Thoughts Heading Into The Madness

Clemson's basketball program has arrived on that most interesting level and, one could assert, Oliver Purnell has returned the program to the place where Rick Barnes had it in the late '90s.

The Tigers gathered at Purnell's home late Sunday afternoon not just hoping they'd be included in the Big Dance but simply knowing they were in. The only question was seeding, opponent, and destination.

But now, you might say, comes the hard part. While the novelty of making the NCAA Tourney is still pretty fresh for this generation of those who make-up the program their challenge is to hang around, something that didn't happen last year when a fifth-seeded Clemson team made a first-round exit against 12th-seeded Villanova.

In fact, for all of his achievment as a head coach, Purnell has never registered an NCAA Tourney victory so perhaps he feels a certain anxiety.

Down the stretch, Clemson's defense was, ironically, it's primary weakness. It spoke volumes in the past two games that the Tigers exceeded 80 points scored and still lost. What's been particularly anguishing for Purnell has been watching the ease that teams have scored either driving to the basket or with open looks from the wing. Some intense practices and team meetings took place over the weekend in an attempt to correct these issues.

The emotion of the tourney speaks for itself. However, it will be somewhat of a study in psychology to see how sophomore guard Terrence Oglesby approaches the game against Michigan. The Wolverines were his second choice for college basketball. Will he press in an attempt to impress?

I really wasn't all that surprised with how things went with the overall NCAA selection process. I do think you'll see a few more major non-conference opponents on South Carolina's non-conference schedule next season but what will really help the Gamecocks most, in a strange sense, would be the return of Kentucky and Florida to their lofty status. The fact that those teams were down this year was a big reason why the SEC was perceived to be weak, which is the main reason why USC was among those in the league with decent overall records denied and why only three teams made it from the league.

I also think the selection committee made a statement with its omission of a 26-win St. Mary's (CA) team this year.

Two weeks ago the Gaels scheduled a game for last Friday against Eastern Washington in an attempt to show the committee that they were again running on all cylinders as they wanted to display the type of team they are with point guard Patty Mills back healthy. They were a mediocre team when he missed a handful of games down the stretch but were then blown out of their conference tournament championship game by Gonzaga with Mills in the line-up. However, from a perception standpoint I think that backfired. Although they won the game in blow-out fashion I think the committee wanted to put the breaks on such a practice becoming a trend for other schools in the future.