The "Meet in the Middle" Edition

Expanded conference schedules have led to longer and longer weeks of conference tournaments and Swanny doesn't love it. 

Episode Transcript

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

(00:44):
Clemson Sports Talk has come back to drive time. Hell everybody,
Lawton Swan back in the saddle once again. It is
d show that Shakes the south Land. Clemson Sports Tal
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(01:05):
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Talk dot com A O three four five Oho zero
zero eighty six coming up an hour number two. Mike,
you've joined us in the course the show The Shakes
of south Land brought you in part my our friends

(01:28):
over at mets plumbn seven three two drip drip drip.
You know the jingle seven three to two drip that's
Mets Plumbing. I mean, honestly, with the way I sing it,
I'll probably be hired by Mets Plumbing to sing all
of their jingles. Mets plumbn seven three to two drip

(01:48):
drip drip. How's that jazz it up? A little bit,
jazz it up a little bit A zero three four five,
oh zero zero eighty six. All right, So ACC tournament underway,
first round, getting going to day, and I can't help

(02:10):
but be taken back through the era of rolling in
the big TV into the classroom over the air antenna's
which now do exist in high definition. By the way,
if your teacher rolled in the old flat screen, now
you'd get that game Crispy. Back when we were kids,
when that television came rolling into the health room, thanks

(02:31):
mister Meadows, we would turn it on and you couldn't
hardly see a thing. You had those look like, you know,
ants fighting on your screen in front of Duke and
Virginia or whatever the matchups were. But one of the
things that kind of blows my mind is and again

(02:57):
I am a huge I actually ran into a talk
to a guy yesterday. This's a huge fan of the
sixty fourteen field in the NCAA tournament. Hates the first
four Welcome to my world. But one of the aspects
of the weekends before was that it didn't start until

(03:22):
closer to the weekend, ye old Friday, Saturday, Sunday, And
then when you had Clemson in Florida State and you
had nine you had to play in game on Thursday,
like Tuesday basketball conference tournament played. Just does it quite

(03:43):
sit with me? Right? Call me old school, call me
whatever you want, but college basketball tournaments to me, were
supposed to be built around heading into that weekend. And
I think even when we go back to those moments,
and many of you are in that classroom with me

(04:05):
right now thinking about it, you could taste the weekend,
you knew it was coming, you were gonna be able
to watch the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Heck, I would
imagine schools around Charlotte probably had Friday off at some

(04:26):
point along the way they thought, Man, this makes sense,
certainly Greensboro where the tournament was hosted for so many years,
or maybe Raleigh when it was played there. All I
know is is that it is a little bit weird
for me to be in the midst of a Atlantic

(04:49):
Coast Conference tournament on a Tuesday before it's dark outside,
and I know we changed the clocks and we're adjusting
to that. By the way, I may or may not
have brought this up on the show yesterday in lieu

(05:12):
of the clock change and the time change But have
we ever considered this, Because you've got this one group
that's like, we just gotta stop with the clockchain, we
gotta stop falling back or whatever. And we got this
other group that's like, no, no, no, we don't want
to spring forward whatever. I don't really know, we don't

(05:33):
want to be on standard time or we do? Whoever,
have we ever thought about just meeting in the middle?
Have we ever thought about just meeting in the middle.
It's like, right now, for example, it's about four oh
six in the PM, what if it was actually three

(05:59):
point thirty six right now? What if we only sprung
forward thirty minutes and we just held firm on that
for one year. Let's just see what does darkness look
like in the winter on a thirty minute leap or
a thirty minute maneuver? What does darkness look like in
the winter? Like, what do we just split the difference

(06:21):
on the hour? It said, we're just gonna switch thirty minutes.
That's it, and we're gonna hold firm for one year
and we're gonna see how that goes. I mean, am
I just wacky on this? Am I just out of
my mind that we could split the difference and call
it a day. It doesn't have anything to do with
the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. That's what

(06:43):
the leap years built in there. For there are states
that don't even do it at this point. But what
if we just came to a consensus in the United
States of America that we would say, Okay, when we
go to fall back or spring ford, or whatever the

(07:03):
last maneuver is, whatever whichever direction, we just we're gonna
move thirty minutes instead. So instead of when you spring
forward going from two to three, you'd go from two
to two thirty. Or if it was gonna be changed
when you were falling back, instead of going from two
to one, you'd go from two to one thirty. And

(07:25):
I am not suggesting that you continue to do this
thirty minute shift to rou Okay, I'm suggesting you just
shift it one time. Let's say it was a couple
of days ago, and we only move forward thirty minutes
in steven hour, and right now, instead of being four
oh eight, it would be three thirty eight. Look outside,

(07:51):
it looks like three thirty eight to me. And all
day I've kind of been doing it in my head,
like at seven thirty, this morning I looked outside. I
was like, man, it looks like seven am. I think
the Swanny thirty minute shift is where it's at, and
never change it again. We'll call it the Swany thirty.

(08:11):
When America adopted the Swanee thirty, heart attacks were down, restless,
sleep was down. The Swany thirty improved the overall help
the well being of Americas from coast to coast. I'm

(08:31):
your guy. Now. The bigger question is how many of
you have thought of that before? Just split the difference
and just call it a day, because then in the winter,
whatever the problem is that you feel like you deal
with with that hour would now just be a thirty

(08:51):
minute issue. And same on the other side, like, whatever
the reason is we're shifting, she would only last thirty minutes.
A seven hour. I don't know. That's my thing anyway.
Things that last more than an hour. The ATLANTICOS Conference tournament,
which now tips off on Tuesday and has been for

(09:13):
a while, and it's just too long, and it doesn't
feel to me like it once did. It felt when
I was growing up, It felt like an event that
you didn't just have to be a part of, but
that you were on the cusp of being a part

(09:34):
of and when this dog gone thing is in the
middle of the week and you're looking at the work schedule.
Even though we live in an era where you don't
have to wheel in the TV, you can fire it
up on your telephone. You got a two o'clock tip
off on Tuesday, a four thirty tip off on Tuesday. Hey,
seven pm tonight, people will be home to watch Syracuse

(09:57):
in Florida state. Well how about Wednesday? Oh another, how
about another couple of games, but nobody's available to watch it?
Noon tip off on Wednesday, two thirty tip off on Wednesday?
How about Thursday noon tip off? Two thirty? Half of
the tournament maybe more than half. Let me, actually, you
know what, I have no idea. It might be more

(10:18):
than more than half of the tournament might be played
when those of you that work a nine to five
job are at work. All right, So in between nine
and five and not all right, there's two today that
tip and play in between nine and five, and there's
one that does not. Then there's two tomorrow and two

(10:41):
that do not. Then on Thursday two more two that
do not, and then on Friday, everything's in the evening.
So six games of this tournament based off of those
numbers are played before year off, and really only today

(11:03):
has a game that's reasonably starting at a time that
you might can get home and catch the second half
of it, and that's the cal Virginia Tech game at
four thirty coming up in just a little bit. I
don't know, man at noon in two thirty. Matchups on

(11:27):
Wednesday and Thursday do feel like they steal a lot
of the excitement from me, even though I cover it now.
The Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, the format is not the worst.

(11:54):
There is a stranger one available. We'll talk about that
more in a minute, but I'm looking at the SEC's tournament.
You know, the Atlantic Coast Conference at this point, with
all of the teams in, has fifteen teams, which leads

(12:18):
to kind of an odd ball scenario of the way
you have to set it up. The SEC has a
smooth sixteen and the game Cocks are holding that sixteenth
spot and they've moved theirs, or they haven't moved their tournament,
but they have their tournament conclude on Sunday, and so
the SEC will play four games a day for three days.

(12:44):
But much like the ACC, Wednesday and Thursday are gonna
be before you get off work, and Friday's games when
the ACC's play in their evening semi finals, the quarterfinal
SEC games on Friday, or during the workday. Half of
the game in the SEC tournament in the first three
rounds are played while you are working. Now, I don't

(13:10):
suggest that in the olden days that didn't exist, but
it didn't exist to this degree, in part for the
Atlantic Coast Conference, because you had your championship game on Sunday.
I would almost prefer I know it would be wild,
but I would almost prefer staggered start times in two

(13:33):
different towns for the first couple of rounds, but play
them in the evening. Start a game at seven o'clock
in Charlotte, start a game at eight o'clock in Greensboro.
Start a game at nine thirty in Charlotte, start a
game at you know, ten thirty in Greensborough or whatever.

(13:54):
And I know those times are a little late, but
still start at six and seven and nine thirty. Boom.
Let me flip between the games. Let me see these
teams play. I feel like sometimes I go into these
matchups flying blind. In the NCAA tournament, you go, man, well,

(14:16):
didn't you see the run they made during the SEC
Tournam I go no, I saw the highlights, but I
didn't see it. I was at work, big dummy. Why
didn't you take a day off? Swan? You mean why

(14:37):
didn't I take three days off? Yeah? It just bugs me, man,
bugs me because again, it's so many games that I
feel like we miss out on. And let me just look.
Let's throw it back pre Florida State. So let's look

(14:58):
at the nineteen ninety ACC tournament. Let's just see the
games and the viewership and see ifact am I making
up of? Is this some kind of issue that I'm creating?
All right? March ninth, nineteen ninety these there were four

(15:19):
games played that day. Now, I'm i gotta check a
see what day of the week that was first and foremost?
March ninth, nineteen ninety What day was it? A Friday?

(15:41):
So two games out of the tournament would have been
played while you were at work. Five games would have
been played when you could watch because you played those
first two games on a Friday. That's when the TV

(16:04):
came in on Friday afternoon, and then you had Saturday
and Sunday. By the way, nineteen ninety ACC champion. Any
guesses out there, if you said the third seeded Georgia
Tech Yellow Jackets, you would be correct. They beat Virginia

(16:26):
seventy to sixty one. Clemson actually advanced that year to
the semi finals. Remember that's a really good Clemson team.
They got beat sixty nine to sixty six by Virginia.
The Tigers won the ACC that year. They were ten
and four in the conference, the only regular season championship

(16:46):
in Clemson history. Probably the disappointing part of losing to
Virginia is that Virginia team that was a five seed
was eight and six in the ACC. But either way,
come on what we talked about here, people, I mean,
am I just is this just get off my lown, swanee?

(17:09):
Or am I right that there are so many games
in these tournaments that we're we're not available to watch now?
I guess it also depends on what job you have.
What do you mean, Swanny, I'm available to watch? Where
do you work? I got my buddy Josh. He's up

(17:30):
in Boston. He's a manager, probably higher up than a manager.
I don't really know what you call it, but he's
at David Busters. I'm sure, Josh can watch whatever basketball
games he wants at work. He may not be able
to pay attention, but he's got him on. But you know,
I'm doing the day job teaching. Oh what'd you up to,

(17:56):
mister Swan. Now I'm just in the midst of watching
in the NCAA tournament or the ACC tournament, of course not.
I mean we've been stripped of that opportunity by having
so many games played during the week. We're starting on
a Tuesday. Man, scratching my head on that one. I

(18:24):
do also wonder it would be interesting a case study
to see if ending on your tournament on a Friday,
excuse me, ending your tournament on a Saturday and having
an additional day you know, the SEC tournament's on Sunday.
I think the big ten tournaments on Sunday, if that
additional day off helps you when you get into the

(18:48):
opening round on Thursday. And I think maybe a part
of that shift too, is because of the first four
and if you're a team that gets into the tournament
and then you got to play in the first game
and those games start what Tuesday next week? As well
as a matter of fact, all the years they've had
the first four. You guys have been with me for
eleven or almost twelve years here on the program. I

(19:11):
have never filled out a bracket. I don't care what
year the first four starts. I do not fill out
my bracket until the first four games are decided. You go,
swany those sixteen seeds, they're not gonna win a game.
I don't care. I want to know who it is.
I'm not just picking, you know, Auburn to beat the

(19:33):
sixteen seed in the playing game and not know who
the sixteen seed is, even though I likely would pick Auburn,
I don't pick it until Norfolk State is in there.
I'm just not doing it, all right, quick break out
of the gates. The Swani thirty gonna change the world.
All right, Well break, We'll come back with more here

(19:55):
on The Show That Shakes the South Lane is Clemson
Sports song called Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred. The show
This Shakes to South Lant Clemson Sports took on a Tuesday.
So last night in the SoCon my Dad's Terrier dogs
getting the job say it with me now, Dne the
job done against the Furman Paladins. And one of the

(20:16):
things that I got to thinking about watching that first off,
you know, I think in power conference sports, and I
kind of alluded to this a little bit ago talking
about the ACC tournament, but I think in power conference
sports we can lose a little bit of sight on

(20:42):
how significant the smaller conference tournaments are. And for either
Walford or Furman to win the so Kind and get
into the NCAA Tournament was huge. Neither team was the
top team in the SoCon neither team, as a matter

(21:05):
of fact, was in the top four. Furman was the
five seed, Wafford was the sixth seed. Chattanooga got knocked
off by Furman in the semi finals eighty to seventy seven,
placing an all South Carolina championship game. As Wafford passed

(21:29):
vm I, who was the seventh seed, eighty five to
sixty five to get to the championship game. Vm I
had knocked off the second seeded UNC Greensboro, and so
the Terriers completed ninety two to eighty five to the
final score. But they secure a birthday the NCAA tournament.

(21:49):
I called my dad, who's a Wafford graduate, after the game,
and I asked him, I said, you got your dance
and shoes on he said, oh yeah, and it reminded
me and now my dad obviously follows Clemson and keeps
up with the Tigers. But the rarity of you know,

(22:10):
we can talk about the rarity of Clemson being in
the NCAA Tournament, but the rarity of Wawford being in
the NCUBA Tournament. The rarity of that and the fact
that with the way this system is currently set up
and we can have all types of seasons in sports

(22:34):
where we look at it at the end to go, man,
I can't believe that team made it into the NCUBA Tournament,
or I can't believe that team was in the colleg
Football Playoff, like whatever. Our criticisms are of the systems
that we have in place, but it's hard to criticize
the system that we have for smaller schools in college

(22:58):
basketball to make it into the NCUBA Tournament. And the
Terriers will now venture into i believe, their sixth nc
DOUBLEA Tournament appearance. It is the first time that they've

(23:20):
been in the NCUBA Tournament since two thousand and nineteen,
and it's quite frankly one of the more special things
to watch. In those waiting moments, that game was pretty
tight and everybody in the arena knows it's win and

(23:40):
you're in. And yeah, there's heartbreak across the board. Certainly,
if you're a Firman fan today, you're down on your luck.
There are teams of the number one seed in their
tournament that have fought all year and get beat. And
there are teams that have gone undefeated in the past
and smaller conferences, undefeated in the regular season and get

(24:03):
beat in the nc double It, get beatscwed ME in
the conference tournament and then don't make the NCAA tournament.
And I do hate that scenario. As a matter of fact,
earlier this year, I talked about it a little bit, saying,
you know, I would not be against allowing any team

(24:24):
that goes undefeated in the regular season in and the
tournament champion. Now, we could argue that maybe some of
those smaller conferences might get into a little what we
might call a little seed grabbing, meaning that perhaps they

(24:46):
kind of skew it so that the team that didn't
go undefeated wins the conference championship. And how many teams
every year go undefeated in their league. Not many, And
so I don't think you'd have like this just this
overflooding of additional teams from the SoCon or other smaller
conferences getting into the nc DOUBLEA tournament. As a matter

(25:07):
of fact, I would argue that those undefeated teams would
still want to close the deal in their league. But
for the Watford Terriers, last night was special. For Watford
Terrier fans, last night was special, not just beating Furman,
but winning and getting into the NCUBA tournament. It's also

(25:29):
strange too, and I think this kind of goes along
with what I was saying earlier about the larger Atlantic
Coast Conference in games being played on a Tuesday, But
it did kind of feel a little out of whack

(25:52):
that Walford and Furman were playing on a Monday night
for the right to get into the NCUBA tournament, almost
a week a head of everybody else, and not every
not everybody else, Like there are certainly other conferences out
there playing, but you know, the ACC, the Big Ten,
you know the power conferences, Like I don't know. I

(26:17):
was kind of when I got the text message, hey,
tune in and watch Watford and Firman, I was like, well,
what round is it? And then it was like the
final round and I'm like the championship of the sokon
Is on a Monday. Admittedly, admittedly that was a bit strange,

(26:39):
but I navigated, I got through it. But certainly, as
I mentioned in the opening segment, the old school Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
with a little more continuity in the dates, not having
three games in the opening day and four on the
other day like the ACC has now in like some

(27:01):
of these other leagues, I can't remember. I'll have to
look it up. Maybe during the break. There was one
league that has this huge tournament where every team's in
and everybody plays. It's wild. I think I talked about
it a couple of years ago, maybe when they went
to this format completely different from anything you've ever seen.
I'll see if I can dig that up. That large conference,

(27:23):
it's not a large conference, but that large tournament bracket
to get into the NCAA Tournament. I'll see if I
can dig it up, and we'll see how it played out.
I'll look forward during the break. All right, quick break,
We'll come back with more here on a Tuesday afternoon
Clemson Sports Talk, Lawton swan to show the shakespare south Lay.
All Right, I found it's the Sun Belt. Championship game
was yesterday. Troy wins the Sunbelt I believe for the

(27:44):
third time with the victory over Arkansas State. So here's
how they lay this tournament out, all right. It starts
with two first round games. They were played last Tuesday.
It was between number twelve Southern Miss and number thirteen

(28:05):
Coastal Carolina. And then the second game was between number
fourteen University of Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana Lafayette, the eleven seed. Now,
if you win, you advance, and there are two games
a day until the championship game. So let's see. Let's

(28:32):
start in the upper half of the bracket. Southern Miss
beat Coastal Carolina. They advanced around two. Southern Miss was
defeated by Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern advanced around three. On Thursday,
March sixth Georgia Southern lost to Georgia State. Georgia State
advanced around four. On Friday, Marshall beat Georgia State. Marshall

(28:54):
advanced to the quarterfinals. Marshall then got beat by Arkansas State.
Arkansas State faced top seeded Alabama excuse me, South Alabama
in the semi finals on Sunday, and then Arkansas State
upset South Alabama and went to the championship game that
was played last night against Troy. So on the upper
tier of the bracket, theoretically, Southern miss would have had

(29:21):
to win one, two, three, four, five, six seven games
to be the conference champion. Same thing out of the
bottom half of the bracket. Ironically, though, no team in
the upper half of the bracket until Arkansas State won
more than one game. Arkansas State won two, so it

(29:44):
seems to work. It's just you got a long week.
You went Tuesday Monday almost seven days. So on the
bottom half of the bracket. Let's see the eleven seed,
Louisiana La Fayette. The Rage Occagions won game one, lost
the Old Minion in Game two. Old Dominion as a
tend zee beat Texas State to play their second game

(30:06):
against app State. So they played on Thursday against Texas State.
They beat app State on Friday. They then played Troy
on Saturday and got beat So they want to Troy.
Troy would go on the face James Madison and Troy
would end up winning. But yeah, they do want go

(30:27):
find the bracket. It's wild. It technically doesn't. I mean,
if you think about it, it's really not the worst
idea because it really rewards the top four seeds. It

(30:50):
really does reward those top four seeds, and more than anything,
rewards the top two. But you don't feel like like
anybody really had to play all that much because nobody
was able to make a run long enough to really

(31:11):
have an impact. Looking at it, I think Old Dominion
is the only team that I see who appeared in
four games. They played their initial matchup on Wednesday against Louisiana,
then they played against Texas State on Thursday, Then they

(31:34):
played against app State on Friday. Then they played and
lost against Troy on Saturday. So they played in four games,
winning three of them, beating the eleven seed, the seventh seed,
and the sixth seed, and losing to the three seed.

(31:54):
I'd be interested to see, you know what we could do.
Maybe maybe we could do this, take the raw scores
of the ACC tournament, take the top fourteen teams, and

(32:15):
just take whatever the eleven fourteen eleven game was, take
the raw score there, and then regardless of who advanced,
if it's the opposite in the ACC, when we get
to that next game, go to the tenth seed to
see what they did in their opening game and just
take the raw scores and just kind of pretend our
way through it and see what the bracket would have

(32:35):
looked like seven days. Because they start on Tuesday. They
play games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and
Monday in Pensacola, Florida at the Pensacola Bay Center. A
couple of things you could do with this. They had

(32:55):
five o'clock tip offs and seven thirty tip offs every
day up until the quarterfinals on Saturday, which means you
don't you're not playing games in the middle of a
work day. Yeah, five o'clock is tough to get to,
but most people are wrapping up the job and you don't.

(33:18):
You're not playing games. And I'm not saying these were
on TV. These were all on ESPN Plus. But if
you did this format, you're not playing games in a
window where the majority of potential viewers are at work.
Like it's not a it's not a great system, probably

(33:39):
because of the link to the time that you gotta
be there and the link to the time that you
have to rent the arena. You know, there's gotta be
some kind of fees that go into all that, and
it's probably easier to just have an arena for four
days versus seven or whatever. But the SoCon excuse me,

(34:01):
the Sun Belt I mean if I said sokon earlier,
is because we did the segment about Walford and Firman earlier.
But the Sun Belt Conference does a huge tournament, two
games a day for seven days essentially until they get

(34:21):
to the championship game, thirteen total games. The fewest games
the team would have to play to be the champion
is two. The number one seed the number two seed
only have to win two games to be the champ.

(34:41):
The most a team would have to play, as I
said earlier, or not play but win is seven if
you are the eleven, twelve, thirteen, or fourteen seed. Seven
straight games to get into the NCAA tournament. Pretty crazy.
Go look at the bracket during the break. It's just
a it looks like a a greater than sign. That's

(35:02):
the The bracket looks like a greater than symbol. All right,
quick break, We'll put a bow on the hour. Number
one around the bench. Stay with us right here on
Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred final segment of our one
coming up, Mike, you have a Gamecockcentral dot Com joins us. So, look,
I'm not raw rah, gotta be Clemson guy. That's just
never been my angle, even though I'm the orange shaded

(35:22):
kool Aid drinking underwear wearing that's orange underwear, by the way,
hosts of the show that shakes the South Lane in
the Midlands. But that's not my That's not my style.
I keep it real. That's I think that's been part
of the you know, the success that we've had on
the program with Gamecock listeners. I keep it real, and

(35:43):
I do as you all know very much, so appreciate
all the Gamecocks who hang out with us and peak
over the fence.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing the naked.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
The late great Cleveland man there, boy, he would have
loved this run by this Clemson Tiger basketball team. But
I do before I get into first team All ACC selections,
et cetera, et cetera, I do have to talk for
just a minute about my disappointment in the voting for

(36:22):
the ACC Coach of the Year. Now I understand that
you had a nineteen and one duke team in the league,
and you had two eighteen and two teams in Louisville
and Clemson. And I said here on the air that

(36:46):
I thought Pat Kelsey was gonna win because Louisville was
much more so in a bad spot when coach Kelsey
took over. By comparison to where is right now, that's
that's just the facts. I mean. Pat Kelsey comes into

(37:11):
Louisville in year one, in year one, less than one
year after taking over as the job. Take it English, swanee,
do you speak it? Less than one year after taking
over the job. He got that job back in March
last year, March twenty eighth, today's March the eleventh, and

(37:37):
he went twenty five and six, and he went eighteen
and two in the ACC. Now, strike that to where
Louisville was a year ago. By the way, the Cardinals
right number thirteen in the rankings that came out yesterday.
A year ago basement in the ACC three and seven,

(38:01):
eight and twenty four overall, The year before that basement
two and eighteen, four and twenty eight overall. That was
when Kenny Payne as a head coach in his first
and second season and then they fired Payne and when
Chris Mack was there not all that long ago, thirteen

(38:22):
and nine, six and four, tied for third at the
bottom of the league. Just atrocious. And Kelsey comes in
and they turn it around. And so I'm okay that
Pat Kelsey was named the ACC Coach of the Year.

(38:45):
No problem with that, Like, who has a problem with that?
Not me? I mean, that's incredibly impressive off of the
heels of what Clemson did a year ago. Brad Brownell
does not get the benefit of the coaching doubt. Pat
Kelsey Coach of the Year forty seven votes, John Shire

(39:06):
at Duke twenty five votes, Brad Brownell at Clemson eight
votes eight for eighteen and two. And I think maybe
more than anything, if you want to garner you want

(39:29):
me to give your reasons that Brad bright Now should
have garnered more votes. He beat Duke and John Shire
heads up. Now, should Brad Brownell have been ahead of
John Shire? I don't know about that. But why this
thing isn't more like six seventeen sixteen, You know, somewhere

(39:56):
in there a tighter race. Brad Burann Now got the
shaft in my opinion, when it comes down to coaching
in the In the Atlantic Coast Conference, the vote absolute shaft. Now, guys,
who didn't get the shaft from Clemson in the ACC voting.

(40:19):
How about Clemson's star guard Chase Hunter. Chase Hunter got
the fourth most votes in the league. Cooper Flagg was
named the Player of the Year the freshman al Duke.
He was also named the Rookie of the Year. But
great to see Chase Hunter getting the recognition there being
one of the top five players in the league and

(40:41):
he was throughout the year, no doubt about that. Additionally,
Clemson's Ian Shefflin was a second team selection with two
hundred and twenty five votes. The chef I thought it
was interesting listening to Brad Brownell yesterday talking about Ian
Shefflin that, you know, he kind of ribbed former Clemson

(41:05):
Tiger PJ. Hall kind of ribbed him with, man, you know,
I know you're this great player, and I know you're this,
that and the other. But most of the people asked
me about Ian Sheffling. Just trying to drive PJ. Hall
to be a little bit more aggressive, a little better,
if you will. No other Tigers are on the list.

(41:26):
Victor Lockin, though did get honorable mentioned with twenty votes,
and good for Victor coming into Clemson emotional on senior Day,
embraced by the fans. Really awesome, really awesome story that
he kind of became. And like we said here on
the program, I thought at times was a much had

(41:50):
much more of an impact for Clemson, especially on the
defensive end and rebounds than PJ. Hall did a year ago.
And so now we get to the meet, we get
to the tournament. We've talked about it a lot here now.
Number one, speaking of the tournament, a team that's not
going to be in the NCAA tournament, the South Carolina
game Cocks. Mike Eva joins us around the Ben. We

(42:14):
will talk with him though about the South Carolina women's
team winning the SEC championship over the weekend. All right,
quick break, we'll come back. Mike Eva around the Ben.
Stay with us on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred each
time for Clipson Sports Talk with Lowton Schwan. It is

(43:08):
our number two. That's drivetime rider on the show. The
Shakespare south Land Clemson Sports, Salton Swan Ain't no with you,
Mike Youba Gamecoccentral dot Com joins the program momentarily, and
of course show the shakesa south Land and brought you
in part by our friends over at Met's Plumbing. Seven
three to two drip, drip, drip. You know the jingle,

(43:30):
seven three to two drip. That's Met's plumbing, all right.
Mike Cba joins us here on a Tuesday afternoon. The
Game Cocks coming up tomorrow. It'll be South Carolina in
the SEC tournament taking on Arkansas, and Mike, I didn't
mean to write off the game Cocks too early, but

(43:54):
I did say moments ago, I don't think they're gonna
make the nc double A tournament that tips off against
the Razorbacks at one o'clock, so we'll know by showtime tomorrow,
the game taking place at the Bridgestone Arena up in Nashville, Tennessee. Mike, welcome, man, man,
I'm doing well.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Swanne, how you doing.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
I'm good? But hey, look, I know it is a
long shot. I wrote the game Cocks off a little
bit earlier. I said, I know a team not going
to the NCAA tournament. It's not quite the path that
you would have to wield to get through, say the
Sun Belt Conference. But the game Cocks do have a
tough row, no doubt with the you know, with what

(44:37):
we've seen from the SEC this year, and they are
the sixteenth seed in the tournament. But what's the you know,
what's the mood right now around the South Carolina program
as they enter postseason play.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
I think just the mentality of what you kind of
hit on. They're going into it with nothing to lose
and they know that, so I think it allows them
to play a little bit more free. I think we've
seen in years pass especially in the SEC tournament, upsets
happen all the time, and I think when you look
this year more than anything, which just how close some

(45:10):
of those games were for South Carolina, the ones that
they lost, and it was a good against good teams,
and the should have, could have would is. But if
they find themselves in a situation late and whether it
be the turnovers are down, they're making their free throws,
they could find a way to be able to at
least win one game, which would be against Arkansas. I
think it's gonna be very difficult to make a run.

(45:32):
More so just because of the fact that even though
we sit here today and we're like, well, there's a
couple of games that they could have won. That's the
point they could have won. They didn't do it, and
that's a part of their DNA right now and until
they can prove otherwise of winning these close games consistently.
How many times do we talk about that with Gamecock
football for a long period of time right where they

(45:54):
were in those close games but they just weren't able
to get over the humps. So, yes, there were a
lot of games they were in. They could certainly pull
off a win or two here in this tournament, but
I'm not hold of my brut just because of what
we saw in the regular season.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah, they beat Arkansas just a couple of weeks ago
by I think what nineteen points, like seventy two to
fifty three looking back at it, and obviously the Razorbacks
have been a really good team in the latter half
of the season. But a huge win for Carolina then
it would be a huge one tomorrow if they can
find a way to pull off an upset against the Razorbacks.
That tournament's up in Nashville, Tennessee. Mike, I know that's

(46:29):
been one of the you know, one of the sticking
points for some media members is the fact that not
the tournaments in Nashville per se, but there have been
media events, like the SEC Media Days has been in Nashville,
it was out in where Dallas. I think this past year,
you know you kind of see it moving around to
some different venues. Where do you stand on it, Mike,

(46:51):
I mean, you know, as a guy who grew up
watching the ACC, the Greensboro Coliseum was always the place.
I don't mind it being in Charlotte. Now, the ACC
being headquartered in Charlotte, I think it's perfect, But it
never made much sense to me when the Atlantic Coast Conference,
even when Maryland was in the league, is playing games
at the MCI Center, or you're playing down at some

(47:12):
arena in like Tampa, Like you know, just pick one
site and roll with it. But just kind of like
they do with the SEC Football Championship, right, What are
your thoughts of going to Nashville?

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Well, I mean, unfortunately I won't be at it this year,
covering some Providence and Rhode Island teams and actually going
to a game tonight Bryant trying to get out of
the America East and head the Bulldogs. But the Bulldogs.
So I say that because I think from a media
standpoint in Swanee, I'm sure you could agree with me

(47:44):
on this. The hooder you get in this business, and
I know I'm still young, but the earlier you get
in this business, those trips of going a little bit
further away from home, they're not as fun, especially the
coming back part, whether you're flying, whether you're driving a
certain those drives. So you know, if you want to
listen to a media member complaint or media members complain,

(48:06):
I think that would be one thing. But I enjoyed it.
I thought Nashville. I've gone out there a couple of times,
or not just the men's tournament. I've gone out there
for the women's tournament before SEC media days was there
not too long ago. I think they do it right
in that sense. I think to your point though, from
a geographical standpoint, and even though it's not you know,

(48:27):
you have Vanderbilt there, so not like you're going so
far off the grid. I think the challenging part now
is with the additions of Texas in Oklahoma and the
fact that Missouri has been in the conference now for
why over for over a decade. Now you have schools
that from a geographical standpoint, it's Okay, hey, look, you know,

(48:49):
let's let's go here. A couple of years ago men's
tournament was in Tampa. I don't know that will happen
anytime soon, and I don't know if the future years
are so watch there be like, you know, next year
in Tampa and someone can say that, so I haven't
seen that much. Yeah, yeah, I don't think that will be.
I don't think that will be part of the norm now,
simply because of the fact that you have teams coming

(49:10):
from further away. And we heard this past weekend Vick
Schaefer and he was doing this when he was at
Mississippi State because I covered the Bulldogs for one year.
He's a great guy. But mentioning the whole point of oh,
it's like a home game for South Carolina. I wouldn't
be surprised if the SEC starts to look at these
things just a little bit closer because of some of
these teams that they've added that are coming further away.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well, and not the shift too much, by the way.
Follow him on Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA Gamecockcentral dot com,
the website part of the All Three network. Not the
shift too far away from Men's hoops for a minute.
But I can't help but watch the SEC Women's Tournament
and not see the incredible geographic advantage that South Carolina has.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
And I've thought about this one. If I'm VIC, I
understand why you're doing that.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Now.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Having said that, I put this tweet out. Who's vig
Vick Schaefer. Excuse me? The head coach of Texas women's basketball,
former Mississippi State head coach. He's the head coach of
the Texas Longhorns now for women's basketball, and he has
gone up against down five times now between his two
stops Assissippi State and Texas, five times. In the SEC

(50:20):
Championship game against USC, he is zero to five now.
Of those five losses in those SEC Championship Tournament games,
three were in Greenville. So again, if you're VIC, I
understand why you would be frustrated you're trying to go
up there, because like we see it, we're gonna we
see it towards this time of the year with a
lot of basketball coaches, right they start to turn into

(50:42):
a politician as to say, okay, why should because they
want people to listen to them. So Vick Schaefer going
up there and I get a game Cup fans are
going to look at it like, oh, he's crying. He's
trying to get a hold of essentially Greg Sank and
anyone that's out there listening saying why are we having
this out there? Way I look at it though, Swani

(51:02):
is this and I get that it benefits South Carolina,
but just try to take it put the fact that
I know we're in South Carolina, those fans will show up.
I've been in Nashville and I'm not saying that Gamecock
fans and some of these other fan bases don't travel,
but who the heck wants to watch a game played
in front of nobody and the crowd's empty.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
So from a.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Business standpoint, which at the end of the day, we've
seen throughout all college sports and why things continue to
change the college sports is because of money. It makes
sense to at least put it in a venue at
a venue, in a spot geographically where you know people
will at least go to. And yes, at the end
of the day, wherever you have the tournament, it will
benefit someone more than anyone else. We get that. But

(51:45):
for South Carolina, yeah, they've been very, very very fortunate
that it's been at Greenville so many times over the
last decade.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Yeah, it makes me think back to like when Tennessee
was really good. I have no idea, but you know,
we just talked about the men's turn maybe and played
in Nashville. Was was that the frequent choice when Tennessee
and the Lady Balls were the top team in the country.
I have no idea. It would make sense. I mean
what you just said, they know the fans will show up.

(52:18):
I've argued that part of the benefit that Clemson has
and shown Poppy right now, is that South Carolina has
made women's basketball cool in this state, which means more
young girls are playing, which means the pool of young
girls to look at to bring into your program is
greater than it used to be. That what It's weird, Mike,

(52:42):
but South Carolina's success in women's basketball, ironically, I think
really helps Clemson's women's basketball program.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
No question in twenty to your point for years and
it hopped around a little bit. But I mean, it's
just funny when we look at the location the last
decade and then you look back to you know, those
Tennessee days when Pat Summit was there. They played a
lot of those SEC championship games, uh to the tournament,
whether it be in Knoxville, whether it be in Lexington, Kentucky,

(53:13):
which obviously isn't too far away. They mentioned Knoxville already
and then they you know, they played a little bit
in Georgia as well, So Chattanouga is in there on
top of that. So there's no question that from a
business standpoint, it made sense to put it near a
venue or near a location or have a venue where

(53:34):
a team has been very, very good.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Well, and then they would get it. If I'm the
other yeah, and then and not to cut you, but
in the nineties, guess who had a really good basketball program,
the Georgia women.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
They were great, correct, correct? And that's the thing. So,
like I get it if I'm if I'm one of
these schools and I'm looking at this saying this is
this is such an advantage for them, I understand. I
understand the frustration. But at the same time, too, South
Carolina from a women's basketball standpoint, they've been number one

(54:03):
over the last decade. I think, you know, COVID threw
some things off with some numbers because of the restriction.
That season and the following year. Excuse me, but they've
they've been at the top. They're averaging if I think
if you take out that COVID year in twenty twenty one,
that following season, they've been averaging over ten thousand. We've
seen the We've seen Colonial Life Arena full multiple times,

(54:26):
which holds eighteen thousand. So again from a business standpoint,
it makes sense. It makes sense to target a market
that you know people will come out and watch the game.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Mike you'vas on Twitter at Mike underscore UVA the game
baseball team with a three game sweep of Morehead State
this past weekend. They've got a matchup against Georgia State
tomorrow at six thirty over at Founders Park, and then
they will open SEC play with a top twelve Oklahoma
team coming in. I know we talked about how tough
the base excuse be the basketball league is for the SEC,

(55:00):
but baseball is not easy sled either.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Now in Swanne, I may have said this on your
program before, I've definitely told other people. I've been saying
it a lot up here because a lot of people
ask me what the SEC is like, and you know,
even like what covering Clemson's like. But I tell them,
with the SEC when it comes to baseball, I feel
like it is tougher than playing in the SEC for football.
And that says something simply because the margin of era

(55:28):
is so thin and it feels like any year you
could have a new top four teams in that conference.
Oh yeah, So I'm excited. I think the big thing
heading into this week before we get into conference play.
And I think it's fair to say this because of
what took place in those three games against Clemson. I

(55:50):
think a lot of game Cock fans, Yeah, they're happy
that they won a series this past weekend, exactly what
they should have done. What happens when they go up
against an SEC team and they have to be able
to score some runs in the pitching, you just can't
depend on that all the time. You're going to have
to hit. I think that's the big thing. And again
South Carolina, they've been able to do some good things.

(56:11):
They didn't score that many runs on Sunday, but it
was just enough to be able to get the win.
But I think that's the big thing. SQUA on Sonny.
They want to be able to see this team's score runs.
And I don't blame.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
About five more minutes with Mike. You've here on Ay
Tuesday afternoon again. You can follow his work over on
Gamecockcentral dot com as a part of the A three network.
He's also on Twitter at Mike Underscore UVA. Well, the
Clypson Tiger football team is in full swing with the
uh with spring practice. As a matter of fact, now

(56:44):
we get all these interviews and get a chance to
talk to players. We got a chance to hear from
all three of Clympson's transfer portal players they came in
this year. But I know the game Cocks are getting
ready to gear up, Mike, and you've had a chance
to kind of get in tune with what's going on there.
So what's the vibe in gamecock Land as we get
a little closer.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
Well, a couple of things, first and foremost, the spring
game was announced, not going to shock anyone that Friday game.
It will be at seven point thirty, which was expected,
so the baseball game will likely get moved up that day.
But who spring practices getting ready to start up. We
haven't had a chance to hear from the players. Well.
On Monday, Leonora Sellers Dylan stored to mazi Obnnett. They

(57:28):
were in New York City through some nil opportunities. One
was with fanatics on Tuesday, but I had an opportunity
to catch up with all three of them at the
game cock bar called the Basin Jar, and I had
a chance to interview all of them. And I think
the big thing that I just took away from talking
to them, I think with Sellers more than anything Swanty,
this guy's locked in. There's going to be Heisman buzz

(57:50):
around him. There's going to be a lot more attention now,
especially after what took place last year, and just from
talking to him talking to his father, this is a
guy that appreciates the support that he's getting. But as
he put it to me, he's keeping his circle extremely
close and tight, and he's also as locked in as
ever because he knows that it means nothing unless he

(58:12):
performs on the field. Dylan saw it that man is
just ready to go out there and ball out. And
I think maji O Bennett could take that step. The
Greenville native, I think he can take that step into
being one of the top two receivers of this team.
They're gonna need it because their top leading receiver last
year was Jars Simon. The tight end. And that was
for the first time in over twenty years. Swany that

(58:34):
South Carolina is leading wide receiver with someone other than
a wide out.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Wow, can I take a shot in the dark? Who
the leader was before that? Do you know the answer?
I'll take a shot in the dark. Yep, Drake Pennington.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Nope, it was running back Ryan Brewer.

Speaker 4 (58:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
He basically get everything other than you know, sell the
popcorn in the stands. I mean brew did everything. I
mean they practically was like a Savelle Newton and sent
outside of playing quarterback.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Well, you put it in my twenty year window, that
would have been my that would have been like my
prime college years. I was like, Okay, let me dive in.
I remember I had a buddy named Trey Pennington that
played for Carolina. He was a pretty good tide end.
I was like, yeah, maybe a guest though shot in
the dark. Guest though shot in the dark. Mike, you've
again on Twitter at Mike underscore UVA Mike. In addition

(59:26):
to that, you know, obviously this is a big season
for South Carolina. You talked about how important the schedule
or excuse me, the results are in the SEC in football?
What was your take on the way they did decide
to do the scheduling though, just flip flopping the games.
I mean, were you are you in favor of that
or against it? I mean there were a lot of
people that really felt like the schedule favored Texas a

(59:47):
year ago and that seemed to pan out, and that
would mean it would in some ways favorite Texas. Again,
what are your thoughts on the SEC just doing a
flip flop of the schedules.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
I think it's like a lot of things in life,
it's never going to be perfect. You look at it,
and it makes sense why they want to do it,
because now you're going to allow different fan bases to
go to different communities more often in comparison to years past.
I remember working with Corey Miller at Watch Fox and
his son who played at Spring Valley. He never had
an opportunity to play against South Carolina, never mind playing Columbia,

(01:00:24):
which was something that would have been really neat for
him to be able to do. Play his father's Alma
made So I bring that up because I get what
they're trying to do, but unfortunately, when you do this,
you're basically just creating the same schedule last year outside
of this flipping around. Don't get me wrong. I mean,
playing at LSU is certainly gonna be much tougher than
playing LSU at home. There's gonna be some challenges because

(01:00:46):
of that. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's
not like the NFL where you can just be like,
all right, you know the top teams may you can
rotate this and that, because at some point you got
to put the schedule out and they want to do
that much earlier. Income Harrison to what the NFL does.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Final thing, Mike, and it deals a little bit more Clemson.
We got about a minute, so it'll have to be quick.
Your thoughts on the ACC Clempson in Florida State, the
litigation coming to a conclusion, and it feels like a
pretty favorable event for the Tigers.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
No, let me ask you this. I'm gonna spend the
court with you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Surprised, Yes, that the ACC leaned in if the iron
if everything was as iron clad as it appeared. Yeah,
I'm surprised.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
I think the big thing Swanny is is this gonna
be sustainable? Will this be sustainable or is this kind
of just a quick fix right now? And we're gonna
have more headaches, and I don't want to say like
a year from now. You know, people are always gonna
be complaining. But is this gonna be something that we're
gonna have to revisit in a couple of years because

(01:01:52):
it's gonna be like, I don't I don't know, I
don't know if this is the best call.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
I would say the biggest issue for both schools is
you have to have a destination, and as of right now,
as we are aware it, neither do. But Mike, you
do have a destination. You got an appointment to get
to my man. I appreciate your carving us.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
In, brother, I appreciate it. I'm getting old time to
get spec so I'll keep you posted on that. I
can actually see for a change.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
There he is. Mike, You've hanging out with us here
on a Tuesday afternoon. A right quick break. We'll come
back with more from Tigertown right after this. The show
that shakes the south Land, Clemson Sports, Taltlaut and Swann
hang out with you on a Tuesday afternoon. Thanks to Mike,
you'va for carving us into his day. Always appreciate the
opportunity to chat with him. Will help transfer from Purdue

(01:02:40):
the media yesterday and it's really our first time getting
a chance to hear from him since he arrived at Clemson,
and Help was asked about what drew him to Tigertown.

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
I think a big piece of it was just knowing
that I wanted to win, and I knew the guys
that were coming back into this locker room and you
know the guys that they were returning. And I knew
that the guys on the defensive line we were going
to be coming with with a solid unit. So I
think that was a big piece for me. And then
just culturally, I think it was a great fit. Every
everything is just so cohesive here and I think I
plugged right in.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Will Helt was also asked about being recruited by Clempson's
new defensive coordinator Tom Allen when Helt was coming out
of high school, so.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
They were they were one of the first people that
recruited me actually when he was at IU, back when
I think just I finished up my sophomore year uh
in Carmel, But yeah, nothing but good memories with him.
Obviously I ended up going to the rival Perdue, but
I do have the one to know record against him
when I played him when he when he was a
head coach IU. But yeah, good memories. He's a great

(01:03:40):
guy and I'm excited that he's here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
That'st Clemson defensive end Will he Helt was also asked
about if there was any major difference in his mind
between what he was accustomed to at Purdue versus what
he's now been involved in through a few practices at Clemson.

Speaker 5 (01:03:59):
I think just generally a lot of similarities just in
terms of structurally, but I think the biggest difference is
probably just the pace of practice. I think things here
are just a little more intense and a little more
ramped up, just going from drill to drill, from play
to play. I think there's just more emphasis on just
moving quickly and moving with sense urgency.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Help was also asked about his hunger to win after
having just I think five total wins over the past
two seasons during his time there at Purdue.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
I think no one's hungry for a win than I am.
Like you said, five games in the last two years,
one game last year. I'm salivating to get those victories,
and you know that. To me, it's what it's all about.
That's why I'm here. I want to win games, and
I want to be a part of a team to
compete for national championship.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
I think no one's hungrier for a win than I am.
Big words there from will help I love. But he
was also asked about his motor and how he's just
has this continuous drive.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
I mean, no doubt.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
I think I pride myself on that, uh prib myself
on being a guy that's hustling to the ball, that's
working just to you know, end up. We like to say,
like get on the frame at the end of the play,
just whatever you can do to get your face around
the ball, and you know, just make plays wherever you can.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Again, that's Clemson portal pickup will Helt. He was asked
about what pulled him to Clemson and why he ended
up being a Clemson Tiger.

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
I think between you know, like I said, wanted to win,
being a great cultural fit, and then from there just
the coaching staff fits Coach Trump, coach Eason, coach Sweeney
and then now coach Allen. It's been great just being
around coaches not only with Rump Andisen that have been
in the NFL, that have coached great players and I
know that they can develop me to where I want
to be.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Will Helt was also asked to give some insight into
Tom Allen and the energy that he brings to the
table as Clemson's new defensive coordinator.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
Yeah, I mean you can hear him. I mean, if
you're out of practice, you can hear him.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
Nobody's louder than him, and you know, nobody's holding guys
more accountable than he is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
And I love it. That's Clemson's new defensive end will help.
Talking about Tom Allen and his energy. He was also
asked to give some insight, some further insight into the
difference in the practices that he had in the past
versus what he's seeing at Clemson.

Speaker 5 (01:06:16):
I would say, really, there's a bigger focus on just
playing free and making plays honestly and just letting it loose,
just a one hundred percent effort. And the biggest thing
has just been the accountability. Like nothing's getting slipped through
the cracks, and you know they're hitting, hitting all their
eyes and noting, you know, like nothing is just nothing's
just slipping by, and everything's being watched, everything's being checked twice,

(01:06:38):
and I really appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
Yeah, just really emphasis on intensity.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Will Help was also asked about the adjustments that he's
had to have in joining a, you know, a new
team at this point in his career.

Speaker 5 (01:06:53):
I think when I first got here, I think it's
a little bit difficult to integrate yourself obviously at the start,
but at a place like this, everybody's so welcoming and
kind of I was sitting back here when Tristan was
talking about like he was saying, just you don't go
into the facility without somebody saying what's up to you,
or somebody checking in on you or seeing how you're doing.
You know, the guys in my room, in the defensive
line room and throughout the whole team have just been

(01:07:15):
really welcoming and I think it's been a great fit.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Help was also asked to give some insight into what
players on the team he currently feels like he's really
close to.

Speaker 5 (01:07:23):
I would say between the guys in the edge room,
me TJ, Kate Jahim, but then from there me Kate,
club Nick, Ronan Hannafin. We've all been hanging out a
lot and going to church together and it's been a
good fit with those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Help also gave some insight into what it's like to
be a teammate with TJ. Parker.

Speaker 5 (01:07:47):
He's just a high energy guy, a guy that people
like to be around. He's always cracking jokes and always lighthearted,
but he knows how to lock in help.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Was also asked about Peter Woods, and here's what he
thought or thinks of Peter Woods after around him for
a few months.

Speaker 5 (01:08:02):
I mean, he's an unbelievable player, obviously, but his work
ethic is top notch as well, And I think just
guys look up to him, and guys, you know, thrive
off that energy that he brings. And obviously it's not
a bad thing to have a guy like that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
And on the inside at practice, obviously Will Hill will
be battling against that Clemson defensive it's gonna be offensive line.
And he was asked to give his thoughts on Blake Miller,
the guy he faces off with the most, and just
what he's seeing from the OL group.

Speaker 5 (01:08:29):
Yeah, I mean, Blake's obviously a great player. I've faced
a lot of great players just playing at Purdue. We
played a pretty pretty good schedule, but you know, Blake's
an amazing player and he's a great talent and It's
been great to battle against him, and I'm excited to
continue to do that. And then guys like Tristan Lee
and those guys get back to practice, I'm excited to
go against them and just you know, iron sharpens iron
and just continue to get better.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
That's Clemson transfer will help. He also gave us some
thoughts on the areas of his game where he feels
like he most wants to improve as he enters his
first season at Clemson.

Speaker 5 (01:09:02):
I think just continuing to know how to use my
abilities that I have. Just continue to use my length
and you know, use that to my advantage, use my
speed to throw an offensive tackles and then play off
of their and use use all the moves that were
being taught, and just you know, be a dynamic player
all the way around.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
And the final thing from hell here. In this segment,
he was also asked about hitting a late grosspurt and
really growing into his frame as a ballplayer.

Speaker 5 (01:09:27):
I feel like I've definitely grown into my frame the
past two years, put on a little bit of weight.

Speaker 4 (01:09:31):
And I think that's helped a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
So i feel like I'm really just not tapping into
my full potential and I'm excited to see where that goes.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
There you go that sum of will help Clemson defensive end.
Meeting with the media earlier this week, we'll hear a
little bit more. He'll talk about his family, ties to
Brad Brown, Neil, about Clemson transferred, Jeremia, Alexander, and a
whole lot more when we get back right here on
the show The Shakes of South Plane is Clemson sports
all day, beautiful Tuesday afternoon clips of sports, salt lot

(01:10:02):
and swam with you on a Tuesday afternoon. I mentioned
the weather yesterday it was super cold, just ugly, and
now now here we go, beautiful day, awesome day. Anyway,
we were here and speaking of awesome day, hearing from
will help clips of defensive End, and he was asked about,

(01:10:24):
you know, his favorite move, which appears to be, according
to reports, a spin move.

Speaker 5 (01:10:29):
You know, I like to I like to get into
the bag a little bit, you know, use what I got,
but yeah, I like to spend a little bit, like
to mix it up and you know, keep them on
their toes. I think in terms of what coach Allen
brought in, I think that is an accurate way to
describe it. It's simple, but it's fast and it's violent.
No need to overcomplicate things. Just play fast, know where

(01:10:50):
you're going, and get there with a sense of urgency.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Will help. Was also asked about his potential family ties
and or relationship with with Brad brown Ell. He wasn't
exactly sure the ends and the outs of it all,
but here's what he had to say.

Speaker 4 (01:11:06):
Yeah, I don't really know him now.

Speaker 5 (01:11:08):
I mean I met him when I came here, but
it's really my dad and my uncle.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
I know him.

Speaker 5 (01:11:12):
He grew up with my uncle, so my dad kind
of looked up to him, you know, as an athlete
in the area growing up.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
But yeah, I met him. He's a great guy.

Speaker 5 (01:11:20):
So excited to get to more of their games and
good that they're doing well over there in the basketball arena.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
That's Climson transfer will help. Again his first time meeting
with the media, he was also asked about the group,
you know, the defensive unit, and their desire to improve
against the run after the struggles that they had especially
late in the season a year ago. Two matchups to

(01:11:47):
stick out for most Tiger fans, certainly the South Carolina
game and that matchup against Texas.

Speaker 5 (01:11:53):
I mean there's definitely some urgency there, just early in
the semester getting in those player led team meetings and
when that standard is just set of you know, we
got a more veteran team, a veteran locker room, more
experienced guys that have, you know, how to taste at
the playoff and you know that's not enough for them
and for this team, and you know that's not where
we want to get to ultimately. And you know, we

(01:12:17):
know where our eyes are set, you know, to chase
and win a championship. But you know, at the end
of the day, we're taking it one day at a
time and get better every day to chase Egle.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
Will help saying there's definitely some urgency in that department.
Another transfer that we did get a chance to hear
from was Jeremiah Alexander and here's will help giving his
thoughts on the Alabama transfer. As those two guys come in,
they look to have an impact in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (01:12:42):
I mean, he's a grinder through and through, a no doubt.
I mean, I'm always seeing him in the building, He's
always getting extra work in. I'm always seeing him walking
around with his iPad and you know, always constantly trying
to get better, heal his body up, and you know,
he's a great player, of great talent, and I'm excited
to see, you know, where he gets us this season.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
Now, one of the things you might want to know
out is how that will help end up at Clemson
and what's that look like for him as a player.
And he was asked if he really recalled his first
communication from Clemson.

Speaker 4 (01:13:11):
I do. I was still I was still at Purdue.

Speaker 5 (01:13:14):
When I had first entered the portal, I was still
up in West Offiat and Coach Rumphis had called me
and I saw like Clemson on my phone.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
I was like, oh, Clemson.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
I didn't expect it, but you know, I called him,
talked to him for a while, and then next thing
I know, an hour later, I'm going to FaceTime call
from a random number. I opened it and Dabo Sweeney's
sitting there. I'm like, oh, shoot, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
I did not expect that. He didn't even text before,
he just called.

Speaker 5 (01:13:33):
I was like wow, but yeah, a little starstruck seeing him,
but you know, real down to earth guy, and you
know he's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
But yeah, it was good and I was excited to
hear from them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Obviously, now he had a really solid career at Purdue.
But he was also asked about if it was surprising
to him when he was getting contacted by Dabo Sweeney
being you know, on FaceTime, et cetera, and other programs
maybe like Clemson trying to recruit him out of the
portal or bring him in.

Speaker 5 (01:13:59):
Yeah, I mean, so you only know so much when
you put your name in the portal. I mean, you
think you have a gauge for you know, where the
interest will be at, but you know, at the end
of the day, you never know until it's official, and
you know, it was a little bit surprising, and you know,
it was exciting, you know, the teams that were reaching out,
but found my place and I'm happy where I'm at.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
Will help. Also was asking if there was anything in
particular that Sweeney said that really sold him on being
a part of the Clemson Tiger program. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:14:24):
I think a big piece of it was just selling
the idea of you know, at the end of the day,
you know, we play football, but we're also here to
develop ourselves as young men and as leaders and to
develop ourselves into you know, the next level of our
lives and whether that's playing football or you know, the
professional level or whatever it is. First and foremost man
of God. Secondly friend, family, and then third you know,

(01:14:46):
I just played football, but I love playing football and
that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
And the final thing from will Help And again still
very early in his career, still very early in his
opportunities of being around Chris Rump, but he was asked
what it's like to be coached by Chris Rump at
defensive end.

Speaker 5 (01:15:07):
I mean, he's definitely very vocal, and you know, he
likes to get loud of practice. But you know, at
the end of the day, with a guy like that
and the coach like that, you know where it's coming from.
It's coming from place of love and place of you know,
knowing that he wants you to grow and he wants
nothing but the best for you. And so at the
end of the day, if you want to be great,
you're going to take that coaching and you're going to apply.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Some insight from will Help on his role and what
he thinks about being at Clemson and coming up over
the remaining days this week, we'll try to give you
Jeremiah Alexander, We'll give you Tristan Smith. I will make
sure that you as you make your way home, don't
have to take time away from your family to be
a part of that. You could just lock in right

(01:15:48):
here and check out those interviews as we'll have them
up for you on the show that Shakes the south Land.
And we'll obviously have stories that come out over the
week over on Clemson's Sports Talk. Well, obviously yesterday and
really put it in reverse real quick. Friday, Saturday, Sunday

(01:16:09):
and Monday were huge days for the Clemson Tiger football
team in terms of recruiting six recruits, the majority of
them four star prospects, joining into the twenty twenty five
recruiting class. I don't know when the momentum is gonna stop. Well,

(01:16:30):
I can tell you it didn't stop today because earlier,
if you didn't see it, Clemson got another commitment, running
them up to a dozen commits in the twenty twenty
six recruiting class. Still a long way off from those
guys being on campus again. I pumped the brakes on

(01:16:54):
a lot of this because of Nil and what we've
seen in the you know, last year with the commitments.
But I can tell you I haven't felt this kind
of momentum around the Clemson Tiger football team in a while,
and having this kind of run is not without also
losing some guys as well. And one big time offensive

(01:17:17):
line target for Clemson did fall off of the board
last night after Clemson's had some of these other pickups.
So we'll give you a rundown on all of that
when we return as we get you out of here.
Final segment on a Tuesday afternoon, As Roy Phil Poppas said,
a sun splashed Tuesday afternoon right after this, what have

(01:17:39):
you done for me lately?

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
It's a fair question. Just don't lose sight of the
bigger picture. Don't forget history. Lucky for us at Clemson,
the answer to the questions what have you done.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
For me lately?

Speaker 4 (01:17:56):
And what have you done?

Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 4 (01:18:40):
Sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
Final segment on a Tuesday afternoon, don't forget about our
friends up in Alumni Hall on the corner of campus
on College Avenue of downtown Clemson. It's Alumni Hall your
ultimate Clemson Tiger shopping experience, where you can upgrade your
tailgate gear or shop for officially licensed Clemson clothing for
your family. Load upon hats, give successories, stickers, for your vehicle, magnets,

(01:19:14):
all that good stuff. Don't forget when you spend one
hundred and fifty dollars in store, which can be easy
to do, you'll get ten dollars in Alumni Hall rewards.
You can use it right then or you can roll
it over. Clemson students, faculty in all military get ten
percent off of shopping in store. Go shop at Alumni
Hall located on College Avenue or online at Alumni Hall
dot com. And don't forget if you go through our

(01:19:35):
website to Alumni Hall, you click the links there to
get there and you buy something online, we'll get a
little benefit from that. So you can support us as
well as supporting Alumni Hall where Tiger fans shop and
get check them out online at Alumni Hall dot com.
So we were talking about recruiting before the break. So
Max Riley, Max Riley, offensive lineman, four star offensive linemen

(01:20:01):
out of the state of Ohio had come down to
Clemson Ohio State and he was down to two teams
and Ohio State lost their offensive line coach and it
looked like the tea leaves the trends and everything for Riley,
an interior offensive lineman, a four star out of Aymont Lake,

(01:20:22):
Ohio would potentially end up at Clemson. But then the
Tigers had a little bit of a streak this weekend,
Adam Guthrie committing. Grant Wise and Chance Barclay to interior
offensive lineman also commit. Guthrie's a big sixty seven offensive tackle.
The Tigers already had six to eight Brandon Woombs on

(01:20:44):
board as well. But with all of that, Max Riley
decided not going to commit to Clemson, commits Ohio State,
and so disappointment in that. And there's still some other
offensive line names out there. The Clempson is certainly in

(01:21:06):
on and high on and would love to have, but
you only have so many spots, and if guys that
you've offered start gobbling them up, and if you run
a program like Clypson does, it says, hey, if we
offer you it's commenable. We don't you know, we only
offer a handful of players. This is the result of that.
You might have wanted Max Riley more than Chance Barclay,

(01:21:30):
But if Barclay's got the offer and he takes it,
there's always the chance that another guy is going to
back off. That's just how it works. Well, yesterday, the
Tigers got a commitment a little surprising from Marcel Gibson
junior g I p Son kind of like Corey and Gibson,

(01:21:53):
not related, both from Texas, but Marcel Gibson committed to
Clemson at a cornerback spot, giving the Tigers six commits.
You thought, what was that it? Are they done? On
call Treire Malfrere. The Tigers were indeed not done as

(01:22:15):
earlier today, and you can read about it over on
our website, Clemson Sports tal dot com. Another Tiger in
the boat Caden Gebharturn twenty tourn ten tourned twenty pound
safety hybrid potential linebacker, pit Clemson over Ohio State, Pit

(01:22:41):
Clemson over Notre Dame committed to the Tigers. Seven players
now committed to Clemson since Friday. It is a run. Honestly,

(01:23:02):
it is a run like I have not seen.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Look. Doesn't mean that he won't fall off, doesn't mean
that any of these twelve guys the Dandy doesn't at
this point, does not mean that they won't come off
the board. But buddy, if you think the recruiting momentum,
and if you didn't read the article, if you're not
a subscriber, I would encourage you to check it out

(01:23:30):
clemsonsports tal dot com or interview with Tyler Atkinson, five
star prospect Tyler's response to the visit to Clemson. Go
read it. He now he's gonna be visiting Georgia soon.
He's got a grace in high school. Clemson's had some
great inroads there over the years. But go read that article.

(01:23:55):
As Atkinson laid it all out for me again, it'll
cost you to get in the door. If you like it,
stick around support of sixty three dollars and seventeen cents
for one year. That's right, game, cos you heard me,
I said it, sixty three seventeen.

Speaker 3 (01:24:10):
So you could continue to peek over the fence at
the best radio showing the.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Naked the late great Cleveland man there again. Gotta get
out of here today. ACC Basketball Underway. Congratulations to my
dad's Walford Terriers for winning the SoCon. How about those
Terrier dogs, Dad. Awesome to see them get that win.
By the way, speaking of win Notre Dame top pit

(01:24:35):
fifty five fifty four at the ACC tournament earlier today
on a Tuesday of all days, just drives me insane.
All right, we'll talk to you tomorrow. Until then, as always,
y'all take care now and go Tigers.