Looking Forward

As I said at halftime of the Michigan loss...it was going to take me awhile to stomach this loss. So after a brief hiatus I think it is time to appropriately lay this season to rest(cue the music). So we need to begin to look forward and what team we can expect in 2010.

First I want to be clear that this is not some Gamecock exercise in looking toward next year because the current year sucked and you have nothing else but to look forward. This was a better than expected season. I repeat THIS WAS A BETTER THAN EXPECTED SEASON!! Coming into the season we were an unknown and for most unproven commodity. Most believed our run to the ACC Championship was a aberration at best, most considered it more of a fluke. So the line-up was not going to be as good defensively without Mays and would lack the leadership, ball handling , and shooting of Hammonds. The season depended on the emergence of Booker and Stitt. Booker was not the manbeast last year like he was this year, and that was due mostly to getting into foul trouble too often especially on the back line of the press (same problem Grant had this year). Booker was the reason this year was a success as his rebounds, points, and blocks were all up. Its true he faded(I think he got tired) and got more frustrated towards the end of the season but when guards cant throw you the ball in the post, you deserve to be a little frustrated. He single handedly brought Clemson back to almost beat Michigan. I love that he is coming back and will hopefully fast-track the education of his little brother, T-Book was a solid performer his freshman year--lets hope his brother will be even better.

So Booker was better, and the team did not take a step back--maybe they didnt take a step forward but not much was expected in the beginning of the year--to go 9-7 with a chance to reasonably go 10-6 or 11-5 in the last week...I think any of us take that at the beginning of the year. We had ACC title hopes and were a projected 4 seed, now obviously we performed the classic Clemson fade and fizzled with another winnable loss in the tourney but we had a good season, a building season. One of the measuring sticks is in recruiting and I think this season helps to continue the improvement of the caliber recruit we are bringing in to Clemson.

So in the spirit of moving forward we are going to breakdown the team by position to look at where we stand in regards to next year and beyond. The three recruits we have coming in are solid--and thats not just through orange colored glasses.

Virginia Tech Loss-2 Steps Back

So the game is over and I really felt like we were going to pull it out in the end and force it into overtime. While this game shouldnt have been so close statistically, I think some teams play you tougher-some coaches just have your number. The press killed us tonight, and VT hit their threes. I thought we didnt execute very well at all down the stretch and should have listened to Hubert Davis and his annoying voice telling us to get it into Booker on all those plays. Run some high screen and roll for him, iso, something...

We should have fouled right away and not let those precious eight seconds tick away. Could have tried a two and fouled again and I hate that twice now we could only put up a desperation three that was more an attempt to get fouled than make a three. TO did that in the Virginia final game too. Missed a lot of opportunities there inside four minutes and I'm mainly frustrated with how Stitt played in that time--seriously bricking a wide open three and not converting or creating for teammates on the dribble drive, this isnt going to help with his confidence problems. Poor execution, poor half court offense--bad trends going forward, poor ESPN2 loss on the homecourt...more to come later after the initial frustration subsides some...