Kaplony
Palmetto State Deplorable
Posts: 25,393
Joined: Apr 2013
I Root For: Newberry
Location: SC
|
RE: Pivotal season for ACC football in 2015
(04-16-2015 07:12 PM)nzmorange Wrote: (04-16-2015 07:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote: (04-16-2015 06:58 PM)nzmorange Wrote: (04-16-2015 05:29 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote: (04-16-2015 03:14 PM)nzmorange Wrote: Maybe it shouldn't be as follows, but I think it is: the Big XII had a rejuvenation because all the nobody teams TT, OSU, TCU, Baylor, etc. found themselves in a situation where they had to win to survive. They were playing (and paying) for what essentially amounts to their school's athletic existence - or at least its relevance. If the Big XII did fall, which would have happened had they not gotten their act together, they would be left hanging. This trend coincided (and possibly caused) a downturn for the Big XII's elite (UT and OU), which is further inflating rankings. Nobody wants to admit the possibility of OU/UT being bad, so anyone beating them (i.e. TCU and Baylor) must be great, right?
The ACC doesn't have that problem and never *really* did. I know there was some grumbling about FSU and Clemson going to the Big XII and (insert school here) going to the B1G, and I know that at least one FSU BoT member made some statements indicating that he was receptive to a move, but I don't think that any of that was ever going to happen. As such, there was never really any real pressure for (insert school here) to live up to its potential. I think that if a substantial portion of the ACC was ever in a do or die situation, big investments would be made, and suddenly UNC would be winning, Miami would be the []_[], Syracuse and BC would revert to the 90's, Pitt would start holding on to coaches, NCSU would get good at something, GT would get a grip on reality, VT would find a replacement for Beamer, Clemson would learn to play basketball, etc., and we would have a murder's row conference. The potential is there.
Unfortunately, so is the apathy under the current system.
Apathy?
UNC invested a ton of cash and cheated like hell to keep num-nuts eligible and still could not get back to what Mack Brown had in the late 90's. Money and a willingness to do anything was not the issue.
NC State is still just 5 years into a recommitment to football and basketball that was gutted in 1991 and stayed gutted for two decades. NC State fired a moribund football coach in 2012 who was not recruiting despite a winning record - that's not apathy
Clemson has never been a basketball school and never will be - recruiting basketball players to rural cow colleges is never easy. Recruiting basketball players to STEMS in general is not easy. That's not apathy, just reality.
VT has not retained Beamer due to apathy, nor did FSU retain Bowden too long due to apathy.
Miami football is the real conference stinker today. NC State basketball had been the real stinker in the ACC until the last few years.
* We agree on Miami and NCSU bball.
* You're wrong about VT and FSU for that matter. If VT *had* to win, Beamer would be out right now. Retaining a legend is a luxury.
* Nobody (but you) said anything about Clemson being a basketball school. I said "learn how to play basketball." As of right now, and as far as I can tell all of time, Clemson unashamedly doesn't even pretend to care about basketball. One poster on this forum even takes pride in it. There's a difference between at least pretending to care and being Duke/UNC/Kansas/Kentucky or however you define basketball school.
*"[NCSU] football and basketball that was gutted in 1991 and stayed gutted for two decades." Apathy - lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. Sure, big bad UNC threw around its weight and political power, but after a while the excuses have to end. NCSU basketball is nationally irrelevant and Pack football is as bad as Syracuse, and we are a shining example of apathy in weird ball.
*"UNC invested a ton of cash..." tell that to their assistant coaches. A school with UNC's resources and location *should* be able to attract a steady stream of top-tier coaching talent throughout the staff. That hasn't consistently happened in CH.
Evidently we know how to play basketball as we have finished middle of the pack in the ACC four out of the past five and nine out of the last ten seasons. I could understand your theme if we were a perennial bottom dweller, but we aren't thus your narrative is false.
Your total of 11 tourney appearances and 1 elite eight trip agree with me.
Or, if you would rather, your single conference championship (pre-WWII) also agrees with me.
Pretending like the ACC wasn't ridiculously top-heavy prior to the 2nd raid is a little much.
Yet we still finished in the middle of the pack in the conference nine out of ten years.
Clemson faces a whole litany of obstacles to perennially improve in basketball:
We are a STEM school in a rural area, not exactly a prime draw for basketball prospects.
We reside in a state that what little quality basketball talent it does produce usually can't get in Clemson academically, and the traditionally prime basketball talent producing area of the state is Columbia and Richland County, especially the inner-city schools. This is a double curse because of the relationship that South Carolina typically has with local basketball coaches (many having former coot players on staff) and because those are some of the lowest performing schools in the state outside of the I95 corridor. For example SC's best prospect this year P.J. Dozier from Spring Valley played for his dad, a coot player. One of his dad's assistants is a former coot director of player development under the former coach. Another of this year's top players plays a Dreher, a Columbia area school, and played AAU ball for a former coot player. Next year's top prospect Seventh Woods plays at Columbia's Hammond Academy and in AAU for the Carolina Wolves....coached by Columbia area HS coach Daryl Jarvis. This is the uphill battle we face in recruiting in our own state.
Our fanbase is spread throughout the state and making a three hour one way trip for a two hour basketball game isn't going to happen very often and not at all during the week. Unlike football where seven times, eight if you count the spring game, is an event there are too many basketball games for that to happen.
|
|