Reason #1,024 to never pose with a ton of cash: Facebook ads

When Ken Page, an offensive line recruit last season with Clemson showed up on the internet holding $10,000 in cash, the rumors started flying that the Tigers were paying recruits.

Page's family/handlers responded that no, Page's uncle owned an ATM business and was helping him fill the machines with cash and just wanted to hold that much money at one time.

Sure.

Whatever the truth may be, the fact of the matter is that once a photo like this gets out, like the contents of Pandora's box, there's no way to get it back under wraps.

Case in point -- this ad that showed up on Facebook, featuring his famous photo:

Oops.

But hey, that's bed you make when you:

A) are a four star recruit and
B) pose for a photo with $10,000 in cash in your hand, wearing a Clemson orange shirt.

Here's the original photo, for reference, and the story on Page at Brahsome.com:

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The Stretch Run

Just four games remain in the 2008-09 regular season. The older I get, the faster these seasons come and go.

I can't imagine how fast the seasons will fly by once I hit 45 or 50. No wonder our graybeards talk about the titles of '74 and '83 as though they happened just yesteryear. I'm sure it feels that way to them, just as 1996 seems like just a few years ago to me.

Nevertheless, there's the slate ahead. You can see what Ken Pomeroy's computers tell us will happen. It's a relatively safe prediction of 7-9, and one that -- had you offered it to State fans the day after the loss to VT that put State at 2-6 in-conference -- I'm sure most would have taken.

If we assume KenPom's predictions all hold true -- which they won't, but let's assume they do -- then here are your final regular season standings:

(Continues)

Rank	Team	Conference Record
1	UNC	13-3
2	Wake	11-5
3	Clemson	11-5
4	Duke	11-5
5	BC	9-7
6	FSU	9-7
7	Miami	8-8
8	NC State	7-9
9	Va Tech	6-10
10	Maryland	6-10
11	UVa	4-12
12	GT	2-14

If this plays out as predicted, the Virginia Tech loss still hurts but not as much as perhaps some folks felt initially. It would have State at an 8-8 finish, tied for the 7th position in the conference with Miami, a five-spot improvement from last season's debacle.

In terms of the ACC tournament, though, the impact would not be felt. According to the ACC's tiebreaker policy (if I've deciphered it properly), State would have an identical W/L record against UNC, the same number of wins (one) but one more loss against the tied teams in second place (Wake, Clemson, Duke) and therefore be seeded 8th at the ACC tournament regardless.

Again, this all assumes that Ken's predictions all play out as his computers project.

Looking ahead, let's look at some best case/worse case scenarios for the Pack based on these predictions:

Absolute Best Case Scenario: We win out, of course. Doing so would put us at 9-7 in a three-way tie for 5th with BC and FSU, with both schools holding the tiebreaker over us in tourney seeding (BC's win against UNC earns them the nod over us in our tie). It would take a near miracle for this to occur -- Maryland and Boston College at home are loseable games, but defeating both Miami AND Wake Forest on the road is asking a lot of the basketball gods. It can be done, but only if all the pieces fall the right way (turnovers and rebounding numbers would have to improve dramatically). Chance of Success = 1 in 10

Highly Optimistic Scenario: Win three of four to finish 8-8. Win both home games against Maryland and Boston College, and steal one on the road, most likely at Miami. An 8-8 finish with a win over the 'Canes would put the Pack in sole possession of 7th place in the league. Chance of Success = 1 in 3

More Realistic But Given Our Track Record Still Cautiously Optimistic Scenario: Win the home games and lose the road games to finish 7-9 and in sole possession of 8th place in the league. Miami is going to be a really tough out in Jack McClinton's final game at Miami. He'll be so fired up that he'll be making them from the gigantic U. Chance of Success = 2 of 3

Pretty Darn Pessemistic Scenario: State loses three of their final four games. Either Tyrese Rice or Greivis Vasquez explode like they've shown they can do and/or State turns it over 50% of their possessions to lose both of their road games and one of the final two at home. A 6-10 finish would put the Pack either tied with Maryland for 10th (with a loss to BC) or in sole possession of 10th (with a loss to Maryland). Either way, not good. Chance of Failure = 1 in 3

Holy Hell The World Is Crashing Down Around Us, But Hey, We're State, This Is Just What Happens To Us Scenario: State loses all four games in an epic collapse not seen since, well, last year. Both Rice AND Vasquez go off and State never gets the ball past midcourt. State would finish 5-11, just one game ahead of Virginia in 10th place, and the ward drums would start to pound pretty loudly. Chance of The Apocolypse = 1 in 10

I can live with 7-9. I'd love 8-8. To finish 9-7 is asking too much, even for this dyed-in-the-wool fan.

But 6-10 or 5-11 finishes would be major disappointments and put a very sour taste in everyone's mouths at the end of the season, for the second year in a row.

View the complete entry of "The Stretch Run"

Clemson recap

Stats by StatSheet.com

Stats by StatSheet.com

Clemson wins three of the four factors, and as predicted, State had plenty of problems hanging onto the ball, turning it over on nearly a third of their possessions. Absolutely horrid.

(Continues)

Horrid could also describe the shooting percentage for both teams, but State looked particularly horrific. Plenty of missed shots close to the basket, including a gimmie layup that would've given the Pack a 35-33 second-half lead that instead led to an easy bucket on the other end for the Tigers. That Clemson basket ignited a 15-3 run that essentially put the game away.

Guard play will continue to haunt this team this year...there really just doesn't seem to be any other way to slice it. Costner and McCauley can't do it all, and until we get at least one confident ballhandler that can defeat the press, don't expect the turnover issues to get solved anytime soon.

One bright spot: the return of Trevor "Turd" Ferguson, who struggled offensively but played tremendous perimeter defense against the Tigers' Terrence Oglesby. Ferguson was in his hip pocket all afternoon, denying him the ball at every turn. Oglesby was averaging over 12 points per game prior to the contest...he finished with just three, shooting one of five from the floor, missing his lone three-point attempt. Tremendous work from Turd.

All in all, though, there's not much shame in losing to the #12 team on their homecourt. If the turnover issues can be corrected, this team can win their fair share of games in the league. Like, for instance, against Florida State, whom the Pack will face on Tuesday.

View the complete entry of "Clemson recap"

Clemson stuff

Wolfpack Blogging Nation is all over previewing the Clemson game this weekend, and for good reason: it's the first conference game of the year and State's first opportunity to turn some of these close losses into conference wins.

Since everyone has essentially beaten me to the punch, I'll skip the write up and just post the StatSheet.com chart along with links to where you can find excellent previews from SectionSix and StateFansNation.

Stats by StatSheet.com

SectionSix's preview

StateFansNation's preview

View the complete entry of "Clemson stuff"

Looking back to Saturday

Clemson 27, NCSU 9

There are some days you can't wait to type up something about a game. You've got an idea, a thought, that you think encapsulates what went down and you want to share it with the Blogosphere as soon as possible. The words flow from your fingers effortlessly.

This is not one of those days.

(Continues)

In fact, I couldn't want to write something about this game LESS than I do right now. The reason being, I can't really think of much that wasn't painfully obvious, or that hasn't been written already a thousand times prior to this weekend.

Our offense is bad. Our offensive line is worse. Nate Irving is a beast. The rest of the defense is average. We haven't scored an offensive touchdown against an FBS opponent since November of last year.

The end.

I will say that, having watched the whole game, I'm not as bleak on things as some State fans are right about now. I still am aware of the fact that we're missing about 50% of our weapons on offense, that Russell Wilson just played his first complete game in college, and that our depth overall, particularly along the offensive line, is razor thin. I get all of that, and it's tempered my opinion on things.

But I am concerned about how vanilla our offense continues to be given all the pieces of the puzzle that are missing. Dana Bible seems hellbent on running between the tackles 30 times a game when we just don't have the personnel for it. I'm not asking for triple reverse halfback passes every down, but I do think we need to mix the playcalling up a bit more to keep opposing defenses honest and out of the box. Even if we had 85 healthy, skilled players on our roster, you still can't play smashmouth football when five linemen have to block eight defenders.

I still can't get a read on how good or bad Clemson is. They beat us, and definitely have more skill at every position, but I get the feeling like they should've dispatched us by a good bit more. They were playing at home in their first conference game of the year, and it just seemed like they couldn't put us away when they had the chance to. Cullen Harper looks off at times, missing wide open receivers more than the preseason ACC player of the year should. C.J. Spiller is out of this world, but James Davis looked merely good against us.

As down as the ACC is, they could still run the table and win the title. But it's no longer a given, and the Wake Forest game could be a very tightly contested affair.

So it's back to Carter Finley, to face one of the hotter teams in the country in East Carolina. Ever the (foolish) optimist, I think State can repeat the stunner we pulled on the road last season and spoil the Pirates' dream season. But State's going to need some help from the men holding the dry erase boards. East Carolina's defense is legit, and the Pack will need to score not just one touchdown on offense but several to make this game competitive.

View the complete entry of "Looking back to Saturday"

Something to consider heading into Death Valley

You know me. I'm all about searching for a sliver of hope heading into a game State's got no good shot at winning.

So here's one.

(Continues)Russell Wilson, State's only legitimate hope at quarterback this season, went down with a concussion in the first half of the South Carolina game. As a result, the Tigers have a very limited amount of film on the redshirt freshman quarterback. Couple with that the fact that State's offense was retooled over the offseason to install a read option scheme tailored to Wilson's skillset, which subsequently was shelved when Daniel Evans and Harrison Beck had to come on in relief, and it's likely that the offense Clemson sees this afternoon will be quite a bit different than the majority of what they've seen of the 2008 Pack on film.

The flipside of that coin, of course, is that Wilson has only a half of game experience under his belt. But in front of 80,000 fans in Columbia, Wilson didn't show any signs of intimidation or jitters operating the offense. In fact, the Pack looked solid in moving the ball against the Gamecock defense right up to Wilson's injury.

So we'll see. Things could get ugly in a hurry, but the defense of the Pack has been our strong suit so far. If Wilson shows flashes of athleticism--something certainly not shown from Evans or Beck--then who knows?

View the complete entry of "Something to consider heading into Death Valley"

A Tiger Ass-Whippin' At The Tourney

Wolfpack Wins 10-0

You know you've had a bad night at the park when you've been mercy-ruled. That's just what State dropped on Clemson last night, a 10-0 drubbing that was called in the 7th on account of the mercy rule.

Seriously? The mercy rule? I thought they did away with that once you graduated out of the Babe Ruth leagues.

Sucks to be Clemson. Clayton Shunick of the Pack was on his game, pitching a two-hit shutout in the win.

As for the Pack, after handing the Jackets a gift-wrapped game in the tournament opener, they need some help to advance to the championship game. First, State has to pray that Clemson shakes the cobwebs loose and knocks off Georgia Tech in the 10:00 tomorrow. Failing that, even if State were to knock off Miami in the 1:00 game, Miami would hold the tiebreaker in a three-way tie between State and Georgia Tech.

Losing that Georgia Tech game was costly, but the way the team responded against Clemson is a good sign. State now has to hope that impressive win will sway the NCAA regional selection committee in the Pack's favor. A win against Miami, regardless of whether it gets them in the championship game this weekend, would go a long way toward that goal.

View the complete entry of "A Tiger Ass-Whippin' At The Tourney"