The "Freshly Squeezed" Edition

Clemson softball advances to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Each time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lawton Swan.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back. Two drive time.
Hell everybody long, the Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the south Land. Clipson
Sports Talk for you each and every afternoon as you
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(01:02):
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(01:25):
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as well. A three four five O zero zero eighty six.

(01:48):
All right, Clemson Baseball the ACC Tournament, the Tigers entering
off of a three game sweep at pitt just what
the doctor ordered. We'll talk about that in a little bit.
William Qualkinbush set to join us in our number two
of the show. Clemson softball wins the Clemson Regional. They

(02:09):
go three to zero over the weekend and they advanced.
They will take on Texas in the second round. Texas
was the sixth overall seed in the NCAA tournament, and
we'll certainly get into that conversation here in our number
one as well. And kudos to John Ripman and this

(02:30):
Clemson softball team for the weekend that they had, advancing
with a five to one victory over Kentucky. They also
slid just past with a little I think Clemson even
put it in the article squeezed past Northwestern, which was
a completely incredible way to finish that ball game of fantastic,

(02:56):
a fantastic matchup. Neither team had a ton of opportunity,
but every time that they did get opportunities, the defense
and the pitching from the opposing staff stood up and
got the job Say it with me now, d O
n E the job done. The two teams went into
the ninth inning. Clemson was the visitor in this matchup.

(03:18):
Clemson went into the ninth inning with Northwestern nil nil
zero zero across the board and Clemson after an impressive
triple from Abby Vieira, her first triple of the season,
maybe even the first triple for the team of the season.

(03:39):
Can't quite recall if the team had a triple, but
either way, just off the hoof, but either way, that
ball down the right field line, and then a perfectly
executed squeeze bunt from Marion Collins. You'll hear from Marion
coming up in just a little bit. She was with
John Ripman and Maddie Moore as they met with the

(04:01):
media following Clemson's win on Sunday at the ACC or
excuse me at the Clemson Regional. Sorry, I got ACC
tournament action on my mind with Clemson baseball jumping into
that this week. But the Tigers advance again. They will
head on to Austin, Texas saddle up partner. Much like

(04:25):
the Clemson football team the Clemson softball team, they're headed
to the Midwest. They will head out to Austin, Texas
after Clemson's five to one victory on Sunday over Kentucky.
The Tigers now forty seven and twelve. They improved a
nine to one all time in NCAA tournament home games,
they defeated each of the three teams in their region.

(04:49):
They beat USC Upstate in the opener, Northwestern in game two,
and then Kentucky and gave up just three runs at
doing so. Reese Bessinger seventeen and five on the season.
Brook mccobbn also coming in in the final game to
close things out. Anytime they get into a little bit
of a jam with Reese, they're more than comfortable rolling

(05:12):
in Brook. It is quite the one two punch. Neither
of those young ladies has like this elite speed in
which they pitched the ball. But the duo, the duo,
excuse me, got a little what they call that in
the business, the little frog in your throat. The duo

(05:34):
does a tremendous job. They're a perfect one to two punch.
And so Clemson advances. The Tigers are the twenty twenty
five ACC champions. Obviously, they beat Florida State in the
ACC Tournament last weekend, and now this week they win it,
and they advanced to take on the sixth overall seed,

(05:57):
the Texas Longhorns. Texas is fourty eight and ten on
the season, and the SEC was dominant in women's softball
this season. But you might recall a little storyline from
a week ago where the SEC was unable to get

(06:18):
in their tournament championship game between Oklahoma and Texas A
and M. And I talked about how I felt like,
even though those two teams were seeded number one and
number two nationally, the top two seeds in the country,
I felt like they should have played that game. Well.

(06:40):
I don't know if it had anything to do with it,
but if you were keeping score at home over the weekend,
Texas A and M ended up being the number one
seed in the entire tournament, and they were stunned not once,

(07:00):
but twice at home by Liberty. Liberty upsets the number
one team after a what's been deemed in college Station
a magical season, a magical season ends in a ends

(07:21):
in a thud, as the top seed in the NCAA
tournament lost six to five to Liberty in Game seven
at the Brian College Station Regional Sunday night. With that loss,
the Aggie's become the first top seeded team not to
reach a super regional since the NCUBA tournament began seeding

(07:48):
back in two thousand and five.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
That is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yes, I saw posts on social media. You know and
M does a lot of talking. A and M. It
doesn't really matter what sport thinks pretty highly of themselves.
I've had multiple cousins that went to school there. And

(08:16):
I'm not saying my cousins think highly of themselves. When
I say that, don't say anything to my relatives. But
A and M always seems to believe that they are
better than they really are. And someone in the posts
I saw on social media said that Texas, that Texas

(08:41):
A and Ming or just A and Emming has become
the new Clemsoning in the world of college sports. No
matter their expectations, A and M always seems to come
up short, and this time doing it in historic fashion,
becoming the first number one seed to not reach a

(09:03):
super regional since the NCUBA tournament began seedings twenty years ago.
So the Aggies are out. Now what does the rest
of the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA Softball Tournament look like? Well,

(09:23):
remember the SEC loaded up with I think fourteen teams
I believe was the number in the NCUBA tournament. To
start out, the only team in the conference that plays
softball that didn't get in the NCAA tournament was Missouri,
and that was because they were under five hundred or

(09:45):
a lot of people believe that every team in the
SEC would have been in the NCAA tournament. But after
the first round was all said and done, five of
those SECS schools were eliminated, in addition to top seeded Texas.
A and M will give you the rundown of what

(10:09):
that looks like momentarily. But because the Aggies are out,
sixteenth seeded Oregon, who won their regional, will now host
Liberty in the second round or the super regional round
a three game series there with Liberty coming up, that
is the now top side of the bracket. Conversely, where

(10:35):
the number two seed in the tournament was Oklahoma, they
are still alive. They will face off with Alabama in
an all SEC super regional out in Norman, Oklahoma, looking
for their fifth consecutive national championship. Now opposite of the
one seed in that bracket you drop down is the

(10:55):
eighth seed, and of course now it's Oregon who's the
sixteenth seed. Got eight seeded South Carolina and nine seeded UCLA,
which means game cognation if you're hanging out with us today,
so you could.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Continue to peek over the fence at the best radio
showing the nation.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
You host a super Regional against UCLA, and then you
have a chance. Obviously if you win that, you'll be
in the n in the College World Series, the women's
College World Series in softball, and the bracket does not

(11:35):
possess the number one team in the land. So that's
a bright positive for the game Cocks. It's also by
virtue of the way it all sets up a positive
for Clemson as well. More on that in a minute now.
Opposite of the two seed is seventh seeded Tennessee, who
was the number one team in the country, and Clemson

(11:57):
of course went up to Knoxville and beat them. Tennessee
in Nebraska will face off. Nebraska won the Baton Rouge
Regional eliminating LSU, so that's another one of those SEC
schools that's been eliminated from the NCAA tournament. So Nebraska
and Tennessee will face off. They'll be a part of

(12:17):
the bottom half what the NCAA determines as bracket too.
At the College World Series. Along with Oklahoma. Now on
the flip side, the three seed who was also in
that upper bracket with Oregon and South Carolina, et cetera,
number three seeded Florida, and then Georgia who was not seeded.

(12:39):
Georgia went to fourteenth seeded Duke and ended up winning
that regional. So you got an all SEC match up there,
and that regional is tied into the Clemson Texas Regional,
so superregional where Clemson will travel out to Austin for
that super regional, they'll take on the long Horns. Clemson

(13:00):
the eleventh seed, Texas the sixth seed. Both of those
schools advanced. Again. Another SEC schools eliminated by Clemson, that
was the University of Kentucky. Then the final pairings, Auburn
was eliminated in the Florida State regional as the seminals
advanced as the five seed, Mississippi State was eliminated out

(13:21):
in Lubbock, Texas as Texas Tech the twelfth seed advanced.
Florida State will host a super regional against Texas Tech
and then al in Tucson. Thirteen seed at Arizona was eliminated
by Old Miss, setting up four seeded Arkansas and Old
miss in a superregional out in Arkansas, meaning that of

(13:46):
the eight matchups for the right to go to the
College World Series, three of them are all SEC affairs meeting.
The South Eastern Conference is guaranteed three out of the
eight spots and could potentially, based off of the way

(14:09):
it sets up, they could potentially get six out of
the eight spots. The winner of Florida Georgia will be there.
If Texas were to beat Clemson, they would be there.
If Tennessee beats Nebraska, they'll be in. The winner of
Oklahoma and Alabama's in. The winner of Arkansas and Old
misses in Florida State Texas Tech does not help the
SEC South Carolina if they could beat USLA, they would

(14:32):
be in, and then Oregon and Liberty does not help
the SEC, but the chance for the SEC too dominate
dominate the Women's College World Series with the way that
set up currently looks for that conference, but a lot
of work left to be done. Again, Ula and South

(14:54):
Carolina should be a heck of a battle. I would
imagine Clemson will have a fighting chance against the Texas
Longhorns based off of the way this Clemson Tiger softball
team has played this season, speaking of which we will
hear from John Ritman at linked here on the program
on a Monday afternoon as Ritman met with the media

(15:15):
along with a couple of the girls off of the team.
Because the NCAA tournament has a little nicer postgame scenario
than we are typically accustomed to getting from the land
of college softball. All right, so that's coming up in
just a little bit now. For the Clypson Tiger baseball team,

(15:37):
as I mentioned, they had a three game sweep this
past weekend against pitt including a no hitter on Friday.
Speaking of that no hitter, part of that no hitter,
a third of it, well more than a more than
a third if you considered the length of time pitched.

(15:59):
Right was the success of Aiden Kinnock. Three guys tallied
up that win, but Kannach did most of the work.
The sophomore righty was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week.
That dude was coming out a little bit earlier today,
joining Georgia Tech Drew Burris, who was named the ACC

(16:19):
Player of the Week in receiving conference accolades. ACC baseball
weekly honors are determined by a botha select media panel.
It marked the fourth time in Cannock's career, in the
second time this season he was named the ACC Pitcher
of the Week. He earned that accolade twice as well
as a freshman back in twenty twenty four, and he

(16:39):
became just a second Tiger to earn ACC Pitcher of
the Week honors four times in a career, joining Chris Benson.
The ACC began giving the Pitcher of the Week awards
back in nineteen eighty nine. Kannock i mentioned this a
minute ago, combined for Clempson's first no hitter in sixteen years,
pitching seven and the third innings with twelve strikeouts to

(17:01):
tight his career high in a six to one win
on Thursday. His twelve strikeouts give him a perfect one
hundred strikeouts this season, and he becomes the first ACC
pitcher to reach one hundred strikeouts this year. Cannock right
now is eight and one with a four point twenty
five ERA. Opponents areted batting about two toh eight against him,

(17:23):
So congratulations goes out to Aiden Kinnock on that front.
Now from the standpoint of the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball tournament,
and we will certainly taught with William Qualkinbush about this
coming up when he joins us in hour number two.

(17:43):
But the changes to the format of the ACC tournament
to include your Clemson Tigers being in a what you
call like a regular single elimination tournament after all the

(18:06):
years of the silly pod format, and I get it, like,
if you're from Stanford or cal the pod would be better.
If you're a fan, then you're coming across the country
because you know that you were guaranteed at least two ballgames.
But because of this new format, those teams just don't

(18:31):
know how it'll all shake out. Unfortunately for Clemson, they
were not one of the biggest benefactors. The big benefactors
are the teams that received the double buys seeds one
to three, and four. Clemson checked in and ended up
being fifth in the ACC. We'll look at those rankings
in just a little bit, but the Tigers are the

(18:53):
fifth seed. They'll play Wednesday at one pm against the
win of game two, which is a matchup between number
twelve Virginia Tech at number thirteen Stanford. So I'm looking
at the clock. We only have about a minute, so
we'll get back into the ACC tournament, championship schedule and

(19:16):
all of that with you coming up in just a
little bit here on the show. Okay, so that's what
we'll do. We'll pump the brakes on that. But just no,
Clemson plays Wednesday at one o'clock against the winner of
twelve seed of Virginia Tech and thirteenth seeded Stanford. Also
one final thing talking about when teams play, and I

(19:39):
got about twenty seconds here Clemson softball, we do know
when they will open play out at out in Austin, Texas.
They'll begin play Thursday at nine pm on ESPN two.
There you go, quick break. We'll come back with more.
We'll hear from John Ritman right after this. Sports taltlawd

(20:01):
and Swan here with you on a Monday afternoon, again,
off the heels of Clemson's softball win at the Tiger Regional,
the Clemson Regional, they will head out to Austin, Texas,
as I mentioned just a little bit ago for the
Super Regionals, the third time the Tigers have been in
a Super Regional in the short history of the program.

(20:26):
After the match because it was or the game against
Kentucky because it was a NCAA tournament, they had a
little nicer setup for everybody to be able to gather
around and hear what Coach Ripman and Maddie Moore and
Marion Collins, two players for Clemson, had to say. We'll

(20:46):
jump into that conversation with coach John Ripman and those
girls right here. As John Ripman was asked to deliver
an opening statement on Clemson's regional win.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Oh yeah, Wow, what a weekend.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
I am so proud of you, all the hard work
that they've put into this championship. It's just so special
to play in front of three sold out crowds at mcwarter.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Just an awesome experience for our student athletes.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
I mean, it's it's hard to describe where this team
has come from in January to today, but as a coach,
it's been a it's been quite a journey, and it's
a ride that I will never forget. Just the growth,
the maturity and leadership from our upperclassmen, the talent, the youth,

(21:35):
the kind of hey, we've never done this, but we're
good and we're going to ride the seniors and go
get everyone we can.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
From our freshman was just phenomenal.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
Obviously, our pitching staff, Coach Jameson does a great job
with our pitchers, but just to see the growth from
them with a three and six start to where we
are now, I think for a couple of weeks. It
took reespacing or our trans for a pitcher a couple
of weeks to figure out that.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Hey, I need to be I need to be good
for the Clemson Tigers.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
And when she figured that out, she kind of took
us on this ride and kept us in every game.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
And then about halfway through the season, Brooke.

Speaker 5 (22:14):
Mccobbn just really stepped up and we have a one
two punch and they've been phenomenal the second half of
the season and this this weekend was an indication of
what they can do. I thought Reese pitched her butt
off today. I know she wanted to finish I didn't
want to go to the game two, and bringing Brooke
in was was what we've been doing.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
So we did and Brooke completely shut them down. So
that was nice to see.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
Offensively, you know, Maddie's been Maddie and Alex Brown one
two probably the best one two hitters in the country
in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
They started us and sparked us.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
Taylor Pipkins since she's been a lineup, has been one
of the clutches hitters on our team, and she just
continued that today with another big home run. And then
I can't say enough about Marion Collins and the job
she did this weekend. She was on fire today for
quality at bats, three for fourth walk, played outstanding defense.
I thought Abby Viera was just awesome working with our

(23:13):
pitching staff. Abby caught every game this year, with the
exception of maybe six innings as a senior.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
So for her to do that, that's pretty special.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
And it takes a lot of mental toughness and we
wouldn't be where we're at without Abbyvierre. I know that,
but it takes a team to get to this point.
Team six will ever have our heart. The job's not
done yet. We still have more games to play. And
one of our mantras when we started this program was
to shock the world, and what better way to do

(23:43):
it than to go to the Austin Regional and play
Texas for a chance to go to the World Series.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Maddie Moore was asked about her confidence just some of
the things she was doing during the game, dance and
celebrating having a good time as things were taking place
and whether or not she felt like it was going
to be the Tiger's day.

Speaker 6 (23:59):
I mean this team, I mean We've gotten the name
Cardiac Kids for a reason. I just have all the
faith in the world with this team. I mean we
never quit, we never give up, we never say die.
So I mean I had all the confidence in the
world with this team. There was not a second in
the game where I thought we might lose it or
we were in trouble. So, I mean playing loose is fun,
and so we like to have a lot of fun there,
so we play loose.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Mary and Collins was asked about getting the final out
for Clympson. Then what that moment was like when everybody
started celebrating.

Speaker 7 (24:25):
That's something I've been working on, just kind of when
the pressure starts to hit, maybe in the seventh inning,
you know, trying to slow the moment down, trust on
my defense, trust my pitchers, got my back, like all
my teammates have my back in that moment too, And
so just slowing that moment down and then getting to
celebrate with everyone, I mean I met everything.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Hey. Coach John Ripman was asked about the youthfulness of
his team and how that's really maybe kind of guided
this offense.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
Ironically, our offense has been pretty darn good all year long.
And to be a good offense, you have to be
productive up and down the lineup. You have to have
some versatility, some speed, some people that can short game
and then hit the all with power. And we've we've
had contributions from so many people up and down our lineup,
and that's what makes this team so tough. I mean,
Kylie Johnson with the big hit to win the ACC Championship,

(25:11):
she had a big hit against.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Upstate to break the game open.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
Just one through nine, and even players coming off the
bench have contributed this year. And that's why this team
is so special. It's just not one or two players.
It's everyone. And you never know who's gonna strike in
any given game. And I you know, the opposing team's
pitching coach will tell you this is a tough lineup
to pitch to.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Maddie Moore was asked how this championship compares to maybe
some of the others that she's won throughout her career.

Speaker 6 (25:38):
I mean, what I think makes this team so special
is that we've kind of got to see it grow
from the beginning and just see how we've all just
controlled what we could and let like let the defense work,
that the offense work. If either or wasn't working, we
knew somebody was gonna pick it up. And so this
year it's just been a lot of just relinquishing trust
and being okay to like, it's not gonna be my

(26:00):
game today, but it's gonna be Marion's game today. Or
it's not gonna be my or it's not gonna be Marians,
it's gonna be Taylor and YadA, YadA YadA. But I
think that was just being able just to control what
you can and just not think too big about it,
dot try to be the hero over one swing and
just kind of have fun, play loose, because you know
the twenty one other girls are going.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
To have your back.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
John Ripman was also asking about pitchers Reese basic You're
in McCubbin and how those two have kind of worked
in tandem.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
Well, it's it's just remarkable. I think they both pitched
with a lot of heart. They're both competitors. You know,
if you look at the miles per hour, everybody had
somebody thrown a lot harder than Brook.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
And Reese but you can't. You can't, you know, you
can't judge a.

Speaker 5 (26:42):
Person's heart and their competitiveness by the scoreboard, and both
of those both of those pitchers have improved all year long.
They have a never die attitude, and they're great teammates.
And when you're a great teammate, people want to play
behind you, and that's what you see with Reese and
Brooke in these games that they're splitting. We don't miss

(27:02):
a beat when one of them comes in. They have
each other's back. And that's why we've been on this run,
is our pitching.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
So there you go. That's some time with the media
from Clemson softball head coach John Ripman, Mariam Collins who's
a freshman, and also senior Maddie Moore. We might hear
a little bit more from them coming up in our
number two. All right, with a quick break when we
come back. We talked about the Clemson Clemson baseball in

(27:30):
the ACC Tournament. We'll give you the rundown of what
that looks like right after this rocking and rolling along
with you the show the Shakes to South Lane. Look
if you were up in Tigertown this weekend for that
that regional. I hope you stopped by Alumni Hall right
there on the corner of campus on College Avenue and
downtown Clemson. If you didn't, don't worry. You can shop

(27:50):
online at Alumni Hall dot com as well. Get all
your officially licensed Clemson merchandise, hats, t shirts, tailgate gear,
and much more at Alumni Hall. Don't for we get
to ask them about their Alumni Hall Rewards past program. Plus,
if you're shopping in his store, Clemson students faculty in
all military get ten percent off that. Again, that's in store,

(28:10):
so make sure you got the proper IDs for that. Again,
go check them out next time you're in Tiger Town.
It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop, all right. So
we talked about the Clemson out of the gates back
half a segment one, we kind of talked about the
Clemson seating at the ACC tournament, and why not we'll

(28:35):
just go ahead and dive into the overall rankings or
the excuse me, the overall standings in the ACC as well.
And I said here on the show last week that
I wasn't sure if any team would finish with less
than ten losses, or maybe it was that I thought

(28:57):
every team would have ten losses or more. Either way,
that became true and only Florida State had ten losses.
They didn't win the league though, because it is decided
by percentage. Georgia Tech wins the Atlantic Coast Conference. They
went nineteen and eleven. And remember, tragically Florida State had

(29:17):
three games canceled because of that shooting that took place
on their campus. And not that baseball is important by
comparison to that fact, but I mean, you could argue,
if Florida State had won those three games, you know,
they'd be the number one. They would be the number
one seed in the ACC tournament. But back to it all,

(29:41):
Georgia Tech won the ACC championship outright and earned the
number one seed for the first time since two thousand
and five. And it's also their longtime head coach Danny
Hall's final season, so a pretty cool occurrence from that standpoint.
Florida State, as I mentioned, finished second. They were seventeen
and ten in the league. North Carolina finished third. They

(30:03):
were eighteen and eleven. Inn c State finished fourth. They
were seventeen and eleven six seven percentage. Clemson six hundred
at eighteen and twelve, So the Tigers finish outside the
top four, meaning Georgia Tech, Florida State, North Carolina, and

(30:24):
NC State all received buys at the ACC tournament. Clemson
is your five seed. So that's the way it went.
We'll give you the rundown of the tournament schedule here
starting tomorrow at nine am. Because it is a single
elimination tournament. We got baseball all week, and some of

(30:47):
these games could end up going late into the evening
if there's weather delays, or if say you have one
team or another that maybe ends up, you know, in
a situation where you've got a game that goes to
extra innings. I mean, there's a lot of a lot

(31:07):
of things that could happen right that would potentially revamp
or reroute the schedules. But nine am tomorrow game one
up in Durham between the Miami Hurricanes, the nine seed
and the sixteen seed of cal Bears. All games are
on the ACCED network, except for the championship, which will

(31:32):
be on the ESPN two. At one o'clock tomorrow, twelfth
seed of Virginia Tech and thirteen seed at Stanford are
scheduled to face off at five o'clock Pitt and Louisville
will take to the diamond to face off Pit excuse me,

(31:52):
Louisville to ten seed pit the fifteen seed, and then
at nine o'clock tomorrow night eleven seeded Notre Dame and
fourteen seed to Boston College. Now here's what I can
tell you. As those games unfold, you can start to
get a little bit of a gauge on maybe what
Wednesday is going to be like, because it's the same

(32:14):
nine am, one pm, five pm nine pm start time.
Wake Forest. The eighth seed will face the winner of
game one, which is Miami and Cal. At one o'clock
on Wednesday, your tigers will face the winner of game two, which,

(32:36):
as I mentioned earlier, twelve seed to Virginia Tech and
thirteen seed at Stanford. Then number seven seeded Duke at
five pm on Wednesday will await the winner of fifteen
seeded Pitt and tenseed Louisville and then Virginia. The sixth
seed will play the winner of number eleven Notre Dame

(33:00):
number fourteen seed at Boston College. Now from there, whoever
wins that first game on game five on Wednesday, all right,
So the ACC is scaling it back a little bit
for the Thursday Friday games. There'll be a little extra
break in there for the winners of game seven and

(33:25):
Game eight, which I think is a little strange because
quite frankly, Clemson is a fifth seed, and it feels
to me like the fifth seed should get a advantage
versus given that advantage to potentially the seventh seed or
the sixth seed, who would be, you know, game seven

(33:47):
to eight. You know, does that make sense what I'm saying, like,
because it's not like you got the second seed in
the first seed playing on Thursday either, But anyway, it
just kind of feels like there's no real manage to
be in that fifth seed. You'd be better off in
some respects if you were the seventh or the sixth
seed in terms of getting an extra day's break between

(34:08):
your Wednesday game and a Friday game, versus what Clemson
will have to do if they win their matchup, they'll
have to turn it around pretty quick. Anyway. The Game
five winner that's at wake Forest the eight seed, they
will take on number one seed Georgia Tech. Then Clemson,
whoever they play. The winner of that game will play
AGAINCA State on Thursday, and the other two games Wednesday.

(34:30):
This is what I was saying, don't play again until Friday.
The winner of game seven, which would be that duke matchup,
would face Florida State. In the winner of game twelve,
which would be Virginia. Virginia's game, would take on third
seed in North Carolina. And so that's Friday, and then
Saturday you've got a couple of games, and then Sunday

(34:53):
you got the championship between the winners who have advanced. Again,
that's at noon on ESPN two. And that's the new
way the format, or the new way the tournament will
be formatted at the ACC's all right, quick break, We'll
put a ball on our number one, don't forget. Qualk
joins us an hour two final segment of our number
one coming up. William qualkin Bush joins the program. Aight

(35:15):
oh three four five oh zero zero eighty six text line,
phone line, and again, you can be a part of
the program anytime, any place, anywhere on our website clemsonsports
talk dot com. Well, we've talked about the expectations for
this Clemson Tiger football team and they continue to soar.

(35:38):
Ari Weiserman from ON three projecting his twelve team playoff field. No,
he didn't have Clempson one. He didn't even have Climpson
number two. What are you doing, Ari?

Speaker 8 (35:53):
Now?

Speaker 2 (35:53):
He had Clempson number three. All right, number three getting
a bye one of the one of the four buys
in the College Football Playoff along with top seed to Texas,
second seed to Penn State. You've heard that a good
bit with Penn State, and then third seed to Clemson
in four seed to BYU. But to make it even

(36:15):
more intriguing, Wiserman did take the Tigers in a rematch
against LSU, who he projects as the sixth seed. He
has Clemson to the LSU matching up in a bowl game,
wait for it, with the Tigers winning that to face

(36:37):
segency to Penn State. Additionally, on the other side of
the bracket, he's got Ohio State the fifth seed beating
beating Boise State and then facing BYU and beating the Cougars,

(36:58):
and then is the fifth seed getting topped by a
top seeded Texas. He's got Texas and Clemson. He took
the Tigers over Penn State. He's got the Tech, He's
got the Texas Longhorns and Clemson facing off in the
national championship game. So more love for Clemson. I mean,
it's a it is a daily occurrence that the Tigers

(37:26):
get major love on the social media scene right now,
major love. Weiserman has again. Texas won Clemson. Excuse me,
Texas one, Penn State two, Clemson three, BYU four, Ohio
State five. He's got LSU six, Notre Dame seven, Georgia eight,

(37:54):
Oregon nine, Illinois ten, Alabama eleven, and Boise State twelve.
That's his twelve team playoff. So again Clemson, this time
getting to the national championship in a rematch of their
final game of the season a year ago against the

(38:15):
Texas Longhorns for the national title. Conversely, college Football Playoff
College Sports Network put out their bracket and when you
know Clemson, they got them as the three seed. They've

(38:39):
got the Tigers as the three seed, Ohio State the one,
Texas the two, and they've got Kansas State as the
four seed. This year, Clemson would be matched up with
the winner of the six to eleven game, which would be,
according to this a matchup between Georgia in Miami. They've

(39:04):
got Georgia advancing over the Hurricanes, but Clemson winning over
the Bulldogs. Then in the bottom half of the bracket,
Clemson the course would be matched up against second seeded
Texas's portion of the bracket. Right, They've got seventh seeded

(39:26):
Notre Dame beating ten seeded Alabama. They've got seven seeded
Notre Dame upsetting Texas. You know where this is going already,
and they've got your Tigers beating Notre Dame and advancing
wait for it, wait for it, to the national Championship.

(39:47):
Now on the flip side, I mentioned Ohio State the
one seed, Kansas State the four seed. Here's how they
see it playing out. They've got LSU was an eight
seed to taking a nine seeded Oregon, with Oregon winning
Oregon within face off with Ohio State rematch from last
season's College Football Playoff. They've got Penn State as the

(40:11):
five seed taking on UNLV in the first round. They've
got Penn State winning that. They've got Penn State beating
four seeded Kansas State. They've got this seeded Penn State
beating top seed at Ohio State. Then they've got Penn
State and Clemson. Call it the Tom Allen Bowl, if
you will, playing for the national championship. The five seeded

(40:35):
Nitney Lions in the third seeded Tigers. They've got Penn
State winning it all in the National Championship game in
Miami on January nineteenth. Guys, look, I get it. This
is all just on paper. It's all just on paper,

(41:01):
and none of it means a hill of beans in
the aspect of what's actually going to happen. Not really right.
I mean, you gotta go play the games. But am
I crazy in feeling like like it's almost overkill. It's

(41:28):
almost like people just jumping on the bandwagon and nobody
wants to be the first person to jump off. And
I'll be honest, I think from Clemson standpoint, like it's
a huge positive that people think highly of you like
it is. I think it's a big deal. I think

(41:50):
for Tiger fans that have felt on the outside for
a while, even though you went to the Coach Football
Playoff a year ago, this is some sort of validation
that wait a second, maybe the train is not completely
off the tracks, but it is also very hard not
to look at it and go hold up, wait are
we is this is this happening? And not to mention

(42:13):
there's no rare You can't really go up. You can
almost only have a disappointing year, and that's something to
keep in the back of your mind. All right, quick
Break joins us next.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Each time or Clipson Sports Talk with Luwton Schwan.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
It is our number two. That's drive time. Right on
the show The Shakespare south lande Clemson Sports Salt Long
Swinding out with you on a Monday. William Qualkin Bush
joins the program. Don't forget the show. The Shakesare south Lane,
brought you in part by our good friends over at
mets Plumb in seven three to drip, Drip, drip drip.

(43:29):
You know the jingle seven three to two drip. That's
mets Plumbing, mets Plumbing dot com. That's the website as well.
All right, qualk well, come in, big guy. What's going on?

Speaker 8 (43:42):
Swinding?

Speaker 6 (43:42):
Good?

Speaker 8 (43:43):
Excellent? It was a really good week in Clempson beautiful weekend,
Memorial Days coming up. Man, it's it's a great time
of the year.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Well, yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that I didn't. I
didn't tell the listener nour one that I will not
be on the air on Memorial Day. I don't know
about you, but we get that off and I'll admit it,
it's kind of nice, you know to uh.

Speaker 8 (44:07):
You know, it gives you a little little extra especially
you know it's the it's the day of the college
baseball selection show, so you get the sort of relax
in the morning and then you watch the show and
you can talk about it with whoever you end up
spending the day with. Uh, it's nice. And when the
team is not at it, you don't get that luxury.
Uh some of us, you know, some of us are

(44:28):
you used to just figure out who's in a regional
and that's that's nice. That's really nice that uh cuch
of Baseball contains to put itself in that in that position.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Well, and speaking of regionals, let's talk about the softball regional.
I know you were on the call for some of
those games this weekend, and you know, this team is
so young and we talked about that last week. Just
to turnaround that they've had. I saw you tweet about
it as well, from the way things began at three
and six to where they currently reside heading out to Texas. Uh,

(44:59):
what a season for John Ripman, Like I don't know
what would be considered the best year that Climpson baseball.
Excuse me, Clemson softball has had ever, but this is
pretty quickly creeping up on it for sure.

Speaker 8 (45:12):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure to send it to you,
but that there are a number of things, you know,
before this weekend that led me to believe that this
is John Ribbons' best team. Which is weird because like
when you watch previous teams with your eyes, you saw
an absolute, like generational talent in Valerie Cagle, you saw,
in my opinion, the best defensive outfielder in college softball,

(45:35):
and Mackenzie Clark. You saw all Americans at multiple positions.
You have Millie Thompson in the circle. You had characters,
you had you know, a lot of a lot of
potential and a defensive did a good job. And you
had you know, even transfers like Carolina Jacobson came in.
Peer had some others that had come in and done
a good job. This team, on paper, I think you
don't have the star power, but that's just because Maddy

(45:57):
Moore has quietly become a star. You know, he was
not a star as a freshman, as Valerie Cagle and
the Kisney Clark work, but she became a star as
an older player. You have a player like Alex Brown,
who you know probably expected to be a little better.
She won a bad player by any chance, but she
probably extanted to be a better player last year year
two at the transfer ring, she ends up an outstanding

(46:19):
piece of the very talented team and one of the
leaders on this course the softball team. You have a
transfer and Reech Basinger comes in who does a really
good job squid if I was picking staff and womcoming
gets better in the circle, not just over the course
of her career and one year of the next, but
even over the course of this season. You have a
healthy catcher in Abidia who has been a phenomenal player

(46:40):
kind of like this her whole career, but she just
hasn't been healthy. This is the first all stends he's
been healthy and the first season that she's been healthy
since he got to college, which is remarkable for a
fourth year player. And then you get these freshmen that
come in and thigess beast thing this week this weekend
is that the main one Macy Centron, who is going
to be an absolute minutes. I mean, for the next

(47:03):
three years. She is going to be a huge problem
for people, not just at the point by the way
she's pitched some kittings, she's she's gonna get better as
a pitcher too, and they may need her in Texas.
This weekend things go a certain way. She was not
great this weekend. It was not her best weekend. But
the other freshman, you have Marion Collins, who all got
out like what in the whole in the whole regional,

(47:24):
I mean, just just remarkable. And then you got Taylor
Pupkins who as a part time player. You've got somebody
like Kylie Johnson, who's a you know, she's a sophomore,
but she didn't play a bunch last year. Was basically
a pinch runner who's averages now for over two thirty,
who's hitting bombs on the regular. I mean, you had
all kinds of really really solid performances. And what's fascinating

(47:45):
about it too, is you know, I it was it
was hard for me to talk about because there were
there there's information i'm pretty too I can't share, and
there's information I'm pretty to that I wouldn't share because
it pays people on a bad light. But let me
just say that John Ridman didn't have a lot of
options last year, like there were a thousand things that
were happening around him that he just did not have

(48:06):
control over. Salvia was controlled with by other people, Savi.
It was just like health stuff, mental health stuff like
you want to talk about, just like players missing time
for all sorts of crazy reasons and like stuff that
you couldn't make up if you wrote a book. It
just was a weird year and there were people going,
boy boy, John Ridman's got me on the hogh seat.

(48:28):
This being not very good. You are seeing right now.
The reason I said all that you are seeing right
now what John Ritman is one of the great coaches
in the United States and collegiate athletics, regardless of sport.
What he did at Stanford for his entire career, where
he missed postseason one time and was in the in
the nine to sixteen round where cles fine stuff right

(48:48):
now more often than not, that's who John Ritman is, Swanny,
That's who this guy is as a head coach. And
I'm glad Clemson hasn't because he's showing it right now.
He is making this roster into a great team, and
the players to mix the personality that he has are
able to do whatever it is that he's asking me
to do. It is a great marriage and we are

(49:09):
now riding away that as far as don't take us.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
He's on Twitter at qual Talk every day noon until
three o'clock, out of bounds with Qualk and Ben one
oh five to five the roar in the Upstate And
from that standpoint, Qualk, I know, I don't want to
turn the page to next season by any means, But
when you have a year like this and it's led
by youth, and you live in the transfer portal error

(49:34):
in which we all unfortunately live in. I mean, it's twofold, right.
It's positive because you can bring in some more talent
and fill some gaps. It's negative because some of these
young players could venture elsewhere. And I'm not suggesting that
be the case, but I mean, how do you feel
coaches kind of handle situations like this when they've got

(49:56):
a boatload of young talent, but also the recognition that
there is no guarantee for the future.

Speaker 8 (50:03):
Well, the good thing that John Ridmond does and uh,
you know other coaches do it, but I think John
Raymond does a really good job of it is you
engage the players who are still in the developmental stage
with pinch rotting, and that's that's a that's a luxury
that you get afforded in softball. You don't get afforded
in baseball because you have the reinjury rule that says
that you can substitute for a player one time offensively

(50:25):
and then if that player goes right back in, they.

Speaker 6 (50:28):
Can do that.

Speaker 8 (50:29):
So what he does is he'll pinch run one time.
With as many as four players in a game, you're
keeping four different people happy. You're at least engaging them
in the game, and they're obviously they're seeing that, you know,
things go a little bit better hopefully for them too.
And that's not to say that that's good enough for everybody,
but it does keep some players around, like at Kylie Johnson,
who's a who's a developmental piece that just was not

(50:51):
at the stage of it of her career or she
could be a major factor, you know, last year. But
you do have great freshmen that have come in and
they solidified those roles. Now you might have other freshmen
that haven't solidified roles. In my leave, that's fine, you know.
As it stands right now, Clinton is going to return
their entire starting outfield next year. Does that mean that's

(51:14):
one of the players on the bench of a Nabel
Wilson and Sam manas go somewhere else? Sure, I mean
they could. But here's the thing. People like playing for
John Ridman, players like playing at Clinton. Clinton has not
lost a single player that I further off the top
of my head that I was counting on heading into
an offseason being a contributor that next season. Just if

(51:36):
you are, if you are part of the design for
a roster the upcoming year, you're not leading Clinton under
John Ridmon and under this coaching staff last year, if
it would have happened, you almost would have been okay
with this because they had that big court and left
you had some staffers that left his low court. You
Briall became the head coach, and Charlotte took some people
with her. I could have understood it then. Right now,

(52:00):
let me tell you this, I can. I can say
it's an absolutely certainty. This is a group that loves
being with each other. They love playing with each other.
They love being on the same field with each other,
in the same locker room with each other. They like
being on the bus on planes, and they like playing
softball together. And I think that keeps you, you know,

(52:20):
even if you're a little bit bonded about not playing,
I think it keeps you engaged. Now they're gonna need
a couple of pictures. Yeah, they are probably gonna need
a couple of pitchers out of the portal. But I mean,
if you're going back to Superina and for the third
time in four years, that's a pretty good sales pitch
you can throw in at And as you said, where
they're in this turnover, you can replace them a lot

(52:41):
a lot more easily right now, and you can do
what they do with Ries Basinger. Imagine if rif Bassinger
wasn't available, Imagine if they had to just you know,
go with the with Britain Coven and Macy centchron because
they couldn't go to the portal this year. You'd feel
the loss of that core of players a lot more
quickly and a lot more frequently.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
Than you are right now on Twitter at qualt Talk
qualk talking about college baseball and and excuse me, college softball,
and certainly you know some of the things that happened
this past weekend. I mean to see the number one
team you know in the in the tournament go out
with Texas A and M losing two times at home
to Liberty after such an incredible regular season. Obviously they

(53:24):
didn't play that SEC championship game last weekend because of weather,
and they crowned them co champs. It just means more,
as you know, Qualk. But either way, man, when you
see something like that, and it tends to happen where
you know, maybe a team's got one really good pitcher,
and that wasn't necessarily the case for Liberty. I mean,
they hit a couple of long balls, et cetera. But

(53:45):
I mean, how do you how do you kind of
you know, put that together just in your mind's eye,
that the number one seed in the tournament could get
beat at home twice by Liberty and eliminated. Just a
shocking result out in college station.

Speaker 8 (54:02):
Well, if you listen to the national voices then softball,
they would tell you that Liberty was misseated. That's one
of the things is that you just sneak a two
seed in there that should have been higher. It should
have been closer to hosting maybe than even to the
to the three line. I mean, Liberty somebody that maybe
should have been sent to Clinston Ury. Now I know
plince it play. I'm wingingna happened, but you know what

(54:22):
I'm saying, Like the number one seed game, Liberty was
seen as sort of an injustice when the bracket came out,
So that's part of it. The other part and Clemson
had dealing this too. You know, Wawren boy from both
Western is a really good pitcher, but she's has some
good moments. But she pished as well as she can
do this weekend. And if we don't need it, River
James Maddison a couple of years ago goes to the
Women's College World Series and you've got the one and

(54:45):
Kyle Leef her names just giveing me right now, but
she was a household and anything like three weeks right
because they just threw wrap their every game. She's done
a circle pitching. And the one way if you're an
underdog to make noise in the women's tournament, if you're
gonna get to the women's collar Ward Series, to make
a run, the best way to do that is with
a hot pitcher. And Clinton ran at a hot pitcher
on Saturday, and we're able to win anyway. One nothing

(55:08):
with having year his first career triple and then a
suicide squeeze call from uh from marrying Collins that drove
her in and that was it. Because Clinton was able
to go pitch for a pitch where her the same
thing got happened with Liberty. You got one picture throwing
over four hundred pitches in a weekend. I mean, I know, Staff,

(55:28):
that's that's a uh, you know it's a it's a uh,
it's a different motion. There's there's rest stress on your
arm where you know than there is a baseball four
in the pitches was founder pitches man. That is not
easy in any way, shape or formed. And so to me, uh,
that was that was a big part of it too.
I remember they hit well enough, but they also had

(55:48):
one picture who just I mean, I know she didn't
get forth to file five hours yesterday, but she she
did a really really good job of maximizing opportunities. And
I think I think that's the reason that Liberty was
able to knock.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Off takes A and M on Twitter at Qualt talk.
All right, Qualt, we got about seven minutes, six and
a half. Maybe let's turn our attention to Clemson baseball
three games sweep this past weekend a combined no hitter,
which is nice, but it's not the you know, it
doesn't feel like the real thing sometimes when it happens
that way, And it seems more frequent in baseball at

(56:25):
the collegiate level than the professional level. But then again,
now we protect garms everywhere, so I can't really say
that that's the case anymore in professional baseball. But uh,
your take on clemsones kind of bounce back weekend up
at pitt.

Speaker 8 (56:40):
Well, I know it's not as sexy, but actually I
actually think it's harder to have a combined no hitter
just because of the nature of both in right, all
it takes to blow that is one guy comes out
of bullpend doesn't have it. I'd almost rather just you know,
throw the one guy throw, his arm falls off and
and see what happens, because I know what I'm getting
with that guy. Unfortunately, something is the offense. But I

(57:02):
you know, as soon as Ayton cannot comes out of
the game on Thursday, I'm thinking there a lot of
who this is.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
He could be.

Speaker 8 (57:08):
Freaking Mary alan Vera. If it's not a Rivera's day,
you don't have no hitter. So I actually, like I said,
I know it's not as sexy because we tied that
a competent to an individual, and we're used to doing
that throughout history. I actually think it is more impressive
from a team standpoint that you add a combined no hitter,
because there is pressure. I mean, you're talking. It's basically

(57:29):
if there's a no hitter going, when you come in
the game, you're pissing, like the bases are loading, there's
nobody out, and you have no legal or no more
because like, you know how impressive it is what the
guy before you did, and you know how impressive it
is what your team has been doing at this point.
So that let's start with that now. The other testive
part is like they walk for and hit a couple
of matters there, there's too much traffic on the basis

(57:51):
to be a to be a no hitter. But here's
the other thing. You know, they got three really good starts. Okay,
three really good starts, including four shoutout innings from talent Bell,
which I think give them a certain stances with him
building up. I'm very encouraged by that, very encouraged. They
also scored thirty runs and they had two eighty eight
were runners in scoring position, and maybe more than that.

(58:12):
They had fifty two at bats with runners in scoring
position in this series. They were constantly putting pressure on Pittsburgh,
constantly getting runners over, constantly able to get guys in
from third with less than two outs. That's our love
on points in baseball. This weekend. It was exactly a
four year up that we've seen work time and come
again this year for the past three years. They said

(58:32):
it was a better version because they made more solid contact,
more extra races, more all runs. I wasn't just taking
what Pittsburgh gave them. They actually grabbed some things and
took some things. They stole some bases this weekend. I
thought that was the biggest thing. They were able to
give Jacob Jerald arrests, they were able to get Luke
Gaffe arrest. I just think I think a lot of
things happened this weekend that said clinch that are really

(58:54):
really well for what They opened a nice long convers championship.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Week this week, and that's where we'll hit with that
tournament going to a more traditional I mean, maybe not
traditional for baseball, but for bracket purists, if you will,
a little more traditional format with the way it's all
set up, the top four seeds getting buys. How do
you like not just you can't really determine Clemson's draw, right,

(59:17):
but how do you like the tournament moving to this
format and jumping off of that pod format which left
us with, in fairness, a lot of empty games.

Speaker 6 (59:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (59:29):
I mean I did have someone telling you this weekend
sort Italian cheek and it would be nice to Clinton
had a second, like high calendar opponent. You knew you
were facing for our PI purposes, And I was like,
you know, that's I know what you're doing, and I
can't disagree. You know, Yes, that's from an NTA tournament standpoint,
from a resume a standpoint, I think I think they're
going to be said for the pool play right now.

(59:51):
I did give you some meaningless games in the you know,
if the goers to crown a conference champion, I still
think it was it was a full way of doing
at uh, this is a better way to crown a
conference champion. It's still not super because baseball is supposed
to be a series. You know, I want at least
the obviousidmer to lose a game. But regardless, I mean,

(01:00:12):
everybody's got the same rules. It's it's it's a one
it's a one day deal. And uh, you know, I
kind of like where Clinston sits. Like I say, you know,
the way they pitch this weekend, they gives you some
options if they have been pitching like they you know,
if this the last three weekends against Intee State and
Florida State and UH and Duke for buying large. I

(01:00:34):
mean there were a couple of get starts in there,
But if they pitched like that, again, I don't know
what they do from a rotation standpoint. Now, I feel like, uh,
Ed Magis can do whatever he wants. He can throw
it and knock on Wednesday. He can put him on
Thursday and get him closer, keep him on normal West
and get him closer to a Friday Saturday situation. Whatever
he decides next weekend. You can treat Wednesday like in midweek,

(01:00:56):
or you can treat like the biggest game ever. You
do have options, though, because you have some guys that
you just saw get a bunch of big alps, and
I think that's the biggest thing. You got your offense
feeling good going into this weekend. You get to watch
your point play a game and you know, maybe they
burned some arms. You know, you're you're using your best guys.

(01:01:16):
You're sort of in your first game. You're going off
of exactly what you want to do or exactly what
the plan was, while they may not be able to
do undercent what they want to do against you. So
I get like I said, I like r coincion sent.
I'd like it more if they were a top four seed.
But listen, they are good enough to make a running here.
I don't think there's any unbeatable team or any great,

(01:01:36):
great team, elite team in this league. I think the
top six or seven are right there together like we've
seen all year. And so go to Durham and see
what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Claud, I was gonna ask you about the schedule, but
we at the tournament, but we don't have much time.
I'll tell you what, man, We'll talk to you next week.
Always appreciate you, buddy, Thanks you too, Sway, I was
gonna be with you.

Speaker 8 (01:01:55):
There you have it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
That's William Qualkambush here on a Monday afternoon a zero
three four five oh zero zero eighty six text line
phone line. And you can be a part of the program.
Anytime and you place anywhere on our website, Clemson sports
Talk dot com. Go check it out today, Clemson Sports
Talk dot Com. All right, w NBA action, I know

(01:02:19):
you're going, how are we talking about that? Well, it's
Caitlin and Angel. I'll tell you about it when we return,
rocking and rolling along with you Clemson Sports Talk on
a Monday. William Qualkinbush a minute ago, so I was,
I was thinking through this bracket thing. So help me
out with this real quick. You know, this is the
into the the ACC tournament bracket. And again I think

(01:02:42):
Qualt talk to him off the airbouty. He makes some
valid points, like maybe part of the reason they did
two games on Thursday and two games on Fridays if
they have some makeup games, have to slide some stuff
over and they can make it work, right, you can
maneuver the time. I get it. But the winners of
game nine in game ten face off on Saturday, and

(01:03:07):
they have the same length of time off. I don't
deny that fact. And the winners of game eleven in
game twelve also face off on Saturday. Those are the
Friday games, so they have the exact same amount of
time off, And I guess the thought process is not
about giving the number two team, Florida State, a bye.

(01:03:30):
It's about making sure that the two teams who are
playing on Saturday are the four teams I should say
that are playing on Saturday have the exact same amount
of time off between games otherwise, And again I'm not
saying this is wrong. Right, So let's say that Florida

(01:03:56):
State played on Thursday. If the number one and number
two teams played on Thursday and both have the day off,
that would give those teams a day's rest over the
number two seed and number three seed. Like that would
be an additional advantage for having finished as one of

(01:04:20):
the top two teams in the conference. It doesn't. It
doesn't mean, you know, in this scenario, there's no advantage
for being number one and number two. In that scenario,
you would create an advantage for number one and number
two because those two teams would get a day's rest

(01:04:43):
as they go into those Saturday games. Each of them
would be one of the two participants in said game.
So I guess the mindset from the Atlantic Coast Conference
is no, we just rather have it, you know, Yes,
Florida State, North Carolina winner, whoever that is, is not
going to get a day off, and the winner of
Georgia's Tech and whoever in NC State and whoever will

(01:05:06):
have one day off. But at least those two teams
as they compete, will have one day off. But I
you know, both of them instead of granting an advantage
to one or the other, and I just say, grant
that advantage to the top two teams. But you could
also argue that there's no guarantee that one or two
will win, and that advantage could go to somebody else,
and so maybe just but but either way, I mean,

(01:05:28):
there still could be an advantage for you know, if
it's not Georgia Tech that wins Game five or ssuome
me game nine. You know, if it's not NC State
that beats Clemson, if the Tigers are lucky to be
there or fortunate to be there. I think WoT made
a good point too, like in this league and looking
at the rankings, as I noted, like, there's not there's

(01:05:55):
there's not an elite team. I mean every team in
the conference has ten or more losses in conference play,
right in conference play, which talks to what I think
the SEC likes to harken on all the time about
the strength of the league. It doesn't mean that there's
a bunch of just you know, three Juggernauts and everybody

(01:06:17):
else's chop liver. This is a very balanced conference and
quite frankly, Clempson, you know, is probably one of the
scarier teams in the country given the way they played
early in the season. I mean, what Clempson did earlier
this year would make any coach resist wanting to play

(01:06:38):
the Tigers, even though they came off of a recent skid.
I mean, they've been really, really good outside of the
three game series, you know, their most recent three game
series up until this series and gets pit. According to
D one Baseball, LSU is the number one team right
now in college baseball Texas out of the secchit at

(01:07:00):
number two, North Carolina number three, Oregon four, and Arkansas
coming in at number five. Florida State is six, Oregon
State is seven, Auburn checks in at number eight, Vandy's nine,
and Georgia's ten. So the SEC literally in the top
ten with six teams with LSU, Texas, Arkansas, Auburn, Vandy,

(01:07:25):
and Georgia. Number eleven is Coastal Carolina twelve Iowa, thirteen UCLA,
and fourteen Clemson moving up a spot, fifteen Florida, sixteen
Georgia Tech, seventeen Old Miss, eighteen is Dallas Baptist, nineteen
is Northeastern, twenty is U See Irvine, twenty one Tennessee

(01:07:45):
twenty two, NC State, twenty three Alabama, twenty four TCU,
and number twenty five is Kansas. Now tomorrow we'll take
a look at some of those projected rankings.

Speaker 6 (01:08:00):
For the.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
For the regionals, et cetera. And you know, if there's
one thing that I guess this Atlantic Coast Conference tournament
could do, you know, kind of made a little running
joke or you know, just that somebody had said something
along the lines of, you know, clips you could use
a good RPI boost in the tournament by playing the

(01:08:25):
round robin format. And here is the thing though, Like
you look at where CLEMPS is seeded. Not getting the
double by does grant you a chance to pick up
a win. And then you have a chance still, you know,
you go out and win your first game on Wednesday
at one o'clock. Then you go out and take care

(01:08:49):
of business on Thursday as well against NC State, and
then you go out and take care of business a
couple of days later on Saturday, and then you go
win the championship. I mean, you have a chance where
Clemson sits right now, to win five games at the
ACC Tournament, and if you could do it, that might

(01:09:13):
be enough to swing things back in your favor for
possibly being a host site. I'm not sure if the
old format would have allowed for that, because if you're
in a pod with a couple of I forget how
it would have been broken up, you know, in terms

(01:09:33):
of the teams you play. But if you go two
and zero against those teams, it might not help you much.
But if you beat the first team, whoever that ends
up being, and then you advance through four, you advance
through you know, number three, and then beat two or
one for the title. Hey, that's that's a positive finish
to the season for sure. And that's on the line

(01:09:54):
now with this new fangled ACC Tournament. Stay with us
the show that Show the south Land on Twitter, at
clips of sports, TikTok, Instagram. We are where you are
go follow us all right. So women's college basketball took
a huge bump when Caitlyn Clark was playing collegiately and

(01:10:19):
a part of that is certainly her ability to shoot
the basketball from all over the court. She was phenomenal
and sort of an underdog, I think in a lot
of respects, even though she led Iowa to the national
championship game a couple of times and was just a
really fun player to watch. But the storylines and the

(01:10:45):
connections between Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese, the former LSU star,
really elevated women's college basketball. And I think people in
the WNBA assume, and I think rightfully so, that when
Angel Reese and Caitlyn Clark got to the WNBA, as
long as they weren't teammates, they were going to bring

(01:11:10):
they were gonna bring some interest to the sport. And
the ratings are good, not great. But this weekend, Angel
Reese catches a ball in the low post. I don't
understand what in the world is wrong with Angel Reese.

(01:11:32):
I mean, honestly, like Caitlin Clark's foul is not like
some wild and outlandish foul. If you are okay, if
you are a basketball player of smaller stature, meaning you're

(01:11:56):
not a post player, you are absolutely supposed to dig
in like that and if need be foul a big
person exactly the way Caitlyn Clark fouled her. Like, there's
no I have been a guard on a basketball court

(01:12:20):
my entire life, and I can assure you that if
you are a big man and you go up for
a layup right there under the basket, uncontested, and I've
got to do something about it, I am going to
try to strip the ball at your waist. Roughly, I'm

(01:12:42):
going to try to strip the ball at your waist,
and that's just the foul I'll take. Put you on
the free throw line. Well, there's a couple of things
about this whole play that blow my mind, and outside
the fact that I think we really have to talk
about it because everybody's talking about it. But before Caitlyn

(01:13:11):
Clark fouled who she was called for a flagrant which
is ridiculous. And before Angel Reese lost her mind and
started going crazy about being fouled, did everybody notice that
Angel Reese before that pushed former South Carolina post player

(01:13:33):
a Leah Boston with two hands out of the way completely,
And Caitlin Clark actually looks and points for the foul.
She's like, Hey, you're gonna call that foul, and then
Angel Reese gets the rebound, tries to go up for
the shot and guess what Angel Reese found there? And
then good for a Leah Boston. Boston stands up for
Caitlyn Clark and comes in between Angel Reese and Clark,

(01:13:58):
and you know what, it couldn't be more apparent to me.
It could not be more apparent to me that Angel
Reese is jealous of the attention that Caitlyn Clark gets.
And I mean I heard people talking about comparisons of
the two rivals in the women's game. I don't know

(01:14:21):
that we've ever had anything quite like this. But here's
the thing. If you watch that play and you think
that that's a flagrant foul, first off, I don't know
what you're talking about. And if you think that Angel
Reese's reaction is in any way logical, I also think

(01:14:47):
you don't know what you're talking about, Like that's a
common foul. And if you are a guard, which Caitlyn
Clark is, that's how you defend a post player who
puts the ball on the ground before going up to
take the shot. Was it a hard foul?

Speaker 8 (01:15:06):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
Flagrant never should have been called a flagrant. Should Angel
Reeves have lost it? No, there are harder fouls in
the game than that, And good for Leah Boston for
standing up for a teammate, and quite frankly, shame on
Angel Reeves for yet again. You know, she reminds me

(01:15:30):
a little bit of Draymond Green, Like this is her stick,
Like this is what she's gonna do. She's gonna act
over the top, like she'll do over the top, and
then questioned, why why is this being called on me?
People are are targeting me or whatever. But then the
second she gets hit hard, she'll want to fight. I mean,

(01:15:53):
don't get me wrong, Raymond Green. I mentioned the stats
the other day about how good he's been in the playoffs.
But that's what this is. This is an act from
Angel Reese. And the problem is she she looks like
she looks like she's unhinged. She looks like a player

(01:16:14):
you wouldn't want on your team, and Kaitlyn Clark and
Aleiah Boston looked like prime examples of the type players
you have won on your team. Caitlyn Clark saw Reese
shovely of Boston two hands in the back, so conversely,
she gave her a tough, foul and Boston. Conversely, she

(01:16:38):
knew that she Boston saw the whole thing. She knew
there was no reason for that response from Angel Reese,
which is why she shoved her off immediately when she
shaw when she saw it, she shoved her off. So
I don't know where this thing is going. It was

(01:16:59):
the opening of the WNBA. Get your popcorn ready for
all we know. Maybe it's a maybe it's collusion. Maybe
they're all in on it, Clark Reese. Maybe it's all
a big thing to draw in more ratings. But either way,
they got people talking about him, they got me talking
about them. But if it's legit, if none of this

(01:17:20):
is phony, Angel Reese needs to get a grip because
she became unglued for no reason.

Speaker 8 (01:17:28):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
Final segment on the Flip Side, keeping a lot of
no fox Portradio fourteen hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
What have you done for me lately? It's a fair question.
Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Don't forget history.
Looky for us at Clemson. The answer to the questions
what have you done for me lately? And what have
you done? Always are the same.

Speaker 8 (01:18:01):
We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Final segment on a Monday afternoon. Clips of Sports on
Twitter at clipses Sports, Instagram, TikTok. We are where you are,
please follow us. Speaking of follow, well, how about follow
us to Alumni Hall on the corner of Campus Oll
College Avenue of downtown Clips and It's Alumni Hall. Get
all your officially licensed Clempson apparel, hats, t shirts, tailgate gear,

(01:19:09):
stickers for your vehicle, all that and much more at
Alumni Hall. Clips of Students, faculty in all military get
ten percent off when shopping in store at Alumni Hall.
It's Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop. Don't forget if
you're on our website and you go to Alumni Hall
through our site, so of the links that pop up,

(01:19:30):
we'll get a little kickback if you make your purchases
over there as well. All right, final thing in the NBA,
some level of history is going to be made is
yesterday the Oklahoma City Thunder walloped the Denver Nuggets, setting

(01:19:54):
up a situation where whoever wins the championship either has
never won it Alia, Minnesota and Oklahoma City, and then
in the East Indiana in New York the Knicks last
time they won it was back in nineteen seventy three.

(01:20:20):
The Knicks are the only team remaining that has won
an NBA championship, so we're gonna have some level of history. Obviously,
none of these teams have ever won it in my life,
so I've never seen any of these teams hoist the

(01:20:42):
championship in the NBA. And again, things get going, Things
get underway tomorrow at eight thirty on ESPN with Minnesota
and Oklahoma City Shay Gilgas Alexander hoo Wee. That guy,
what a baller? So much fun?

Speaker 6 (01:20:59):
Why him?

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
One twenty five ninety three in Game seven yesterday?

Speaker 6 (01:21:06):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
And he's pretty level headed about it all too. Thirty
five points on twelve and nineteen shooting. They just obliterated
the Nuggets. But you know they trailed by eleven twenty
one to ten out of the gate, twenty one to ten,
they trailed out of the gate and they win one

(01:21:27):
twenty five ninety three. You talk about turning a game
on his head. Man, what a performance by the Thunder.
Now with the OKC Thunder and now I know, do
are they considered the SuperSonics? I mean, if they are,

(01:21:52):
then yeah, we gotta give him nineteen seventy nine. But
as Oklahoma City, they've never won it. I just threw
it in the Google machine to see and yeah, it
does say that they would technically be considered. But the city.
How about that? The city of Oklahoma City has never

(01:22:13):
won an NBA championship. The city of Indianapolis has never
won an NBA championship in this Oh almost said it.
Almost in the city of Minneapolis, but the Minneapolis Lakers
would have. But that's not the same franchise. So oh,

(01:22:37):
we got some technicalities going on here. And the Pacers
have three ABA championships, including one the same year as
the New York Knicks. Both teams last championship came in
nineteen seventy three. The Pacers won the ABA, the Knicks
won the NBA, and they'll battle for the right to
go to the NBA Championship in the Eastern Conference Finals.

(01:23:00):
All of that coming up this week. How many did
the Lakers win? Are they the only team in the
history of that state to win a title? I don't
know what years Minneapolis would have won. Let's see, they
were technically in the NBA from forty nine to sixty

(01:23:24):
NBA championships. Yeah, forty nine, fifty fifty two, fifty three,
fifty four. All right, so what's that? Five man? These
franchises jumping all around really kind of get you in
a weird spot when you start talking about them historically speaking.

(01:23:45):
Fortunately though, all those titles reside with Los Angeles, but
they reside in the hearts of the fans that are
still alive that followed them as the Minneapolis Lakers. You
talking to my dad about that, Dad, I know you're listening.
What do you recall about the Minneapolis Lakers? George Miken,

(01:24:08):
the original big Man? I guess, I guess so. I
don't know as Minnesota ever had another NBA team other
than that, I wouldn't think so. I would think I
don't remember one from nineteen sixty to ninety four or
five or whenever, the whenever the Timberwolves came into the

(01:24:29):
league with Kevin Garnett when he joined up man, that
was that was a fun team to watch back in
the day. Steph Stephan Marbury, I think those are fun
teams to watch. All right, we gotta get out of here.
Thank you for hanging out for two hours. We'll be
back tomorrow. Till then. It's always y'all. Take care now
and go Tigers