40 Years


by - Radio Host -

40 Years

In Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA,” he sings: "You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, so you spend half your life just covering up."

That's what we do as Clemson basketball fans.  We have been beaten up so much we cover up.

Most of our losses have come to better teams.  Most of our losses have been to Atlantic Coast Conference programs who consider themselves basketball schools while Clemson is still a football school.  Most of our losses have come to schools who have invested more into basketball.  They support basketball better.  They have had better facilities and more history and tradition in the sport.

Sometimes we play well and beat a basketball school.  Sometimes we play well and still lose.  Too many Clemson basketball fans we think we get the short end of the stick with officiating often times.  We even get screwed with the clock operator more than most schools.

I have been watching Clemson basketball for more than 40 years, so I am conditioned to it.  I am used to it, so Friday night's ending to the Duke quarterfinal game at the ACC tournament was nothing new.  If you had asked me before the game about a scenario where Clemson would have a one point lead in the final seconds and a Duke player would drive to create contact or a Clemson player would drive to create contact, and then asked where I think fouls would have been called, I would have guessed that Clemson would have been whistled for a foul and Duke would not.

I don't know if Rodney Hood was fouled and I don't know if Rod HallRod Hall
Jr. Guard
#4 6-1, 210
Augusta, GA

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was fouled.  What I do know is my expectations would have been for a Clemson foul and a no call on Duke before the scenario presented itself.  Why?  Because more times than not, that is what I have witnessed as a Clemson fan for over 40 years.

A few years ago I was not alone in telling Brad BrownellBrad Brownell
Head Coach
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this.  I told Oliver Purnell the same thing.  Both men probably knew it, but you never want to admit it while you are in the head coaching seat.  But when you leave, you leave a weathered man.  In fact, Brad Brownell told Larry Williams of TigerIllustrated.com that former Clemson coach Rick Barnes told Brownell of these challenges when he took the job.

I don't know when it started.  It used to be Lenny Wirtz, Dick Paparo and Larry Rose making those crucial calls against Clemson.  Now it's Jamie Luckie, Karl Hess and Les Jones.

I don't know when it will end, if ever in my lifetime.

I am hopeful that it will end.  Maybe it ends when we finish our new building.  Maybe that new mojo will usher in a new era of Clemson basketball.

I don't care what it takes but like many of you, I am tired of it.  I want it to end.  I wanted it to end yesterday.

I hate a defeatist attitude but when it comes to this issue, I am that dog that has been beat too much.  Now I'm covering up.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency


Prayer List

We have started a prayer list on the blog.  Here are the guidelines:

If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance.  The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.

If you would like to add someone to the list please email me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com

*Please let me know when it is appropriate to take the person off of the prayer list.

Those who need our prayers include: Finn Brookover, Jo Ann Bachman, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got Igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard, Gillespie and his family, Jim S., Daniel Rosborough, the Huffman family, Nancy Winkler, John Reeve, Vinnie Brock, Kaitlyn L., Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs, Perrin Seigler, Candee Massee, Lindsey Jordan, Sam Catoe, Tyler Felch, the Nicolopulos family, "the Jacksonville, FL guys," Kim Sims, the Coyle family, Ryleigh Tedder, Steve Lee, Kelly Trakas, Jimmy Moore, the Thomas V. family, Emary Claire Young, Kitty Bowers, Julie Locke, the Scheider family, Lauren Kittles' family, Frank Gentry, Joyce Bussey, Stacey McKeown, Dale Childs, Larry Lentz, Jr., Carl Sharperson, Scott Hannon, William Perry, Tyler Swaney, Lillian, Mark Feit, David Frame, Chad Berry, the family of Matthew M. Watson, the Dowis family, Shervin Messer, Alan Putnam, the Olivers, Lee Tate, Ronnie Abrams, Eddie Greene, the Jackson family, Bill Vader, Jim Taylor, Tina DeWitt, Rock Horne, Christopher Tuten, Bobby Wayne Thomas, Emma and Danielle Carothers, Robert Ditty, Mr. and Mrs. Murray Smith, Dot Cartee, Ayden Mills, Millie Heatley, Lynn Martin and family, Michael Pinson, Jake David family, Angie Crowley, Ira, Mike Tolson, Poly Wells, Dr. Muriel Bishop, Jack Cunningham, Emily Jefford Meister, Zachary Stoller, Aaron Clackum, Pat James, Cortney Moore, William Moore, Angelia and Savannah Anderson, William Ross, Meredith Legg, Scott Johns, Frank Carroll, Brandon Thompson, Alvin Sammons, Georgine McAlhaney, Glen Davis, Mike Price, Clay Childers, Aaron Knight, Danielle Johnston and family, Nicholas Abrams, Lana Kuykendall, Gary, Gary G., William Huggins, Jim Bennett, Chantz Fowler, Ethel McElveen, Michele Gurganus, William Gentry, Lewis Usher and Tanya Sanders,  Shon Cooper, Nick Collins, Amanda Peake, Danny Hammond, Chip Turner, Nick Collins, Allen Steen, the Sturkey family, the Lance family, Nick Chrisley's family, Allison Williams, Lt. Kyle Walker, Summer and Joel Johnson, Nicole O'Donnell, James O. Johnson, Joy Pruett and family, Bill Schmidt, Jack Bailey, Gardner Family, Charles Turner, Kathy Bartholomew, Ray Sanders, David and Robin Blocker, J.R. Ray, Kenneth Kowe, Lauren Sielicki, Doug Bailey and family, Jenna Phipps, Mark Lawrence, Harlan Sullins, Peter Laboy, Kat and Carlisle Jones, Elizabeth Galloway and family, Anita McDonald, Willard Harryman, Liz Surratt, Molly Senn, Jackie Shearer, Richard Sellers, Tim Drisdelle, Edward Easterling, Dawson Bourne, Susan and Mike Brown, Julie Goodman Marshall, Willard and Dorothy Harryman, Justin Jernigan, Jack  Cunningham,  Mia Daughtery, Tee Senn, Jim Lanier, Bob Garrett, Skylar, Joseph Thomas, Mrs. Nelis, Jeanne Thompson, Sean Rowell, George Parker, Levon Kirkland and family, Catherine Sewell, Randy Davenport, Patrick Destefano, David Vaughn, Keith Dalton, B.T., Bill Hilbig, Rita Elrod Hammond and family, and our great country and the men and women in uniform that protect and serve it every day, plus their families.

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