FORMER BAMA LINEBACKER SUCCUMBS TO CANCER

I know we're playing them and all in the dome come Labor Day but I thought this pertinent news given our fan base and many of our present and former figures in Clemson Athletics Alabama pedigrees and ties.  Former Alabama linebacker and graduate Victor Ellis died at age 28 earlier this week according to Tide Druid and Roll Bama Roll.  If you feel like it, check out his foundation's website.  Condolences to the Crimson Tide family.

DANNY DAYS ARE BACK! ER... OR NOT

A Clemson recruit with bundles of cash? Is this 1980?

A minor shitstorm brewed on the internets this morning and piddled dookie throughout messageboards from ACC schools, that rival SEC school, and even some of the bigger sports blargs out there. Apparently carrying around huge stacks of bills is unusual to a number of people. I had to ask a number of friends before I found out that me and Kenneth Page are the only people around who don't leave the house without bricks of dead presidents. A highly touted Clemson OL recruit, the aforementioned Kenneth Page, posted a photo on his MySpace page of him stackin' bundles. After the "Photoshop experts" on Tigernet claimed over and over that it was a fake (it's not), they played the excuse game. I don't know what to say, but a reader copied us on this post from a Clemson message board, take it however you want:

Talked to both Kenneth Page and his head coach Robin Bacon this morning.

Here's the story from them.

Kenneth was recently out in California as one of five finalists for the Alfred M. Watkins Memorial Scholarship. Both his father and mother came along and both have relatives that live in California. They got to see one of his uncles right before he passed away a week later. They also got to see his great uncle on his father's side of the family. This uncle is a very, very wealthy man. He owns nine ATMs and realized two were empty and low were very low. So they went to the bank that morning to get money to fill them up with. Kenneth said he had never seen that much money before so he took a picture with it. He wants to reassure everyone that yes, he didn't take a single cent or keep a single cent of it.

Someone copied this picture off of Page's facebook and tried to spin it into something that it wasn't.

Bacon added this - "It is a shame when people want to tear down a kid who is a good Christian kid and a great role-model for other student-athletes, but that is the society we unfortunately live in today."

PRACTICE? WE TALKIN' BOUT PRACTICE?!?

"When the cops yell 'freeze' make sure to put your hands up like this."

STEPHEN GARCIA: HERO

Drankin, puttin' out "stove fires," what can't this guy do?

HEY PAUL!

Clemson basketball fans: Dorsia is overrated anyways.

I can imagine that I was feeling the same immediate reaction of seething murderous rage that many readers of this website were feeling as the roller coaster that is Clemson basketball finally derailed at its apex and came crashing to the ground in horrible fashion through the second half of the Villanova game. A few thoughts on the game itself:

- I think we played the best basketball we'd played all year long during the first half. I also firmly believe that the refs did a decent job of not falling into basketball politics (i.e. calling fouls that didn't happen and letting obvious chops go uncalled) during the first half.

- Terrence Oglesby got cold throughout the game and it became really hard to watch him take shots. Also, his key areas seem to be free throws and insanely deep threes. He's potty at defense and even worse at any shot worth two points.

- Some readers caught the Purnell call in show and some of them said they thought they heard OP say something to the effect of "Now that Booker is gone, we're going to need Grant to step up." The readers said he kind of choked stumbled over Booker's name but it sounded like he said it. I'm thinking if two people caught it that maybe there is something that should be looked at.
UPDATE: I'm pretty sure he said Booker's name but it was just a slip of the tongue. I think he meant that Booker needed to step up now that Mays is gone.

- The officiating was terrible in the second half. So was the commentary. Those guys were practically blowing Jay Wright, even as he was getting T'ed up for his Coach K-esque sideline language. Nova played a little dirty and got away with it. All in all, it made me wish I had a neighbor who was a Villanova fan so I could knock on his door and then proceed knock his teeth out. Unfortunately, my neighbor is an Auburn fan so I try to avoid eye contact at all costs because I'm really just an internet tough guy. Plus the guy is kinda huge... I'm getting off track and making myself look like a pussy, so back to the post.

- We did check out early in the second half and it cost us dearly. When we stopped using the press, the game was lost. I think one of our reader's commented something like that in the preview post. Credit to whoever said that, take it in the comments section on this post.

- Most of the comments from the last post were from 1am to about 5am. Way to go guys. Good showing. It's nice to know we're your choice of reading material after coming home late from downtown.

On the season I think we did great. We were third in the ACC for the regular season. We made it to the finals in the tournament for the first time since the 60's. We made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in ten years. We resigned OP for a millenia. We're starting to recruit kids who can play AND shoot free throws. We're on the up and ups and I'm excited about it.

To all those who are still pissed... NEWSFLASH: BESIDES INTERMITTENT FLASHES OF BRILLIANCE, CLEMSON HAS NEVER BEEN GOOD AT BASKETBALL. EVER. Be happy with what we've got. It takes years to decades to build a program and it's rare for a program to be built overnight. That being said, I can't wait to see what we can do in 2009.

VILLANOVA BASKETBALL PREVIEW

#22 Clemson (24-9, 5 seed) vs. Villanova (20-12, 12 seed). Friday, March 21st, 9:50 PM, CBS HD, XM Radio Channel ???, WCCPFM 104.9 in the upstate (Live feed).

Line: Clemson -6, Over/Under 145

The More You Know: This is the first trip Clemson has made to the NCAA tournament since their opening round loss to W. Michigan back in 1998. This is Villanova's fourth straight tournament bid. Check out more insanely useless Clemson tourney facts authored by presumably Tim Bourret.

Insanely useless opinions authored by two drunk guys with an internet bullhorn:

Chili: Willy Korn walks on to the basketball team to lead our troops to victory and turnS the Clemson NCAA tournament experience into a spectacle one could only liken to Space Jam meets the Harlem Globetrotters mashed up with NBA Jam. HE'S ON FIRE! No, but seriously, Clemson loses.

Willy Mac: We play a fairly good defensive team in Villanova, but at the same time a younger and less talented team than us. At first when I saw that we had drawn Nova on the selection show my heart dropped. Then I remembered that this team isn't as scary as teams they've produced in years past. From what I've seen on television this past season, they have some pretty good guard play but are just unorganized on offense (not that we're organized in any manner) and they run themselves ragged playing non-effective defense. Also, teams that can shoot the three can usually beat them and we can make it rain all day long. I have no idea what their free throw percentage looks like but I'm sure it's better than ours. Lastly, basic fact is that they only have two guys averaging over 10 points a game... we have five. I expect us to beat the upset hype and win this one... and cover the spread.

NCAA TOURNAMENT NEWS & NOTES

The Clemson Tigers earned the #5 seed in the Midwest Regional and will face the #12 seed Villanova Wildcats from the Big East. Clemson will play Friday night at 9:50 PM on CBS.

Deadspin has a fantastic rundown of the game for your perusing pleasure.

If you've not done so already, JOIN THE EXTREME BRACKET EXPLOSION!
League ID: 55284
Password: korn

Clemson has locked up Coach Oliver Purnell through 2014. He's 94-67 in five years at Clemson and has improved the team every year. Coach P will now be in the upper third of the conference in terms of compensation. This is a great move for Clemson, and hopefully Purnell will break the string of coaches who build the Tigers only to ditch them for a bigger payoff at another school.

Pat Forde writes about best-case and worst-case scenarios for all 64 tournament teams in this article. His worst-case for the Tigers: losing to 'Nova. Best-case: Tigers crash the Final Four.