The "Regressed to the Mean" Edition

After an unreal Sweet 16 game shooting the ball, Alabama comes back to earth in a beatdown by the ACC's Duke Blue Devils.

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Finally, Clemson Sports Talk has come back two drive time.
Hello everybody, Low and Swan back in the saddle once again.
It is the show that shakes the south Land. Clemson
Sports aw for you each and every afternoon as you
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(01:04):
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(01:25):
phone line. They give me a part of the programming
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METS Plumbing. Seven three to two drip, Drip drip, You
know the jingle seven three to two drip. That's Mets Plumbing,
all right. So we have whittled Sweet sixteen down to

(01:47):
the final four. Remember we did get a chance to
talk a little bit about some of it because of
Thursday's matchups, where Florida took care of Maryland eighty seven
seventy one, Duke beat Arizona one hundred and ninety three.
Alabama went bonkers twenty five to fifty one. From Beyond
the Arc one thirteen eighty eight over BYU in Texas,

(02:09):
Tech came storming back to top Arkansas in over time
eighty five eighty three. You kind of had to wonder,
as Duke and Alabama were matching up in the Elite eight,
would the law of averages catch up to the Crimson Tide.
More on that in a minute. Then Friday night's contest,

(02:31):
Auburn cruised past Michigan with a big second half seventy
eight sixty five. The Tigers the top team in the tournament,
looking like it. In that matchup against the Wolverines, Houston
skates by Purdue off a beautiful late inbound play drawn
up by Kelvin Sampson. The inbounder. They had noticed multiple

(02:54):
times in the game that the guy guarding the inbounder
was either face guarding or with his back to it
to the inbounder and would go play the man off
the ball. Well, what do you know, ball gets inbounded
and the guy leaves the inbound man they forget about him.
They slip it right back to him for a quick
layup sixty two sixty. Houston pushes on into the Elite eight.

(03:19):
Then Michigan State tops Old miss will come from behind
victory for the Spartans seventy three seventy and Tennessee after
losing to Kentucky twice in the regular season, Rick Barnes
in the Tennessee Volunteers win seventy eight sixty five, advancing

(03:40):
to the Elite eight. Then on Saturday, in the Elite
eight matchup between Florida and Texas Tech, the Gators down
big late looking they are on the ropes, and Walter
Clayton Junior has a late three pointer and they come
from behind win. Florida starts is fouling watching that game unfold.

(04:05):
I mean, how quickly things can slip away? I think
with six eighteen left, Texas Tech led by ten, seventy
one sixty one, They led by they led by nine
with three fourteen remaining, and in about a minute and
a half Texas had tied it seventy five seventy five,

(04:29):
and then the Gators would go on to win by
five points, a huge run late for Florida. Then in
the nightcap I mentioned Alabama, would they come back, would
they regress to the means, so to speak, from beyond
the three point arc. Indeed they did eighty five sixty five,

(04:52):
a twenty point victory by the Duke Blue Devils. Cooper
Flag looking impressive, nupple, fantastic twenty one points in the game,
but again, maybe most significantly, the regression to the mean
eight of thirty two from beyond the arc for the

(05:12):
Crimson Tide mark sears just one to five. You probably
felt it after watching them go twenty five of fifty
one in the previous round that they were going to
pull back, and they did. Duke advances and to me,
I picked them to win it all. They still look
like the best team in the country. One Atlantic Coast

(05:34):
Conference team remained after the opening round and heading into
the final two games, or excuse me, the final three
games of the tournament, one Atlantic Coast Conference school remains.
That's the thirty five and three Duke Blue Devils. Then
on Sunday, Rick Barnes and the Tennessee Volunteers did to

(06:01):
outdo Clemson in the opening round of the NC DOUBLEA tournament.
I thought for a minute Tennessee was going to finish
with just twelve points in the half, but they hit
a eight three to give them fifteen points in the
first half, and any Clemson person watching, having watched Brad
Brownell in the Clympson Tigers in the NC DOUBLEA tournament
opening round, probably were saying, well reminiscent of some times

(06:25):
that Clemson had Rick Barnes as their head coach. Houston
led thirty four to fifteen at the break, and every
time the volunteers made a little bit of a run.
The Cougars answered sixty nine fifty, a nineteen point win
by Houston. Another SEC school blown out in the NC
DOUBLEA tournament, and then the final game on Sunday featured

(06:51):
top seeded Auburn in Michigan State. Auburn led by nine
at the break thirty three to twenty four. Michigan State
outscored Auburn fourty thirty seven in the second half, seventy
sixty four the final score, and probably a little scary
moment in that ball game. Johnny Broom, star for Auburn,

(07:13):
who had twenty five points in the game, hurt his
elbow at one point went out, looked like he might
be done for the game. Michigan State makes a little run,
but Broom gets back in and hits a big three
to ignite the crowd and to kind of send I
think shockwaves across the planes, hey that he wasn't out.

(07:38):
He left the game with ten minutes and some change
remaining ten thirty seven I think, remaining with Auburn leading
fifty to forty. He checked back into the game with
Auburn leading fifty seven forty seven, with five twenty nine left,
to the arousing ovation from the Auburn fans in attendance.
You still didn't know what he was going to look like.

(07:59):
But a possession later, pulls and pops hits the three,
and uh, here's what it sounded like on CBS. Broom
is tightening up the sneakers and now jogging out.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Those teammates, Revere killing Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
How about the roar of the crowd there in Atlanta
to know that your star was not out of the
ball game. Pretty big moment there for the Auburn Tigers
and a couple of my Auburn buddies. I thought about
texting them and saying, hey, Hey, you guys are officially
a basketball school. Now, congratulations, you can hang up those
football cleats. But in all of that, the NCAA Tournament

(08:50):
I told you when I picked my brackets, my thought
is just don't don't beat yourself. You know, we looked
at the numbers of number one seeds to win in
the tournament over the past thirty nine seasons since nineteen
eighty five. This is the fortieth tournament with a sixty four.
I'm using air quotes here, Team Field, you know how

(09:10):
I feel about the opening rounds, and based off of
my Twitter poll I put out at the beginning of
the tournament, I know how you feel about the first
four games. But it will be another number one seed
who will win the NCAA Tournament because all four number
one seeds remain. It's hard to believe, but none of

(09:37):
the top schools were upset. Auburn and Florida will face
off on one side of the bracket, Houston and Duke
on the other in San Antonio for the right to
play a week from tonight in the national Championship Game.
So how's your bracket doing. I'll tell you this. In

(10:02):
the one I've been in for thirty plus years with
some buddies. I've picked Duke to win over Auburn, but
if that happens, I don't. I don't do well. I
finish like fifth. And then this one, you want to
finish in third or better. If both Auburn and Duke lose,

(10:24):
I finish in like eighth. But if Florida wins and
Duke loses, I think that's what it was. I looked
at it last night when if Florida wins and Duke loses,
I finished third. So that's what I have to hope
for at this point. That's the best case scenario for

(10:48):
me in that pool. And then we've got a little
family pool, which is definitely coming down to the wire.
My nephew set us up on CBS. I haven't really
used the CBS Sports bracket all that much. You know
what killed me more than anything, Ole Miss, Old Miss,

(11:08):
and honestly Clemson. If I did not pick Clemson to
beat Purdue, then in the entire tournament, let's see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
ninety ten, I probably would have missed eleven games in
the entire tournament. But EH, risk it for the biscuit

(11:32):
kind of hope Clemson would play would play better. I
currently have ninety six points with the chance of getting
one hundred and sixty points, which is the most possible.
I know my son's got sixty one if Auburn wins it.
If Auburn wins it, my son I think will take

(11:53):
the title one hundred in. He's at one hundred and
sixty one points. So yeah, I think again, a little strategy.
If you had a bad season, if you had a
bad tournament, don't beat yourself. Just don't beat yourself in
a seven to ten upset. If you think there's gonna

(12:13):
be one, unless you feel incredibly confident about it, don't
pick it. If you just have a hunch and you
want to go with it, great, But I have found
that nine times out of ten when that happens, you
miss that one and then there's another upset on the
other side. I never bite I never bite myself twice. Nope.

(12:35):
I don't pick all chalk either. I mean I have to.
You gotta take a thing here and there again an
educated guess. But if you just go at it in
there and go, well, you know you gotta take a
five to twelve upset. Eh odds are you'll take the
wrong one. I don't think it's worth it. A zero
three four five zero zero eighty six text line phone

(12:55):
line getting the clubs Attacker baseball team opened up road
playing the acc this weekend, winning game one on Friday,
getting obliterated in game excuse me, yeah, winning in game
one on Friday, getting obliterated in game one of two
on Saturday because of inclement weather, getting be eighteen to two,

(13:16):
but then bouncing back and winning late on Sunday to
take their series against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. We'll
talk more about that game come up in a little bit.
The Tigers are back on the diamond tomorrow down in
North Augusta as they will face off with Georgia Southern
in a midweek contest. Always unique for the fans down

(13:38):
in the CSRA, and for those of you not from
the CSRA. If you're wondering, what in the world is
Swanny you talking about with the CSRA, that's the Central
Savannah River Area. That's where I grew up. So if
you're wondering about that, if you ever hear anybody say

(14:00):
they're from the CSRA, it's the Central Savannah River Area.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Are we clear, yes, sir, are we clear?

Speaker 4 (14:09):
Crystal?

Speaker 2 (14:11):
All right? So final little thing here. I got a
text from my buddy super fan about Rick Barnes. A
little statistic for you about Barnesy, who was a number
two seed for the twenty seventh time in twenty eight tournaments.

(14:38):
Rick Barnes has failed to take his team deeper than
their seed, meaning he's never been a wherever he was seated. Right,
So if you are a top if you're a two seed, okay,

(14:58):
to get first than your seeding, you need to get
past the elite eight. You need to get into the
final four. If you're one of the top three seeds
in the tournament, you need to get past the sweet
sixteen into the elite eight. And Barnes has only done

(15:24):
that one time in his entire career, just once. And
so at seventy I kind of said the other day,
I don't know when you decide to hang it up,
but at what point is you know, is it enough?

(15:46):
And is Barnes one of those guys that's going to
hang it up in the offseason or will he stick
around and continue to fight and battle. And we'll tennessee,
ever we'll Rick Larnes ever get to that final four
or ultimately win that national championship. Now the other thing too,

(16:09):
that my buddy Brad said to me on Sunday, he said,
you know, it's so strange we're in this nil transfer
portal era, and it's hard for me to forgive or

(16:34):
forget the situations that took place, like with Kelvin Sampson
when he was at Indiana, the situation that took place
with Bruce Pearl when he was at Tennessee. And you know,

(16:55):
when you go back to Pearl situation, it was an
unofficial visit where he had a kid over, like at
a barbecue and he was like telling the family, hey, look,
you know I'm not supposed to do this or whatever.
Don't tell anybody about it. And so he ends up
getting in trouble for lying to the NCUBLEA after they

(17:16):
found out about that. Then there was a violation of
the school's substance abuse policy by a player in twenty eleven,
and that's when to see part of way with part
of ways with Bruce Pearl. Kelvin Sampson had an incident
during his time at Indiana where he was forced to
resign for what were at that time serious allegations including

(17:41):
sending text messages to recruits, which was against NCAA rules
from seven to twenty thirteen, which I think we can
agree if we look back on this like kind of strange,
and that was against the rules in both of those guys.
Again in this nil transfer portal era, it wasn't like
the violations were like paying players. But man, you look

(18:03):
back and you go, God, these guys lost their jobs
for that. But it's hard to forget those things, and
and for some people's it's hard to forgive them because
you were still as small as those rules were, right,
you were still cheating. You were still cheating. This is
where the line was, and you were willing to cross it.
You were a cheater, even though now that that line
they shifted, and what you did in some respects and

(18:27):
again out the Bruce Pearl thing per se in terms
of having a guy on camps for unofficial and doing
and having him at your house for you know, barbecue
and all that. But you know what I mean, it's
like you look at it, you go, it was a hamburger.
Now it's you look at it, it's a hamburger. But
it's hard to hard to forget that they were cheating,

(18:47):
regardless of how small it might seem today. Uh. And
then there was a story remember about Todd Golden, head
coach of the Florida Gators earlier this year, where there
was a formal Title nine complain against him alleging that
there was some harassment and stalking issues against him. And

(19:11):
ultimately that investigation was closed with finding no evidence of
the situation. But all of a sudden, the three of
the four schools, I mean, at this point, John Shire,
as I'm aware, doesn't have anything anything that's you know,
kind of what would you call that, like like kind

(19:32):
of scandalous or nefarious surrounding him of the three coaches.
And even though we do again look at the difference
in the game today and go, well, the hamburger, well
text message, not a big deal. But if you were
willing to cheat, and this is the way I think
some people think about it, and you let me know
if you agree. If you were willing to cheat and
cross the lines, then what stops you from being willing

(19:53):
to cheat across the lines? Now? I think it's a
great point. Quick breat We'll come back with more. We'll
talk a little tiger baseball around the band and stay
with us, rocking and rolling along with you on a
Monday afternoon. Interesting weekend for the Clemson Tiger baseball team.
So because of inclement weather in Atlanta on Sunday, I

(20:17):
believe it was early Saturday morning, the news came out
that Clemson and Georgia Tech would play a double header
on Saturday. See, you had a little turnaround time in
your brain if you're Clemson to get ready, but you
are gonna play a game on Saturday. And then Clemson

(20:40):
gets blitzed in Game two after winning. By the way,
I didn't even mention the fact that Clemson won Game
one to open the series against the Yellow Jackets, but
in Game two, you could argue Clemson had their worst
performance of the season and across the board getting the

(21:01):
eighteen to two. You haven't seen anything like that from
this Tiger team since that fifteen to five loss to
Old Miss. So not only was it a day where
you had, you know, a double header, but Georgia Tech
just put you to bed in seven innings. Me a

(21:24):
pretty rough performance for sure for this Clemson Tiger team.
And then to have to rebound after that, and I
think in that ballgame, at one point along the way
during a ten run fourth inning. Georgia Tech had back

(21:46):
to back home runs twice and just blew the game
wide open, scoring ten runs on eleven hits. Just dominated
the fourth inning, maybe the worst inning Clempsons had this season,
But the Tigers bounce back in Game two and end

(22:09):
up coming away with a four to three victory, with
the Tigers scoring and rallying much like they have this season,
rallying late as Andrew Chuffo's two out single the ninth
inning scored the go ahead run to give Clemson the

(22:29):
series victory on the road against Georgia Tech over at
Rush Chandler Stadium. The Tigers are now twenty six and
five on the season, six and three in the ACC.
Georgia Tech now twenty two and six and eight and four.
And for the Tigers that ninth inning, they had loaded

(22:50):
the bases and then Priests was hit by a pitch
that scored the tying run to make it three to three.
And then it was two batters later when Andrew Truffo
had that infield single to push across the go ahead run,
giving Reed Garris the win. That was the second win
of the season. Bj Bailey set a Tiger high for

(23:12):
innings pitch going six and two thirds with eight strikeouts,
maybe giving the Tigers a little a little confidence in
a potential Sunday starter. Clempson will be back on the
diamond in North Augusta on Tuesday at six point thirty.

(23:35):
They'll be the visiting team in the matchup against Georgia Southern. Now,
I was looking back and watching some of the highlights
of that final game on Sunday as well, and man
Jared Purify got a hold of a couple of balls early,
got a double that set up Clemson's first run of
the game. Then I think in the maybe in the

(23:56):
third inning, he also had another really solid that bat,
and you know, you just see how confident a ballplayer
he is. But you know, Bailey had some moments. He
guy out of a basis loaded jam. You still see
Clemson's bats kind of coming to work with a guy
like with a guy like Colin Priest hitting a home

(24:20):
run early in the ballgame, and then you know, Clemson
kind of had control, and all of a sudden, Georgia
Tech comes back and takes a three to two lead
late and then cam Canerella hustling on the base path
allows Clemson ended up loading up the bases and then

(24:41):
with that infield single, you know, you get a little
fortuitous bounce off of the mound to score the go
ahead run. And you know a lot of people say, oh,
it was just a lucky break. Look, there's no doubt
about it. There was some luck involved in coming away
with that victory for Clemson. But you make the breaks available,

(25:07):
you know, you go out there and you put yourself
in a spot to win these ball games. And that's
exactly what Clemson did. Outside of just getting sam blasted,
lamb based, lamb basted, hammered in Game two, eighteen to two,

(25:29):
you know, Clempson just continues to truck along, and yeah,
they missed some opportunities. They missed some chances to put
more runs on the board. Quite frankly, the ones, the
most frustrating ones for me were probably watching Purify nearly
take two yards and they just come up slightly short.
But Georgia Tech had the same thing happened. I can't

(25:52):
remember how many guys were on base, maybe two men
were on and mcclatty, Tristan mcclatty made it unbelievable catch
at the wall. Might have been bases loaded. I'm not
I'm gonna have to double check and see when that
took place, but I know it was pretty early in
the ballgame. Don't have the notes in front of me,

(26:15):
but mcclatty goes up and right center field, right at
the wall. Bottom. It was the bottom of the third
with a runner on second man it had been a
two run homer. I think it would have been a
two run homer. It looked like it was going out
of the park and mcclady pulled that thing back in
and kept the yellow jackets off the board. So shout

(26:43):
out to you know, Eric Backetch and that Clypson Tiger
baseball team for being resilient after being beaten the way
they were beaten in Game two on the same day
on Saturday, they bounced back again. Bailey shows up, bj
Bailey pitching, and the Tigers find a way to get

(27:04):
the job done. The job done. They are twenty six
and five. As I mentioned just a few minutes ago,
all right, eight oh three, four five zero zero eighty six.
That is the text line in the phone line. Will
come back. We'll talk a little bit more about the
NCAA Tournament as the final four is upon us the

(27:25):
final four week, two teams from the SEC, one team
from the Atlantic Coast Conference, one team from the Big twelve,
squadooshe from the Big Ten stay with us. Clemson Sports
saw the show the Shakespeare south Land on a Monday afternoon.
So the best thing that I saw this week end
this week end, excuse me, uh, probably after Houston's victory

(27:51):
to clinch a birth in the Final four. Jim nantz
the longtime broadcaster who has been spectacular in his capacity
with CBS Sports, whether that's with the NCAA tournament, whether
that's with the Masters, which last week it came out

(28:12):
that Jim Nance is targeting the one hundredth Masters Tournament
in twenty thirty six as a potential retirement date. He
is sixty five years old. But over the weekend, the
Houston Cougars booking their ticket to the Final four. In Nance,

(28:34):
who is a graduate of Houston and played on the
golf team at Houston, was invited by Kelvin Sampson to
come join the team in their postgame celebration. And again
look this show, Clemson Sports Talk. The orange shaded orange

(29:00):
kool Aid orange underwear wearing host I openly admit that
I am a Clemson graduate. I want Clemson to win games.
I don't celebrate them the way that you think I might,
But I think you have to come in Nance, who
is a graduate of Houston University. He roomed by the

(29:23):
Way in college with Freddie Couples and Blame McAllister, two
guys that played professionally. But he has done a great job,
starting his career at KHO Khou in Houston back in
the eighties and then working his way up since nineteen

(29:45):
eighty five with CBS Sports, doing tremendous work anchoring CBS
Sports coverage of the Masters Tournament since nineteen eighty nine.
Nance became the lead play by play voice in nineteen
ninety for CBS with the Final Four, and of course
he gave that up back in twenty twenty two. So
he's there, and you have Kelvin Sampson, head coach of

(30:09):
the Houston Cougars, inviting him up into the mix, and
CBS able to catch all of that. Of course, now
Iron Eagle is the play by play guy for CBS.
But yeah, what a cool moment for a guy whose
voice similarly, I would say in the minds, I have

(30:29):
a lot of people to the late Bryant Gumbel has
filled your ears during March. Speaking of which, by the way,
I don't know if you saw my tweet speaking of
your ears being filled during March. You kind of have

(30:50):
to be, you know, someone that knows a little bit
about professional wrestling. But did you notice how much the
announcer during the Tennessee Houston matchup, the color analyst Steve Lapis,
I believe is who it was. He sounds so much

(31:12):
like the wrestler named Taz when Taz was doing play
by play for WWE, but at moments in the game,
whenever Lapis would get all worked up, I would go, golly,
this guy sounds just like Taz. So if you need
to throw in your Google machine Taz WWE and listen

(31:35):
to some of his commentary and then throwing Steve Lapis
and college basketball, listen to some of his commentary, and
I think you'll find that the voices are eerily similar
in some respects. And let's see, Steve Lapis born in

(31:55):
New York, New York. Why would it not surprise me
if we find out that Taz is a is from Brooklyn.
So there you go, and there's something to their voices.
It's not just it's not just the accent, but it's
the cadence and sort of the gravelly that goes along

(32:17):
with it too, mean Gene, you know, it's like whoa
that sounds so much like Taz It's bizarre. But yeah. Again,
the NCAA Tournament whittling down to the final four, four
number one seeds make it to the finals, much like

(32:38):
they did back in two thousand and eight, the only
other time that's ever happened in the sixty four team
era of the NCAA tournament. It'll be Auburn and Florida
battling on April fifth at six nine pm, that's Saturday,

(33:00):
and then on Saturday evening at eight forty nine, it'll
be number one Duke at number one Houston at the
final four, all number one seeds, all chalk in the
books as we get ready for the NCAA Final Four

(33:21):
to get going this weekend and then conclude on Monday evening,
which is always a little bit of a pain. By
the way, I do wonder about Houston and their advantage
given that the Final four is out in San Antonio, Texas.
That'll be something to keep your eyes on. I think additionally,

(33:46):
one of the other things to kind of discuss is
the fact that if Duke were to win and the
SEC has alburn In Florida remaining, and one of those
teams is going to be a limit, you would be
looking at a scenario where the SEC had fourteen teams
in and got one to the championship and the ACC again,

(34:12):
if Duke wins had only four teams in and one
of those North Carolina had to play their way in
through those first four games, that I don't really count.
And yet the Blue Devils, who have been alone since
the opening round because of North Carolina's lost, Clemson lost
and Louisville's loss, will have run the table to the
championship game. Four teams in one makes it fourteen teams in,

(34:38):
but really diminished pretty quickly as the numbers dwindled, and
look they were going to diminish. But Duke beats Alabama
by twenty. Arkansas allows Texas Tech to storm back late,
Tennessee gets beat by nineteen by Houston. Florida is down
ten against Texas Tech and has the storm and back

(35:00):
themselves to win that game.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Late.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
As good as the SEC has been this season, I'm
not sure, the NCAA Tournament proved their strength. Let me
know if I'm wrong. Final segment of Otter number one,
The Show that Shakes the south Land Clemson Sports Tall
loud Swan with you again. The Tiger spring game coming
up this weekend. But Clemson recruiting. Hey, how about the

(35:24):
job that the Tigers did this past month on the
recruiting trail and that culminated this weekend. Cameron Cody, who
we interviewed several weeks ago, well over a month ago,
made his commitment. Remember he's the young man I mean,
he's no small young man by the way, defensive tackle.

(35:48):
He's a guy who visited Clemson for basketball camp with
Brad Brownell in seventh grade and loved the campus, loved
the environment. Six foot three, two hundred and eighty five
pounds defensive tackle out of Savannah, Georgia over at been

(36:12):
the Dicktime military school. But the thing that's wild for
me is Clemson's notoriously, notoriously stingy with their offers. And
I remember when he got his offer. I got in
touch with him. We were talking on social media. I
was like so, I was like, so, have you know

(36:34):
been to Clemson? He said, Yeah, I went when I
was in seventh grade to Brad Brownell's basketball camp and
it was that moment where he fell in love and
just you know, he even said in his tweet, been
home since the seventh grade. Big time pick up for

(36:55):
the Tigers on the interior, but more notably to me,
based off of how Dabosweeney is with the offers, it's
so unique to see a guy who hasn't had or
did not make one of those official visits prior to
the offer as somebody that was like a football guy

(37:15):
right like it came in a completely different capacity and
now his dream will be realized to get a chance
to play at Clemson, get a chance to play under
Nick Eason, and for the Tigers one of the top
recruiting classes right now according to Rivals and on three, etc.

(37:41):
Thirteen total commits in the class, we've got it with
seven of those guys being four star prospects. A couple borderlines.
Shavar Young, junior wide receiver, got him right at the
borderline of a four star prospect. Chancellor Barclay also offensive lineman.

(38:02):
He nationally rates as a four star in the overall,
but we've got him in about an eighty eight and
then you've got a few other guys there with the
three star variety. But for this staff and for this
Clemson Tiger team to kind of re evaluate the way

(38:25):
and their timeline, I think might be the best way
to put their timeline on recruiting and really trying to
take advantage of some of this early. The early opportunities
is key because Clemson, it doesn't offer you until the
summer of your junior year. And so there are a

(38:49):
lot of players out there in this twenty twenty seven
class that have offers from all over the country, but
they don't have an offer from Clemson, and the Tigers
keep those close to the vest. As a matter of fact,

(39:10):
give me a minute here, I'll see if in our
database that we keep for clemsonsports Sall dot com, if
I can give you an idea real fast about just
the sheer numbers. But I was trying to get those
overall ratings right now. I think Clemson is rated number
two according to the Rivals team ratings, and in on

(39:33):
three Clemson currently checks in at number seven. But in
the database that we keep over on clemsonsports sell dot
com and just trying to track all of it. You know,
committable offers is the thing that Clemson gives out where
other schools just give out offers galore. You know, it's

(39:56):
a pretty tight knit group when you talk about the
twenty twenty six Clemson targets, and I think there's just
slightly over one hundred and ten offers currently out. That
number is always small, and so what it allows for

(40:19):
is priority recruitment, and it allows you to keep a
fairly narrow number of players at each position. I mean,
and again these I've got a couple of couple of

(40:39):
pieces to put in right now. But like if you're
start to look at it by state, by position, etc.
It's just a very small group that actually gets an
offer from Clemson. And you know that's why when a

(41:04):
guy has a relationship with the school and wants to
be a part of it. You know, you can have
a situation where the offer comes out later than the
majority of teams put them out, and yet a kid
fairly quickly will know, like Cameron Cody, who had a

(41:28):
previous top five you know, you come out pretty quickly
and know, hey, this is the school that I want
to you know that I want to go to this
is where I want to be. And so for the Tigers,
you know, getting a guy that they really want along

(41:50):
with a great relationship with Bryce Perry right another interior
defensive tackle that they have high on their radar. I
mean it's it's important. Just a couple of months, you know,
I think it was January twenty sixth somewhere there, Nick
Eason went to visit Cameron Cody. Two months later. You know,

(42:14):
he's in the he's on the books, he's all in.
So big recruiting month for the Tigers. All right, quick break,
we'll come back. Wim Qualkin Bush joins us right around
the bench and stay with us.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
It's time for Clipson Sports Talk with Luwton Swan.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Swanny. It is our number two. That's drive time right

(43:11):
here on the show. The shakes is out land Clemsons
Sports So long, Swaan hain't out with you on what
appears to be becoming an ugly, dreary Monday afternoon. Well,
Qualking Bush joins the program momentarily, and don't forget our
number two of the program, brought you in a part
by our good friends over at Mets Plumbing seven three

(43:32):
to two Drip Drip drip. You know the jingle seven
three to two drip. That's Mets plumbing without further ado though,
William Qualkin Bush on the heels of the Final four
joins us Qualt. Welcome in, my man, how are you, Swanny.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I'm doing fantastic. I hope you're doing well. It's a
uh yeah, it's a great day to be talking sports,
great time of year to be talking sports man.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah, going on, yeah, no, Look, I think everybody this
time of the year gets geared up, especially when the
Final four. You know, it's amazing how the system works.
Right like two weeks ago, you're wringing your hands about
who are the sixty four teams that are in and
then boom you're down the four in a hurry. But
what's your take on the SEC's performance, Because there was

(44:16):
a point I what I did for fun before the tournament,
wwalk I went through and I said, okay, this is
how many SEC teams I think will be around at
the thirty two and at the sixteen and the eight
and the four, and I gave my numbers and the
league actually overperformed my estimations up to the sweet sixteen.
After that, they've underperformed. So I'm trying to figure out now,

(44:38):
with two teams remaining and they're going to eliminate, you know,
one of them is going to be eliminated here going
into the championship game, how do you rate the Southeastern
Conference fourteen teams in after all the chatter that we
heard about the league before the sea or before the
tournament began.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Well, I'll tell you this. I mean a couple things.
First of all, that the teams that were supposed to
be left are left right. And that's for the SEC,
and that's for everybody else. And one of the things
that I think is gonna be interesting and monitored here
is because there was so much chalk, it just sort
of felt like the right teams were advancing, you know,
in the vast majority of spots. Now, let me let

(45:18):
me just sort of let me sort of make sure
I'm being specific about what I'm a leging here. Okay,
I think the SEC had a great tournament. Okay, I
think they had a great tournament. I'm not trying to
poke holes in it at all, But here's what I
would tell you. Okay, if the league was as good
as people said, then you would have had and again,
this is not what you cannot grade the SEC like

(45:43):
every other league because we were told us now like
every other league. Right if if we were talking, you know,
it's the best league this year, that's fine, but we're
told it's the best league ever. So here's what would
be true of the best league ever. The teams that
were sort of bubble teams that got in the Georgia's
and Ole miss and miss to be stayed, and Vanderbilt
and all these teams Texas, all these teams that got

(46:04):
in the riggers of the SEC schedule would have sort
of vote trampled on them so that you know, they
ordinarily would be six seed, but because the league is
so tough, then they they would they're down at the nine,
ten eleven line, and so they're they're actually better than that,
you know, they're it's because the SEC, like one common

(46:25):
somebody has to lose the games, and all Man, the
Oklahomas and all these teams, so you got that element.
But also they would have been better prepared for the
tournament by the riggers of their conference schedule. So you know, oh,
we've played all these tough teams and we we should
be advancing. If you look at every round. To your point,
by and large, what was supposed to happen in the

(46:46):
SEC happened. A team like Ole Miss makes the Sweet sixteen. Okay,
and they play Michigan State. Well look at who they beat. Okay,
they beat North Carolina, who who was playing pretty good ball.
But you know they hadn't beat a team like oh
Miss yet. Uh, you know all year that was their problem.
They hadn't beaten that team. They got smoked. They actually
got smoked. Then they played in the Iowa State team

(47:08):
that had injuries. They were down two starters, including either
their best or second best player, depending on what you asked.
I mean, it's it's kind of like Ole Miss is
beating fully funded, you know, Final four caliber teams. Okay.
Other than that, the teams that were supposed to make
it made it to the point that Tennessee a two
seed be Kentucky a three seeds. You know you've got

(47:28):
you You've got the one seeds in there, Uh, Auburn
and Florida that win and advance. Alabama's the two seed
they get as far as the two seed that's supposed
to uh, the only Outlaia there again, other than Ole
Missiles Arkansas, which you would argue had the roster of
a much better team than a TENNASE seed. They were
terrible out of the game and had to play catch

(47:50):
up the entire year. So to me, when we're breaking
down the conference the SEC, I think we can say
that the teams that look like the best teams in
the SEC did what the best teams and every league
of every conference were supposed to do. I don't get
the sense that this league tremendously prepared a bunch of
teams that didn't belong for making any runs in this tournament.

(48:11):
If that makes sense, it just it. If you're gonna
say that the best league ever, that it needs to
show itself in March by something out of the ordinary happening,
and I did not see that from the SEC. So
were they the best league? Yes? Were they were of
the best leagues we've ever seen. Yes. Were their best
teams really some of the best teams in the country. Yes,

(48:32):
we know all that. Was it a league that was
gonna disproportionately perform in the tournament? The answer to that
is no, not based on what we saw in this
tournament and not based on what we thought we were
gonna see when this they started.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, I think only two teams at this point right
outperform their seed. You mentioned the Markansaw and Old Miss
getting to the Sweet six team where if everything played
out with Chalko, it would be the top you know, four, three, two,
and one remaining there even if including moving up to
the Elite eight, you didn't have any that overperform their seed.
Now in the final four, no one overperformed their seed

(49:08):
thus far, with the two teams Florida and Auburn being
one seeds remaining. As for the rest of the tournament,
what do you what do you take away from it?
Qual Because the team I feel like is the best
that I have seen is this Duke Blue Devil team,
and they look like they are playing their best basketball
at just the right time.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
Yeah, they look like the best team to me. I
just I think they are comfortable. I think they're confident,
They're deep, their best players have been their best players.
And I actually think, you know, we're talking about this
aday on our show. The player that is not getting
enough love because of the Cooper flag, just the adoration
for Cooper flag, the love fest for Cooper flag, is

(49:51):
Conk Nipple, who like look I've been playing daily Fantasy
with Conkniple all year and making a money based on
the way he's pl This guy has been listen, he's
been sensational and he doesn't have the price hike that
Cooper Flagg does in games like that where you know

(50:12):
canipples out here in on the Saturday's game, agains tell
that he goes for like twenty one five and five
with three field and two turnovers. It's it's a brilliant
floor game. The guys seven percent of from the line.
He's making big shots from three. He's an underrated defender.
And meanwhile, you know he got people pretending that Cooper
Flag is the best defender in America when really it's

(50:33):
just a team for because guys like Caniple who don't
get the praise, they don't get the acclaim that that
Cooper Flagg does. This guy, all he does is is
work in the team concept. He spaces the floor for
Flag and Proctor and for Mala Watch and James and
all these other guys, the guys off the bench that
are scoring, and and the guys the guys off the

(50:54):
bench that are that are able to take advantage. I mean,
he he just sort of quietly goes about his business.
This in a way that we've seen some like I'm
thinking like a Mike Dunleedy or something like that. Like
we we haven't seen a lot of duke guys come
in and just sort of play the calm floor game
that can Nipple has And I think that couple with
flag and is brilliance all around, and he is brilliant.

(51:17):
Couple with some heavy guard play from guys like Foster
and then of course Proctor. You've got a rim protector
in Mala Watch where you can get up in shooters
like against Alabama and force them to drive because Mala
Watch is standing there and you've got other guys that
are coming off the bench. You get stand there with
size and Gillis on the bench and this and that.
They're a very good roster. I still think Florida can

(51:39):
beat you the most ways, but I'm not sure Florida
is playing the best ball. I actually think the team
where the best chance to win. If you look at
Vegas islets. It's basically even money right now is Duke
to your point, And if I had to pick it
over again, I've got Florida over Duke in my bracket.
I think I would pick Duke over Florida if it
you know, if given the chance to do it over
I think I think the way Duke is playing right now,

(52:01):
they can get past Houston. They match up really, really
well in a lot of ways with Florida, and I
think they're playing better ball right now.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah, a lot of people are talking about this Houston
team probably gonna have a lot of trouble with the
Blue Devils. We'll see how it all shakes out. But
I'm with you about Mala walk too. I mean the
job that he does right now, just not picking up
fouls right and being a pretty new guy to the game.
That's one of the things when you're a big guy
in the middle that you fall victim of, especially in
tournament play. He's done a tremendous job though, just one

(52:28):
foul the other day against Alabama. And then I'll say
this two qualt When I was when I watched the
Crimson Tide and the way they were shooting the ball
to get to this matchup against Duke, and they hit
what twenty five of fifty one threes, I said to myself,
they're gonna come back to the mean, They're gonna regress
to the middle and eight of thirty two twenty five
percent against the Blue Devils, And as I'm watching it unfolded,

(52:51):
I'm going there it is. You almost knew it was coming,
you know, Yes, I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Now. I also think that BYU allowed Alabama to get
comfortable in the gym and some of this, like you
know this is this is a point I've made before.
I think sometimes you walk into the gym and you
have to prove me wrong about your team. For example,
Duke is a very good defensive team, and they have

(53:23):
become increasingly good over the course of the season at
running teams off the three point line and funneling them inside.
It's Duke has always been an elite two point defensive team,
but they've gotten better from three over time. And so
I think walking into the gym, if you're Alabama, you're
feeling a little bit You're feeling a little bit cramped,
and you're feeling a little bit claustrophobic because you don't

(53:44):
feel like you have a lot of space. On the
other end of the spectrum, you walk into the gym's BYU.
That is a self fulfilling prophecy. That is a team.
I said this, I think by U i Brackett, but
I said, by you cannot play the way that they've
been playing and beat Alabama. They're gonna get run out
of the gym because they were giving up a ton
of three point attempts and teams were making them at
a decent clip, but like, Alabama's going to abuse that.

(54:06):
And then Alabama was giving up almost no three point attempts,
so they are forcing you to make twos and take
twos and Byu is giving up way too many threes.
What happened, Well, Alabama walks into the gym, they know
they're gonna get threes because BYU's previous tournament opponents were
getting threes, and so they are comfortable from the moment
they get in the gym. By You needed to go
in there and change that narrative. They had to physically

(54:27):
do it. Either Alabama's gonna miss shots or by He's
gonna make them misshots. And it turned out that Byu
wasn't able to do either one of those things. That
Alabama operated with total impunity beyond a three point line,
to the point they were, you know, chucking thirty footers
and making them. Then you fast forward to the Duke game.
Like I said, Alabama's gonna have to proof to themselves
that Duke's not an elite defensive team. They could not

(54:49):
do it. So I think some of this is based
on like coaches know when you go into a gym. Listen,
you know this swaning when you're walking into a pickup
game when you start pointing out who's got Oh, you're
already saying I'm scoring on this guy, or I'm gonna
have a hard time and the game hadn't even started yet.
You know that college that happens too, where they know

(55:10):
where the weak points are, they know where the strong
points are, and you kind of know going in this
is gonna be a hard game for me, or I'm
gonna get my shots up today, I better be making them.
And I think that Alabama is a perfect case of
the b YU game and the Duke game, where both
ends of the spectrum sort of came to fruition based
on what they would have thought was gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Coming in on Twitter at qual Talk every day noon
until three o'clock, Alabama's with qualking Ben one of five
to five. The roar in the Upstate all right, qualk.
Let's talk about this Clemson basketball roster, because one of
the things that gets tossed around when we've talked about
this is people will say, well, everybody's dealing with this.
I can't think of another program really that I know

(55:48):
just off the hoof that I would say, Oh, yeah,
they've had a roster and that's been dis depleted via
the portal, via graduation and all of that. There's a
lot to replace for Brad Brownell, what's the what's the
feeling in your mind right now around the program of
the complete turnover that this you know, roster is gonna

(56:11):
have during the off season.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Well, a couple of things. First of all, I do
think that this is somewhat like this is something that
happens right to a certain extent. And you know, when
you have the type of lotster that Clinton had this year,
it also happens like one of the reasons Clinton's you know,
Clinton stopped playing on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament is
because their bench was not very good. So what happened, Well,
you lost four starters, well three starters, h now four

(56:38):
star you lost four starters. Yeah, the two transferson into
two graduating seniors because Dylan Hunter's returning, right, so clearally
you're starting for next year's returning. And then which of
those bench guys did you feel like we're gonna be starters?
None of them? And you know, if somebody else wants
to make them a starter like Jake Hutt Breeder's been
a multi year role, Guy uh E might west Art.

(56:59):
You know, Dell Joel probably thought he was gonna be
a lead guard in a year two. He wants to start.
Why would? Why would? Brad By now tells del Jones
he's gonna start. To me, he's gonna be starting in
the n I t is where he's gonna be starting.
It was not an NCAA ton of the roster. If
you start playing the loyalty guy like Asa Thomas, I'm sorry,
not gonna start. You know, You're just not. So it

(57:19):
gives them an opportunity to use the money that's coming
off the books to be able to upgrade. And based
on what we're seeing in the portal, based on the
interest that Clemson habit, now I go sign them all. Look, Paul, combat,
if somebody dubbed it recently, is brutal, man, It is
brutal and so you're not gonna get them all. But
Brad Banel Fronde a really good job of the portal.
His hit rate in the portal, it's probably as good

(57:40):
as anybody, particularly if you're balling on a budget. Right,
if you're ball on a budget, if you're not Kansas,
if you're not you know, some some elite spending group,
you're you're probably gonna have a You're probably gonna have
about a fifty to fifty hit rate. Brad right now
crushed it with Victor Locke, and he crushed it with
with Jayden zach Er. He crushing with Joe Girard. And

(58:02):
then of course we know about the Sweet six teamd
from eighteen and all the transfers there. They're gonna do
their due diligence. They're gonna try to find the pieces
that fit. Yeah, I understand why people are bridge jumping
a little bit here, But would you feel any better
if you're starting five was Dylan Hunter, Christian Reeves, Jake
high Braider, Dell Jones, and Chelsea Wiggins? Or do you

(58:25):
feel better that this program is not settling for those guys,
that they're actually going to upgrade and that those guys
were not gonna be multi year role players, which is
hardly ever the case anywhere that you have multi year
role guys. So I think all of those elements are
at play here, and obviously it's gonna matter who they get,
but I think the early returns are that Clinton is

(58:46):
a prominent player and a lot of big time recruitments.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Well from that standpoint, I mean I would argue, I mean,
I hate to kind of feel this way about Dylan Hunter,
but he's like what six point five point per game
something like that. I mean, even his position can be
taken by somebody through the portal. I mean, if Clemson
chose to look at it that way, right, I mean,

(59:09):
he could be a bench guy again.

Speaker 5 (59:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
Yeah, I mean I think throw now whatever he just say.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I mean, I mean you think they'll protect him?

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Yeah, I think so. Well, First of all, I think
when you do have a three year guy who's improved
like Dylan is, I think you're assuming that there's gonna
be improven again, right, because like his Junke shot was
broke as a joke for a couple of years, and
it wasn't great this year, but it was better. I
mean it was it was much better shooting the ball.
His assist turnover ratio is elite. He was the only guy,
and we saw that he was the only guy who

(59:39):
thinks and sees the floor like a point guard. And
so when they lost that, you lost the ability to
play with a true point guard on the floor. I
think that matters. I also think it matters that he
was one of the most valuable players in the country,
given that when he when he ended the starting five,
Clinton had the most efficient starting five in the country.
Five man starting five that were the most fishing in

(01:00:00):
terms of offensive and defensive efficiency for one hundred possessions
in America. Better than better than a better than any
of these teams. So to me, that says a lot
about Dylan Hunter and what he could do defensively, how
he puts guys in position to score. I do think
that he shouldn't feel totally safe. But I'm also gonna say, look,
I've seen people point to that and go, well, la,
wait a minute, man, Dylan's not producing a time. Look

(01:00:23):
inside the numbers, Look at how Dylan facilitates what he
does defensively. I think he's a more valuable guy than
shows up in the stat sheet. And I'm a firm
believer that every single quality team has a stat sheet filler,
dirty work guy in their starting five or in their
best five that can make things go. I think it's
easier to find a fifteen point a game scoring a

(01:00:45):
ten point game scoring the portal than just to find
a guy to do that dirty work. And so I
think that's why Dylan. Yes, I agree with you that
Dylan should be pushed. He shouldn't just be you know,
go set it and forget it at the point. But
I also think you shouldn't feel the need to replace
him in the portal because if if you put the
right pieces around him, he's gonna be able to do
all the stuff he did this year that you loved,
he's gonna be able to do that again and probably

(01:01:05):
get you a little.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Bit extra qualk as always my man, we always appreciate you.
And hey, this time next week we'll be able to
talk a little bit about the spring game. Should be
a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Oh can't wait, man, we hadn't talk any about the
spring spring practice. Man, football, football taking a backseat to
baseball and basketball. Man, it's a weird time around here.
We can afford to. It's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Yeah, but hey, you know what, that's the dabbolization in
my opinion of the athletic department. Kind of like the
city has changed. You're starting to see the athletic department
takes strides forward thanks to the job they've done on
the grid iron for so many years. Qual My man,
be good. We'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Thanks, Wannie, appreciate you. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
There you go. William Qualkin Bush hanging out with us
here on a Monday afternoon talking a little Clemson basketball
to the NCAA tournament. Didn't get a chance to talk
Clympson baseball with him. Always loved when we do get
a chance to talked with qualk about that. He's so
knowledgeable on the sport. A lot of people love Williamqualkin
Bush when he's on the call for baseball, kind of

(01:02:08):
like people you remember when when Dan Scott would was
on the call for baseball. People at Clemson just love
Dan Scott calling games, and you know he calls him
over for Firman. Now he may even do the Greenville drive.
I'm not one hundred percent sure anyway. Quick Break will
come back with more reaction from our conversation. Will quat
right after this Lawton Swaan with you on Monday. That
was William qualkin Bush before the break talking about the

(01:02:29):
situation with Clempson basketball recruiting and bringing in the pieces
that Clempson is going to need to do it. And
it's not just recruiting like in the sense that we're
talking about recruiting through the portal the vacanc season. We
talked about this last week on this roster. It's just immense.

(01:02:52):
I don't don't. I don't like I don't. I don't
feel like Qualk's trying to spin it. I don't think
other people that cover Clempson are trying to spin it
to make it sound more positive than than it is.
But don't I don't think this is the norm. I
think most teams have. And I could be one hundred

(01:03:14):
percent wrong. You might say, Swanny, here's the list of teams.
You could take a look for yourself. But I feel
like most of the teams, when you go through and
talk about like their rosters, they're not just completely bare

(01:03:42):
because of graduation in the portal. I think most of
these teams have juniors and sophomores that are maturing and
going to be able to play. I think Clemson's in

(01:04:08):
a unique spot in that regard by comparison to most
teams in the country. I could be wrong. Maybe most
teams out there don't have a lot of guys on
their roster and it's just the portal portal madness, portal combat,
as my buddy super Fan coined it, and love hearing

(01:04:30):
Qualk use it. I hope Qualk's using it on his
show as well. But that's kind of what it feels
like right now, Like the cupboard is so bare. I
am concerned, and I think the easy, you know, way
to kind of maneuver past it is to go, well,
everybody's everybody's doing that. It's like that for everybody, all right. So,

(01:04:57):
speaking of the NCAA tournament real quick, you know, the
SEC and we talked we'll call by this did have
four of the eight teams in the Elite eight, but
it didn't go well for two of them, as Duke

(01:05:18):
hammered Alabama eighty five sixty five in Houston Hammer, Tennessee
sixty nine to fifty. But more importantly, Nate Oates back
in March, threw some shots at the Atlantic Coast Conference. Natoates,
head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide before getting rolled

(01:05:42):
by the Blue Devils eighty five sixty five in the
NCAA Tournament. Here's what Nate Oates had to say earlier
this year, or actually technically earlier this month.

Speaker 6 (01:05:54):
In all, we had a really good regular season. We
ended up number one strength to schedule in the country
again back to back here as we ended up with that,
So I think that speaks to the level the SEC's gotten,
and then obviously how we schedule the non conference accombination
of both. But you know, during those last seven games
that we're all top twenty five opponents, we had more

(01:06:17):
top twenty five wins in our last seven games than
every ACC school did the entire season. We had more
than in those seven games, and fifty five percent of
power for Big East schools did the whole year. So
you know, we may not have ended up going seven
to zero or six and one, but I thought we

(01:06:39):
had quality games, quality wins to end it with a
road win at number one.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
And all of that, All of that got you a
twenty point beat down in the NCAA Tournament. There you go,
Congratulations on all of those accomplishments. Didn't do anything for you.
When it was crunch time. Speaking of crunch time, one

(01:07:06):
of the other criticisms people had I mentioned earlier about
Kelvin Sampson and the incredible play that Houston drew up
to beat Purdue. One of the things I think a
lot of people forgot about in that game was in
the waiting moments before that ball gets tipped out of
bounds and goes to Houston for the inbound possession, and
he got reviewed, and that gave Houston time to drop

(01:07:28):
the play, and it was a brilliant play that Kelvin
Sampson drew up. There were a lot of people and
myself included, that thought Houston should have been called in
that game for an offensive foul on that final possession,
where to me, there was a clear, a clear push

(01:07:51):
off from Milo Zussan for Houston as he's driving, and
if that gets called, it's produce basketball, not Houston basketball
with an inbounds under the basket. And I know a
lot of people say, man, so the rules are different
with the game on the line. Yeah. I don't know

(01:08:16):
if that's always the case, but I think what we
have done to officials is we have complained that you'd
like to see the players decide the game, and I
think the referees have heard that message and they've swallowed

(01:08:38):
their whistles because of it. Quite frankly, I'm okay with
it being played out. But in that moment, if a
ref is giving the guy the old offensive foul with
the old chuck, I'm not against it. Quite frankly, I'm

(01:09:00):
not against it. But that would have changed that game
significantly because it would have given Purdue the ball in
a tie ball game with I don't know, probably maybe
if the whistle's blown there six seven seconds remaining something
like that. I'm not one hundred percent sure about how
much time was left anyway, quick break. The spring game

(01:09:20):
for Clemson is right around the bend. We talked about
Colorado and Deon Sanders having some interest in trying to
play against another team. We focused on that to a
degree on Friday Show as well, talking about Dabo Sweeney's
comments where he said, man, I've been saying it for years,
and Fran Brown and the Syracuse Orange We're willing to

(01:09:42):
do it. We'll let you know what the NCAA had
to say about that opportunity for Colorado and Syracuse to
put together a competitive spring game when we get back.
Keep it a lot right here on Fox Sports Radio
fourteen hundred and on the iHeartRadio app. Lawton Swam with
you on a Monday at Clemson Sports. On Twitter, TikTok, Instagram,
we are where you are. Follow us over there. Don't

(01:10:04):
forget the next time you're up in Tigertown to stop
buy Alumni Hall on the corner of campus on College Avenue,
right there in downtown Clemson, just the stones throw away
from campus. If you will for all your Clemson merchandise, apparel, stickers,
tailgate gear, baseball gear, hats. Don't forget Clemson students, faculty

(01:10:28):
in all military get ten percent off of shopping in store.
Plus you take advantage of their Alumni Hall Rewards past program.
Not to mention, if you shop online and you go
through our website to get to Alumni Hall, we will
get credit for your experience online. So we thank Alumni

(01:10:49):
Hall for being a loyal supporter and sponsor on this program,
and we hope that you will take that loyalty into
their building on the corner of campus on College Avenue
with downtown in this Alumni Haul. So we're talking about
the spring game. A lot of people going to be
entire town. Great chance to go by Alumni Hall and
get your gear. But Dion Sanders and fran Brown, oh

(01:11:15):
a Dion proposed in fran Brown was willing to do
it a spring game between Colorado and Syracuse. This is
something that Dabo Sweeny has brought up in the past,
is hey, this is something he thinks would be good
for the sport. This is something I brought up and said, hey,
you know what, maybe this is a way to take
some of those matchups, like a contest against the Sentadel

(01:11:38):
off of your regular season schedule and play against a
little high caliber opponent, but still support in state schools
by having almost a jamboree. Maybe you have two of
these instead of three spring scrimmages where you know a
couple of them are against yourself. Maybe you play against
a couple of in state schools and those guys get
some of the ticket gate and you don't ask the

(01:12:00):
injury you know, to the players, because everybody out there
right now is a Clemson Tiger on Saturday. I mean
nothing like a little Clemson on Clemson crime to set
the season off on the wrong foot. Anyway, The NC
DOUBLEA denied the proposal. A spring game between Colorado Syracuse

(01:12:26):
was proposed to the nc DOUBLEA after the idea came
together on social media two programs facing off of each
against each other outside of live games. On Friday, the
NCAA made their decision official. The FBS Oversight Committee will
not recommend a waiver to allow the game to take place.

(01:12:47):
The committee argued that other programs are too far in
the spring practice to schedule such a game, as well
as academic concerns and potential recruiting advantages not available to
other programs. Back on March seventeenth, d'on Sanders got the
idea rolling before Colorado's spring practice began. Sanders believes that

(01:13:10):
spring games should still occur as pro occur as programs
across the country decide to cancel them. But Sanders threw
out the idea of going head to head against somebody
else in an inter squad scrimmage. In inter yeah, not
intra inter squad scrimmage. Sanders said, quote to have a

(01:13:31):
competitive game against your own kids, your own guys, kind
of gets monotonous. You really can't tell the level of
your guys because you know it's the same old, same
old everybody kind of knows each other towards the end.
I would like to style it up like the pros.
I would like to practice against someone a few days
and then have the spring game. And I think the

(01:13:52):
public will be satisfied with it, with it tremendously. I
think it's a tremendous idea. I've told those person those
personnel who should understand that it's a tremendous idea. Brian Brown,
head coach of Syracuse, in tweeted Deon Sanders, We'll come

(01:14:13):
to bowling for three days. Within twenty minutes of the supposing,
Brown's tweet had more than four hundred retweets and two
thousand likes. And you could argue, look, in that scenario,
Syracuse is giving up a home game or a home
scrimmage right in the spring. But you could do one
on the road and one at home too, Like that

(01:14:35):
would be the other thing. So maybe Colorado would host Syracuse,
but then Colorado might go to Arkansas and Syracuse might
go to Colorado, and then Syracuse might host Michigan State,
and so you might could do two of those games.

(01:14:55):
And again I'm more of a p I personally would
prefer it to be against those smaller in state schools,
then you can minimize travel. But maybe every state doesn't
have a scenario similar to that. I mean, I know
that the Citadel and Wafford and Presbyterian, et cetera, our

(01:15:21):
schools in Firman that would play Clemson. I don't know
what the scenario is in Syracuse. I'm assuming there are
in state schools there, but they may not even have
the same connection that you and I feel to those programs.

(01:15:43):
I think possibly the size of our state has something
to do with how you feel about it. I think
there's even though, look, I'm not old enough to remember

(01:16:05):
the the full history of the Southern Conference, like it
wasn't a thing in my day as a Clemson person.
I mean, the Tigers played in SICON from nineteen twenty
one to nineteen fifty three, but Furman was in the

(01:16:25):
league from nineteen thirty six forward along with the Citadel,
and from thirty six to fifty three they were conference
opponents and conference mates. And so there is this feeling
that I have, even though I wasn't alive for that,

(01:16:45):
where I feel like you kind of owe it to
these guys a little bit, and they're in your state
and many of their fans to root for a power
for team, root for Clemson, or root for South Carolina.
They get the luxury that I have with Major League Baseball,
where I can have a team in the American in

(01:17:07):
the league of the National League. They could say, look,
I root for the CITYL game in and game out.
I root for the CIITDL when they're facing Clemson. But
on Saturdays, my family and I go to Clemson, right,
and those people exist. They want the bigger game experience.
But I think the idea of playing against another opponent
is a really good one. It'll be interesting to see
where this goes now that Dion and fran Brown sort

(01:17:28):
of push the envelope. Final segment around the ben stay with.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Us, what have you done for me lately? It's a
fair question. Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture,
don't forget history. Lucky for us at Clemson, the answer
to the questions what have you done for me lately?

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
And what have you done? Always are the same. We
win sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Final segment on a Monday afternoon, the show that shakes
the South Lane clips the spring game coming up this
weekend not gonna be on television. A little bit of
a bummer, I think for a lot of people, but
kind of where it is not going to be broadcast live.
How about that not gonna be broadcast live on television anyway,
That's what we've got. On Friday, we talked about the

(01:19:11):
situation with Maryland's head coach, or that was Thursday or Friday,
Kevin Willard potentially leaving Maryland to take the job at Villanova.
He was booed leaving the leaving the hotel for their
NCAA tournament game against Florida, which they lost eighty seven

(01:19:33):
to seventy one. And he did indeed accept Villanova's offer,
and he's headed to Nova, which opens up that Maryland job,
which interestingly, a name that's been brought up is Buzz Williams,
head coach at Texas A and M by way of

(01:19:55):
Virginia Tech by way of I believe, if I remember correctly,
Marquette and I started to wonder about this for a minute.
From the standpoint of Texas A and M this fan base,

(01:20:16):
I sometimes I think they're insufferable. I can't imagine if
they actually ever won anything, because when they hired Buzz Williams,
oh they were cuckoo for Cocoa puffs about how their
basketball team was gonna be, you know, the next greatest
thing since slice bread? And can you imagine if he

(01:20:40):
were to leave? And then on top of that, remember
the way they reacted when they got Jimbo Fisher from
Florida State. They were gonna be the next best thing
since slice bread. And now course they've got Mike Elko.

(01:21:02):
And again I think Elko is gonna probably do better
than I would assume. Mike Elko is gonna end up
doing better than Jimbo Fisher. Don't remember, wasn't all that
long ago Texas A and M got Jim Shoshnagel as
their baseball coach. Schlashnagel landed in college station from TCU

(01:21:30):
after tremendous success at TCU. He was gonna be the
greatest thing since sliced bread. Spent a couple of years,
A and M gone to Texas. Schlashnegel, of course, did
spend some time at Clemson back in nineteen ninety three,
but as an assistant coach. But I think the the

(01:21:56):
point is if they ever actually win something, they're going
to be impossible to deal with. They're bad enough as
it is, and you go Swani. Why were they excited
when they got Schloscheneger from TCU If you don't remember,
Schloshcheneger took TCU from being just kind of an average

(01:22:18):
ball club to a College World Series in twenty ten, well,
superregional No. Nine World Series in twenty ten, super Regional
in twenty twelve, World Series in fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.
I mean, just flat out cooking with hot grease. Never

(01:22:42):
won the NCAA tournament, but we're one of the best
baseball programs. And he goes to A and M and
A and M's thinking, Man, we're in. They go College
World Series here one they go College Rold Series runner
up last season, and my man said, skippity doo, I'm
out of here, packed his bags for their arch rival.

(01:23:08):
Can you imagine how insufferable A and M fans will
be if they finally do win a championship with the
greatest thing since sliced bread as a coach. We'll see
what ends up happening with Buzz williams. Oh. By the way, tomorrow,
Mike Eva Gamecockcentral dot Com going to join the program,

(01:23:32):
And I gotta say game Cognation was super excited when
Paul Miniery was hired as their head coach. I'm already
starting to hear people that are absolutely frustrated. The Gamecocks
are seventeen and twelve and one and eight in the
SEC after being swept this past weekend by the Tennessee Volunteers.

(01:23:57):
Now that's the number one rank volunteers, mind you, and
the game Cocks were competitive in two of the three games,
but Gamecock fans a little unrest after losing a series
to Arkansas three games to none, losing to North Carolina

(01:24:18):
in the midweek, and then losing three consecutive games to Tennessee.
I think the game Cocks right now riding a seven
game losing streak heading into their matchup with Presbyterian tomorrow.
But a lot of people frustrated in Gamecock Country. But again,
they're playing tough teams. These are tough teams everybody. But
a one to eight start in the league does not

(01:24:38):
help the head coach, regardless of how well thought of
he is. All right, we'll talk to you oll tomorrow.
Until then, as always, you'll take care now and co
Tigers