EXTREME BRACKET EXPLOSION!!!!!!

Are you man enough to step up to the EXTREME BRACKET EXPLOSION? ARE YOU??!??


DIAL UP YAHOO ON THE INTERWEB AND STEP THE HELL UP.


Group ID: 55284
Password: korn

NEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

NEWS

- Of course, the men's basketball team beat Virginia Tech this past Sunday afternoon on Senior Day. Both sides battled back and forth and Oglesby yet again drained some more monster threes (5/7 on the day, 17 points total) and Demontez Stitt won the game in the final seconds by making two free throws. Great game. KC Rivers and Cliff Hammonds received all ACC honors. Oglesby was honorable mention for the freshman team and James Mays got honorable mention for the defensive team. Check the team out Friday at 9pm for our first tournament game. We get a bye for Thursday since we are third seed

- Four NCAA track & field National Championship invites have been garnered by the following:

Men's: Travis Padgett (60 meter), CJ Spiller (60 meter), and Mitch Greeley (Pole Vault).

Women's: Patricia Mamona (Triple Jump)

Congratulations and good luck!

- The baseball team nearly blew it at home against UNC-Greensboro by a score of 11-10. They went 11-0 until same late game rallies including one in the ninth cost them the game. Some of our pitchers need to get it together after the Wake Forest debacle. We can't keep winning by scoring into the double digits and barely squeaking by everytime. Stoneburner had yet another great outing as well as Kyle Parker. If Kyle Parker is anything like this on the football field, we're gonna have a battle. Chris Epps, Ben Paulsen, and Mike Freeman continue to be absolute ballers. Get over to the game at 4pm today if you can and are in the area.

- The AAFL will probably fold before training camp opens a la their wikipedia entry. It was a cool concept while it lasted but because of the bad economy, no major backer, and no television contract it looks like our friend Marcus Katz will be needing to find himself a new job. Marcus, if you're out there and still have us on google alert, let us know whats up in the comments section.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Willy Mac: Pat O'Briens - Whether you're in Memphis (sorry that you'd be there), San Antonio, Cancun, Orlando, or New Orleans (the one I went to), you're bound to get a good stiff drink. For some reason they're stable drink is a non-Irish hurricane (which I ironically pounded in New Orleans). This thing was so strong and so sweet that I nearly had to get Liberty Medical on the phone cause it nearly gave me the Beetus. Also, mixed drinks are your best bet as singles are usually a tad more than a half and half and doubles are pretty much just full glasses of alcohol stirred with a Q-Tip dipped in the desired mixer. Best shots in New Orleans too. Also, you get to take some of the glass ware with you and they even package it up so you look extra touristy. If you'd like to dry their hurricane mix you can go to just about any grocery store and buy their death in a bag. Best served on rocks and not blended. Also, check out their online store as they sell hats, t-shirts, hurricane glasses, and several mixers as well. Just follow the link up top.

Chili: My recommendation is Montana Ale Works in Bozeman, MT for all the Fat Tire you can drink and some good billiards. Seriously Willy Mac you could've just posted "HEY Y'ALL I JUST WENT TO NEW ORLEANS!" instead of recommending a quasi chain bar that 95% of our readership isn't within 200 miles of. My recommendation this week is that Willy Mac shuts the fuck up. I'm just kidding, pal. My actual recommendation is for the hilarious blog Stuff White People Like. It's funny because it's true! Swimwalk!!

BOWDEN & CO. DROPS TROUGH, PROCEEDS TO GIVE RAY RAY A STEAMER HAT

Bowden: Not really a Clemson guy.

After reading a couple of articles about it, and listening to EDSBS's take, I took a few days to mull over my initial reaction of the whole "Ray Ray McElrathbey scholarship" situation.  My initial gut reaction was to gather a West Virginia-esque mob and chase Bowden and his staff out of town with pitchforks and torches ("Not much has changed in Clemson."  Just thought I should go ahead and get that terrible Gamecock chain email joke out of the way).  Now that I've slept on it a few days, my current gut reaction is to find Bowden and put my thumbs into his eyes and press as hard as I can.  Seriously, he claims to be such a good person and has shown a bit of the "Second Chance" mantra that his father has, then he will turn around and do something like this.  

Now keeping this in mind, Ray Ray plays running back and took a back seat to Davis, Spiller, and Sadat Chambers last year due to an injury and separation of talent.  Now that we signed two huge recruits to add to our running back stable, we need to shave some fat from the ass of our ball carrying squad.  Chambers gets moved to safety and Ray Ray gets dropped and is supposed to eat shit and grin.  I could understand if the guy's situation was different, but at least give him a chance.

Here are some stream of consciousness statements from my point of view:

- Ray Ray's rough past and his decision to adopt his little brother and the accompanied situation is a huge public relations boost for Clemson.  Doing this is really bad PR for us.

- The injury didn't help, but people tend to forget he did start 13 games on special teams as a freshman and did alright.  

- He's graduating as a JUNIOR with two years of eligibility left.  He had some troubles with academics a bit back, but got on the honor roll while taking 21 hours last semester.  Also, he seems to be in good enough graces to be a potential candidate for graduate school.

- Clemson has said that as long as he pursues a degree here, they will honor his scholarship.  There is not a specific time frame on this so I'm taking from this that if he took seven years to graduate they'd give him the money but if he graduates in three then screw him if he wants to stay here and play football.

- Why not cut a lower level player that will probably never make an actual impact and has enough money to go here as a normal student.  For instance, someone who joined as a walk on and got a scholarship, why not cut them?  They've proven that they have enough money to pay for Clemson by themselves and the usual trend for walk ons is to never actually make it happen (sub Aaron Kelly and Tommy Sharpe).

- They have offered him a Graduate Assistant job in the athletic department, but no further chance to continue his football career.

- Ray Ray was a three star athlete coming out of high school and if I'm not mistaken he was moved to running back before he was injured.  Why not move him to safety (a position we;re pretty thin at for the future) like we did with Chambers and cut that walk on player.

- Our community (that more than likely wants the kid to stick around and finish out his career) has invested too much time and effort in this situation for one person who represents and makes decisions for us as a whole to tell him to just hit the bricks.

-Now what? We're just going to shut the door on someone who has worked hard to pull himself up?  We're going to make him and his little brother move their life somewhere else just because a few guys drawing on a whiteboard don't like how he fits in?  If anything this guy should be rewarded.  We have to think about Fahmarr as well.  This much change and instability could be a terrible thing to go through after all he's already been through.

- Bowden's logic is backwards.  If you're going to play the Bobby Role and give people more chances in life after mistakes, you don't fucking turn around and let the people that do well for themselves eat shit.  

- Word is that Ray Ray started slacking off on the football side of things but I think I would to if I could see the picture that was being painted in front of me.  Move me to another position or something.  

- Even if this whole football thing didn't pan out for him, a graduate degree as well as a Sociology Undergraduate degree from Clemson would open so many doors for this guy that would normally be closed to this guy based on his background.  I mean, this really reminds me of the whole Yusef Kelly ordeal (in which Bowden had disagreements with Kelly and wanted him gone but didn't have many reasons till the brawl, but by then it was too late.  Also the fact that Kelly was a graduate student gets in my head too, among other similarities).

[ Side note: Much respect to James Davis who stuck up for Ray Ray in this whole situation.  It could cost him some carries due to locker room politics, but that was yet another stand up gesture from our best running back.  ]

Honestly, I have stirred emotions about this whole thing, but I don't like it.  It's a very weaselish move on behalf of Bowden and it just solidifies the fact that Bowden has no idea who his troops are and could care less about their well being to boot.  He's just putting on this academic graduation front for his own resume and will drop Clemson in a heart beat if he wins the ACC Championship this year (or hold us hostage for more money).  He's not a Clemson guy, I don't like him, I want him out.  Seriously, maybe it'd be best if he found some place else to go should he get some more offers.  

Best of luck, boys. 

FANTASY BASEBALL

Reminder: Please sign up for fantasy baseball now, we've only got 4 participants at this time. The draft has been moved until March 15th at 530(EST), so you've still got a week if you want to play.
We need at least 4 or 5 more teams to make it interesting. If we get at least 10, I will personally donate a bottle of liquor (TBD) to the winner. Since this is a long competition, I think it will only be fair to offer an incentive. Once again, the league info is:

League ID: 122123
Password: HDDVD

It's hosted by yahoo, as normal for our fantasy events, in case y'all forgot. Clemson Baseball update to follow in the next day or so.

DSOT 20: NO COUNTRY FOR DUMB POSTS

While you were pimping your duck, I was trolling Tigernet.

I've heard this same Sakerlina joke in a dozen chain emails and, no, it's not funny there either.




Some places put fluoride in the water, in Ninety-Six they add lead.




If you are a high school graduate there are only 2 reasons to watch a high school football game: you have a family member on one of the teams, or you are a coach. If you are attending to watch recruits for your college team of choice then it is almost a given that you are a mouthbreathing creep. I also love it how this guy asks who else will be attending, like droves of other fans can't wait to go watch mediocre football from aluminum bleachers. "Gonna follow any recruits?" uh... not back to their houses to stare through the windows like this guy probably will.




Because inquisitive drunks want to know.




Reminiscing about a "classic" zinger from the morning's comic pages in real life would get you open-mouth stares like you had a dick growing out your ear. Doing it on a messageboard just gets you DSOTed. There have been some terrible and nonsensical Spurrier on Tigernet but this one might beat all.




I LOVE LAMP. EMOTING IS HARD.




Victory=Turtlehead.




And I leave you with this gem from the Fighting Gamecock Forum, where every post is dumb shit. It is nice to see a little self analysis from the cluckers, even though this guy probably got banned for his troubles.

TIGERS LOSE A TOUGH ONE TO GT

Clemson traveled to Atlanta last night to face Georgia Tech for their senior night game and fell hard 80-75. The game was close than even the score indicates, with both teams trading leads throughout the game until Tech took a slim lead with 10 left to play and hung on. Clemson hung on to the very end. A bit o' bullshit occurred when Cliff Hammonds ran into another Tiger teeth first and hit the ground hard, lying face down. The officials failed to stop play, as the NCAA rules clearly dictate when a player is injured and in a situation where he could be further harmed. I think a Clemson player sprawled out on his stomach, barely moving, in the fucking paint is cause for an officials' time out. However no such pause was called, and Tech used its 5 on 4 advantage to drain a three and extend their tiny lead with 2:41 to go. Add this to a blatant no-call on a foul on an attempted KC Rivers layup near the very end of the game and you have just cause to be a little pissed about the officiating.

FREE THROWS. FREE THROWS. FREE THROWS. FREE THROWS.

So I said I thought there were some deficiencies in the way the game was called. I feel that that's true, but it is not the reason Clemson lost. Again the Tigers lose a game down the stretch that they should've had well in hand if they could hit their damned free throws. Clemson was 9-17 at the charity stripe (basketball lingo!), a stat that doesn't include the missed frontends of one-and-ones. For whatever reason, Cliff Hammonds (DFIG's favorite Tiger cager) was handling the ball in the last minute of the game. A 44% career free throw shooter should not be the guy streaking to the basket and getting to the line when it counts. I'm not taking anything away from Cliff, he is a monster. He played with a broken wrist and still put up 15 and 8 and came right back into the game after breaking a tooth. Nonetheless he shouldn't have been the guy shooting FTs at the end.

The bigger picture we're looking at is whether or not Clemson can hang on to a top-4 spot in the league to get that valuable first round bye in the ACC Tournament. A victory against Virginia Tech on Clemson's senior night is really a must. Damnit Tigers, you lost to a 12-16 team and played absolutely sloppy and flat most of the time, and had no excuse not to seal the deal with this game. We will be doing a Q&A with a VT blog about the game, that should be up soon.

TUESDAY NEWS

Hopefully everyone caught the Tigers' amazing comeback in College Park on Sunday night. The State has a summary of how the Tigers came back from a 20 point deficit and how freshman Terrence Oglesby drained a 3 with just seconds remaining to seal the deal on a 73-70 win. Clemson had three heroes in the second half: Cliff Hammonds for his tremendous block, James Mays for his steal and game-tying dunk, and TO for his coldblooded three that clenched the game.

Hammonds is one of the most versatile players in Clemson history, and is -- to reuse an overused sports cliche -- the glue that holds the team together. He is the model of a student-athlete and I feel he deserves for his jersey to hang in the Littlejohn rafters. Unfortunately, it looks like Cliff will be finishing out his memorable career with a broken wrist.

Catch Clemson's next game this Thursday at Georgia Tech, 7 PM on ESPN.

For your viewing pleasure: an upstanding Maryland fan has a snack then watches his team choke.

And..... WHAMMY