Monday March 17, 2008

Had I Known

Had I Known
I spent the first ten or 12 years of my life as a huge basketball fan. I grew up watching Tar Heels like Mike O’Koren, Al Wood and Phil Ford. For the Wolfpack I remember Clyde Austin, David Thompson and Hawkeye Whitney. Other ACC stars like Virginia’s Jeff Lamp or Wake Forest’s Rod Griffin were players I remember vividly and loved watching them every March. Duke had Gene Banks, Jim Spanarkel, Mike Gminski and Kenny Dennard and I enjoyed their wars.

It was ACC basketball and I loved it. The coaches like Smith, Driessel and Holland were the best. I went to a couple of ACC tournaments and thought I was in heaven.

But something happened. Everything changed.

Two things happened that turned me into someone who no longer enjoyed the sport. I had a chance to sit on press row for five years while working as a student in the SID department and I saw bad basketball and even worse officiating. The bodies became so big and it was football on the hard wood. The shorts became too long and the fundamentals left the sport. It became hard to watch. Street ball took over and I was no longer a basketball fan.

I still was a Clemson basketball fan though and I still had faith in many of those years. However a second thing happened to sour the emotion. Quite frankly, Clemson was very bad for a long time. It was hard to watch because the Tigers were awful too often. I had lost hope in the program.

On an April day in 2003 that changed but it did not change at once. It was much more subtle but much more solid. That day Clemson hired Oliver Purnell and here we are five years later and I am back to square one.

Please forgive me for leaving but it was too difficult to watch. I could not take all of the bad losses and the failures in the ACC. But if it would have been like it is today then I would have never left.

It is so much easier now. But forgive me for being like a 12-year old kid once again. There is new life in Clemson basketball but others would not have left if it would have been like this.

It is so cool to read Mike Krzyzewski say such nice things about our basketball team. "Clemson is as good of a team as we've played," Krzyzewski said. "I'm not saying they're better than North Carolina or a couple of the other teams we've played. We've played a lot of championship teams this year. But Clemson's right there. When they hit their free throws, they're as good as anybody. ...

"I have no complaints with my basketball team. I really think they played a hell of a game and lost to a hell of a team. ... There are games that you lose, and there are games the other guy wins. This was one of those where the other guy won."

It was nice to read the kind words Roy Williams said about the Tigers. Heck it was even nice to hear Bobby Knight say such incredible things about our program.

Clemson has made an impression on some of the biggest names in coaching and it is all because of one guy, Oliver Purnell.

The Extension
I got a call Friday night after the Clemson game in which the Tigers dominated Boston College and I was pleased to hear from a good source that Clemson and Purnell were close on an extension.

Sunday I had a great source tell me the school and Purnell were talking about a six-year deal with “Bowden-type” money. My source said both schools were close to a deal.

This morning The State Newspaper reported more details along the same lines with what we were hearing and this morning Dan Scott had Purnell on his show and the coach confirmed the talks. Purnell told Scott, "I don't want to talk about it too much, but we've been working on it for quite some time. It's (the negotiations) not news to Terry Don Phillips or me. I expect we will get something done real soon."

More great news!

The ACC Tournament
This week I want to continue to look at the program and preview the upcoming games and potential opponents in Tampa. However, I did not want to get past today without mentioning the incredible run in Charlotte.

One thing that I wanted to accomplish here is to not get too caught up in the UNC game and the Duke win without talking about the BC win. I know Boston College is not Duke or UNC but what an incredible performance by the Tigers Friday night. Boston College was tired and out-manned but they looked like the old Clemson teams. It was so refreshing to see Clemson on the other end of a laugher in the ACC tournament.

Many of my discussions with friends surrounding the topic of the Duke win and where it ranks in school history. The 1939 Southern Conference title run included some great come-from-behind wins. The 1962 ACC tournament run included a couple of great wins. The 1980 Duke win was huge. The 1980 Final Eight run included some great ones. Beating Duke to win the regular season in the late 1980s was big. Buckner’s dunk against the Heels in Greensboro was a big one also. But Saturday’s victory over Duke should not take a backseat to many wins in school history.

On the subject of Sunday, perhaps the thing that I took the most from it was Purnell’s comments about the pre-game. The head coach realized the accomplishment and said he got choked up a little in the pre-game warm-up. It is amazing that he got to that point in only five years.

I was also surprised to see both teams have so much energy despite playing three games in three days. The pace was incredible.

It would have been nice to win that first one but somehow I figure this will not be our last trip to the finals. At the age of 40, I plan on being back sooner rather than later.

Thanks OP!

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