I'll do a more standard look at the game hopefully tomorrow, but first I want to talk about something that's been bothering me since about halftime.
I know I'm late to the party when talking about this article that appeared in the State--it's about a week old now. When I first read it I was bothered but couldn't quite put my finger on why. While I was watching the VT game, however, it all kind of crystallized.
First of all, let's be clear that the article's lede oversells Purnell's comments. If you read what Purnell says, he very cautiously tiptoes around the lack of tightly-called games this season in ACC play. But from the given quotes I'm still compelled to agree with Travis Sawchik's interpretation of Purnell's frame of mind: Clemson would do better if the games were called more tightly.
This is absolute hogwash. Clemson benefits very, very strongly from physical play for two reasons: first, their defense under Purnell has relied on being able to aggressively defend the ball-handler in the press in order to force turnovers. I talked about it a few days ago but this team, even more than previous years under Purnell, forces turnovers to get stops. They are decent at defending the shot in the halfcourt, but where they shine relative to other teams in the NCAA is their ability to pressure the ball, force mistakes, and end possessions. Second, on offense Clemson does an extremely poor job for an ACC team at getting to the line (only FSU and Boston College perform about as badly), and its been that way for about five years now. This probably has something to do with the fact we have historically shot so poorly from the free throw line, but irregardless a tighter-called game stands to substantially benefit the opposing team by sending them to the line a disproportionately larger amount of times than Clemson.
As I watched Virginia Tech step to the line 46 times, I realized why Purnell's comments were so off-putting in the first place. Let's be clear, it was absolutely pathetic and ridiculous to see VT get such a lopsided number of calls. If I was some kind of an irresponsible blogger, I might suggest that the refs were providing some payback for Purnell's comments last week. But the real problem is this: Clemson players suck at drawing fouls. Think back to yesterday afternoon, on almost every play when the Virginia Tech player got a call, he was leaning towards the basket or at least twisting his body towards the hoop. Contrast that with Trevor Booker or (shudder) David Potter, who were constantly falling away from the hoop even when they managed to get in close. Clemson doesn't pick up fouls because that's either not how the coaching staff wants them to play (doubtful) or they just haven't been properly coached.
So its extremely disturbing to hear Purnell say something like the sport would benefit from less physical play. Depending on your personal feelings about the game of basketball, this might be true. But its impossible to argue that this would put the Tigers in a better position to win a basketball game. And as the head coach of the Tigers, it therefore doesn't make any sense for Purnell to say it. This leaves me with two explanations: 1) Purnell said something off the cuff that a sportswriter picked up and ran with, forcing it into the pre-existing narrative he had planned for his next story or 2) Purnell honestly thinks the Tigers have a better chance of winning when the game is tightly-called. If this is true, Oliver Purnell has completely lost touch with the composition of his team and fails to understand the impact his statements could have on the game strategy he implements.
I want to believe #1, but this is a coach who tightly controls his relation to the media, even to the point of embracing newmedia like Twitter to help control the narrative on his team (think back to Booker's injury first showing up on Twitter) without subjecting it any media filters. I'm still inclined to believe #1, but the fact that I'm even contemplating #2 seriously scares me. I'd love to hear any competing explanations...
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