prime and readyfor another evening of Clemson men's basketball right
(43:12):
here on the Ingles Countdown a tipOff Show ninety two point five WSC.
John ellis here, Richmond. Wewere back with me next go round.
He is off tonight, but weare getting you primed and ready, as
I said, for a senior nightdown at Little John, A big night
for a lot of young men andtheir families as well and Clemson fans.
I'm sure it'll be an emotional night, but let's not underestimate or overlook the
(43:35):
importance of this game from a strategicand practical perspective for Clemson. We'll walk
through the standings here at a minute. Clemson, there are some scenarios within
this season coming down the stretch herethe last couple of games that we want
to explain to you in further detail, but again it all starts with a
win tonight over Syracuse. The lastgo round, Joseph Gerard the third put
(43:55):
in eighteen points in a big nightup there at Syracuse, and he eclipsed
that all encompassing two thousand career pointmark in a seventy seven to sixty eight
win over the Yarrange. And thatwas an emotional game for Gerard. We
had talked about that his family wasin attendance, even his grandmother, who
doesn't come to a lot of games, was in attendance, and that was
(44:19):
a big time moment for Clemson.Back after that win, Clemson was five
hundred in conference play. They weresixteen and seven at that point, still
clawing their way to that twenty winmark we had talked about, and certainly
when you look at the standings rightnow, here's the full breakdown as we
go into this game tonight, NorthCarolina fifteen and three in the conference.
At the moment, they were ontop by a half a game over Duke,
(44:43):
who got the win last night againstNC State. Duke is fifteen and
four, and those two teams,as they traditionally do, will face off
at the end of this regular season, so certainly going to be a lot
of drama there. You got Virginiaholding down the third spot right now at
twelve and seven, they're three anda half games back, So they're just
kind of, like I said,monitoring their situation, making sure they don't
trip up at the end here,because you have Syracuse right behind them,
(45:06):
Clemson's opponent tonight, vaulting into fourthplace. They are eleven and eight.
They are a game back of Virginiaright now, Clemson a half game back
of Syracuse, tied for fifth inthe conference. They did win over Pittsburgh,
the team in sixth right now,also at ten and eight, Wake
Forest at ten and eight. Soyou have that glob that Brad Burnell has
continued to talk about right there inthat mix. Wake Forest ten and eight,
(45:30):
Florida State nine and nine in theconference, they are six games back.
And then you have that contingent ofteams that look, they have losing
records in the conference, but aswe talk about, any given night,
anybody can beat anybody in this conference. Florida State nine to nine, NC
State nine and ten, Virginia Techeight and ten, Notre Dames seven,
and eleven, but look, NotreDame over the past week and a half
has beaten both wake Forest and Clemson. Boston College six and twelve. Miami
(45:54):
is six and twelve in the conference, but always a dangerous out with Jim
Larronega six twelve, as well asGeorgia Tech and Louisville sitting there at three
and fifteen in conference play at fulltwelve games back in the conference. So
fascinating times right now when you lookat the full picture in terms of bracketology,
here's what we've got in terms ofhow Joe Lonardi sees it at the
(46:15):
moment. The one seeds would beout of the Midwest, Perdue. Out
of the East it would be Yukon. The other one seeds Houston projected right
now. In the South, that'sthe Dallas region and the Los Angeles West
region would be number one Arizona.It so certainly a lot to monitor there
right now. When you look atsome of the teams of interest here out
of the Carolinas South Carolina, LamontParis's team has put together a really strong
(46:38):
season. They continue to roll onand they're currently projected, according to Joe
Lonardi, is a six seed inPittsburgh in the East bracket, and we're
looking at a potential South Carolina Virginiaor Seaton Hall matchup out of that one.
So again, a lot to playout here, but it's certainly interesting.
And as we talked about LASCO Roundin the Midwest, Clemson right now
(47:00):
is projected again right now, it'ssubject to change by the hour. As
we know, Clemson will face numbertwelve Richmond if all things started today.
According to Joe Lonardi, of courseRichmond Weaver, that's his namesake and we
wish him well. But yeah,that's certainly an interesting perspective when you look
at all the hype, all thetalk of what's coming down the stretch here
in this particular college basketball season,going to be fascinating to see this Clemson
(47:24):
team if they can get back afterit. Obviously it's been frustrating for Brad
Burnell, the injuries, the lackof bodies in terms of practice time,
but it's another opportunity for the ClemsonTigers to cement their status in the ACC.
March madness is here, and wantto remind you Ingles has you covered
for all of that because they aresponsoring the Ingles SoCon basketball Championships. Don't
(47:46):
forget to tune into game on fourto six pm every single weekday. I'll
be up there live four to sixpm coming up this Friday, giving you
all the latest from Ashville's Harris CherokeeCenter. The Ingles SoCon Basketball Champion and
Chips proudly sponsored by our friends atIngles Low Prices, Love the Savings for
Richmond Weaver, for Trey Faco,I'm John Ellis, Thanks again for being
(48:07):
with us here on the Ingles Countdownto tip Off show keeping locked in right
here on ninety two point five WeSCDon Munson and Tim Bray take the torch
here momentarily as network coverage kick sin. Hope you all have a great night,
enjoy another evening of Clemson men's basketball
W E. S. E FM. Greenville, Spartanburg, Andersen.
Time for the Ingles Countdown to tipOff Show, brought to you pie Ingles
Markets, Low Prices, Love theSavings, Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Harley
Davidson of Greenville, Rare Flooring Center, the Surgery Center at Pella McGhee,
Eating in Air and by Palmeadow StateArmory. Now Here are your hosts,
(00:25):
John Alice, M. Grinchman andWeaver, and welcome in to another edition
of the Ingles Countdown to tip OffShow. Get you set for another big
night of Clemson basketball. I'm yourhost, John Ellis Richmond Weafer is off
tonight here with you for the nexthour, getting you ready for a big
time acc game with some pretty significantimplications. We'll get into some of those
(00:49):
here momentarily. Good to be withy'all, Happy Tuesday evening. I want
to remind you we are brought toyou by your friends at Ingles, Low
Prices, Love the Savings or InglesDash Markets dot Com. Find out more
about what they're doing in your communityright now and stop in and get everything
you need for your March Madness partiesahead. As one of many teams in
(01:11):
the state will be dancing this particularMarch Madness season, Clemson being one of
the low prices, love the savingsIngles, Dash Markets dot Com joining us
in a little bit, our goodfriend Will Vandervoort from The Clemson Insider gives
us his perspective on this Clemson teamnow sitting there at twenty and nine,
ten and eight in the ACC takingon Syracuse tonight. A eleven to eight
(01:37):
team in the ACC. They're alsotwenty wins overall ten losses on the season,
and as Senior Night, we'll talka little bit about some of the
key seniors that we will celebrate tonightfrom this Clemson team. Obviously, when
you look back at what happened againstNotre Dame, a disappointing loss for Clemson,
Brad Burnell has talked about the challengesthat have lied ahead for this team
(02:00):
over the past couple of weeks interms of injuries, guys not practicing,
and they certainly looked a little rustyin this game in which they fell sixty
nine to sixty two at the handsof Notre Dame, a road game that
we had talked about Rich and Iboth on the last episode of this show
that would be tough, as isevery game in the Atlantic Coast Conference,
(02:23):
and obviously you see PJ. Halldoing his part twenty one points in this
game. Ian Shefflin, who hasbeen on a tear of late, got
the double double, but again justnot enough, too little, too late.
Chauncey Wiggins with twelve points. JosephGirard, who will face his former
(02:44):
team Syracuse again tonight, had elevenpoints. In this game. Clinton did
lead thirty four to thirty one afterthe opening Stanza. Notre Dame made a
late run in the second half.Tigers couldn't overcome that. Tigers finished five
of twenty eight from three in thegame. We'll get into some of the
stats here in just a minute.And this is a big one. Tonight
Senior Night tip off by the ways, at seven pm. Our good friend
(03:07):
Don Munson and Tim Burray on thecall for this monumental game in so many
ways, Senior Night is so bigit always is, but it has implications.
We'll go through the acc standings giveyou some scenarios here. As we
get closer to tournament time, quickreminder, want to give you a quick
heads up. We're gonna be liveon our sister station one to four point
(03:29):
nine Fox Sports Upstate. You canhear us every weekday on game on four
to six pm on one of fourpoint nine. Check us out on Friday,
we'll be live from the Eagles soCon Basketball Championships up there in beautiful
Nashville. Get in March Madness officiallytipped off. So join us on one
of four point nine Fox Sports Upstateevery single weekday afternoon, four to six
(03:50):
pm. John Ellis and Trey PaullyWallerts falco for the show Game On.
We love being with you guys everysingle weekday afternoon. That's gonna be a
good time going up to ash Andwe certainly appreciate our friends at Angles for
not only sponsoring this fine show,but the work they do with the Southern
Conference and putting on one of thepremier events in college basketball every single season.
(04:12):
So let's dive into the Notre Damegame here. Obviously, the final
score not the Clemsons liking sixty ninesixty two. The record now for Notre
Dame seven and eleven in the conference, twelve and seventeen overall we mentioned earlier,
the Tigers sitting at twenty and nine, ten and eight overall, and
again the lead early was there forClemson. They stemmed the tide. The
biggest lead of the game, withabout seven and a half minutes left in
(04:35):
the first period, was seven points. Notre Dame by the end of the
game led by as much as ninepoints. Both teams went on about a
seven points scoring run at one pointor another in this game. The first
was by Clemson with about seven anda half in that first period, and
then right after that we talked aboutNotre Dame's seven ozero run they won on.
(04:56):
There were eleven lead changes, thegame was tied six times. Clemson
led the majority of the game twentyfive minutes thirty nine seconds. But once
again, just the opportunity to sortof put your stamp on that four seed
and maintain control of what Brad Burnellhas called the glob just slipped through their
(05:17):
fingers a little bit. Here.You look at the total statline here,
Ian Shefflin, very solid performance,ten points, fourteen rebounds in all.
Offensive boards were a little bit downthis particular game. Defensive rebounding was very
good for Notre Dame overall, andagain you had three guys for Notre Dame
that fared very well. Three playersin double digits, led by Marcus Burton,
(05:41):
who we had talked about in thelead up to last week's show.
Twenty one points, eight of sixteenfrom the floor for Burton, who also
grabbed six rebounds. Each of thosewere defensive. For the Clemson side,
we mentioned PJ. Hall nearly hada double double again twenty one points,
seven rebounds, all defensive. Shefflinwe talked about him, ten and fourteen
(06:01):
in this game, Wiggins twelve points. Chase Hunter had been playing very well
of late, had been shooting verywell defensively. There have been some solid
elements to his game as well leadingup to the Notre Dame game. Not
very good from the floor in thisgame, one of eight, zero of
three from downtown four points in thisgame, three rebounds and missing Jack Clark
(06:26):
sort of hurt them as well.Clemson didn't have their full arso of bench
players. That was evident in thescoring, as Notre Dame outscored Clemson's bench
eleven to four in this game andagain sixty nine to sixty two. When
you break down the first half interms of shots selection, sometimes the shots
just don't fall, and Brad Burnellhas talked about this throughout the season.
(06:49):
There's just so much you can doin terms of getting the shooting right.
You can only do so much.Three to thirteen from behind the arc in
the first half for Clemson, that'sonly twenty three percent, whereas Notre Dame
they shot seventeen threes in the firsthalf. They were only twenty nine percent,
but they hit five of those,and they were more measured in terms
(07:10):
of their approach in the second halffive of eleven, so ten three pointers
in all for the Fighting Irish,and that's a thirty five percent clip there,
so round average ten of twenty eightin this game. We mentioned earlier
one of the key stats for Clemsonfive of twenty eight from downtown seventeen point
nine percent. Clearly, that won'tcut it, and I don't think there's
(07:32):
a lot of panic. I thinkBrad Brunel has expressed some frustration and some
of the things that are going onin terms of not having the full arsenal
of people to practice with throughout theweek. There's only so much again,
you can do to control that.And onward they march to Syracuse here,
but this is certainly a game they'lllook back on and they'll try to fix
(07:54):
some things in terms of what happenedin a lot of areas. Defensively,
it's not too bad you hold NotreDame under seventy points and Notre Dame.
Look, we have talked about thisteam, the Fighting Iris, have had
success of late. They just beatWake Forest not too long ago. They
came into this game with a lotof confidence, and so it's gonna be
(08:15):
interesting. You look back at thelast time Clemson faced Syracuse. Obviously,
it was a huge night for JosephGerard, who in this game against Notre
Dame not his best stuff three oftwelve two of eight from downtown, finished
with eleven points. But again,the efficiency was just not there for Clemson
in the first half. They shotforty four percent from the field second half,
(08:37):
like we have seen from a coupleof games in this season. Miami
comes to mind, where one teamgets everything to fall in the second half
and the other team, being Clemson, can't buy a shot. Only ten
of thirty from the field in thesecond half, got to the free throw
line fourteen times. As a team, they nailed down eleven of those six
(08:58):
or seven in the second half,so that was clean both teams. In
fact, we're eleven to fourteen fromthe charity stripe. But again between Marcus
Burton, you also had some greatproduction from Tay Davis from Notre Dame eighteen
points five rebounds, Carrie Booth,who was a steady performer several games coming
into this one, eleven points fiverebounds in this game just came down to
(09:20):
efficiency in the second half and that'swhere Clemson let this one get away a
little bit. But still sitting thereat twenty and nine, ten and eight
in the conference, and when youlook at the standings, will take a
deeper dive into this momentarily, thereis that glob once again that Clemson is
looking to work their way out ofit into It's gonna be tough. As
we move along in the program,we'll start talking about those standings. The
(09:43):
implications of the games that lie aheadfor Clemson will give you a little more
detail in terms of bracketology where teamsincluding not just this Clemson team, but
a very good team down there inColumbia, South Carolina, the Game Cocks
and other teams of interest are slatedright now in terms of the bracketology projections,
and a little more about this Syrahcuseteam as it's Senior Night live from
(10:07):
Little John Coliseum. Get you readyfor a big matchup in the ACC.
It's Clemson, it's Syracuse. It'sthe Ingles Countdown to tip Off Show.
I'm your host, John Ellis.We'll be back in a minute, joined
by our good friend Will Vandervoort fromthe Clemson Insider. Right here, ninety
two point five w e SC ninetytwo point five wd S is the Upstate's
(10:28):
new home with a Clemson Tigers.As we roll on with Angeles count Down
(11:01):
to tip Off Show, John Ellisflying solo today. Richmond Weaver is off.
He's back for his next go roundas Clemson is getting closer and closer
to ACC tournament season. Right now, the Tigers at home on Senior Night
tonight, tipping off against Sarah Cutch. You can hear all the action right
here on ninety two point five WSC. Don Munson, Tim Burray on the
(11:22):
call. Tip off coming up shortlyat seven pm. We'll hand it off
to Don and Tim here in alittle bit, but first let's bring in
one of our favorite people to speakwith every single week on this show.
It's our good friend from the ClemsonInsider and noted Steelers fan Will Vandervoort,
And Will I want to start hereby just reviewing our options for quarterback as
(11:43):
we're into tag and franchise season andwe're into free agency season. Will the
Steelers be employing Russell Wilson next year? No? And thank goodness, no,
no. And I mean, youknow that Russell Wilson's man. I
don't know if anybody wants to employhim. You know, he's he is
(12:05):
bad. I don't know, youknow, what's the situation is there,
But he obviously he's not the sameguy he was back in the day when
he's at Seattle, and you know, he's older, you know, and
it happens to the best of us, right and so but yeah, no,
my Steelers aren't touching that. Andthey're not getting they're not getting justin
fields either. That's not happening.So, as The Athletic reported confirmed,
(12:28):
I should say a guy get ado life story up in Pittsburgh a few
weeks back. But the Steelers weren'tinterested in bringing in these big times main
quarterback they're going to stick with.They got try to sign Mason Rudolph and
try to get a quarterback competition there. Between him and to the tickets.
So support local journalism is the keyhere. You always get the best story
when it's local. You follow thenget all sorts of globs of information,
(12:50):
right exactly. That's why you shouldcall the Clemson Insider right when you're sports.
You know that we got the lowangle for you. So don't listen
to those national guys. Listen towhat the local guys don't. Always.
That's a professional segue right there.Hey, just quickly before we dive into
this. Look. I talked aboutthis yesterday on our sister station one O
(13:11):
four nine Fox Sports Upstate on GameOn. You can hear us every day
four pm. And you've been afrequent guest on that show, frequent guest
on this show, and are alsoingles Tailgate show on ninety two point five
w SC. But you and Ihave talked a long bit about the world
of journalism, the state of journalism, and we lost a good one this
week. And Chris Mortenson, Iknow he was probably highly influential to your
(13:33):
career the way you look at journalism. If you want to just take him
in and talk about your thoughts onone of the great journalists of our time,
Chris Mortensen. Yeah, you know, he was a guy that he
comes from the newspapers there and isa true journalist from the standpoint that you
know, he started as a writerand covered the Falcons, I believe,
(13:54):
for the Line Journal Postitution for along time and that's how he got his
feet wet in the business. Anda lot of people know him from ESPN
and TV and stuff. But youknow, a lot of these guys,
even a guy like Adam Scheffner anda couple others, uh, you know,
Peter Schweer and you see on NFLnetwork as well. These guys they
start off as writers and they worktheir way up and they just happened to
(14:15):
be in the right place, righttime, and and because they're good at
what they do and they get thatopportunity to uh to do that and and
and Chris was one of them.And I never met him personally, obviously
I saw him in a couple ofgames I was covering, but you know,
he's working. I never bothered him. And but but but you know,
here's a guy that was that wasa professional, uh, through and
(14:35):
true, and and his stuff wasalways good and he did it the right
way and the way you're supposed toas a journalist and making sure you're getting
double triple confirmation before you report things. And you know, he's the guy
that you kind He's one of thoseguys that you put up there and you
say, Okay, this is howyou do things. You do it this
(14:56):
way, and that's who he was. And that's why guys like myself and
yourself included, we look at aguy like him and we just like,
you know, that's that's what wetry to teach other young professionals as they
come along. And I say that, you know, in journalism, like
people who actually want to be journalists, not people who you know, maybe
start a website and don't they tryto do it all themselves, and they
(15:18):
try to act like their journalists todifferent things, you know, you know,
you know, I went to journalismschool and communication and stuff and all
that and trained to do what Ido and have others to work on the
Climson beat with me. But thereare a few also that haven't. And
you know, unfortunately that's the worldjournalism has come to in some circles.
So yeah, me and You've talkedabout this a lot. I have my
(15:39):
thoughts about it, but it iswhat it is right, Yeah, no
doubt well, well, said WillVandervoort here from Clemson Insider, giving us
a perspective on the loss of ChrisMortenson. We all mourn that this week
as fans of sports and information andinformation gathering, and it's just one of
those things is as a fellow journalist, I look at it and say,
one of the greats has gone onward. We march here, and I think
(16:02):
that's what mord would want us allto do here in terms of analyzing the
world of sports, and certainly theClemson Tigers in terms of basketball entering a
fascinating stretch here is he had acouple of games left here against some game
opponents. But when you look backat what happened against Notre Dame in Richmond,
and I talked about this a coupleof days ago, and I'm sure
you had thought the same thing maybeat a certain point, And you guys
(16:25):
wrote about this at the Clemson Insiderdot com with Cameron Burnett headlining this.
The wear and tear that Brad Burlhad talked about and the amount of players
that had not been practicing, itfelt like it could have been the perfect
storm because Notre Dame has been ona tear of lade. They've beaten some
good teams and sure enough, withoutJack Clark in the lineup, with limited
practice throughout the week, that's aboutwhat it can look like. Yeah,
I mean, you know, theyjust didn't first of all, that I
(16:48):
think one thing that happened and Ithink with that game John, what they
did was they panicked a little bit, I thought because Notre Dame was intentionally
playing every possession, especially in thesecond half, down to the last five
seconds and before they would decide tomake a shot. So they were very
patient and their intent and what theywere doing. And I think Crimson understanding
(17:11):
and the players understanding that that meansit's gonna be the limited opportunity to score.
And I think they kind of rushedsome things. You saw where they
were shooting three pointers with eighteen secondsto go in the shot clock, and
that was clear like for a veteranteam. I was surprised to see they
panic so much and in a doul'tAnd I know Brad talk to him about
(17:33):
it, you know, because asthey did. You know, I had
postgame and talked about it, butyou know, you know, but you
could Telly talk about it in game, because they would come out of a
timeout and they immediately go inside,immediately get the ball inside. They work
the ball around, get the ballinside, and they score almost every time
they came out of a timeout.But then they immediately on the next possession,
(17:53):
they go straight back to what theywere doing before, and they're jacking
up threes with eighteen seconds to goon the clock. And when they weren't
going in, I think it startedbecoming psychological, especially for Gerard and Chase
Hunter, who just I thought combinedhad their worst two games of the season.
And and and that really hurt.When you get PJ Hall, who
(18:15):
didn't play that good in the secondhalf, but he played well the first
half. You know, you justdidn't have anybody to compliment PJ. And
I think that started pressing PJ alittle bit as well. And I think
it was the perfect storm and NotreDame was able to give Notre Dame credit.
First of all, they made shotsin the second half, and they
played very efficiently on the offensive endof the court, and they played really
(18:36):
well on the defensive end of thecourt. And then when you throw in
the fact, you know, JackClark went in the game and that's so
that you know, now you justlost your best on ball defender not playing,
and of course their guy goes offin that game scores eighteen second half
points. That mess the guy Clarkwould have been guarding. You know,
it all kind of added up.And then throw in the fact where I
(18:57):
Brad say only five players practice five, that they only had seven guys practicing
the game, right, yeah,So I mean that's hard. That's hard
to have a practice only seven guysto practice. That means you're throwing team
managers in their stuff just still space. You know, you got to get
(19:17):
bodies in there at that point.That's tough, right. Will Vandivor joins
us from the Clemson Insider. ClemsonInsider dot com is where you can go
to find all of his great work. Coming up at a minute here we'll
talk about a little bit of Clemsonfootball with you. But let's finish off
some thoughts here on well lies aheadfor this team tonight on Senior Night,
a big game against Syracuse, andgo back to the point of wear and
tear and a little bit of afeeling I think from coach Brunell and camera
(19:42):
Burnett did a nice job of chroniclingthis that Burnell was kind of ahead of
the curve in terms of calling thisthat hey, he was concerned about it.
Give you a quote here, quote. Our practices are not very good
right now, said Burnell. They'reextremely limited, and when they're limited,
you're not going to be as effective. I'm disappointed. We have some older
players we got out of who wewere a bit of times and try to
(20:02):
shoot our way out of things,like you just said, Will And is
there a concern I mean, obviously, what's ahead of them right now?
You get a couple of wins herein the last week of the season,
you get that double bye, Butis there a feeling from your perspective that
they're grinding down a little bit andit's just bad timing and it could lead
to bad things as they get intotournament play. They are they are grinding
(20:23):
down a little bit after the winlast week. I guess it was a
hit. You know, we wereasking them about it, Me and Larry
Williams, one of the other writers, were asking about that wear and tear
and how much are they actually practicing. I try to get PJ to see
if he could tell me, likeexactly what the elements are. I know
(20:45):
it's not anything serious as they're ableto play, but it's serious enough that
they're not practicing and and and that'sa concern, and we're trying to get
some of that information out and thatthey didn't they weren't willing to tell us
at that point in time, andI'm sure they will eventually. But you
know, it's obvious those in andPJ are not healthy. That is very
obvious, and that they're not playingthe level that they were earlier in the
(21:08):
year because of that, And Ithink that has caused some of the problems
of what you're seeing with Clemson rightnow now. Granted every team John's going
through it. That's that time ofyear. You've got to play through pain.
But when you're missing practice consistently andyou can't practice, brown Ell was
worried about. You know, thattakes It takes you like almost a whole
(21:30):
half to get going right and toget in the flow of the game because
you haven't practiced. It hurts yourconditioning, right because now you're going to
have to take more time outs becauseyou know you're not conditioned to play thirty
one minutes again that your body's usedto playing only twenty minutes, so you
got to take more time outs andthings of that nature or rest the player.
(21:51):
It leads to stupid fouls as wesaw that's happened a couple of times
with PJ right because you're tired andfatigue, so you do something you probably
have done if you weren't as tired. So it all kind of adds up.
And I'm not trying to make excuses, and I definitely know Brad's not
trying to make excuses. But thefact of the matter is this is a
beat up basketball team right now.They need a rest and if anybody needs
(22:15):
a double buy in the HC Tournament, this is Clemson basketball team. Now.
With that said, the night's gameis so big because Syracuse is the
one right now sitting in fourth place, and if they win and beat Clemson,
now they're in great position to getthat double buy because they're off Saturday,
so they're gonna sit by and watcheverybody else. So not only are
they off Saturday, they get theycould possibly get the double buy off man
(22:40):
Syracuse can go almost twelve days withouthaving to play a game after the night,
so or maybe not twelve and maybenine or ten game stays without playing
game. So yeah, so that'sa long time. So this is a
huge game for the a SEC standingsand really huge for Clemson because they can
win any then they go to WakeForest with a chance to earn that fourth
(23:03):
and final spot for the double byWill Vanderward from the Clemson Insider is our
guest here getting your primed and readyfor Syracuse against the Clemson Tigers on Senior
Night. On that note, willtalk about some of these seniors that have
been a part of this program,including PJ Hall. I know Brad Burnell
spoke this week about PJ Hall haveany decision ahead of him in terms of
(23:23):
a fifth year or not, butjust overall what these seniors have meant to
this program and what a big nightit is for them playing the potential of
their final game ever at Little JohnColiseum. Yeah. I mean, when
you look at what PJ has donethe last four years, I can't believe
it's already four years. I rememberPJ coming in and was backing up a
(23:44):
mere Sims, yeah right, andtrying to just get on the floor any
way he could because he had thisyou know, all acc guy in front
of him. And now you knowhere it is you know, four years
later and he's a senior and he'sgonna play his last game at Little John
to night, no matter what.This is his last game at Little John
because we know the Tigers are goingto be in the tournament. So you
(24:07):
know, this is, uh,this is kind of a kind of a
sad day for Clemson fans, Iguess, And I know it's really sad
for PJ and his family, whoare great people and you know, not
too far from where you're at rightnow and where they where he grew up,
and so you know, so youknow, I know, this is
a kind of a sad day inthe upstate because PJ has been a Clemson
guy his whole life and you know, committed to Clemson and played here and
(24:30):
you know, you know, sothat's gonna be kind of sad to see.
And then you know, you gotyou got Hunt, Chase Hunter.
There's a guy that's been loyal toClemson that he could have transferred a few
years ago and gone anywhere else andand been a star just like he has
been at Clemson. And he isuh, you know, he's he stayed,
stayed the course and played here atClemson and got himself on the floor
and has become one of the alltime greatest guards Clemson's ever had, and
(24:55):
and so he and he's won alot of basketball games for Clemson. He's
played in a lot of big games. So you know, you're gonna miss
those two guys. Definitely weird nightfor senior night in the sense that Jojaarrard
is going to be honor too,right, right seriously against That's right,
yeah, And so like it's kindof weird that that this game, that
Clemson's last home game is against Syracuse, and you've got Joe there, who
(25:18):
who gave four years of his careerthere and obviously loves Syracuse and always will,
but now he's over Clemson. Andand of course he had the best
game of his Clemson career at Syracusea few weeks ago when he just was
making lights out, So that's gonnabe an emotional kind of game for him
tonight. It's kind of weird thatit just how things work out like that,
right where he was, his lastgame at Clemson is going to be
(25:41):
against his old team, you know, So it's kind of weird. That's
kind of weird how it all worksout. No doubt about it will Vandervorth,
Clemson insider, giving us some goodperspective here in terms of what's going
on with the Clemson Tigers on thehardwood. Let's pivot for a minute and
go to the world of college footballwhen it comes to Clinton. I want
to get your thoughts on a coupleof things before we to let you go.
(26:02):
First of all, spring practice underway. You've been on site reporting Kate
Klubnick making some comments about, youknow, how driven they are right now.
The Gator Bowl is a prequel ofthings to come, as your headline
reads here, What were some ofyour takeaways and some of your takeaways so
far being around the team in thisspring session right now? Yeah, First
of all, with Kate, avery interesting conversation that we all got to
(26:23):
have with him yesterday. You know, he talked about that he feels,
of course, he's a very confidentyoung man. And if you don't believe
we just go back and watch thevideo. You can go watch his press
conference. It is the man.The young man is extremely confident in his
ability and what he can do,and also how he feels like he can
(26:45):
be better. He talked about howhe's gone back and reviewed the notes that
he took last year during the seasonof the mistakes he made and how he
put a lot of thought into,you know, how he can get better
as a quarterback and what he needsto do from his reads, like because
now he's in the second year ofthis offense, that he's reading things a
little bit faster. He sees thingsdifferent because he's kind of doing the same
(27:07):
plays over and over again. Butnow he's understanding what the defense and how
defense is defending them better and that'shelping him with his reads. The really
good way he went in and explainedhow all that works, and then you
know, just you know, hefeels like, you know, I got
to be better with getting rid ofthe football faster, making quicker decisions,
making good decisions, taking care ofthe football, all those things that you
(27:29):
want to hear your quarterbacks say.And we'll see how that comes to fruition.
But the thing that really stood outto me, and you mentioned it,
was in that he talked about howif you watch that last two minutes
of the Gator Bowl, He's like, that's what we're capable of as an
offense. He's like, we didn'tneed a miracle play. We didn't need
a guy like, you know,breaking a tackle, doing a three sixty
(27:52):
and then heaving the ball in theair. Sounds like he's describing Eli Manning's
pass and having this miracle catch,you know, down the helmet to win
the game. He's like, no, we drove down the field. We
were third and eighteen and we founda way to get a first down without
having a miracle, you know.He's like, you know, we got
the ball into the end zone inan efficient manner. We didn't, you
(28:14):
know, we just went down thefield, drove the ball down the field
and scored. There was nothing prettyto it, but it was efficient and
effective. And he's like, that'swhat we are capable of when we do
that. He says, last year, there are kids when we would be
moving the football like that, andthen we'd have a he said, then
I would have a fumble. Well, I would throw an interception, or
somebody would miss a block or something. And he said, it get us
(28:34):
off off schedule, and it wouldchange the dynamics of the game and all
that. He says that Gata Bowlproved not only to us what we're capable
of doing, but maybe to everybodyelse. And he's like, you know,
that's kind of what they're going totake into this season, saying,
hey, look we can do this. If we focused and we're laser focused
like we were in that Gata Bowl, we're going to be okay. So
(28:56):
that was interesting. And then youknow you got you got the offensive line
downeamics. You know what are theygonna do there? You know you've got
a brand new center coming in talkto Brian Linztercom. He's excited about the
opportunity to be the starter there.You know, you got Harris Sewell also,
so you know that you got thatdynamics there, you got the other
guys where you know they're moving someguys like Marcus Tate the spring because of
(29:18):
Walker Parks being out, Marcus Tateis playing a lot of right tap,
I mean right guard right now.And I asked him about that, like,
what's that like playing right guard becauseyou're gonna left guard your whole career,
And he says he likes it becauseit allows him to be able to
see the game differently. It isdifferent playing in that position it's supposed to
playing left. And he's like,that's gonna help him when he gets to
the next level. He knows becauseyou know, you don't know what you're
(29:41):
gonna play when you get up tothe next level and just need to be
efficient at both. So there's alot of things going on, a lot
of moving parts on the offensive line, and then just the conversation about you
know, Matt and Luke and howthese guys are just embracing this coaching and
how they're just so like enthralled,because Marcus Tate talked about he followed Matt
Luke's career when he's at all thisyeah, and all the offensive linemen he
(30:03):
coached there that are now in theNFL. You know, uh, obviously
or is the biggest one that weknow of, and and he's like he
talking about all those guys and thenwhat he did at Georgia, and he's
like, you know, he's justgot this career where he's got guys into
the late League and not only inthe league, but guys that start in
the league and are and are andare very effective in the league. And
so you know, he talked abouthow that's you can't you you kind of
(30:23):
gravitate to that, and then you'relike sitting on everything he says because he's
teaching them how to do different thingswith their hands and their feet and why
it's important they do these things.And he's like, it's just He's like,
it's just a clinic over there everyday at practice, and they just
love it, you know. Andso, uh, very good stuff.
A lot of storylines obviously going on. And you know, you got the
freshman out there, Bryant westcam Manmade a catch yesterday over the shoulder catch.
(30:48):
It was just wow. Yeah,they need that, they need that,
They've been needing that for a while. That type of uh, that
type of playmaking ability exactly. Andand I mean the difficult of that catch.
I can't explain to you guys.It's not like oh us when I
was a shoulder catch. No,it was like him looking back over his
shoulder and watching that ball drop overthe front end of his shoulder for the
(31:11):
catch. It was an extremely difficultcatch. Me and you John would have
probably ran into someone or something.I could guarantee you that very impressive catch.
Now he's got he's got to getsome weight on. He's very thin.
I mean, he's probably you know, buck seventy five. I wish
I could give him some of myweights to help him, you know.
(31:32):
But he's probably about a buck seventyfive eighty, so he's got a long
way to go as far as gettingbigger, but the skills are there obviously,
and we'll see how he does.Hopefully he can make it through spring
training. Everybody will get to seehim in the spring game because I know
the coaches are really excited about whathe brings to the wide receiving for I
know Kate Kludman was talking yesterday abouthim and the other guy, saying,
(31:55):
it's really the first time this yeareverybody's kind of helping and we got like
He's like, I'm sitting over thereand I got this guy, this guy,
and this guy I can throw tohim. You know, he's talking
about Pete Kelly. The kids fromDaniel really excited about him. They were
sad about him last year before hegot hurt, so you know they're you
know, they got all those guysthat were hurt last year, they pretty
much got back now. Adam Randallwas wearing yellow yesterday. He's a little
(32:16):
nicked up, but it doesn't seemlike he's too bad. For what we
could see just using my eyes.He didn't look like it was anything serious.
But you know, we'll see whatcoach twin he says tomorrow. And
then while we were there, though, Troy Stillato tweaked something, you know,
in his inner thigh. I don'tknow what that was, but it
was really bothering him and he hadto go in the sideline and get the
(32:36):
trainer and look at that. SoI don't know what that is or puts
anything serious, but we'll try tofind that out too. And we thought
they're swimming tomorrow. Awesome stuff fromwill Vandervoord Clemson Insider, just real quick
before he let you go on onemore football note. The Combine has come
and gone, and some Clemson guysI believe made themselves a little bit of
money, especially Ruker Rowroe with hisforty time, his athletic testing. Nate
Wiggins ran a great forty time,and Xavier or Tom look, I know
(33:00):
he had the injury before he ranstill a respectable time at his position.
Just your thoughts on this class interms of what they're doing right now getting
ready for the big draft coming up. Well, I can guarantee I can't
run four stix with a hammy.I mean, I mean Thomas like I
mean you if you're I mean,and the fact that he also ran it
(33:22):
while he was hurt. That's goingto stand out too to the guy to
some of the scuffs. So thathe helps himself, I think a little
bit there. We'll see where heends up being drafted, but I think
that definitely helps himself a little bit. But hey, here's what's gonna happen,
John, the Steelers are gonna takeNate Wighams with the first pick there
around twenty twenty one, Okay,and then and then we're gonna take Ruth
Roro there in the second round.Yes, and then we're gonna go and
(33:44):
we're gonna get Jeremiah Trotter in thethird round. You go a lot.
So that's that's what's gonna happen withthose three players right there you mentioned.
I think that's where they're going.Uh No, I like that. Look,
those are all team needs. Theycould use those guys. That's why
I said it. They're right thereand they're falling in the line, and
that's we'll see if that'll boy,I'll tell you what, I'll be happy
(34:06):
if that happens. But but no, in all seriousness, though, I
think you know, I think NateWiggins solidified himself as a first round draft
pick by running that four sub threeI mean four to three. So what
you know I'm trying to say.And you know, he definitely solidified himself
as a first round I think Grouphelped himself definitely as a Day two guy.
(34:27):
And you maybe he jumps into Dayone. I don't think he will,
but I think he's definitely right thereon that cuff where he really shows
out again at Clemson's Pro day andhow he does in those interviews and things,
maybe he moves up into a latefirst round. I definitely think he's
second round though, no doubt.Maybe third round at the worst, but
I think he's going to be thatsecond day guy without a doubt. And
(34:51):
then I think Jeremiah Trotter man.When you looked at all the the skills
and stuff they do so each position, did you recognize Jeremiah Trotter was in
every single one of the top fives. Yes, And he did the bench
press. He did a lot ofguys didn't do the bench press, and
Trotter got in there and did itexactly. I'm telling you, he moved
himself up at least one round.And and he's a guy when you because
(35:15):
everybody knows his dad, they knowhow he plays, and they know he's
built just like his dad and issmart like his dad. And you turn
on the film at Clinton and youwatch how his football iq and you see
it on the field. I'm tellingyou, man, there's man. If
there's anybody I want my feelers toget, it's Jeremi Trotter. I'm telling
you he is a He is amiddle linebacker that's going to play in this
(35:37):
league for a long time. Hecan drop back into coverage, he reads
coverages. He's already ahead of alot of things because of what he's done
under Preventables and also under West Goodwin. So I really like, you know
where he's at from a head standpoint, from a mental standpoint, and I
think his physical presence obviously is there. And so like you know, he's
(36:00):
definitely gonna make somebody an outstanding middlelinebacker for years to come. And so
I'm looking forward to see where hegoes. We covered football, we're covering
basketball as well. It's our goodfriend Will Van Dervolt from the Clemson Insider
dot com. Get you ready forSenior Night tonight. It's Sarahcuse and Clemson
tangling here in a little bit onninety two point five WSC Will as always
Man, appreciate your time, BudeHi, John always Man, Thanks for
(36:22):
having me buddy. Be well,my friend. We'll see you next time.
There he is Will Vandervoort from theClemson Insider. Find his work at
Clemson Insider at the Clemson Insider dotcom just to get the website right there,
because he and his staff do agreat job there reporting on your Clemson
Tigers. And of course there'll beplenty on this one tonight in terms of
recap, review, live coverage fromthe Clemson Insider. As you've got Sarahcuse
(36:46):
traveling to Clemson to night it's SeniorNight, will give you a little more
detail on this game. Coming upnext, it's the Engles Countdown to tip
Off show live here on ninety twopoint five WEESC. Ninety two point five
w is the Upstate's new home witha Clemson Tiger. Count you down to
(37:15):
Senior Night for the Clemson Tigers hostingthe Syracuse Orange. It certainly will be
an Orange crush between those two teams. Big time game in the ACC with
a lot of implications. Are good. Thanks to our friend will Vannervort from
The Clemson Insider for joining us herefor a nice, extensive, twenty five
minute conversation not only about this gametonight, but the season at large for
(37:37):
Clemson. As it's been quite thejourney. Injuries have mounted up, there
have been limited practice windows, limitedpractice time for some on this team.
Brad Brunella has talked about the frustrationwithin that framework right now, but it's
all on the line for Clemson.That double by is still within reach with
a couple of wins here this week, and it all starts the win tonight
(37:59):
on Senior Night at home against Sarahcuse. We'll give you a run out of
what's been going on in the toptwenty five here momentarily. I'm John Ellis,
by the way, thanks for joiningme. Richmond Weaver is off today.
Back with us next time around forthis fine show, which is brought
to you by our friends at InglesLow Prices. Love the savings Ingles dash
markets dot com. They are thetitle sponsor of the Ingles Soacon Basketball Championships.
(38:22):
Don't forget every single weekday, tuneinto our show game on on one
O four point nine Fox Sports Upstate. We will be there live on Friday
four to six pm from the HarrisCherokee Center, giving you a little bit
of flavor of March madness. Onour show, we talk everything on Game
On, a little bit of NFLlot going on in free agency right now.
(38:43):
It's franchise tag day as you know, and of course we talk college
hoops unlike any show out there.Check us out four to six pm Fox
Sports Upstate. The show is GameOn with yours truly, John Ellis and
our good friend Trey Pauly Walnuts Falcoalong for the ride as well. It's
going to be a lot of funas we see these brackets take shape and
(39:05):
I can't wait to fillop my bracket. It's always a bit of a crapshoot.
It's kind of like the NFL Draft. You just never know how things
are going to land in terms ofwho picks what where and how things shape
up. And we saw what happenedlast year. We spoke on one O
four nine Fox Sports Upstate with ourgood friend Dan Scott over there at Furman
who calls their games about this timelast year when they had an amazing run
not only in the SoCon Tournament butin the absolute just stunning fashion in which
(39:30):
they beat Virginia in the first roundlast season. Such an exciting time when
you look at the scoreboard right now, here's what went down on Monday night.
Number nine Duke with a big winover NC State seventy nine sixty four.
They get their fifteenth win in theACC. They're twenty four and six
overall right now in c State,nine and ten in the ACC, seven
(39:51):
and thirteen overall in other Top twentyfive action. Last evening, number eleven
Baylor ninety three to eighty five winover Texas that pushes their record to twenty
two and eight and eleven and sixin the Big twelve. Texas falls to
eight and nine in the Big twelve, and they are nineteen and eleven overall.
And you've got a plethora of bigtime games tonight in the Top twenty
(40:14):
five. Let's start with number three, Perdue with Zach Edyan company. They
are twenty six and three, fifteenand three in the Big Ten, traveling
a champagne to take on number twelveIllinois. They're also thirteen and five in
the Big Ten, twenty two andseven overall. That's a seven pm tip
off on Peacock at seven pm onthe ACC Network. Notre Dame, a
team that Clemson just fell victim toa couple of short days ago, travels
(40:37):
to the Dean Doome to take onnumber seven North Carolina, looking for win
number sixteen in the ACC. NorthCarolina twenty three and six overall. Notre
Dame is twelve and seventeen again.That's a seven pm tipoff on the ACCED
network at seven pm as well onESPN. Big one in the SEC.
Number sixteen Alabama they're twenty and nine, twelve and four conference. Traveling to
(41:00):
Gainesville to take on Florida. They'retwenty and nine as well, ten and
six in conference. Tip off atseven pm on ESPN at seven pm on
ESPN plus two Lane traveling to numbertwenty four South Florida. South Florida's fifteen
and one in the conference right now, big time game for them. Number
thirteen Auburn tangles with Missouri tonight.That's a nine pm tip off on the
(41:21):
SEC Network. Missouri having a hardseason right now. They are winless in
the SEC at o and sixteen,eight and twenty one overall. Auburn right
now eleven and five in conference,twenty two and seven overall again nine pm
tip off on the SEC Network.Coming up at nine pm as well.
Kansas they're fourteenth in the country rightnow, only nine and seven in the
(41:42):
Big Twelve. They're hosting Kansas State, they're seven and nine in conference play.
This will be at Alan Fieldhouse ninepm ESPN. Also at nine pm
on the CBS Sports Network. Numbertwenty five Dayton twenty two and six,
they are twelve and four in conferenceright now, traveling to Saint Louis and
this is going to be a gamethat Dayton is highly favored in. We'll
see what happens. It's March.Anything can happen. Nine pm tip off
(42:06):
on CBS Sports Network. And finally, for you late nighters out there,
you night ols, you guys wouldlike to stay up late eleven pm if
you're so inclined. Number twenty oneSand Diego State twenty two and seven overall
eleven and five in the Mountain WestConference, traveling to the Thomas and Mack
Center in Las Vegas to take onUNLV eighteen and ten overall eleven and five
(42:28):
in the conference right now. It'san eleven pm tip off on the CBS
Sports Network. When we return,a quick look at the ACC standings,
a little look at bracketology right nowas it relates to the Clemson Tigers,
and a final peak at this matchupbetween your Clemson Tigers and Syracuse tonight on
Senior Night. It's the Ingles Countdownto tip Off Show ninety two point five
(42:49):
WSC. Ninety two point five WDSCis the Upstate's new home with a Clemson
Tiles. Getting your prime and readyfor another evening of Clemson men's basketball right
(43:12):
here on the Ingles Countdown a tipOff Show ninety two point five WSC.
John ellis here, Richmond. Wewere back with me next go round.
He is off tonight, but weare getting you primed and ready, as
I said, for a senior nightdown at Little John, A big night
for a lot of young men andtheir families as well and Clemson fans.
I'm sure it'll be an emotional night, but let's not underestimate or overlook the
(43:35):
importance of this game from a strategicand practical perspective for Clemson. We'll walk
through the standings here at a minute. Clemson, there are some scenarios within
this season coming down the stretch herethe last couple of games that we want
to explain to you in further detail, but again it all starts with a
win tonight over Syracuse. The lastgo round, Joseph Gerard the third put
(43:55):
in eighteen points in a big nightup there at Syracuse, and he eclipsed
that all encompassing two thousand career pointmark in a seventy seven to sixty eight
win over the Yarrange. And thatwas an emotional game for Gerard. We
had talked about that his family wasin attendance, even his grandmother, who
doesn't come to a lot of games, was in attendance, and that was
(44:19):
a big time moment for Clemson.Back after that win, Clemson was five
hundred in conference play. They weresixteen and seven at that point, still
clawing their way to that twenty winmark we had talked about, and certainly
when you look at the standings rightnow, here's the full breakdown as we
go into this game tonight, NorthCarolina fifteen and three in the conference.
At the moment, they were ontop by a half a game over Duke,
(44:43):
who got the win last night againstNC State. Duke is fifteen and
four, and those two teams,as they traditionally do, will face off
at the end of this regular season, so certainly going to be a lot
of drama there. You got Virginiaholding down the third spot right now at
twelve and seven, they're three anda half games back, So they're just
kind of, like I said,monitoring their situation, making sure they don't
trip up at the end here,because you have Syracuse right behind them,
(45:06):
Clemson's opponent tonight, vaulting into fourthplace. They are eleven and eight.
They are a game back of Virginiaright now, Clemson a half game back
of Syracuse, tied for fifth inthe conference. They did win over Pittsburgh,
the team in sixth right now,also at ten and eight, Wake
Forest at ten and eight. Soyou have that glob that Brad Burnell has
continued to talk about right there inthat mix. Wake Forest ten and eight,
(45:30):
Florida State nine and nine in theconference, they are six games back.
And then you have that contingent ofteams that look, they have losing
records in the conference, but aswe talk about, any given night,
anybody can beat anybody in this conference. Florida State nine to nine, NC
State nine and ten, Virginia Techeight and ten, Notre Dames seven,
and eleven, but look, NotreDame over the past week and a half
has beaten both wake Forest and Clemson. Boston College six and twelve. Miami
(45:54):
is six and twelve in the conference, but always a dangerous out with Jim
Larronega six twelve, as well asGeorgia Tech and Louisville sitting there at three
and fifteen in conference play at fulltwelve games back in the conference. So
fascinating times right now when you lookat the full picture in terms of bracketology,
here's what we've got in terms ofhow Joe Lonardi sees it at the
(46:15):
moment. The one seeds would beout of the Midwest, Perdue. Out
of the East it would be Yukon. The other one seeds Houston projected right
now. In the South, that'sthe Dallas region and the Los Angeles West
region would be number one Arizona.It so certainly a lot to monitor there
right now. When you look atsome of the teams of interest here out
of the Carolinas South Carolina, LamontParis's team has put together a really strong
(46:38):
season. They continue to roll onand they're currently projected, according to Joe
Lonardi, is a six seed inPittsburgh in the East bracket, and we're
looking at a potential South Carolina Virginiaor Seaton Hall matchup out of that one.
So again, a lot to playout here, but it's certainly interesting.
And as we talked about LASCO Roundin the Midwest, Clemson right now
(47:00):
is projected again right now, it'ssubject to change by the hour. As
we know, Clemson will face numbertwelve Richmond if all things started today.
According to Joe Lonardi, of courseRichmond Weaver, that's his namesake and we
wish him well. But yeah,that's certainly an interesting perspective when you look
at all the hype, all thetalk of what's coming down the stretch here
in this particular college basketball season,going to be fascinating to see this Clemson
(47:24):
team if they can get back afterit. Obviously it's been frustrating for Brad
Burnell, the injuries, the lackof bodies in terms of practice time,
but it's another opportunity for the ClemsonTigers to cement their status in the ACC.
March madness is here, and wantto remind you Ingles has you covered
for all of that because they aresponsoring the Ingles SoCon basketball Championships. Don't
(47:46):
forget to tune into game on fourto six pm every single weekday. I'll
be up there live four to sixpm coming up this Friday, giving you
all the latest from Ashville's Harris CherokeeCenter. The Ingles SoCon Basketball Champion and
Chips proudly sponsored by our friends atIngles Low Prices, Love the Savings for
Richmond Weaver, for Trey Faco,I'm John Ellis, Thanks again for being
(48:07):
with us here on the Ingles Countdownto tip Off show keeping locked in right
here on ninety two point five WeSCDon Munson and Tim Bray take the torch
here momentarily as network coverage kick sin. Hope you all have a great night,
enjoy another evening of Clemson men's basketball
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.