Wednesday February 20, 2008

Red or Blue?

Red or Blue?
There is a great quote from the movie “Miracle” that I thought of after last night’s disaster in Tallahassee. The movie is about the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team and the “Miracle on Ice” where the Americans upset the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal. Kurt Russell plays Herb Brooks, the head coach of the underdog American squad and during a workout in preparation for the Olympic games Brooks is just killing his players in practice. The line I thought of last night came when Brooks was trying to get his team to understand the value of hard work so he told them, “You don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone!”

The 2007-08 Clemson basketball team is a perfect example of this same situation. The Tigers can play with anyone in the country but not because of talent. Instead, Clemson has to create offense with its defense. The Tigers have to rebound the basketball. They have to box out. They have to force tempo on the opponent. They have to get to loose balls. They have to win the hustle points. They can’t out Mickey D a team since they don’t have any McDonald’s All-Americans.

If the Tigers do the little things, this team can play with anyone in this conference or the country. However, when they don’t play with effort they can be embarrassed by the likes of FSU, Ole Miss and Charlotte.

Unfortunately we saw the bad Tigers last night. We saw a tired look. We saw a lack of effort and intensity. We saw a bad FSU team with a bad coach and only seven scholarship players beat Clemson to put a blemish on the enthusiasm and the talk of ACC and NCAA seeds.

On my radio show this morning we had a tremendous feedback on the subject as I stated that I was a fence-sitter today. Normally I do not take this stance. Normally I take a side and try to convince others. However, today I was in need of advice. I saw both sides of the argument and tried to present both cases. I will present some of each case to Tigernet today and would love to continue to get a pulse and see which side of the fence fans sit on this issue.

Red
The red vote is not the Republican vote. Instead it is a vote for the red, irate feeling. It is the blood boiling after watching a pathetic effort in the first half.

Purnell said the defensive effort in the first half was embarrassing. The Seminoles shot 62% from the field in the first stanza but my contention is that too many shots were uncontested. The effort was missing. The energy was sapped. The team looked tired and appeared to have heavy legs.

I am not upset that James Mays goes 0-10 from the field even though some could be because he appears to just throw the ball up towards the basket from short distances. He is hurt but some of the shots looked like they were just thrown instead of shot.

I am not upset at K.C. Rivers’ night offensively. Anyone can go cold and his 1-10 night from behind the three-point line will happen to the best at any time.

I am not upset at Terrence Oglesby’s 1-7 night. He is a freshman and it was his game in Littlejohn that kept the Tigers from getting swept by the Seminoles.

I don’t want to shoot 31% from the field, 11% from the three-point land and 52% from the free throw line but I am not upset about the shooting because all teams will have a bad night occasionally. I am a little disappointed in the shot selection in that the Tigers shot 27 threes and did not get the ball inside enough.

The main support for the red vote is the idea that Clemson lost a great opportunity last night. FSU is awful and the atmosphere was just as bad. This is not like losing to Duke in Cameron or Maryland in College Park. This was a bad loss to a bad team in a bad atmosphere. The Tigers had a perfect opportunity to continue the momentum of a good season and improve the seedings for the ACC and NCAA tournaments but they laid an egg. This is clearly a missed opportunity and few excuses will suffice today.

Blue
The blue platform is about accepting the loss in a calm and pleasant way.

This agenda relies on the fact that Clemson has played hard in almost every game this season. The Ole Miss, Charlotte and FSU games are now only three that I can point to in terms of questioning the effort.

This team had played three games in six days including two straight road games. We are late in the season so fatigue was a factor.

Also as stated above, shooting success can come and go with any team and if the Tigers would have shot the ball better they could have easily won last night. This party claims that Mays is hurt and that certainly is a consideration.

The blue vote is one that says this is a good team that will rebound from this. It says they split road games this week with NC State and Florida State and that is pretty good. This vote is for less panic and outrage and more of an understanding of why they played with little effort last night.

The Verdict
Fans usually are more emotional and less rational after a loss. On my radio show this morning the vote was 17 red votes, 7 blue votes and a couple of garnets, burgundies and an orange with a shade of blue. I figured we would have a couple of independent votes like we did for John Anderson, Ralph Nader and Ross Perot but for the most part people voted straight down party lines this morning. The people that were disappointed were very disappointed and the people that were not upset seemed to make valid points for their case.

I am still leaning towards a red tint but still can be persuaded. Let the debate continue. Where do you stand?

864-834-6060

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency