Clemson 79, East Carolina 66

Found this write-up on the Clemson basketball game this evening. I originally glanced at it on Anna Kate's Wii, but decided to take a closer look for myself.

http://www.upstatetoday.com/news/2009/jan/04/no-20-clemson-outlasts-east-carolina-79-66/

Pete Iacobelli, to his credit, made the bulk of his write-up about the continuing contributions of a key bench-player this year in Jerai Grant. I'm glad to see it. Grant is a rising star and should be getting more credo for his efforts. And he looked terrific out there today, scoring 14 points, including a nice 6-of-7 effort from the charity stripe, and hauling down five offensive rebounds.

But I take issue with his assumption that Clemson "seemed to be looking past the [East Carolina] Pirates as their big lead shrunk at the end of the half."

Like many typical AP sportswriters, Pete makes the assumption that since the Tigers are not only ranked, but undefeated, beating ECU was supposed to be little more than a breeze. A foregone conclusion. We should have been shocked at getting a 13-point win rather than a 35-40 point rout. Since we "seemed" to struggle at putting them away, we must have been looking past them to the Crimson Tide and the upcoming ACC.

I imagine a seasoned Clemson beat-writer such as Larry Williams, Andrew Miller, or even Bart Wright could set Mr. Iacobelli straight on the matter. But seeing as they are likely busy covering other deadlines, I, as a fan who witnessed the game seated in Section 210 in the upper section, will attempt to settle the issue.

First off, where do you get evidence that Clemson "looked past" East Carolina? Last time I checked, the Pirates had a winning overall record at 8-4. Sure, they've lost three in a row, but it's not like those losses reflect a Daisy Hill school beating the snot out of them. Two of those losses came against fellow ACC stalwarts Wake Forest, a team that will significantly test us this year (can you imagine the hoopla if both Clemson and Wake stayed unbeaten in Littlejohn in a couple weeks?) and N.C. State. No doubt Oliver Purnell looked at ECU's record and let his players know that this opponent was no weak sister by any means.

Was it because we never delivered a knockout punch? Considering we held leads of 26-13 in the first half, then 63-48 and 78-58 in the second, I'm surprised that we sustained momentum for the stretches that we did. We punched those leads out with mostly our bench players providing the minutes. Grant was our main offensive player out there other than Rivers. Tanner Smith hit some big shots from long range with Terrence Oglesby struggling. Bobo Baicu played his role and shut down players in the paint - and come on, did you really expect a 7'1 big man to hit free throws?

So considering that, yes, we treated this game as our last real 'tune-up' before the real action hits in a few days, but still managed to win it in solid, work-man like fashion, how much did we have to win by to say we were indeed focused, Mr. Iacobelli?

Oh well. Onto Alabama.