"the best is yet to come"...

Mar 16, 2017, 1:30 PM

I remember Dabo saying something to that effect on the day he was hired for the permanent job in 2008. What a great, great heartfelt speech.

Two years later I saw Dabo standing before the media after going 6-7, and after somehow losing to South Florida in as desultory a bowl game I have seen since we were eviscerated by Syracuse 41-0 in the 1865 BlueBonnet Bowl. I was sitting with Ben Tillman and William T. Sherman that day, and they, unlike I, were shocked at the bloodletting.

Three years later I saw Dabo standing before the media after watching his team preen and pose through pre-bowl defensive practice, only to get humiliated by WVU 70-33 in the Orange Bowl. His team was the laughing stock of the college football world for nearly two years after that.

Five years later I saw Dabo standing before the media after his 3rd-ranked team got their clocks cleaned by Free Shoes U at Death Valley in the worst home loss ever by a Clemson team, 50-something to not-too-dam-good.

Seven years later I saw Dabo standing before the media and come unglued at the mere mentioning of the more personal form of the word "Choking"; trying desperately to slay the image-demons of the past just as surely as 14 straight opponents fell by the wayside in between the yard markers. Eff you Bobby Petrino.

Eight years later I saw Dabo bring home the "Wild, Wonderful, yes by God" Natty. Eff you Dana Holgorsen. Touche Mr. Winston.

So it is with deep sadness that I have to remind some of you - media even - that success is rarely, if ever, strictly linear.

Success also does not come right on time just when you want it, nor even because you necessarily want it "bad". Nor does it come fairly and justly over time, nor does it even favor those who abide by the rules. It doesn't "even out", nor does it respond to demands from liberals and NFL-Draft-organizers alike that it abide a level field for the tired and the hungry. Finally, it almost never, ever responds to tired-and-true shortcut methodologies such as throwing money at something or hiring a big name bestowed in the Media. Success doesn't like revolving chairs.

So when Clemson does in fact get its Basketball program right, it's not going to do so because anyone felt "uncomfortable" nor because anyone "got behind the program". Did I say that success also never responds to cliches? Sorry - should have mentioned that...

But that success, when it comes, will also not come because of the remonstrations, conniptions, and wailing of an over-wrought fanbase. Success never rewards feel-good fanny-pack-pop-out expectations.

Short form: If you're one of those that somehow missed it after the first ACC game of the year, if not in mid-December, that this year's team was highly over-regarded, and had not progressed notably on an individual level since the previous year, then count yourself as one who should not be exorcising demons on your keyboard but instead should be looking for self-improvement in the basketball knowledge field.

I have no idea whether or not "the best is yet to come" for Brad Brownell's tenure at Clemson. What I do know is simple - whether your demons or expectations like it or not - there is nothing wrong with the Clemson Basketball program that wasn't wrong in 2006 or 1986 or 1966. Success will come when someone in the Administration finds a way to establish a meaningful Brand for Clemson in the College Basketball world. It will take new ideas, not a repackaging of the old ideas that have generally failed for the past 60 years.

Success, when it comes, won't be from a set of glitzy scoreboards, or a rehabbed building, or flashy sneaker deal, or most likely even, a Coach. If it was that easy, then USuCk would be good in Football. But as we know, they're most undeniably not even as God knows they've spun the chair enough.

So instead of howling at the moon (eff you Dave Doeren), feel free to send all of those dandy ideas to Danny Rad and Mr. Hood care of the Athletic Department....

think hard now, because, believe me, they're waiting with bated breath.

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but couldn't at SMU?

Bob Knight at Indiana,

but couldn't at Texas Tech?

OP supposedly at Clemson,

but couldn't at DePaul?

Steve Alford couldn't out-recruit history at New Mexico,

but is now recruiting at the historical level at UCLA.

Yes, players play for Coaches, but School Brand and history recruits Coaches.

The simple fact is that chances are if a Coach out-recruits a School's history,

then likely there's something extraneous going on.

Even Billy Donovan at Florida noted how lucky he was to get key players on his Championship

teams that were not heavily recruited as High Schoolers.

Yet Donovan is the Coach who is most like your scenario as he established a program at Florida.

But that's the gig isn't it - the recruiting advantages for being in Florida are ginormous

and outweigh some of the conventional arguments of where success comes from.

If you wanted to you could probably recruit a great Ice Hockey team to play at a college in Florida...

"the best is yet to come"...

TL;DR***

hey boob, what'cha doin?

you are out of your mind

then how did Matt Doherty recruit so well at UNCheat

for everything you just said, the opposite is true of

we've had this spat before York

Re: "the best is yet to come"...

Whoa!

Re: "the best is yet to come"...

i don't get it

yes, my novel idea for next year is for everyone to show up

point for desultory and eviscerated in the same sentence.

Can you do one of these for Brownell?***

Man...Aint nobody gonna read all that!

All uh what?***

It may not be linear

That's a lot of words to say so little.***

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