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CJ Spiller is the one who should be credited with opening the recruiting gates for Clemson- as well as landing Dabo the HC job.
For whatever reason Clemson baseball is where Clemson football was through the early 2010s- close but not able to deliver their better performances in big games. I also think Vandy simply had Clemson's number. Sometimes its not about quality but the matchup and they certainly proved that. The big question is if Lee can crack the code in terms of coaching, mindset or preparation. As odd as it sounds- I think playing at home might have been a detriment. Instead of relaxing the players I think they just lacked some focus. I also wonder if not being seeded top 8 was a little bit of a distraction.
I was joking with a former coworker yesterday that it took Dabo about 7 years to break through, Brownell took 8, so Lee will probably need 6 or 9. He's been pretty good in season and is the conference tournament so its really just true post season that is a size too large at the moment.
Dabo won the division his 2nd full season as coach and Clemson played in ACC title game for the first time since it was created after expansion.
He then won the ACC his third full season as coach. That was Clemson's first ACC title in 20 years.
He's had double digit wins every year since 2011 including that year. To have double digit wins in a season, a team has to win a lot of big games. Most of his losses for a few years were to very good FSU and SC teams.
Spiller never played on a national title team or ACC title team so I don't think he had the same impact that Watson and Boyd did. Boyd had those big wins over LSU, Ohio State, and Va Tech twice the year it was a BCS bowl team.
The baseball has had 42 or more wins all three seasons, won the ACC tournament his first year and tied for best regular ACC record this year. I think that is impressive.
I think basketball has to be graded on a curve given all the historically good programs in the ACC. I think Clemson gets to the tournament most years with the same players if it played in other conferences. Clemson has only won ACC regular season once and has never won the ACC tournament in basketball despite having a lot of good coaches over the years. Clemson doesn't really have any natural advantage in basketball recruiting that it has in football and baseball. It able to raid NC for good football players but generally not in basketball.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 06-06-2018 at 07:18 PM..
The SEC is guaranteed to have 3 teams in Omaha. They could have had more, but the NCAA made sure the 6 remaining teams faced each other.
I wouldn't necessarily say "the NCAA made sure the 6 remaining teams faced each other". They created the bracket before the tournament even started and everybody all ready knew if team X won this region, they would play the winner of this other region, it's not like they "reseeded" all the regional winners after the first weekednd.
I mean, think about it, Auburn won the Raleigh region, South Carolina won the Greenville Region, Vanderbilt won the Clemson region and Mississippi State won the Tallahassee region. I'm pretty sure the NCAA didn't place those teams in those regions knowing/hoping they would beat the "host team".
I think it's just one of those "weird" occurrences where all 6 remaining SEC teams end up playing each other. The NCAA, in their national seeds, would have wanted Clemson, Florida St., ECU, and NC State to advance, or at least it gave them the home field advantage.
10 SEC teams made the tournament and there were 16 regionals, with only 4 of them being hosted by a SEC school. So if all the seeds held, only 4 SEC teams would have made the Sweet 16, and in reality 2 of the SEC host schools Georgia and Old Miss, choked and lost back-back games after cruising to the championship game, like you mentioned.
You do know, if both Clemson and Florida St. won their regionals, they would have faced each other in the Supers.
I have seen a lot of complaining from SEC folks on social media about them all matching up in the regional and the NCAA is out to get them. Trust me, the NCAA would love SEC teams in Omaha. You all generally show up in droves(except Florida, they have no fans).
As was mentioned this was a case of upsets and the SEC winning more regionals than the seed suggested.
It also is a case of travel/expenses. NCAA baseball seeds teams in regionals for a reason, to cut down on travel costs for a mostly non revenue generating sport. It isn't even remotely surprising that teams in the same conference that share a same region are more likely to be matched up. That or you all complain about being an LSU and getting shipped all the way to Oregon.
I wouldn't necessarily say "the NCAA made sure the 6 remaining teams faced each other". They created the bracket before the tournament even started and everybody all ready knew if team X won this region, they would play the winner of this other region, it's not like they "reseeded" all the regional winners after the first weekednd.
I mean, think about it, Auburn won the Raleigh region, South Carolina won the Greenville Region, Vanderbilt won the Clemson region and Mississippi State won the Tallahassee region. I'm pretty sure the NCAA didn't place those teams in those regions knowing/hoping they would beat the "host team".
I think it's just one of those "weird" occurrences where all 6 remaining SEC teams end up playing each other. The NCAA, in their national seeds, would have wanted Clemson, Florida St., ECU, and NC State to advance, or at least it gave them the home field advantage.
10 SEC teams made the tournament and there were 16 regionals, with only 4 of them being hosted by a SEC school. So if all the seeds held, only 4 SEC teams would have made the Sweet 16, and in reality 2 of the SEC host schools Georgia and Old Miss, choked and lost back-back games after cruising to the championship game, like you mentioned.
You do know, if both Clemson and Florida St. won their regionals, they would have faced each other in the Supers.
Don't the deeper south schools/ warmer climate (ACC and SEC) always have the larger programs and usually make up the majority of the NCAA field? I always thought it was because the winters are so long in the north. Some northern schools like Syracuse don't even have a baseball program.
I never understood this SEC conference cheerleading thing and why many fans of SEC teams act like SEC teams are a band of brothers rather than rivals.
It is a team sport, not a conference sport.
I was happy to see FSU and NCSU lose because NCSU swept the series at Clemson and FSU knocked Clemson out of the ACC tournament.
I graduated from Tennessee and pull for them to do well. I generally pull for Auburn to do well except when they play UT. Outside of that, I would generally be happy to see most of the other SEC schools get stomped by pretty much anyone they face. Of course, I'm not a crazy sports fan in general. I think far too much emphasis and money is put into sports in comparison to academics, which is the real reason these schools should exist. The highest paid government employee in most states is the college football coach - that says something about our society in general.
I graduated from Tennessee and pull for them to do well. I generally pull for Auburn to do well except when they play UT. Outside of that, I would generally be happy to see most of the other SEC schools get stomped by pretty much anyone they face. Of course, I'm not a crazy sports fan in general. I think far too much emphasis and money is put into sports in comparison to academics, which is the real reason these schools should exist. The highest paid government employee in most states is the college football coach - that says something about our society in general.
I think people may support conference schools because it makes the conference as a whole look better and is therefore more appealing to recruits.
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