A couple of questions for your Friday email blog-

1. If OP were to leave over the next few years, has Clemson established itself enough in basketball to attract and pay for another top tier coach?

2. Compare Boyd and Korn, and when they do compete for playing time, what to look for?

3. I was disappointed somewhat with the offensive play calling in the bowl game, too many screens still, no running game, trick plays/reverses, etc....what will make Dabo's offensive scheme better next year, what changes are he making to play calls?

4. Do you expect O Line play to improve for next year given what you know now? That is my biggest concern still for next year.

For some reason I didn't read your blogs from this week until today. I was home from work and spending some time in the chair with the computer.

Anyway, I think you hit a home run in my opinion with your blogs on Monday and Tuesday regarding the importance of basketball at Clemson among the fans, students, and perhaps the administration. It's not just basketball as you mentioned going back to early football season issues that you wanted to address.

First, let me lay a foundation. I am 34 years old. I have never taken a class at Clemson University and did not graduate from Clemson. I am a graduate of Francis Marion University and I live here and work here in Florence. I was raised a Clemson fan by an uncle that never attended Clemson either. I am the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college. My parents learned to pull for Clemson when I was a kid because when we ever lost at anything, it would be a day or two before I would start eating and talking again.

I joined Iptay when I was 12 years old with money I saved up from mowing lawns around my neighborhood in July 1987. I was committed to something I whole-heartedly lived and believed in. I AM One Clemson.

The summary of what I have to say is this; it's a lot easier to say Clemson than it is to live Clemson.

The university is responsible for a piece of this, the administration has a piece, the students have a part, and this represents a societal issue as well.

I attended my first Clemson football game in September 1983. I told my uncle that day that Clemson was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. It was not just a game. It was a feeling. It was a passion that moved you right down to your bones and made you feel special. You always remember the special feelings.

I was raised on stories of Clemson. At the age of 8, I could quote Frank Howard and pick Banks McFadden out of a crowd. The stories I was raised on became the heroes of my childhood. They were stories of Buddy Gore, Steve Fuller, Jeff Davis, Rusty Adkins, Coach Wilhelm, Tree Rollins, Bobby Conrad, and so on..........

I had never met these people, but knew all about them.

Administrators were no different. I knew who George Bennett was. Jim Phillips was like a part of the family. Bob Bradley was somebody you wanted to meet cause he knew so much. You know, Mick you grew up the same way.

The point being, going to Clemson doesn't mean you are One Clemson! Working at Clemson doesn't mean you are One Clemson either. You have to live Clemson to be One Clemson. It's not always easy and not everyone can do it.

This whole problem starts at the top. The goal at Clemson is to be a Top 20 university. To achieve that goal, you have to have relevance campus-wide. Intramurals have to be important, so does the greek life, and the quality of life the students lead. Used to be an athletic event was the only show in town. Nothing else mattered. Now, with the Top 20 goals out there, things have balanced a bit. The university HAS to step back up and make a public statement to the university community that athletics are integral to our success as a university. Athletic success will directly lead to Top 20.

The administration has to do the same. As much as I hate to say this, we have people employed in high places at Clemson that aren't One Clemson. They'd just assume be somewhere else. Their just drawing the check. Who do we have today that our children will talk about tomorrow? That bothers me. Where is Herman McGee? Mr. B? Where is Dr.Edwards for crying out loud? We are lacking personalities.

Kids generally follow their leaders. This change has to start with our leaders. Our leaders need to sell out for One Clemson. The kids need to step up too. No one wants to pay the price anymore. It's a soft society. There was a time we prayed for cold weather because it made standing out in the elements for tickets more fun. Standing in the rain for football was expected because that WAS football. We've gotten soft.

Fact is, if the folks in charge at Clemson, and I am talking about everyone from President Barker to the Student Body President and down to the janitors, thought it was important, the kids would follow. The kids do not understand One Clemson because everyone ain't livin' it.

That's why I think Dabo looks like a cheerleader to some. He's not. He just lives One Clemson and the people that don't get it have a hard time with it. People don't understand me, but I don't care.

When Clemson gets All In for Clemson and One Clemson becomes the priority and not an option, then we can move forward. Until then, we may be in trouble.

Thanks for letting me vent. All the best and I look forward to catching up with you this spring.

As a student, I, too, am disappointed with my peers' lack of enthusiasm about the Clemson basketball team. We have an excellent team this year that needs our support, not our excuses. I thought that a Sunday night game would be attractive to most students, even with our recent losses. It certainly was for my circle of friends. My friends and I showed up over an hour before the game to wait in line for tickets. We stood up the entire game and did our part in making Littlejohn a formidable place to play. We had a blast! It is unfortunate that some in the student body does not feel the same way. I agree something needs to be done to invigorate the student
body when it comes to basketball.

However, I don't think you can entirely blame the student body for the lack of enthusiasm in Littlejohn. Many times during the GT game I looked over at the seats along the baseline and saw the non-student fans sitting in their seats, chatting with their neighbors, or dangerously close to falling asleep. Even worse, there were hundreds who decided simply not to show up. They are as much to blame as the students who fail to attend the game. The apathy you see for Clemson basketball is clearly not a generational problem, but a problem that transcends several generations of Clemson fans. If you are going to call out the students, you must call out these fans as well.

Overall, we need to find a way to amp up the enthusiasm for Clemson basketball from everyone. For students, this may be through a better ticket distribution or a new student section. For non-students, I'm not entirely sure but those with season tickets certainly need to step it up. The Clemson Nation in its entirety needs to step it up.

Sincerely,
Allison

Good job with the blog. I am glad that you added the prayer list and am hopeful that you will have some good news regarding some of these people in need in the near future.

With very little time remaining until signing day, which prospects remaining on our board do you think will sign with Clemson? Also, what are the chances that we play more than one quarterback in critical situations next season? I think Boyd will redshirt, but after that, you have to believe they find a way to get him on the field. Like you, I have a lot of confidence in Willy Korn, but you can't leave a talent like Boyd on the bench. You know they must have talked to the Boyd’s about this, so I was hoping you could shed some light on what the coaches are planning.

Again, good job on the blog.

Your blog on Student (Lack of) Involvement was right on. Perhaps we could ride around campus with a bull horn on game day reminding them there is a game today or tonight. I am afraid this "entitled" generation of students are in for some surprises in the near future. I hope OP's departure is not one of them.

YPA

I am writing in regards to your blog entry regarding the student attendance at the Georgia Tech basketball game. I think you are right to investigate why involvement is not higher but I strongly disagree to much of what you wrote. Your point that basketball should be an "institutional priority" is erroneous. It's easier to schedule around football games because they are on Saturdays and sometimes a Thursday night. Basketball games, however, are scheduled on various days of the week as well as weekends, making them much harder to schedule around.
As the former president of a student organization (a club sport) I can tell you that scheduling around athletic events is not the easiest thing to do. Luckily we were a fall sport so we could work with the football schedule easily but we did have one weekend that did cause us to be out of town during a home football game. Intramural field availability is at a high premium, as well. Also the attendance at the Georgia Tech game probably had just as much to do with Georgia Tech being winless in the ACC as it did our loss to North Carolina. Students simply aren't going to be as energized about playing against a team that is winless in the conference. Secondly, your statements about 'generational apathy' are of little value to this argument. This same apathetic generation just turned out in record amounts to elect a president. Many of the students at Clemson are involved in many activities and are less interested in going to 'watch' when they could be out doing. Waiting in line for tickets to see Clemson play a televised game against a bad
Georgia Tech team is not going to yield a large turnout. I may be wrong, but I am pretty certain students would have been waiting in line for tickets to see Clemson go head-to-head with Duke or North Carolina.

Lastly, Clemson as a whole has changed significantly in recent years. Due to President Barker's vision to improve Clemson's academic reputation, the profile of the Clemson student has evolved. The student body is made up of very accomplished students that probably would not have been interested in going to Clemson in the past. I will be the first to admit this has created some shortcomings in the student body demographic, but it is the reality. Many of these
students are very high achievers and are more interested in studying or being active participants in an activity than they are in simply watching others perform. Clemson - as a university - is first and foremost about academics. The sport of interest at Clemson is football, as well. Basketball is supported but it will probably never be as beloved as football. This is a bi-product of a national
championship that the large majority of Clemson students were not alive to see. It is unfair to attack the student body when they are under more pressure than many of their predecessors with their mounting loan debt, lofty expectations and an uncertain job market facing them upon graduation. While I am being apologetic of the students I know there is room for improvement, but no one was complaining about the crowd at the Wake Forest game. The crowd can
feed the team's energy but ultimately the players have to execute whether the game is held in Littlejohn Coliseum or the Daniel High School gymnasium. Let's not overvalue the fans in this - they're not shooting, rebounding or defending.

Sincerely,

Other than the reasons stated in your blog, there are several other reasons why students don’t attend basketball games. I can name more than half of my friends right now who are sick with things ranging from sinus infections to strep to pneumonia. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that those students didn’t make it to the game because I don’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of contagious people who would probably be miserable at the game any way.

The student section seats are also awful if you don’t end up in the lower section of the lower bowl. Clemson needs to allot more lower bowl tickets (court side) than upper deck. I know many people who drive by Littlejohn to see how long the line is, realize that they are going to probably have upper deck tickets, and they choose to watch the game at home. That solution probably isn't possible because Clemson wants the money generated from ticket sales, and those are probably the highest priced seats. But someone should realize that a bunch of students court side is a lot more exciting than people who sit the whole game!

Not every student can make it to every game. Not every student is interested in basketball. Some people actually came to Clemson for an education, not for athletic events. There will always be a percentage of students who just don't care to go to a basketball game. If it weren't for tailgating, families, and dressing up... most of the girls at this school wouldn't even go to a football game.

I do not think it is fair of you to write a blog about the students that don’t show up to sporting events and not mention the ones that DO. The ones that were there on Sunday night were energetic, solid orange, and spirited. The camera men were taking full advantage of this and continuously pointing their cameras towards the students and walking up into the student sections. To say that the student showing was an embarrassment is not a fair statement. Maybe the amount of students was a problem, but the energy of those there certainly was not. And that should be noted.

You should write a blog sometime about the students that do show up. They are the ones that make Clemson athletics what it is. They are the ones that cheer the loudest, that stand up the entire game, and the ones that are actually solid orange. Write about Alex, the guy in the Tree Rollins jersey, that has been in the same spot below the goal for four years now. Write about the students that camp out in freezing cold weather to get a ticket. Remember two seasons ago when the students camped out in 35 degree rain on a school night for tickets to the Clemson/UNC game? What about the students that live & breathe Clemson basketball and athletics?

I regularly read your blog (but not every article) and I can't remember if you have ever written about Tanner Smith. He has a very unique story to tell, one that I did not know about until a little
while ago. THAT is something worth writing about. His story is something I would rather read instead of the lack of student attendance at games.

Thanks,

First of all, faithful reader of the blog but this is my first comment and for good reason, because I am passionate about this. As a recent Clemson grad, 2004-2008, I can say this is a problem that has nothing to do with scheduling. It has less to do with the quality of our team than I'd like to admit, whether it was 2004 or this year. Bluntly, Clemson students on the whole are stuck up and bad Clemson fans. Proof of this is not the basketball games, but how many students don't make it to the football games. Oh they make it to tailgating at 6 in the morning, but can't make it for the most exciting 25 seconds in College football. We have three groups of students at Clemson, the partying type who goes to a game when it fits with that lifestyle,(Sunday night Basketball game doesn't fit) and yes, as a Greek I'll point a big finger at Greeks in that one. Two, the real fans and sport fanatics, (many of whom still probably made it to their intramural game instead) and really the people who could care less about Clemson sports in general. These people only care about football games because its trendy and the only thing you can do on a game day. As a senior last year, I had to BEG friends to go to games with me, and often still went alone. They are lazy and after a "long" weekend they would rather watch it from the couch. "We either win like we should or lose like we shouldn't, why go?" - I can see this being the train of thought more than anything. Overall, I think it is an attitude that gets passed on by the upperclassmen who never made basketball a priority and the apathy becomes cool to the underclassmen.

Solution wise, I think there are a couple of good points. 1) If attendance is a problem, it really should be, first come first serve with a student ID. Period. Easy, quick, and pays off for those who go and go early. 2) The student seats really aren't good. Sure, front row behind the basket is sweet, but if you are sitting upper deck behind the goal and Clemson is shooting at the other end, its plain hard to see. It's also harder to get into it from the upper deck. As a student you look around and see the alumni and season ticket holders on the side of the court who sit the majority of the game. Sure they are old, but if you are student who wants to be in the middle of the noise and action and you are sitting nosebleed looking at boring old Tiger fans with premiere seats, its frustrating. Sometimes, if you are a fan of the game, its easier to see how we are playing on television. Also, look at Carolina and Duke, all of their fans are on the court, on the side of the court, with a good 6 - 10 rows up. That section is rocking because a larger group has better seats. If you look up in their upper deck, they are just as student free as ours are. Those seats are set aside for non-student ticket holders who like to sit the majority of the game. I don't want those to be excuses, but they are big differences between student sections around the league. And in closing, ever seen the student sections at N. Carolina, Boston College, Duke, even NC State football games; students know stigmas more than they know precious college years, free tickets and good college sports.

Long time supporter of the blog and your show. I've grown up a tiger and been a fan all of my life with season tickets to basketball and football. I am currently a graduating senior. I haven't missed a home football game since 1992 (6 years old) and been to all ACC bball games except for 3 during my time at Clemson. I've seen a lot the last 4 years and I'll confirm that many students are fair-weather basketball fans, but I'd argue that season ticket holders are too. This is about students, though, so I'll try not to mention the empty seats close to the court on the sidelines where the old Clemson faithful, whom I admire and respect, are sipping their coke with their grandchildren. That's a related but different problem. I'll admit though, there has been tremendous improvement in student support since my freshman year. It still isn't
good enough.

I think the first place to start is the administration. Students are not entitled to "good seats" but please name me another school that allows 2000 students to attend the games and puts at least a third in the upper arena. Duke? Florida? Illinois? Michigan St? NC St? Wake Forest? I'd love to see research done on this. Maybe I'd be shocked to learn that these schools put over a third of their students in the upper deck. (Doubt it)

So why does this matter? It's because the average student is a fair-weather fan. The "hard-core" fans camp out, stand in line, and get lower level seats while the average student goes an hour before the game and gets disappointed because they don't feel like they're "part of the action." A great way to get these students involved is to give them better seats. They know they're gonna be closer to the action and at least yell at the opponent if they don't know anything about basketball.
Rick Barnes didn't have the students in the upper arena if my memory serves me correctly.

It's certainly a shame that students don't have the attitude of "I'm happy just to be in the dang game" but most do not. I guarantee you that this would work. Take the students from the upper arena and fill in the corners beside the student section. The best scenario would be to remove
the temporary seats from behind the benches (except where the visiting parents sit directly behind the visitor bench) and/or behind press row. Replace them with rafters for students to stand on. I understand this will not happen because our administration is not committed to do anything that could possibly lead to people with money becoming upset. Even if these changes would benefit the longevity of our program causing Littlejohn to become even a tougher place to play, the administration seems to be concerned about the "here and now."

Even the idea of moving the students from the upper arena to the corners would probably be rejected, but that would create for 2 pretty decent looking student sections. I know that changing the temporary seats to standing rafters for students would be rejected, but I think that creates
the best scenario. First, it puts the students where they need to be. Duke understands this and they're a pretty smart crowd. Second, you can fit more students down there by making it standing room. This makes the students stand and be into the game while also providing MORE ROOM for people who purchase tickets because it takes less room to stand than sit.

The only negative to either of those 2 proposals are taking seats away from donors. Most donors that I know, however, are in favor of students near the court. Of course there will be some who care about Number 1, but for the majority, these people love Clemson and want to do anything to
make Clemson better. If they don't have this attitude, then we'd be better off without them sitting down there.

I think this would work, but I don't want you to think I'm making an excuse. I'm not. If Clemson wants more students, then I'd suggest to try this out. It would create a buzz. Clemson students are creative and if they're given this opportunity to sit around the court like MANY other
schools, then they will not disappoint. If it happens, I just hate I didn't get to experience it. I'll bet you a nickel, however, that outside of Oliver Purnell our administration could care less. Maybe I'm wrong.

As you probably know, each ACC football team has one permanent, non-division "primary crossover opponent". For example, Clemson plays GT every year, and a rotation of two other Coastal Division opponents. The permanent primary crossover opponent pairings are:
Maryland & UVA,
Clemson & GT,
Wake & Duke,
NCSU & UNC,
FSU & Miami, and
BC & VT.

I assume that the "primary crossover opponent" system was implemented to preserve some traditional rivalries while dividing the ACC into two equally tough divisions. In that regard, I'm glad that Clemson annually plays GT, even though GT is usually one of the better ACC teams. Still, it seems a bit unfair. For example, Wake practically gets an automatic win every year by playing Duke (whom they've beaten 8-straight), while Clemson has to play GT, which is generally a 50-50 proposition. I'd argue that gives Wake a perennial advantage over Clemson to win the Atlantic Division.

What are your thoughts on the primary crossover opponent system as opposed to a strict 3-team, out-of-division rotation (or some other solution)? Do you expect the ACC to keep the existing system after 2015?