Thursday February 28, 2008

First Class Move

Classy Move from a True Tiger
As the team lined up to sing the alma mater after Wednesday’s night’s win over Miami Oliver Purnell huddled his guys up and said something to them. It caught my eye and raised my curiosity. As soon as the alma mater had finished the entire team went over to press row and shook hands with Pete Yanity, the Tigers’ play-by-play voice. I did not find out until later than Pete lost his father Tuesday and our prayers are with him also. But I got a little choked up when I found out what Coach Purnell did. Another classy move from an extremely classy guy!

This one gesture probably told us everything we needed to know about Purnell if we did not know before.

Last night could have been his best win as the Tigers’ head coach and it would have been easy to think of his accomplishment. Here is a guy that minutes before became just the second coach in school history to have back-to-back 20 win seasons and he could have been caught up in the achievement. Instead, he was more concerned about something much more important than basketball.

As I reflect on what I saw Wednesday night about 9:30 PM it will have a lasting effect on me. I know it will be a moment that Pete will never forget and I have an idea that a player or two and maybe a manager or assistant coach will take it with them as well. Purnell took the opportunity to deflect attention for him and his players and staff and put things back into perspective for all of us.

It was not too long ago that a former head basketball coach at Clemson proclaimed, “I am Clemson basketball!” What a contrast in style, character and class.

I have always held Coach Purnell in high regards. He gained my respect in how he handled the Len Bias tragedy in College Park years ago as he was one of the few that led things in the right direction. I have always admired his positive nature and his patience. He has always been a high character guy in a lot of people’s mind but last night he took it to a new level.

A selfless act tells us more about the man. There are givers and takers among us and for Purnell to revel more of himself last night put him in a completely different stratosphere in my book. I am not sure how many people close to him that Purnell has lost but he obviously knew the importance of sharing condolences with someone early in the grieving process. Respect is often asked for but seldom shown anymore than what I witnessed last night.

I only got a short time to share my condolences with Pete after I found out the news last night but I was very interested to learn more about his father. Pete told Coach Purnell in his post-game interview last night that his father was a huge basketball fan and had become a big Tiger fan.

I don’t care if the guy ever wins another basketball game at Clemson, last night Purnell solidified his status as a true Tiger in these eyes last night.

Moment of Silence
I also thought it was a fitting move with the pre-game moment of silence for Larry Nash. Larry was an official scorer at Clemson for 40 years and his picture never looked better than it did on the big scoreboard at Littlejohn. This was another classy move to honor Larry especially with his son, Chris, at the scorer’s table where he used to work side by side with his father.

Tigers Come Through
In terms of the game itself I noticed the following:
*Great crowd-The energy and atmosphere was terrific last night. The students and fans bought into the significance of the game and it showed. If I can paraphrase a thought that says the band is the same every night but the concert is made by the crowd. Last night the crowd made the evening. You guys were fantastic!

*Incredible start-Leads of 24-6 and 33-12 were exactly what this team needed coming off of the sluggish loss in Tallahassee.

*Hammonds’ defense on McClinton-The All-ACC guard still had 18 points but Hammonds did a nice job on McClinton. After the game, Purnell said they wanted to take away the three-pointers and make McClinton a driver. McClinton was just 2-7 from three mainly because Hammonds played 38 hard minutes of terrific defense.

*Rivers comeback-K.C. Rivers struggled in Tallahassee but came back with a beautiful performance from behind the arch and the free throw line. The junior finished 4-5 from three point land and 5-6 from the free throw line.

*Stitt’s quickness and ability to finish-Earlier in the season Demontez Stitt had a hard time finishing against shot blockers like the Mississippi State post players. He has matured greatly throughout his freshman campaign and looked awesome last night. Stitt’s penetration was a big key last night but he finished drives with baskets that were huge keys to the offense.

*Mays was healthier-Because he could actually catch the ball, Mays got off to a great start. His spark was a key to a nice start.

*TO’s threes-I thought both of Oglesby’s three-pointers were huge in the first half run. His range continues to amaze. The freshman had a hard time on defense and took one bad shot but his bombs in the first stanza were needed.

*Lack of effort by the Tigers in the first eight minutes of the second half helped key the Hurricane comeback but you have to give Miami credit too. McClinton is a tough competitor and their athletic big men were a tough matchup.

*Defense intensity-The energy increased and the defense was outstanding coming down the stretch.

*Free throws down the stretch-It was so nice to watch Rivers, David Potter and Trevor Booker step up to the line and bang down free throws to clinch the huge victory.

*Had the Tigers blown a 21-point lead last night it could have been disastrous. Give the Tigers credit for showing resiliency and guts.

Now we can begin talk of RPI instead of NIT. Now we can talk about the chances of byes instead of play-ins. Now we can discuss NCAA tournament regions instead of NIT home or away games. Now March is no longer the “M word” around Clemson.

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