Tigers take 2 of 3 from BC

After being humbled by a score of 13-1 in game 1 on Friday, Clemson (18-7, 7-5) came back to sweep a double header from Boston College on Saturday.

The Tigers won game one 7-6, with 3 two-run homers and a solo shot and then rallied to outlast the Eagles in game two, 5-3.

The two victories put the Tigers in first place in the ACC Coastal Division.

Status: Clemson baseball

Clemson baseball rankings in the critical categories through games of March 22,2009. The pitching (except for the closer position) continues to be lights out. The other three categories are not close to being competitive for a national championship.

ERA	Fielding %	Batting Avg	Slugging %
6	86	220	191

Tigers sweep Elon

Clemson (16-6, 5-4) swept a double header from Elon on Tuesday at Clemson.

In game 1 Clinton McKinney (1-0) pitched 3 innings of shut out relief and John Nester (.222, 2 HR) homered as Clemson prevailed 5-3.

In game two, Chirs Epps (.167, 1 HR) homered and Craig Gullickson (1-0) earned the win.

Tigers lose 2 of 3 in Tallahassee

Clemson (14-6, 5-4) blew a 9th inning lead to lose the third game at Florida State on Sunday.

The Tigers face Elon on Tuesday and Wednesday before trekking to Chestnut Hill, MA to face Boston College Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Game 1 Box

Game 2 Box

Game 3 Box

Ker-plunk

or better yet, CLANG. Michigan mercifully ended the Tigers season tonight, though Clemson did make it interesting at the end.

What showed in the end was that this was really a team of over-achieving 3 star role players who had played above their head for half a season - the first half of the season that is.

Three teams that can win it all

1. Pittsburgh
2. North Carolina
3. Duke

Everyone seems to be off the Duke bandwagon after the sub-par performances the last couple of years in the tournament. Fair enough. Will that continue this year or will the Blue Devils break through? The numbers say that Duke is the closest statistical match to a national champion this year heading into the tournament, only missing the defensive efficiency requirement by 5 spots. Odds are that the Blue Devils will improve their defensive efficiency in the first two games this weekend. Yet this is a team that lost by 27 while only scoring 47 against Clemson in early February, and has lost to UNC twice, so questions remain.

Which brings us to Pittsburgh and North Carolina. Both have stellar offensive units (ranked 1 and 2 respectively), both have mediocre defenses (ranked 34th and 35th respectively). These defensive ratings indicate they aren't contenders for the title. But remember, they potentially have 6 games (including bottom feeders in game 1) to improve that ranking.

The wild card is Ty Lawson's injury (or any one's injury for that matter). If he plays without the effects you have to like UNC's chances. If he doesn't play or plays injured you don't.

Duke and North Carolina could end up playing each other in the South Regional Final. North Carolina has beaten Duke twice this year. If they met for a third time who would have the advantage? North Carolina? Duke?

Over the last 5 years the worst defensive efficiency for a national champion was 12th. The lowest offensive efficiency was 4, which is why I wrote yesterday that Connecticut, Louisville and Memphis won't win it all.

The lone dark horse we see is Gonzaga, which happens to be ranked 6th in OE and 9th in DE. Problem is their schedule has not provided much competition except for Memphis in the last 19 games (18-1), so the RPI isn't where it should be. Yet this is a team that has beaten Tennessee twice, plus Oklahoma State and Maryland. To pick Gonzaga would mean a leap of faith that the Zags would end the season winning 24 of 25 and consistently beat much better competition than they have faced all year. Possible, but not likely.

The tournament truly appears to be wide open this year, with no dominant team establishing themselves as the clear cut favorite, at least statistically.

Tigers no-hit USC-Upstate

Five Tiger pitchers combined for a no-hitter and Mike Freeman had 7 RBI as Clemson (13-4, 4-2) ripped USC-Upstate 14-0.

Three teams that won't win it all

While still figuring out who will win it all, we came across three teams that a lot of people have chosen that won't:

1. Memphis
2. Louisville
3. Connecticut

While Memphis and Louisville have lock down defenses, they are going to have trouble scoring against better teams later in the tournament. Connecticut's offensive numbers are better, but still not good enough to win the championship and their defensive numbers are not near as good as Louisville or Memphis.

Tigers 8 Presbyterian 0

Not much to talk about here. Easy mid-week win for the Tigers (12-4, 4-2).

Pre-Tourney look at the contenders

Duke is playing solid basketball right now. Whether that continues through the tournament is any one's guess. North Carolina's suspect defense has reared it's ugly head At this point, Duke looks to be the team to beat, but other teams are lurking (see below).

Team	Def Eff	Off Eff	RPI
Duke	17	4	1
Connecticut	3	20	7
Missouri	8	18	11
Kansas	15	19	10
Memphis	1	39	4
Michigan State	10	33	8
Louisville	2	42	5
Washington	11	35	15
Villanova	25	25	13
Wake Forest	14	40	16

Here are some teams to keep an eye on, the most intriguing one being Gonzaga, but remember only one of the last 20 final four teams has had an RPI out of the top 16. More realistically, Pittsburgh and North Carolina could move back into the top table with a couple of impressive outings this week.

Team	Def Eff	Off Eff	RPI
Pittsburgh	34	2	2
North Carolina	35	1	3
Oklahoma	46	8	6
West Virginia	7	15	20
Purdue	5	48	21
Gonzaga	9	6	29

Charting Baseball at quarter season

The Tigers have some work to do if they hope to reach Omaha. Stellar pitching has provided some hope, but the other three categories need to improve.

	7 Year Average	2009 Clemson
Fielding %	.972	.966
Earned Run Average	3.74	2.63
Batting Avg	.299	.276
Slugging %	.438	.406

Note: The batting average and slugging percentages were based on 6 year averages of the top 100 teams. The 2002 statistics for the 100th rated team in these categories was not available.

Clemson vs. Michigan

Clemson drew Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I like the match up against Michigan. Not so much vs. Oklahoma, if the Tigers get that far.

Tigers finish off sweep of Wake

Clemson (11-4, 4-2) beat Wake 7-3 on Sunday to wrap up a much needed 3 game sweep of the Deacons. Chris Dwyer (2-0) pitched seven strong innings and Ben Paulsen hit a two-run homer to lead the Tigers.

Parker, pitching power Tigers

Kyle Parker went 6 for 9 with 2 HR's and 6 RBI as Clemson (10-4, 3-2) swept a double header from Wake Forest on Friday.

The Tigers took the first game 4-1 and won the second 6-1.

Tech cages Tigers

Did not see it. Can not win with it. I didn't see the game, but I did hear that Tanner Smith led the Tigers with 10 points at the half. I knew Clemson was in trouble when I heard that, no offense to Tanner.

Tigers 6 Spartans 1

Tigers (8-4, 1-2) sweep 2 game series. Kyle Parker goes 0-4 to drop his average to .136.

Three game series with Wake coming up this weekend.

Clemson 15 Michigan State 2

Not much news here...

except Kyle Parker's slump continues. Currently batting .150 with 0 home runs. Now he's into double duty with spring football practice starting this evening. One wonders if the battle between Parker and Korn for the starting QB job has been on Kyle's mind.

Box Score

Billy Clyde

When Billy Gillispie decided to leave Texas A&M for Kentucky unlike many people I wondered why. The typical answer? Because it's Kentucky! Which just happened to be my reason for wondering why. After all, Kentucky had just run off a coach who had won 76% of his games (75% in the SEC), a national championship, had 3 Elite 8 teams, two Sweet 16 teams, averaged over 26 wins per year and never won less than 22 games in a year over 10 years.

But it was more than that. At A&M Gillispie had the opportunity to be THE guy they build statues of on campus or name the arena after when he retired. He could have been the guy that other coaches tried in vain to follow. He could have set the bench mark for success. At Kentucky? No matter how many games or championships he won he would never coach in Gillispie Arena or on Gillispie Court. He would always be trying desperately to live up to Rupp or Hall. In short, there was no way he was going to "succeed" at Kentucky.

Two years later Billy Clyde has a nice house and a 37-25 record (59.7%), including a 20-12 (62.5%) record in a weak SEC. He also is the proud owner of home losses to Gardner-Webb and Virginia Military Institute. He's lost 10 home games in two years, when the previous coach lost 19 home games in TEN years.

Kentucky slipped into the tourney last year then left without so much as a whimper. This year the Wildcats will most likely be playing in the NIT if they can hold their noses long enough to accept a bid.

It's going to take some time for Billy Clyde to restore his reputation and here's guessing it ain't going to happen in Lexington, Kentucky.

Heading into the conference tournaments

Pittsburgh creeps into the picture. The Panthers are now 27th in defensive efficiency and with a good showing in the Big East Tournament, could move into the national championship picture.

Team	Def Eff	Off Eff	RPI
North Carolina	20	1	2
Duke	15	6	3
Connecticut	3	19	4
Kansas	14	17	7
Missouri	17	18	12
Michigan State	9	28	6
Memphis	1	37	8
Louisville	2	42	9
Washington	12	33	13
Wake Forest	16	34	10
Xavier	22	44	15

Wake beats Clemson again

No surprise here. The only real surprise was Clemson's run near the 5 minute mark of the first half. After that, Wake turned it up and Clemson didn't have any answers.

Tar Heels take game 3, 9-8

Clemson rallied in the 8th and 9th, but UNC won it in the bottom of the 9th. I'm encouraged by their refusal to give up down 7-1, but discouraged by the bullpen.

UNC 5 Clemson 2

3 hits. 0 extra base hits. Lucky to score 2 runs.

It's early in the season, but a big game tomorrow. Would be nice to win the first conference series of the year, on the road at UNC.

Clemson 5 North Carolina 4 (10 innings)

Clemson (6-2, 1-0) scored a run in the top of the 10th to beat UNC in Chapel Hill on Friday.

Nice win by the Tigers, who saw a 4 run lead evaporate, but didn't give up on the road against a good UNC team.

The Tigers had 9 hits, including 3 doubles and a home run and the bullpen only gave up one run in 7 1/3 innings. Tomas Cruz (1-1) was the winning pitcher for Clemson.

Can Pitt compete?

Each of the 11 teams below is a candidate to make the final four, but the thing to note here is that once you get to the final four offensive efficiency becomes much more important, so for instance, if North Carolina manages to make it to the final four then they would be my favorite to win it all. That is unless Pittsburgh gets itself together defensively and somehow makes it to the top 25 in defensive efficiency.

Team	Def Eff	Off Eff	RPI
Duke	12	5	2
Connecticut	3	15	5
North Carolina	21	2	3
Missouri	8	19	11
Kansas	9	22	8
Memphis	1	35	7
Michigan State	14	24	6
Villanova	22	23	15
Washington	16	30	14
Louisville	2	48	9
Wake Forest	13	41	13

Tigers pound UNC-Asheville 17-2

This game proves....absolutely nothing. I'll be more impressed if the Tigers manage to win this weekend at UNC. Kyle Parker did bust out of his slump though, if you can count 1 hit in 4 at bats "busting out" (he did have 3 RBI).

I'll have to run some numbers, but I believe a pattern from last year is repeating itself. Fatten your stats on also-rans from non-BCS conferences and struggle mightily against the better teams on your schedule. While most teams have this problem to some extent, I get the feeling that Clemson does so more than others. I think the 0-16 record against top flight competition last year proved this.

Tigers awaken in second half

Clemson slept through another first half on Tuesday, leading Virginia 33-32 at the half. But the giants awoke in the second half and Clemson's front line turned the game into a dunk fest as the Tigers beat Virginia 75-57.

The Tigers had 10 turnovers in the first half, but only 5 in the second. And while seemingly everyone had a hand in the turnovers, you have to wonder what has happened to Tanner Smith. Smith has gone from a solid contributor as a freshman to someone who turns the ball over with alarming frequency. He had two more turnovers in 7 minutes (and 0 points) against Virginia. If this continues Clemson's "deep" bench, suddenly gets a bit shorter.

Furman rallies past Tigers, 4-2 in 14

Furman got it's first hit of the game with two outs in the ninth and then managed to beat the Tigers (4-2) 4-2 in 14 innings on Tuesday.

While it is early in the season, last years disturbing trends are reappearing. While the Tigers have a good ERA (2.55) and fielding percentage (.988), they are struggling at the plate with a .218 team batting average and .325 slugging percentage.

Kyle Parker, a Freshman All-American last year, has managed a .105 batting average through the first 6 games this year.

Home stretch

The data below is through games of March 1. It appears that we are going to have 3 nice case studies this year if things continue along these lines. According to the data, Duke is a contender, while Oklahoma and Pittsburgh aren't final four material. The pundits believe just the opposite to be true. While Duke doesn't have all of the characteristics of a final four team they do have more than any other team at this point. One note on Pittsburgh and Oklahoma - they both certainly have the offensive power to win the national championship, their fault lies with their defense, at least at this juncture.

Team	Def Eff	Off Eff	RPI
Duke	8	6	2
Connecticut	3	15	5
North Carolina	19	1	3
Kansas	7	17	7
Michigan State	9	24	6
Missouri	13	20	13
Memphis	1	42	8
Washington	15	32	12
Wake Forest	14	36	16
Xavier	17	49	11

Lost weekend

Tiger basketball loses to Florida State, which is not all that surprising. The defense hasn't played well lately and FSU is long and tall, which gives Clemson problems on the inside.

The baseball team lost to South Carolina 3-1 on Saturday and then got rained out on Sunday.