This USC run may be the best thing for Clemson basketball

Mar 27, 2017, 10:28 AM

Our national championship in football has more Gamecock fans than ever wanting to do whatever it takes to bring success to their football program. While some bandwagon fans may be jumping ship, many are giving more and supporting more because our success kills them inside.

I am glad that USC is making this run, because it adds salt to the wound that we just kept Brownell on, which sends the message to us fans that winning in basketball is not a priority to Clemson.

I would consider myself a true fan. I graduated from Clemson, played a varsity sport there short term, as well as participating and officiating in just about every intramural sport there, and attending as many as I could as a student and as many as I could being four hours away after I graduated. Then something crazy happened - I married a Gamecock graduate, and not just any, the president of the student alumni. I proposed to her at Howard's Rock after we beat FSU on Labor Day, hoping to give her a memorable experience at her first game in Death Valley. I pulled for USC on the outside, but hoped they lose on the inside. Then one day I questioned why I care more about the rivalry and the percentage of bad fans (that every fanbase has) than my own wife's happiness that I get when Clemson wins. She pulls for Clemson, as many other (usually older) fans from USC have shown support for Clemson in their football championship games. To me, nothing is wrong with showing support for another school, even our rival. We do compete for recruits, but I think the success of one program does more to push the other program than what we lose in recruiting. If anything, I would rather see us lose a handful of recruits to USC here and there than us both lose all our instate talent to big programs around the country. USC had back to back championships in baseball, but we survived and are doing well.

I have no problem with Tiger fans hating the Gamecocks - I spent most of my life as one of those and probably toed the line of being consider part of the 10% of unruly fans at times. But I also don't think it makes you any less of a Tiger fan to have life experiences that causes you to soften up on your rival or enjoy their success with friends and family.

PS - If some old fogey family man with kids said all this to me when I was a student, I would have probably told him to shove it and man up, so I know this will be taken many different ways and completely understand any way it is taken.

(I am sharing this from a response I made in another post that questions if TRUE fans pull for their rival in anything)

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Its not the players for the basketball team or even the school itself that i detest. Its the fans of the coots that I cant stand.

Case in point my sister in law grew up a gamecock fan and when I first met her she seemed pretty level headed about the rivalry. Her family had season tickets and they would invite my son and I to come by their tailgate when the game was in Columbia and treat us with nothing but respect, and we did the same. when the gamecock baseball went on their run of success something began to change in her attitude. she wanted to only talk about baseball and how great they were. Then the football team had that stretch of wins against us and she really started to go over the top about it. I admit I began to treat her the same. She would irritate me with questions that she knew the answer to before she asked, like "did Sammy Watkins get arrested this weekend?" Just snide remarks about anything that put Clemson in a bad light.

Gamecock nation cant handle any type of sccess without letting it go to their head and showing their true colors. Thats why I will pull for any team they go up against and will continue to do so.

This USC run may be the best thing for Clemson basketball

Re: This USC run may be the best thing for Clemson basketball

Re: This USC run may be the best thing for Clemson basketball

Re: This USC run may be the best thing for Clemson basketball

TigerBoard POTD