The "Portal Combat" Edition

Clemson's basketball cupboard gets bare after several players enter the transfer portal.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clipson Sports Talk has come back to drive time.
Hello everybody, Long and Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the south Land. Clipson
Sports off for you each and every afternoon as you
make your way around the great state of South Carolina
and beyond, listening to us on incredible radio stations like

(01:04):
Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred in the Midlands, around the
world on the iHeartRadio app, and out of the gates
here on the show The Shakespasuthlan and brought you in
part by our friends over at Mets Plumbing seven three
to two drip, Drip drip. You know the jingle seven
three two drip, that's Mets Plumbing. Terrence Oglesby, former Climpson Tiger,
joins us here on the program to Todd hoops to

(01:26):
what's up man.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I'm doing well, just surviving this season. We're getting close
to the end and looking forward to Sweet sixteen weekend.
I think it's going to be a really good one
coming up. A lot of really good teams. You wont
upsets in the first two rounds. We didn't get that,
but we got what we want. And as far as
the sweet sixteen and the second weekend is concerned, a
lot of great matchups.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, and we can start there because I do want
to get into Clemson in the minutia of that. But
let's start with the SEC for a minute, because you know,
they had a record setting fourteen teams get in. Seven
teams remained, so half of their grouping already gone by
the Sweet sixteen. Probably should not be shocking, Terrence, But
you know that bottom half, everybody that was under five

(02:05):
hundred except for Arkansas bit the bullet pretty early in
the NCAA tournament. Were you surprised or do you think that,
you know, with the way the rankings and everything with
quad won and all that sort of propped up the
bottom half of that league.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Well, it certainly propped it up, just because that's how
those things work. It all comes down to how you
play in the non conference. And that's kind of what
I think is misleading about the whole net system, is
the fact that how you do between November and December
really is what determines the outcome of your conference for
the season. And I don't think that's fair. And the

(02:39):
thing is is a win, for example, San Diego State
beating Houston in November counts just as much as them losing,
or it counts just as much as them winning a
tough game in February. It shouldn't be like that, in
my opinion, because teams get better, teams get worse. They
seldom stay the same. And it's just gotten to a
point where we've put too much emphasis on the non

(03:01):
conference portion of the schedule, and that I understand why
you do that, but if that's how you're gonna act,
and that's how we're going to judge teams, we need
to be able to have some kind of situation where
we could play out of conference in the month of
February at least a couple of three games.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I actually really liked that idea. Terrence Oglesby with this
yal on the program. You can follow them on Twitter
at TEA Underscore. Ogles Be twenty two and of course
does a tremendous job for the Hornets being a basketball
analyst with them. And then I see you doing a
lot of work with the Field of sixty eight. And
as we get to this point in the season, obviously
you know for Clemson, Tiger fans. It has been an

(03:37):
unusual spot to be in too, but hey, they were
there again after an lait eight run back in the
NCAA Tournament, had a record setting regular season, and then
you run into a former grad assistant, Will Wade, who
you know well, and it felt like in moments in
that game as great of a coach, and I know
you've been on this program many times. It told us

(03:59):
how Brad Brownell was. I think he trusted his older
squad a little bit more than he should have. What
were your thoughts on Clemson's matchup with McNeese in the
NCAA Tournament.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Truth be told, I got to watch about half of
that first half and it wasn't pretty. And here's the deal.
Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you miss shots. I thought
the perimeter linked bothered Clemson a little bit, but let's
be honest a lot and like, sometimes you just don't
have your fastball. And I think that's just what it
came down to for Clemson this year in the NCAA Tournament.

(04:34):
They saved their worst performance for the first half of
the biggest game.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
Of the year.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
But that's not to say that this wasn't an awesome
Clemson basketball team, an awesome Clemson basketball team, and if
they would have woken up about three minutes prior to
when they did in the second half, they would have
won that game. And here's the deal. If they win
that game, they could have easily made it to the
Final four. That's how good this team was. I'm not
going to take away a one one half performance where

(04:59):
this this team was so good and so electric all
season long and then really penalize them for how they
should be looked at in the future because of one
bad performance in the first half. Now, that's kind of
the beauty of the tournament. And that's also the part
of the tournament that kills you. If this was a
three game series, Clemson's winning that series. But the bottom
line is it's a one off. So you get stuck

(05:20):
in the first half, you can't hit a shot, you're
turning the ball over, and the McNeese is able to
make some get some momentum and they get a win. So,
you know, good for them, Good for those guys. And
let's be honest too, like a bunch of those guys
that Will has on that team or had on that
McNeese team. Power five transfers most of them and very
good players at that So good for him forgetting to win.

(05:43):
But I don't think that we should overlook how good
this season was for Clemson. I mean, eighteen and two
in conference, I don't care what conference it is, that's
a really remarkable record.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well, not only that, but to go on the road
and win games by double digits the way they did.
I mean, you play in the Atlantic Coast Conference. You
know how difficult it is playing basketball and winning on
the road for the casual observer of the sport. Talk
us through what it takes to go into somebody else's house,
in your opinion, and do what this Clemson Tiger basketball

(06:15):
team did for the entirety of the regular season.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, and there's a level of consistency that has to
be appreciated too, because you know, guys have letdowns. There's
parts of the season I really stink, and you know,
for them to just continue to rattle off wins. Really,
the only disappointing loss was that Georgia Tech loss, and
Georgia Tech was playing really well at that point of
the year. I've been playing so well towards the end
of the season that they almost took out Duke in
the on the third day. So you know, this is

(06:44):
these are the golden days of Clemson basketball. I think
people need to adjust to that. I think people need
to show appreciation for that. And you know, I just
couldn't believe it. You know, Brad goes eighteen and two
in the ACC, more than twenty five wins, and people
are saying we shouldn't have extended him. Are you insane?
Are you stupid? Like what? Like what? And not only that,

(07:08):
I think the biggest thing of all is now that
nil is in place, Brad can go get the same
level of players at Carolina's getting. He can go get
the same level of players that you know, Vanderbilts getting
that Iowa's getting that Iowa State's getting. He can get
those and the good news is he can coach. You're
seeing a lot of times guys that can't coach that's

(07:29):
always gotten the best players, they're struggling a little bit,
and as a result, you look at kind of what
they've been able to do. The guys who've had to
do more with less, they're starting to have success because
now they're on an even playing field. So I think
that's what, you know, Clemson fans need to see and
they need to understand, like, hey, you got one, don't
let him go anywhere.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Terrence ogs be with us here.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
He was a real candid. He was a real candidate
too for Indiana. Like people think that's fluff, that was
a real situation.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Well, and you know, you think about like the fact
now that he's going to be the senior. You know,
he's the longest tenured coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference
and for many years when you know, you were playing
in the league, and when I was at Clemson, I
mean you had the Dean Smiths, and you had the
Mike Krzyzewski's and the Gary Williams at Maryland, and those

(08:18):
were kind of the names and the figureheads in the conference.
And right now, really I think outside of John Shire
at Duke who's very young, and Brad Brownell obviously bring
him will Wade in the NC State, it's gonna have
some impact there. But I mean his name carries as
big of a punch in the Atlantic Coast Conference as anybody.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, it does. And not only that, not only Will,
but you're looking for what Virginia did with Ryan Odom,
who I think is a terrific higher and a terrific, dude,
And then you look down around the league like we're
starting to get away from the old guys that picked
their assistance. Once that all happens and all that has
finally flipped the AC, he's going to come back. I

(09:00):
don't know that it's going to come this year. I
do think in two years it's going to be in
a much better place. In three years, I think it'll
be back on top of college basketball because the NIL
funding for basketball is roughly the same as some of
these other places not named Texas and Kentucky. So Louisville's
back on track, Clemson's good, Duke's great. North Carolina will see,

(09:22):
but they just hired Jim Tanner as their GM. So
I'm just really curious to see, you know, can we
finally flip it? And I compare it today's coaching changes
in the coaching situation in the ACC to where Bill
Guthridge took over after Dean Smith, and it was like, well,

(09:43):
they're going to struggle a little bit, but we're going
to have to find a way to kind of manage
this situation. Well, whenever you have six coaching changes, all
of whom have won national championships, or made final fours.
That's a lot to kind of cover up the rest
of the league. Booed up North Carolina. I wouldn't gutther Ridge.
Was there not the case right now because there's been

(10:04):
so many changes, so really interesting situation. I think in
two or three years the ACC will be back and
then I think all of this will be for not.
We can kind of get back to what we're used
to and seeing the ACC be so good.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
On Twitter at TEA Underscore ogles be twenty two Terrence
Oglesby with us here on the program. Okay, so let's
talk about this Clemson roster because obviously the Tigers lose
a ton of productivity with Chase Hunter, Ian Shevlin and
Victor Locking being out. The assumption is at this point
that Jayden Zachary is not going to be able to return,
but that may still be up in the air. Chauncey

(10:40):
Wiggins hits the portal on Monday. Del Jones hits the
portal on Monday. Asa Thomas, who has a lot of
development left, certainly, but he also hits the portal. Really,
you feel like you got Dylan Hunter sitting in the
locker room looking around, going man where's the team. The
good news is you mentioned it the portal. Brad Brownell
is shown to be adept at it. How does Clemson

(11:03):
Terrence get back to a situation where you know they're
competing for a NCAA tournament with all of the pieces
that they have to replace.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
I think a few things that you have to keep
in mind is everybody's dealing with the same thing. This
is not Clemson specific. Everybody's dealing with this. I was
shocked about Dell Jones. I was not shocked about ASA
or Chauncey Wiggins. Chauncey has underperformed this year. He was
not as good as what people thought he was going

(11:35):
to be. I think it's healthy for both parties for
him to find a new home, maybe at a level down,
because he just doesn't have the toughness to be a
guy at the ACC level, So he needs to transfer
down in my opinion, and try to find a role somewhere.
I thought, just from a want to perspective, Chauncey wasn't

(11:57):
very good this year, so I'm just going to throw
that out there. I expected him to leave ASA. He
didn't see a role happening. I expected him to leave
Dell Jones is interesting because you know, he's transferred a
lot of times. In high school, he was a top
seventy five recruit. He saw significant minutes and it was
about to be his show. That's kind of where I'm
a little bit shocked, because I thought he would stick

(12:18):
around given the opportunity and understanding the opportunity that's in
front of him. But also keep in mind, like these
guys can always get out of the portal too. Just
because they've announced in the portal, it might just be
negotiating tactic, like they can always come back. They're not
barred from coming back. So and speaking of which, I've
heard whispers of a certain player it's going to be

(12:40):
back in the clubs and uniform after taking a year elsewhere.
So it's one of those things where I think it
could happen to get Dell back. But as far as
the transfer port you just have to be patient. In basketball,
it's not football. You're not picking up a kid over
the course of three days, like it's going to take
two to three weeks some of these rosters to settle down.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's a good point. The other guy will ask you
about that. I see, promise ye Okay, and you probably
know what I'm going Christian Reeves. I see so much
promise in his size. I feel like he's a guy
that can really become somebody with a nice little solid
jump hook in the paint. What do you see? Am
I just missing the boat on this kid? Or is
there still some talent underneath what we've kind of seen,

(13:25):
you know, working his way up and down the court
throughout this year.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
I think he's a guy that he was good in
the role he had this year. I don't know that
physically he can do more than what his role allowed
him too, He's been hurt for two years. At Duke
comes to Clemson, they don't play him as many minutes,
and he thrived in a backup role. Do I think
like he's this guy that you can run a bunch
of offense through like they did Victor Lock And No.

(13:50):
But I do know he's massive, he could protect the
rim for his spurts and he's an above the rim
lobb finisher. So do I see like a long term
this guy can get to the NBA type of deal.
I would venture to say no, because he has a
bit able to stay healthy and that's a huge part
agree with that, but I also see the the quality
of being a high level role player at the college

(14:11):
levels worth about one hundred and fifty grand right now.
So why not.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
I love it?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
I love it. I love it because you know, I
don't get to talk all that often the guys that
probably look back, So, so what would what would it
have been like for you?

Speaker 4 (14:25):
You think too?

Speaker 2 (14:27):
With Nil back in the day, have you thought about
what y'all's roster construction would have looked like in terms
of the financial particulars, I.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Wouldn't have turned pro. I have looked at I have
looked at what like fourteen points a game will get
you paid after your sophomore year, and turns out it's
a lot.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
So you might have finished at Arizona.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
I might have finished it. Yeah, I might have finished
the Arizona making eight fifty to a million two, just
depending on who I can negotiate with. Like that. That
that's the thing that kind of bitters me up a
little bit about this. Not only that it's like, dude, like,
how do these guys? And not only that these guys
will spend it. There's guys, there's guys. There's no financial
literacy courses for some of these guys too. Some of

(15:13):
them have to take advantage when they're making fifty thousand
dollars a check, so may like I just get I
get worried about some of this stuff. Man, Like, these
guys are blowing money and they don't know that they'll
never see that type of coin again again.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
He's a basketball analyst for Hornets Live, does a tremendous
job with the folks over at the Field of sixty eight,
and also does some work with CBS and ESPN. You
can find him everywhere talking college basketball teer ands Ogles.
But one of my favorite things. You and I talked
about this off the air for a minute. One of
my favorite things is how many times people on social
media hit you up and think you're this official Terry

(15:49):
Ogles b and they're constantly giving you grief on your
poor calls. Give me some rundown on how often you
hear that?

Speaker 3 (15:58):
About ten times a year roughly roughly I'll get it.
But it's usually from a kid who doesn't know any better.
He just searches the name of the official and then
he just finds me because my name pops up. I
have one kid tell me I was a horrible official,
but at the end of the sentence because ps, your
wife's hot as and like that.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
That was my.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Favorite one, because like, hey, I'm gonna talk trash you,
I'm gonna make you feel bad, but at the same time,
I want you to know you did a good job
pulling your wife. By the way your wife, Yeah, by
the way, your wife is really hot. So I took
that one as. I laughed at that one. But it
happens ten times a year, fifteen times a year, something
like that every year. And Terry Oglesby's a terrific official.

(16:37):
He did the final four last year.

Speaker 4 (16:40):
Well speak, one of the best.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Well speaking of officials, would you make a Roger Ayers,
how'd you like that stop in the game to get
that kid from Liberty and the other day?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Nobody has a feel like Roger Ayers has a feel
And you might disagree with his calls whatever, but he's
got a good feel for what it's still about. I
really like Roger. Him and Groover have become friends of mine.
I think they're terrific at their job.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, I think you know, from the standpoint of a
thirty point ball game, a kid getting a chance to
get into the NC doublea tournament. You know, you're somebody
that had a chance to, you know, to do that.
That memory and that moment for that young man. I mean,
what must that be like for him twenty years down
the line when he gets to tell his family, yeah,
I got into the NC DOUBLEA Tournament game.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah, that's right. That's but that's Roger Ayers. Like you know, referees,
they get everybody's mad at them all the time, and
you kind of forget these guys are in it for
the good of it. Now they do get paid pretty well.
I'm not going to sit here and lie to you,
but like it's it's they still do it for the
good of What's what sports? They are? What sports are?

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Final couple of things, just speaking about that. When I
look at these basketball games this weekend. Matter of fact,
looking at the Arizona Oregon game, you know, you had
three consecutive trips down the floor at the end where
stopped to look and review. What's your stance on review
in college basketball? What changes would you make? Because to me,
it completely disrupts the game. It can be advantageous for

(18:10):
a team that doesn't have a time out because now
they can draw up a play. What do you think
Terrence in terms of the way replays currently being utilized
in college basketball.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
You know, I've talked to several different people about this.
Jay Billis wants it completely done. He wants one challenge,
much like the NBA thing, and that way you're charged
the time out and you can still challenge and if
you get an if you get the first one right,
you get a second seth Davis says it's worth the
trade off to make sure these guys get it right.
I am a little bit like, yeah, we can review,

(18:46):
but let's let's shrink the review time from two minutes
to forty five seconds, because we are taking more reviews
than I and the last I watched the game the
other day, last twenty seconds took twenty minutes. And it
just gets to a point to where like, come on, guys,
what are we doing. It takes the air out of

(19:08):
the building. It takes the air out of a win.
And to your point, you know, coaches begging for a
review just so they can get extra time. Michael Shrewsbury is.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
The king of that Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Like he's got no timeouts left because he's so mad
at his team the whole time. He asked for a
review on every single thing so we can get him
over there and talk to him more. So, yeah, I
think you know, can you reduce the time from two
minutes down to one minute or down to forty five seconds,
so at least at last forty five seconds you get
those calls?

Speaker 4 (19:37):
Right?

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, tee y'all. I'll tell you what, man, We'll check
back in with you after we whittle this thing down
a little further next week. We'll know the final four
teams are. We'll talk to you next week, my man.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
Appreciate you, all right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
There is Terrence Oglesby, former Clips to Tiger, hanging out
with us here on the program again quick break. We'll
come back with more on a Tuesday afternoon, rock and
then rolling along with you on a Tuesday afternoon. That was,
of course, Terrence Oglesby, former Clemson Tiger basketball player before
the break, hanging out with us talking a little NC

(20:12):
double a tournament. Well, man, you know the SEC's got
seven teams in the sweet sixteen and thinking through that,
one of the things I came across over the past
twenty four hours. You know, our buddy that we hang
out with from time to time, David Glenn, host of
The David Glenn Show, put out an article on the

(20:35):
North Carolina Sports Network diving into it. The ACC's largest
representation in the Sweet sixteen came in twenty sixteen. Now,
that was the first year of the league had had
fifteen members and six teams made it into the final

(20:56):
sixteen spots Duke, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Virginia.
Both the tar Heels and the Orange advanced to the
final four, but Villan Nova ended up beating North Carolina
with a buzzer beater in the championship game. Now, since

(21:17):
the elimination of the NCAA tournament bids per conference restrictions
in the seventies, there's only been seven years in which
the AEC has only had one representative in the Sweet sixteen,
including this year with Duke. Back in twenty twenty three,
it was just Miami, in twenty seventeen, just North Carolina,
in twenty fourteen, just Virginia, twenty ten, only Duke remained.

(21:39):
Two thousand and eight and seven it was lone North Carolina,
which is an indicator to me that over the past
twenty years or so, the Atlantic Coast Conference it does
feel down by comparison to maybe what it was from say,
the eighties through the early two thousands. Looking at the
history of the ncublea excuse me of the ACC in

(22:03):
the NCUBA Tournament dating back to nineteen eighty, the ACC
had eight teams in the conference. In eighty five teams
got in and three of them made it into the
Sweet sixteen, including your Clemson Tigers along with Maryland and Duke.
That year, while the Atlantic Coast Conference only had eight

(22:24):
teams in nineteen eighty six, eighty seven, eighty nine, and
ninety one, six teams from the conference made it into
the NCUBA Tournament. And even during those years where there
were just eight teams in the conference, I think five

(22:47):
times the league got half of the conference's teams into
the Sweet sixteen. In eighty four, North Carolina, Maryland, Wake Forest,
and Virginia all went into the Sweet sixteen. Virginia ended
up going to the Final four that year. The following season,

(23:08):
Georgia Tech, North Carolina, n C State, and Maryland made
it to the Sweet sixteen, and in eighty six, Duke,
Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and NC State all made it
to the Sweet sixteen. So three consecutive seasons, half of
the teams from the conference made it into the Sweet sixteen.
It also happened in nineteen eighty nine and ninety back

(23:29):
to back years where four teams from the conference made
it in. In nineteen ninety was or excuse me, nineteen
ninety one was the final season of an eight team league.
In nineteen ninety two, the ACC added Florida State, and
in that year five teams made it into the tournament.
Four teams made it into the Sweet sixteen. That was Duke,

(23:50):
Florida State, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech, and Duke won
the national championship. The following year, in a nineteen league,
six teams made it in teams made it to the
Sweet sixteen, including North Carolina, the national champions, Florida State,
Wake Forest, and Virginia. And so you starting to look

(24:12):
at the ACC as a nine team league and the
number of years that they got six teams in to
the NCAA tournament, and then again, like clockwork, the league
expands and you see a little bit of a ballooning.
In two thousand and seven, there were twelve teams in
the conference. Seven teams made the tournament, but just one team,

(24:37):
North Carolina made it to the Sweet sixteen. In two
thousand and nine, seven teams got in. Just North Carolina,
who won the championship in Duke made it to the
Sweet sixteen. So what you begin to see, for whatever reason,
from about two thousand through twenty fourteen, a lot of

(25:02):
teams getting in from the Atlantic Coast Conference, but not
a lot of teams making it into the Sweet sixteen.
The league's next big expansion was to fifteen and twenty fourteen,
six teams got in. Justin Virginia made it to the
Sweet sixteen, and then the league went on a pretty
good tear. Twenty fifteen, six teams were in the tournament.
Five of those teams were in the Sweet sixteen. Duke

(25:24):
wins the national championship. Twenty sixteen, seven teams get in.
Six of those seven make it into the Sweet sixteen,
North Carolina that year, making it to the final four.
The following season, nine teams get in from the league.
Just North Carolina remains. They win the national title. They
were the only team in the Sweet sixteen. In twenty eighteen,

(25:44):
nine teams from the ACC get in. Just four make
it to the Sweet sixteen, including your Clemson Tigers, along
with Duke, Florida State, and Syracuse twenty nineteen and a
fifteeneen league fifteen team league, seven teams get in. Virginia
wins the title. Duke and North Carolin number one seeds,
Florida State and Virginia Tech are four seeds. They all

(26:04):
make it five teams in the sweet sixteen. And then
now in a larger league, you know, you continue to
see like seven teams in twenty twenty one that we're
in just two in the sweet sixteen. Back in twenty
twenty three, as I mentioned earlier, in Miami the only
team in the conference in the sweet sixteen. This year,
Duke the only one. Like I don't really understand what

(26:25):
the drop off has been, but you look at it,
it feels like the and maybe this was a byproduct
of coach k and Dean Smith, but it feels like
the collection of talent in the ACC was supreme by
comparison to the country at one point, and for whatever

(26:46):
reason now you just kind of look at the recent numbers.
I know, last year there were five teams that got
in and four of them made it into the sweet sixteen,
with North Carolina, Duke, Clemson and inca state, But it
does feel like in a larger league these numbers are
a lot smaller than they should be. And I don't

(27:08):
really know why other than to look at maybe the
changes in the game, the one and done and nil,
But it does seem like a bit of a shift
back almost to the two thousand to twenty and ten
era right now for the ACC, where clearly, I mean,
the league won some championships, but it wasn't the same

(27:31):
league that we grew up with, that's for sure. Clemson
Sports saw the show The Shakespeare south Land on a Tuesday,
So I was looking during the break at that data
from the Atlantic Coast Conference during the modern era from
nineteen eighty to twenty twenty five and again prior to that,
Remember you only got one team in the winner of

(27:54):
the conference championship. But looking at the information, just reviewing
the Atlantic Coast Conference's national championships real quick, only a
couple of times, and this was a little bit shocking

(28:14):
to me. Has the ACC won a national championship and
the team that won not been a number one seed?
And what would interest me more than anything after looking
at this data is to look over the years at

(28:35):
how many times the national champion has been one of
the number one seeds from say nineteen eighty four, Because
it's probably a fairly hefty number, but I'll give you
a minute to play it out in your head. Here,

(28:57):
do you know what team tams from the Atlantic Coast
Conference won the national title that weren't a number one seed?
Now one of them comes to mind, I think pretty
quickly for most people if you start to think about
the teams that have won national titles in basketball in

(29:19):
the ACC and that is a limited list, mind you.
Of course you've got the blue bloods, right Duke and
North Carolina, and then you probably remember Virginia winning one recently,
and you might remember Maryland winning one in the early

(29:43):
two thousands. The other team that won one since nineteen
eighty four, where it's pretty obvious, I think most of
you probably at dis point in the conversation, probably no,
it's NC State, the wolf Pack three, Jim Valvano. That
team was a sixth seed and won the national championship. Additionally,

(30:14):
that year was one of the eight team Atlantic Coast
Conferences where four teams got in and three of them
made the Sweet sixteen. But NC State as a six
seed won the national title. The only other Atlantic Coast
Conference team that has ever won the national title from

(30:37):
nineteen eighty foward and not been a number one seed
or the nineteen to ninety one Duke Blue Devils. That
was the first national championship for the Blue Devils. In
that back to back run that they had. The following year,
they were the number one seed won the title, but
that was a two seed. When North Carolina won the

(31:00):
national title in eighty two, they were the top seed
again Duke. In ninety two they were the top seed
North Carolina. Ninety three they were a number one seed. One,
Duke was the number one seed. Two Maryland was the
number one seed. Five, North Carolina was a number one seed.
Oh nine, North Carolina number one seed, twenty ten, Duke

(31:21):
a number one seed, twenty fifteen, Duke at number one seed,
twenty seventeen, North Carolina number one seed, twenty nineteen, Virginia
a number one seed. And I actually have the Duke
Blue Devils winning the national championship this year, and of
course they are a number one seed. So since nineteen eighty,

(31:45):
the end of the one bid era, the Atlantic Coast
Conference has only had two teams to ever win the
national title who were lower than one of the top
four seeds in the tournament. Now, pretty quickly you can
go back and you can find the resumes from nineteen

(32:08):
eighty five forward on these things, because again the conference
or excuse me, the tournament expanded to sixty four back
in nineteen eighty five. So that's what forty years of

(32:31):
tournaments dating back to nineteen eighty five, which if we
go back to those acc numbers, would only eliminate number
one North Carolina, Number six NC State, Meaning since eighty five,
the Atlantic Coast Conference has only had one team off
of the top line, you know, being the number one

(32:52):
seed that won the championship of the forty NCAA tournaments
or thirty nine at this point right we're playing number forty. Now,
twenty five of the champions are number one seeds. Sixty

(33:12):
four percent of the time. I was shocked at that number.
Sixty four percent of the time a number one seed
wins it. One of those top four teams has won
the tournament five times in our history dating back to
nineteen eighty five, has the two seed won it. That

(33:37):
next group of eight only five times have won the championship.
Out of thirty nine tournaments, thirty of them have been
won by the one or the two seed seventy seven percent.
The three seed has won it just four times. Eighty

(33:57):
seven percent of the tournaments have been won by the one, two,
or three seed in sixty four percent of that eighty
seven belongs to the top seed. The four seed has
won it twice, the fifth seed has never won it,
the sixth seed one at once, a seventh seed one
at once, and an eight seed one at once. Ninety

(34:24):
one percent of the championships are either a first second
or first second, third or fourth seed in sixty four
percent of those, again, overall are number one seeds. Like
in a tournament this big, you would imagine that it's

(34:47):
multiple times multiple number ones are eliminated, if not all
yet twenty five out of thirty nine times this nineteen
eighty five the shot stat here to me, the number
one seed won the tournament sixty four percent. It's absolutely absurd.
Quick break. We'll put the bowl on hour number one

(35:08):
right after this final segment of our number one on
a Tuesday afternoon, Mike Va normally joins us after the break.
We'll hold off on that we'll get Mike on Wednesday
here on the program. Tomorrow, we'll also hear from Garrett Riley.
He met with the media during Clemson's spring practice and

(35:28):
spoke for about nineteen minutes, So we'll slice it and
dice that up for you tomorrow. And then additionally, we'll
jump into Adam Randall in this segment, former Clemson wide
out slash now new running back, talking about his adjustment
and Randall was asked All on the first time he
played running back league.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
Yes, so that's probably the last time I played running back.
My dad was a coach, so I played running back,
and which is kind of natural. I'm always been running
with the ball, so it's not really too much of
a big difference. But uh, you know, just kind of
being patience, swing myself down, learning the details of the position.
It has been the biggest thing that I've been working
on the screen.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Who Randall was asked about last season and making that
transition in the SMU and Texas matchups to the running
back spot.

Speaker 5 (36:17):
Well, the SMU game, I was still at receiver, but
the Texas the Texas game, uh, it just kind of was.

Speaker 4 (36:23):
A blur, not not really a blur, but.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
Just kind of quick change, and I just kind of
embraced it and just you know, took it try to
try to make the most of it. And I mean
I knew I could be good at it because I've
always been running with the ball, like I said, but
just trying to, like I said, learn the details of it.
And I'm glad I had the opportunity to have this
spring just to kind of you know, take it slow
and you know, break it down and just continue to

(36:46):
learn the details.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Is the biggest part that I've been doing.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
I mean, running with the ball isn't isn't the most
difficult part, but like all the other things, the other
aspects that people don't see in the game is.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
What I've been trying to learn.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Randalls asked about the difficulty in learning the plays at
running back.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
I mean, they kind of try to keep it base
with me, the bass plays, but you know, I was
prepared for anything. You know, I just know him being
an offense for two years, I kind of knew like
the bass plays at running back, knew where they were
supposed to hit, knew what laye I needed to be
in at the right time.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
So I just try to hit it full speed and
do what I could with it at all times.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Adam Randall was ask about embracing the role and the
opportunity to elevate this game in Tigertown.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
You know, I just wanted to embrace it for myself.
You know, I wanted to do whatever I could to
put myself in the best position to get to the
next level. And I mean, when you got guys like
Coach Sweeney and other guys that have been to the
level that I want to be at telling you that
you could be great at another position, why not try.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
It out best.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
New Clemson running back Adam Randall, the former wide receiver,
was asking about how CJ. Spiller has helped him develop
as well.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
Coach Whiler has just been, you know, very supportive of me,
you know, moving positions. He's always been supportive of me
since I've been here. So, I mean, me and him
have a good relationship him just kind of have been
working together just to know, work out every little thing
that I need to work on to get better at
the position specifically.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Randall was asked about specific details to the position that
he felt like, you know, he needed to work on
to get more opportunities.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
The biggest thing is past protection, just lending that getting
on same a coorda as the office alignement, and I
feel like I've been doing a good, pretty good job
with that. And then also you know, just for work
in the backfield is a little bit different than the receiver,
so you know, just working on those things daily and
you know, taking it slow, not being too hard on myself.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Adam Brandon was also asked about sticking around at Clemson,
is not transferring.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Clemson was the place that I wanted to be, and
it's not like, I mean, other places are cool. I mean,
they have their own perks, but this is home for me,
so why not stick it out.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Adam Brandon was also asked about his weight and kind
of where he is right now and what he wants
to do before the season.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
I kind of probably may might have put five pounds
of muscle one since I moved to running back, but
not really too much.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
Trying to keep my speed up all those was a
big receiver.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
So you know, I really didn't have to gain or
lose any weight, but you know, just trying to keep
my speed.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
At the same time, you said here about two thirty now,
yeah too, about two thirty two.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Adam Randall was asking if there was any running back
out there, maybe a guy like Richard Smith, who he
compares himself to.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Yeah, I mean he's a really electric player. I don't
know if he was as big as me, but he
was really electric.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
So I just had the opportunity to, you know, watch
a couple of other clips at like Kurk, Cardiff Patterson
and you know, Deebo Samuels. They're just kind of trying
to give me in space. So just being able to
kind of mimbit my game after them, it has been the
biggest thing for me.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
One of the unique things about Aving Randall, obviously being
a former wide receiver, is the opportunity to take advantage
of that a running back and what he can do
perhaps against linebackers. Here's Randall discussing that aspect of his game.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Yeah, I mean, for sure, me being able to run
the rouchery it is kind of a little different than
other running backs. I mean they don't they never kind
of developed the receiver skill like I did.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
And you know, just me being able to run the
rock tree is gonna help me in the long run.
Just being able to be out of the backfield and
run routes and also catch them all out of backfield.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Randall was also asked if there was any different city
seas between Tyler Grisham's wide receiver room and C. J.
Spiller's running back room.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
I mean no, I mean it's it's all under the
Clenson family tree, you know, just standards.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
The standard is still pretty high.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
So I mean, you know, just coming with a daily
focus and trying to be the best that I can
be every day.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
It's the main focus that I want to do.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Randall was also asking about freshman running back Gideon Davidson
just his spirit. Man.

Speaker 5 (40:32):
He comes in every day and just wants to just
positive and wants to learn and wants to get better.
So I mean that's what you look at in a freshman,
and I mean he's gonna be great if he just
continues to keep that spirit in the same mindset that
he has.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Randall was asked to further clarify if he'd had any
opportunities lined up against linebackers during springball so far.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
Yeah, a couple of times, and they just it's a
little bit different, you know, trying to cover receiver for
those guys, So I don't I mean, it's a matchup
problem for him. So you know, they're gonna have to
figure especially the other teams, they're gonna have to figure
a way out to deal with that. And I think
that's just an aspect that I bring to my game
to other running.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Backstone Adam Randall was also asked to evaluate his power
kind of running under his pads it running back, and
how he thinks he sort of matches up in that
regard as well.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
You know, that's one thing I've been working on pad level.
The first couple of days, I was kind of running hot.
But now I just you know, learned to drop my
hips and get low if I don't want to get
stood up, so I try to run.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
I try to run low and hard, and that's the
that's the main thing that you got to do it
running back when you when you see you got to
hit it and get on.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
Randall was asking being patient was the toughest part of
the position.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 5 (41:41):
It was hard on me a couple of days, but
I mean once I got it down, I kind of
kind of started rolling. So I just want to be
patient and learn from the other guys in the room,
learn from Coach Spiller, and just you know, take it slow,
like I said, don't go into a situation like I
know everything, just you know, be a learner.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Final thing from Adam Randall, he was asked if going
back to the seat f P games, if you gotta
surprise himself with how well he did.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
I mean, it just kind of feels natural when you're
playing football.

Speaker 5 (42:05):
It's like, hey, things things can uh things can happen
in in a mysterious way. So, like I said, when
that happened, I was like, hey, let's let's do it again.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
And it looks like he'll be doing it a lot
more this season for Clemson. That running back all right,
quick break, We'll come at Remember, No Mike, you'va around
the bend. It is the show that shakes the south
Land Clemson Sports Talk on Fox Sports Radio fourteen hundred.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Each time for Clemson Sports Talk with Lawton Schwan.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
It is our number two. That's drive time right here
on the show that shakes the south Land Clemson Sports
tal Lord Swan, Hey know with you on a Tuesday afternoon,
No Mike, You've at today Web Mike on tomorrow. Of course,
our number one we had Terrence Oglesby joined the program
off of the heels of the NCAA Tournament whittling its
way down to the sweet sixteen and of course the

(43:29):
show The Shakes of south Land, brought to you apart
by our friends over at METS Plumbing seven three two
drip drip drip. You know the jingle seven three to
two drip, that's METS Plumbing. How am I doing? How
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Plumbing jingle? I mean, I feel like it sounds pretty good.

(43:50):
Let's see mess seven METS Plumbing seventh three to two
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drip again. Check them out online mets plumbing dot com.
Seven thirty two drip. All right, So the NCAA Tournament

(44:12):
we have whilleled it down to sixteen. Back in action
the sesual, if you will, for all of the Euros
hanging out with us here on the program looks a
little something like this over the next couple of days.
As they are back in action. On Thursday seven oh
nine on CBS, it'll be number two seated Alabama and

(44:36):
six seated BYU Alabama, favored by five and a half
points in the East Region. Then thirty minutes later on
TBS and True TV. Number one seeded Florida will face
four seeded Maryland in the West Region, the Gators favored
by six and a half. Then at nine thirty nine,

(44:59):
it'll be the do Blue Devils on CBS, top seeded Duke,
number one seed, I should say, versus four seeded Arizona.
That's in Newark, New Jersey, same spot as Alabama, and
BYU the Blue Devils are nine and a half point favorites.
And then in the other West Regional out in California,

(45:25):
it'll be third seed of Texas Tech and ten seed
at Arkansas. That is a ten oh nine tipoff. Who
is going to be a late night Thursday. That's on
TBS or True TV. Texas Tech favored by five and
a half. So if the lines hold, Alabama and Florida

(45:47):
will both advance to the Elite eight Duke and Texas Tech.
There is the possibility, however, that three SEC schools could advance,
with it's on Texas Tech being the second the last
matchup of the day, and then on Friday the other
four games Michigan State at seven to nine on CBS,

(46:13):
second seed to Michigan State and six seed at Old
Miss on TBS and True TV at seven thirty nine,
it'll be second seed to Tennessee and third seed to Kentucky.
Then on CBS at nine thirty nine, top seeded and
number one Auburn and fifth seed to Michigan. And then

(46:33):
at ten oh nine on Friday, number one Houston and
four seeded Perdue. Looking at the lines of Michigan State
favored by three and a half over Old Miss, Tennessee
favored by three and a half over Kentucky, Auburn favored
by eight and a half over Michigan, and Houston favored
by seven and a half over Perdue. So that would

(46:56):
mean if you just believe the line, half of the
Elite eight will belong to the SEC. We'll see how
that all shakes out. Now, the women's Tournament is also underway,
and I'm not gonna talk about it a whole lot,

(47:16):
obviously for all the South Carolina fans hanging out with
us and peeking over the fence, so you could.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Continue to peek over the fence at the best radio
showing the.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Naked But a lot of people in Gamecock territory talk
a lot about women's basketball because of how good South
Carolina has been under down Staley and I would love
to have Clemson's program in women's basketball be at that level.
And I do think that Sean Poppy has the ability

(47:47):
not to get to the level at South Carolina is.
I don't think that's attainable for many schools at all,
But I think he's got a chance to make this
team a team that gets into the NCAA Tournament and
is competitive. But yesterday, the national championship race in in

(48:10):
the women's game took a huge or had a huge shakeup,
not because a team was eliminated, but because one of
the top players in the entire country, maybe the top
player in the country, Juju Watkins for Southern cal got

(48:33):
hurt in the trojans ninety six fifty nine victory over
Mississippi State, and with Watkins out with a torn acl
for the rest of the season, one of the top
seeds in the women's game, with the number one seeds
in the women's game takes a huge step back. UCLA's

(48:55):
the number one overall seed. South Carolina is arguably the
best team, but Juu Watkins was perhaps the best player,
and it all happened in a blink. She's driving down
the court it's it's one of those weird injuries where
you know it's it's not. It's not like when Marcus
Lattimore got hurt and you could see just the devastation

(49:20):
in that moment, and you knew that his career was
probably over. But with four forty three left in the
first quarter, Watkins was driving, potentially going to make an assist.
There were two Mississippi State players around her. She kind
of got caught up in traffic, and then just as
she planted, you could see her knee buckle and the

(49:42):
image of her crumpling to the ground and clutching her knee.
It silenced the arena. And you know, I think one
of the the tough things about sports, and it doesn't
matter what sport you play, but I think as individuals

(50:04):
who most of us have been competitive at one point
or another in our life or played the sport competitively,
when you are in the home stretch and something like
this occurs, it resonates across all spectrums of the sport.

(50:24):
You can say to me, Swanny, I've never watched a
women's basketball game in my life, and I say that's fine.
If you haven't, that's okay. But what you can't tell
me is you've never seen a competitor in the biggest

(50:44):
moments of a season get injured and be out for
the year, ending the opportunity to maybe lead their team
to a championship. Because we see that no matter if
it's baseball, football, basketball, tennis, golf, whatever, and even in
those individuals sports like golf, you go up there on

(51:08):
the first t box at the Masters and it's the
final round, and you're in the final pairing, and you
give that first swing and you have something happened like
Tiger Woods did with your achilles or your knee or
your back or whatever, and you can't go. That is

(51:32):
something as fans we can all connect to. Whether you
know who Juju Watkins is, whether you could pick her
out of a lineup or not, doesn't matter. What matters
is you can understand the devastation that the eighty seven
hundred people that were in attendance to watch that game

(51:54):
it's a home game, mind you, and the women's tournament,
and in those moments, I think as sports fans, we
can all go, Man, what a debilitating blow and what
a tough mental challenge it has to be for a
player to get through something like that, and for a

(52:17):
team to overcome it. Now, it is spectacular when teams
do overcome it. I will give you that. When teams
do overcome it and move on and do very well,
I think you're taking aback at the resilience of the
individuals on the team. But man, what a tough loss

(52:40):
for Southern cal I mentioned that they're home games. The
Tiger commenter on Twitter said the first and maybe even
second rounds of the NCAA Men's Tournament should be played
on campus. And I thought about this. I actually thought
about this before Tiger comments or put it out there.

(53:05):
And as we started talking about venues last week with
Timberray on Thursday and talking about teams, you know, Clemson
going up to Providence, Rhode Island for this game, and
you know all of that that goes into it, I did,
in the back of my mind begin to think about
the what if scenarios of instead of having all of

(53:27):
these teams in one venue, what if we did it
similarly to the women's game. And I don't even know
that you have to get too crazy with it, quite frankly,
because theoretically, if these venues can all host four games

(53:51):
a day at a minimum. Right, Like, if you look
at the NCAA Tournament as it is currently set up
in the sense of where these games are played are
the venues in which they're played. You had eight venues

(54:17):
hosting all of the games. You had Clemson up in Providence,
you had Lexendon, Kentucky's Roup Arena, Wichita, Kansas hosting Denver, Colorado, Cleveland, Ohio, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Raleigh,

(54:38):
North Carolina, and Seattle, Washington. That's eight venues the top
eight teams could hypothetically host. Okay, But the more I
thought about that, I felt like, I don't know if

(55:02):
that's the best case scenario, given the fact of a
venue like Cameron Indoor Stadium, a little smaller, little more
snug arena. I don't want to diminish that or take
it away or put Duke in Greensboro or anything like that,
but I think that a smaller style venue could work.

(55:26):
If we did twice the amount of places, and since
these would be on site venues for the first couple
of rounds, you could do sixteen teams, meaning the top
four in all of the regions would be host schools

(55:52):
in the NCAA Tournament. And to me, that would give
a broader a broader spread over the long haul around
the country because you double the amount of venues that
games would be in. It would also better regionalize it

(56:13):
for those top force, those top sixteen teams for lack
of a very word, the top four teams in each region,
and then ultimately, I think for a smaller program that
could ever make a run, kind of like what we

(56:34):
reward right now in the men in football, if you
could get a top sixteen seed, you'd be able to
host it your site. Think about the value. Now, there's
the argument to be made that when these schools are
all playing in one venue, that it's much nicer for
the media to be able to cover it from one

(56:55):
spot or whatever. But without you know what I'm saying, like,
you could be there watch all the games that are
being played. But I don't think there's anything wrong with
a regionalization of it. So if indeed that's the way
it had been, Auburn would have hosted a region that

(57:16):
featured Auburn, Alabama State, Louisville, and Creighton. Duke would have
hosted a region featured Duke, Mount Saint Mary's, Mississippi State,
and Baylor. Houston would have hosted a region or not
maybe not a region, it's not the right word, but
a venue and Godzaga and Georgia and Siue would have
been there, and Florida would have hosted a venue with

(57:39):
Norfolk State, Yukon and Oklahoma. Then you flip it to
the two seeds. Tennessee would have hosted Watford, UCLA and Utah,
and Saint John's would have hosted Omaha, Kansas and Arkansas, and
Michigan State would hosted Bryant, Marquette and New Mexico, and
Alabama would have hosted Robert Morris Vanderbilt in Saint Mary's Inn.

(58:03):
Iowa State as a three C with a hosted limpscumb
succeeded Old Misson Elema Seed in North Carolina. I mean,
I loved the idea. Wisconsin with the host of Montana
BYU and VCU Kentucky with a host of Troy Illinois
and Xavier, Texas Tech would hosted UNC Wilmington, Missouri and

(58:25):
Drake in Maryland with the host of Grand Canyon, Memphis
in Colorado State and Purdue with a hosted High Point
Clemson and McNeice in Arizona with a hosted Akron Oregon
in Liberty, and A and M would have hosted Yale,
Michigan and UC San Diego across the country. That gives

(58:50):
more people a chance to go, Like you didn't have
a realistic chance if you were living in I don't know,
if you were living in Oklahoma or Montana, you didn't
really have a chance to go. You it just it

(59:12):
wasn't It wasn't in the cards or even California. The
closest venue to California was probably Seattle. Now I know
they're gonna be in San Francisco for this round, but
I think the broader point being this would spread the
wealth out around the country, and it would create more venues,

(59:37):
and maybe it would be a bigger production issue for
tbstn T and True TV because they'd have to be
as twice at twice as many sites. But I do
wonder if said sites would be more full than some
of those sites are full for some of the games,
because you would again be breaking it down even further.

(01:00:01):
I'm for it. The women's game does it. Let me
see how they do it. Though I've never even South
Carolina fans, I'm sure know how the Women's Game does it.
Let's see host sites for the women's NCAA basketball tournament.
Let's see how this works. Locations, all right, So the

(01:00:32):
women's tournament top sixteen seeds host. Yeah, that's how they
do it. I didn't know. I didn't know, Honest to goodness,
I've never the Gamecock fans are screaming, Swati your bonehead.
That's how they do it in the women's game. I

(01:00:54):
wouldn't know. I don't even remember the last time Clemson's
women were in the NCUBLEA Tournament. Now, I gotta throw
that in the old Google machine, because I could not
tell you the last time that happened. All right, Clemson
women's basketball. They made the Elite Eight in nineteen ninety one.

(01:01:17):
Last NCAA tournament appearance twenty nineteen, I couldn't remember it.
If I had to, looks like Amanda Butler in her
first season got Clemson to the NCUBLEA Tournament. I don't
recall any of that. I have repressed all of my
Clemson women's basketball history because of the hiring of Christy McKinney,

(01:01:38):
which drove it into the tank, the lack of time.
They gave a true tiger in a Toro Umo Coleman
to rebuild the train wreck that McKinney had, and then
hiring Audra Smith, who just took it on a further noseedive.
Good for a man to Butler for the job she
did in six seasons, and great for Sean Poppy taking
the steps and doing the things that he's done so

(01:01:59):
far in year one at Clemson. But to tell me
that the Tigers were in the NCAA Tournament in twenty nineteen,
don't remember it, not in the least, not in the
women's game. But I like the idea of the men's
game playing the same way with the sixteen top seeds hosting.
I think that's brilliant. Quick break. We'll come back with

(01:02:21):
more right after this rocket and rolling along with you
on a Tuesday afternoon. We were joined earlier by former
clips of Tiger Terrence Ogles, would be to give his
breakdown of Clemson in the NCAA Tournament and what he's seen.
Here's a portion of that for you on a Tuesday
and Hour number two. Terrence oglesby former clipson Tiger, joins

(01:02:41):
us here on the program to tad hoops to what's
up man?

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
I'm doing well, just surviving the season. We're getting close
to the end and looking forward to Sweet sixteen weekend,
I think it's going to be a really good one
coming up. A lot of really good teams. You won
upsets in the first two rounds. We didn't get that,
but we got what we wanted as far as the
Sweet sixteen second weekend is concerned, a lot of great matchups.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Well, and we can start there because I do want
to get into Clemson in the minutia of that. But
let's start with the SEC for a minute, because you know,
they had a record setting fourteen teams get in. Seven
teams remained, so half of their grouping already gone by
the Sweet sixteen. Probably should not be shocking, Terrence, But
you know that bottom half, everybody that was under five

(01:03:23):
hundred except for Arkansas bit the bullet pretty early in
the NCAA tournament. Were you surprised or do you think that,
you know, with the way the rankings and everything with
Quad won and all that sort of propped up the
bottom half of that league.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Well, it certainly propped it up, just because that's how
those things work. It all comes down to how you
play in the non conference, and that's kind of what
you what I think is misleading about the whole net system.
Is the fact that how you do between November and
December really is what determines the outcome of your conference
for the season. And I don't think that's fair. And

(01:03:55):
the thing is is a win, for example, San Diego
State beat Houston in November, it counts just as much
as them losing, or it counts just as much as
them winning a tough game in February. It shouldn't be
like that, in my opinion, because teams get better, teams
get worse. They seldom stay the same. And it's just
gotten to a point where we're putting too much emphasis

(01:04:17):
on the non conference portion of the schedule, and that
I understand why you do that, but if that's how
you're gonna act, and that's how we're going to judge teams,
we need to be able to have some kind of
situation where we could play out of conference in the
month of February at least a couple of three games.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
I actually really like that idea. Terrence Oglesby with this
year on the program. You can follow them on Twitter
at TEA Underscore. Ogles Be twenty two and of course
does a tremendous job for the Hornets, being a basketball
analyst with them, and then I see you doing a
lot of work with the field of sixty eight. And
as we get to this point in the season, obviously
you know for Clempson Tiger fans it has been an

(01:04:54):
unusual spot to be in too, but hey, they were
there again after an Laite eight run back in the
NCAA Tournament, had a record setting regular season, and then
you run into a former grad assistant, Will Wade, who
you know well, and it felt like in moments in
that game as great of a coach, and I know
you've been on this program many times. It told us

(01:05:15):
how great Brad Brownell was. I think he trusted his
older squad a little bit more than he should have.
What were your thoughts on Clemson's matchup with McNeese in
the NCAA Tournament.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
Truth be told, I got to watch about half of
that first half and it wasn't pretty. And here's the deal.
Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you miss shots. I thought
the perimeter link bothered Clemson a little bit, but let's
be honest a lot and like, sometimes you just don't
have your fastball, and I think that's just what it
came down to for Clemson this year in the NCUBA Tournament.
They saved their worst performance for the first half of

(01:05:49):
the biggest game of the year. But that's not to
say that this wasn't an awesome Clemson basketball team. An
awesome Clemson basketball team, and if they would have woken
up about three minute prior to when they did in
the second half, they would have won that game. And
here's the deal. If they win that game, they could
have easily made it to the Final four. That's how
good this team was. I'm not going to take away
a one to one half performance where this team was

(01:06:14):
so good and so electric all season long and then
really penalize them for how they should be looked at
in the future because of one bad performance in the
first half. Now, that's kind of the beauty of the tournament.
And that's also the part of the tournament that kills you.
If this was a three game series, Clemson's winning that series.
But the bottom line is it's a one off. So
you get stuck in the first half, you can't hit

(01:06:34):
a shot, you're turning the ball over, and the McNeese
is able to make some get some momentum and they
get a win, So, you know, good for them, Good
for those guys. And let's be honest too, like a
bunch of those guys that Will has on that team
or had on that McNeese team, Power five transfers most
of them, and very good players at that. So good
for him forgetting to win. But I don't think that

(01:06:58):
we should overlook how good this season was for Clemson.
I mean, eighteen and two in conference, I don't care
what conference it is, that's a really remarkable record.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Well, not only that, but to go on the road
and win games by double digits the way they did,
I mean, you played in the Atlantic Coast Conference. You
know how difficult it is playing basketball and winning on
the road for the casual observer of the sport. Talk
us through what it takes to go into somebody else's house,
in your opinion, and do what this Clemson Tiger basketball

(01:07:28):
team did for the entirety of the regular season.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Yeah, And there's a level of consistency that has to
be appreciated too, because you know, guys have letdowns. There's
parts of the season I really stink, and you know,
for them to just continue to rattle off wins, really
the only disappointing loss was that Georgia Tech lost, and
Georgia Tech was playing really well at that point of
the year. I've been playing so well towards the end
of the season that they almost took out Duke in

(01:07:52):
on the third day. So you know, this is these
are the golden days of Clemson basketball. I think people
need to adjust to that. I think people need to
show appreciation for that. And you know, I just couldn't
believe it. You know, Brad goes eighteen and two in
the ACC, more than twenty five wins, and people are saying,

(01:08:13):
we shouldn't have extended him. Are you insane? Are you stupid?
Like what? Like what? And not only that, I think
the biggest thing of all is now that nil is
in place, Brad can go get the same level of
players at Carolina's getting. He can go get the same
level of players that you know, Vanderbilt's getting, that Iowa's getting,

(01:08:33):
that Iowa State's getting. He can get those saying, and
the good news is he can coach. You're seeing a
lot of times guys that can't coach, that's always gotten
the best players, they're struggling a little bit. And as
a result, you look at kind of what they've been
able to do. The guys who've had to do more
with less, they're starting to have success because now they're
on an even playing field. So I think that's what,

(01:08:54):
you know, Clemson fans need to see and they need
to understand, like, hey, you got one, don't let him
go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
That's Terrence Ogles be breaking down the Clemson Tigers and
some of the fans who after Clemson was beaten. I
think it was more the way they were beaten, just
scoring thirteen points in the first half against McNeice in
the NCAA tournament that brought up those murmurs from the
vocal minority of fans who were out there on social
media saying, oh man, we should have made the move,

(01:09:21):
We should have brought in Will Wade. And Will Wade's
now of course going to be the head coach at
NC State, but you know, Brad Brownell's had a tremendous run.
And of course the transfers that we talked about yesterday
and that we talked about with with Terrence Ogles be
there resetting that interview from our number one or just
a portion of it, the full thing will be in

(01:09:42):
the podcast. But you know, losing Asa Thomas, losing Dell Jones,
losing Chauncey Wiggins, and Clemson's ability to go out and
replace them with better players, that's going to be key
for Brad Bronell in this offseason. Quick Break will come
back with more on a Tuesday afternoon. Clemson Sports saw
they show the Shakes to south Land on a Tuesday.

(01:10:03):
All right, So yesterday I talked about the best thing
that I had seen this weekend, and that was Roger
Ayres and I mentioned that in the conversation as well
with Terrence Oglesby. But I really think the best thing
I saw today was a video that may not have

(01:10:29):
happened over the weekend, but it was a matchup between
two teams of which I'm not one hundred percent sure.
It looked like the Arkansas Travelers taking on the Surge. Anyway,
I don't know what league this is, but a guy
gets a hit the second base and he's running down

(01:10:51):
the first baseline and he knows he's gonna be out
at first, so he begins backpedaling and when the first
base and he gets down there to tag him, he's
probably four or five feet off a home plate. He
goes into a jump shooting motion. I guess he hit
the ball a third base. I'm rewatching it here now.
He hits a jump shooting motion and as he gets tagged,

(01:11:16):
he turns to the umpire looking for the foul call.
Well seem one and both players just laugh. The umpire laughs.
I'm not sure who the surge are, but the fans
enjoyed it. It kind of was reminiscent to me of
watching the Savannah Bananas and the excitement that they bring

(01:11:39):
to the game. And you know, one of the things
I watched or I saw during the Clyps the game
the other day was they had young Clympson fans coming
out of the stands and leading calisthenics and warm ups
and things of that nature, and you just feel like, man,
this guy gets it. And to see this Clipson Tiger
Baseball team at twenty and three and the job they've done,

(01:12:03):
and look, I have no clue right how things are
going to play out today in their matchup with Coastal Carolina.
Six o'clock starts coming up in just a little bit,
but they are crossing over into the midway point of
the season and they're playing as good as they've played.
Midweek games for a while under Monty Lee were quite

(01:12:27):
a bugaboo for Clemson energy and excitement. Kim Wayne in
a lot of respects with a coach that's at a
program for a specific amount of time, whatever that is,
and you have to do something to keep people energized.
And I really think that that's what Clemson and Eric

(01:12:49):
Backage are doing. There was a coaches cam a very
package after the game where he had maybe a camera
like a go pro strap to his hat. You could
see him celebrating with Jack Leggett and the players. And
there may have been some off color let's go comments made,
as Eric Backach tends to put out there a little

(01:13:09):
bit on social media. But it's an exciting time for
the Clipson Tiger baseball team and I think for the
first time in a while, it's a re energized program.
You've seen that for a few years. It's continued. It's
like a fire, it just continues to burn. Speaking of
a fire that continues to burn, I think I might

(01:13:31):
have put the Clemson softball team to bed far too
early this season. Seniors Alex Brown and Reyes Bessenger have
earned ACC Weekly Oners after sweeping the ACC Player and
Pitcher of the Week awards for the Clypson Tiger softball team. Brown,

(01:13:51):
in addition to that, was named the Softball America Star
of the Week. The third baseman for Clemson finished the
four game week with eleven hit batting nine to seventeen.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Nine to seventeen.
How about that for a batting average shoesh She had

(01:14:13):
two doubles in one home run with a one thirty
three slugging percentage, contributed six RBIs, scoring seven runs, drew
four walks. Finished the week with a perfect ten for
ten outing in three games against Syracuse and helped the

(01:14:34):
Clemson offense out score the Orange thirty three to one
in those three ballgames. As for Bessenger, the ACC Pitcher
of the Week, that was the first time in her career.
The right handed pitcher finished with a zero point five
ADRA with twelve innings of work, recorded eleven strikeouts in
two victories and went the distance in both outings. She

(01:14:57):
picked up her sixth win of the year. The Tiger
will face the Game Cocks tonight at six o'clock on
the ACC Network Extra And the reason I say I
may have put this squad to bed too early is
in fact they're twenty four to nine is six and
three in the ACC. I mean, they're not on top
of the conference, right but they're in the hunt. And

(01:15:24):
at the beginning of the season, with the way things started,
I was really concerned. But I guess I shouldn't. I
shouldn't second guess or be overly critical because of the
fact that the softball program has one of, if not

(01:15:45):
the not bet that didn't even sound like English, one of,
if not the I think I put another another Nott
in there, one of, if not the best coaches in
college off ball in John Ripman. And currently the Tigers,

(01:16:06):
at six and three in the ACC, are in a
four way tie for fourth place with CAL, North Carolina
and Virginia. But the Tigers currently have a four game
winning streak. But this league is tough. Adding Stanford, the
Cardinals are twenty three or the Cardinals are twenty three

(01:16:27):
and three, eight and one in the ACC, riding an
eleven game winning streak right now, Yeah, not exactly chopped
Liver coming into the conference with Cal and Stanford right
there at the top of the league, Florida State is
still undefeated in conference play. Duke a surprising four and five.

(01:16:48):
They've lost four in a row in the conference, which
quite frankly, is surprising given Duke's resume historically in women's softball.
But either way, either way, man, what a time to
be a Tiger during the spring, So many games going on,

(01:17:11):
so much activity up in Clemson and again both programs,
both programs with a game facing off today or taking
place today at six o'clock. Again, the men at home
against Coastal while the women are down here in Colombia

(01:17:31):
taking on the game Cocks final segment next.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
Stay with us, what have you done for me lately?
It's a fair question.

Speaker 6 (01:17:42):
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 for me lately?

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
And what have you done? Always are the same. We win.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
Final segment on a Tuesday afternoon, So the n cub
A tournament getting kicked back up on Thursday. But are
there any perfect brackets remaining? Well, that's a tricky question
because there are brackets all across different spectrums, whether that's ESPN,
whether that's CBS Sports, you know, whether that's just you know,

(01:19:14):
a couple of random guys who have picked a bracket together.
But through forty two NCAA tournament games, according to ESPN,
every bracket finally got busted following the Duke Baylor game.

(01:19:34):
There was still one bracket remaining at that point, but
there are currently zero.

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:19:43):
I did see the counter of that. You mean, what
do you mean the counter of that?

Speaker 4 (01:19:49):
Swany?

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
And I don't know what's I don't know what's more
difficult when getting them all correct or getting them all wrong.
Because about the same time there was one bracket remaining
perfect with like six games left. I think that bracket

(01:20:14):
went forty two and oh there was a bracket on
the opposite end of the spectrum that had not gotten
a game right. Yet hard to believe that you hadn't
gotten a game right. You must be trying not to
get a game right. And maybe that is the easier
one right because you pick Theoretically, is that easier, so

(01:20:45):
you picked all the number one seeds to lose? I
think it would be easier Mathematically speaking, I don't really know,
because think about it like this, If you pick the
number one seeds to lose in the first round, right,
they don't advance, meaning that that team that you picked
in the second round. Let's say I think it would

(01:21:06):
be easier. I might actually try that next year, because
if you pick Saint Mary's to beat Duke and you
pick Mississippi State to beat Baylor or for that married
doesn't matter if you pick Baylor. No, because you pick Baylor,
you'd be you'd get one right. So if you pick
Mississippi State to beat Baylor and then you just picked

(01:21:29):
Mount Saint Mary's again, if you just ran the table
of the sixteen seeds to the championship, my brain is
my brain is mush right now? Is that easier to
be wrong? To get them all wrong? I might have
to throw this into chat GPT. Let's see what chat

(01:21:52):
GPT says about it, because in my theory I think
it would be. Mathematically, would it be easier to miss
every pick in the NCAA Tournament versus getting every pick correct? Yes, okay,
here we go, here we go. It would be easier,
though still incredibly difficult, to miss every pick at the
NCAA Tournament then get every pit correct. The NCAA Tournament

(01:22:15):
has sixty three total games, not counting the first four.
If you were making picks completely at random, the odds
of filling out a perfect bracket are two to the
sixty third power, which is some number I cannot say
nine something oh nine point two quintillion. I think we
talked about that the other day. Even if you had

(01:22:37):
the expert knowledge, simus would suggest a perfect bracket remains
at best around one in one hundred and twenty billion.
The perfectly wrong bracket, however, Okay, it would have the
same probability. However, in reality, it's much easier to be
completely wrong than completely right because predictable outcomes, higher seeds

(01:22:58):
usually win early rounds. Pick only upsets your odds of
missing all the games improve anti consensus strategy. If you
simply pick the opposite of what the majority of people
are experts predict, you'd have a better chance of being
wrong than right. That that makes sense to me. I mean,
it's still I'm gonna ask my buddy super fan Lee Hannah,

(01:23:22):
He's a math guy. Mathematically, would it be easier to
miss every pick? You still got to pick the eight
nine games like those would be the tough ones. But
once you get those lower seeds in if you because
there could theoretically be right, you could get to the
point where every team you picked us out, like if

(01:23:46):
you were if you were right through the first round,
wouldn't that mean no teams remained in your bracket that
were in the tournament? Wouldn't you only have to get
the first round right the first thirty two games. If

(01:24:07):
you got the first thirty two games right, wouldn't that
be it is my brain, and my brain turned the
mush here in the final segments of the show, do
you follow that if you've got every game wrong, which
would be correct, those teams wouldn't be in it, so
you couldn't possibly have those teams selected the rest of
the way. Hold on, I gotta wonder about this math.

(01:24:30):
I gotta check with my buddy. I feel like it
will be a lot easier to lose get them all
wrong than get them all right. We'll find out tomorrow,
the exciting conclusion tomorrow and if I'm right on that
front or wrong? Ah, you see what they did there?
All right, We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, as always,
you'll take care now and go tigers.