Clemson Tigers blow it at home.

Seriously, WTF?!

The OP Stat of the Game: Raymond Sykes, 5-5, 10 pts, 6 reb.

The Tigers were up by 13 with 7-ish minutes to go, down from as much as 19.

OP waved the white flag.

The Tigers lost.

Raymond Sykes started the game on. He spent much of the game on the bench. WTF? FSU was working Booker. Sykes could have been the offensive spark the Tigers needed. We weren't hitting from the outside (6-24 3pt), so move it in side.

And for the love of god, bench TO. Keep him there. 2-9 fg, 1-6 3pt, 1 reb, 2 ast, 6 turnovers, 4 stls. While the steals helped, six turnovers is unacceptable. Especially as they were the result of his poor offensive performance.

What the Stitt? Stitt returned last night and might have had a bit more confidence in his game for the next two away games, but his team didn't support his strong-ish performance: 50% FG, 5 ast, 1 TO.

How about the rebounding? Where was it last night? 34 FSU, 23 Tigers, including 15 FSU offensive rebounds.

And per our FTs, 77.7% is a decent average. But, only being aggresive enough to have 9 FTs is not acceptable. If, as FSU did, they were going to pack the inside, why didn't we continue to take it there. Many of the blocks Alabi had were not against our strongest inside players, but against other players trying to slash inside rather than feed the post. I'm looking at you TO. And you too, Tanner.

“This is a very disappointing loss. On our home court, in a game we had some control of in the second half," said OP after the game.

Yes. Yes it is indeed.

FSU comes to Tigertown Tonight

When: 02.07.09, 7:00 pm
Where: Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, SC
Watch: FSN
Listen: WCCP online
Follow: SCACCHoops
Time to Do Work Tigers.

Tonight's game could be one of the most difficult, at least in terms of psychological motivation and continued improvement.

OP keeps the game in perspective:

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a big game that you won and now you’ve got another game after it. It’s just how you win games, period, is something we need to draw on now. We’ve demonstrated some good things all year long.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton looks ahead to the game and has this to say:

We are not a great offensive team - call it like it is. We're a team with Toney and a lot of guys who can score six, seven, nine, 10 points a game.

And Toney Douglas is exactly who we need to focus on. Toney Douglas, the ACC's third leading scorer, will pose a problem for the Tigers- see Jack McClinton #4, Malcolm Delaney, #5, Jeff Teague, #2. Douglas doesn't have the ball-handling skills of Lawson, so breaking the press will probably not fall directly to him, as duty will be split with Derwin Kitchen.

Here is the FSU video preview. Notice Toney Douglas refer to Littlejohn, as Papa John stadium arena, whatever, when discussing the crowd.

And looking down their roster, don't forget Ryan Reid and his thuggery. FSU is tall and athletic, sort of like Wake Forest Lite.

Per the Tigers, we need to force them to play our game. They play slow, control-tempo basketball. We have to take that away from them, keep the inside-outside game going, and play smart, tough, foul-free basketball. If it comes down to fouls, it could get difficult for us.

Look for David Potter to step up and for Stitt to hopefully find his jumpshot and ball-handling skills.

Go Tigers!