Olympic sports hold their own

By: Will Vandervort

Just a little Olympic sports update here. We all know the Clemson baseball team got back on the winning side of things Friday with a 13-2 win over UNC-Wilmington, but what a lot of folks probably don’t know is that the Clemson women’s tennis team, which is hosting the NCAA Regional for a sixth straight year, beat Winthrop Friday to advance to today’s second round matchup with No. 20 North Carolina.

In track and field, Nikola Lomnicka recorded a personal best and Alex Padgett matched his previous best, both in the hammer throw, to lead Clemson track & field on day one at the Orange & Purple Classic. Both student-athletes took home first-place finishes for the Tiger program, and both did so with NCAA regional-qualifying performances.

This will be the third match of the year between the No. 12 Tigers and the Tar Heels on the tennis courts. The two have spilt the first two meetings with Clemson winning the regular season matchup in Chapel Hill and UNC winning the quarterfinal match of the ACC Tournament last month.

Today’s match at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. The winner will advance to the Sweet 16, which is being held in College Station, Texas.

Rookie Josipa Bek clinched Clemson's win over Winthrop in the opening round while Ina Hadziselimovic and Keri Wong also picked up singles victories in the 4-0 sweep over Winthrop on Friday.

North Carolina knocked off Georgia State, 4-0 to advance.

Clemson has now advanced to the second round of the national tournament for the eighth straight year.

The Tigers also captured the doubles point as Ani Mijacika and Keri Wong, the nation's ninth-ranked duo, swept Winthrop's team of Liza Zaytseva and Pay Coimbra at the top spot(8-0) in just over 30 minutes and the Tigers' number-two combination posted their win just a few minutes later.

Josipa Bek and Ina Hadziselimovic improved to 14-6 with their 8-1 win over Lisa Wilkinson and Sandra Herrera.

Back at the Orange and Purple Classic, Lomnicka, a freshman from Slovakia, had a dominating performance to kick off the hammer throw competitions. She shattered her personal best, as she produced a throw of 208’8” on the third attempt of the preliminaries.

Her next closest competitor was Alexis DeJean of St. Joseph’s (IN), with a throw of 164’7”. Lomnicka holds the freshman record at Clemson for the hammer throw, and ranks second in school history in the event behind only former national champion Jamine Moton.

Padgett produced his first-place finish by matching his personal best to the centimeter. On his first throw of the preliminary round, he hit a mark of 192’7”. He eased his way to victory at that point, as the next-closest finisher was a Gardner-Webb thrower at 176’4”. Padgett ranks third in school history in the event.

Clemson is hosting a regional

By: Will Vandervort

Clemson is going to host an NCAA Regional and it has nothing to do with the baseball team. Well, not yet anyway.

Though the baseball team lost to a bad Maryland team over the weekend, the Tigers still have a shot at hosting a regional, though it is just a small shot. By the way, the baseball game against Furman at Fluor Field was postponed last night due to rain and has been rescheduled for 4 p.m. Monday.

Anyway, back to what I was originally writing about to begin with. Clemson is hosting a regional and it starts tomorrow. Clemson University will be hosting the NCAA Women’s Tennis Regional and will play Winthrop at 2 p.m. at the Hoke Sloan Tennis Center. North Carolina will take on Georgia State in the other matchup. The two winners will play Saturday at 1 p.m. to see who moves on to the Sweet 16, which will be held in College Station, Texas.

This is the sixth straight year Clemson has hosted a regional.

“I hope we can continue to host because it is such a great honor,” Clemson women’s tennis coach Nancy Harris said. “The girls have had a great season and they have done very well and I’m delighted they have put themselves in position to do well.”

The Tigers are ranked No. 12 in the country and come into the regional with a 17-7 record.

“To be No. 12 in the country and to be at this point and hosting, I’m happy for them and happy with the results,” Harris said. “But I feel this team is a top 5 team. When they are healthy and at their best, they are a top 5 team.”

Clemson has been banged up this year as ACC Player of the Year Ani Mijacika is just now getting back to strength after battling leg injuries all year, as is Estefania Balda, who missed the ACC Tournament.

But what the Tigers do have going for them is home court advantage. Clemson owns a 9-1 record all-time in regional matches at Sloan and have advanced out of those regionals four of the five times it has hosted.
This year’s draw could be tougher with No. 20 North Carolina likely staring the Tigers down for a possible second-round matchup.

The Tar Heels upset Clemson 4-2 on April 17 in the ACC Tournament after the Tigers routed them, 5-2, at Chapel Hill during the regular season.

A win over North Carolina can go a long way in helping Clemson become the team Harris has always felt they could have been this year.

“They need to beat Winthrop soundly and then they need to beat North Carolina big,” she said. “Not just beat them 4-3, but they need to beat them badly. If they beat them pretty badly, that’s what they need to go all the way.

“If they beat them just a little bit, then I think it is going to be a tough tournament. If they beat them pretty soundly they are going to be thinking, ‘you know what, we are pretty good. We can do this.’ That’s what I hope for them.”

Does Bowden deserve to be in Hall of Fame?

By: Will Vandervort

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! I hope you know what that means and more importantly, why this day is celebrated in both Mexico and American. If you don’t, I encourage you to visit this web site. It will tell you all that you need to know.

Now on with the rest of this blog ...

I have been listening to some of the sports talk shows in the Upstate the last week or so, and several times I heard some of the guys bring up the subject “who you want to see in the Clemson Hall of Fame that isn’t already in there?”

That got me to thinking about some names, and of course most of them where on the football side, but I thought of one or two that played basketball and baseball that are not in there that deserve to be in there. But I’m not going to spill into who I think deserves to be in there because that’s a topic that I can write a book on and I’m sure not all of you want to read that.

But as I listened to some of the suggestions on the radio, and granted I have not had the time to listen to complete shows, but as I heard some of the listeners, one name I did not hear while I was listening, was Tommy Bowden.

Granted, Bowden never won a championship at Clemson and he will always be remembered for that, but he did bring a lot of things to the Clemson program. He left the program in better shape than it was when he inherited it in December of 1998. That WestZone you see standing in Memorial Stadium was Bowden’s idea from day one at Clemson.

He pushed that on the administration from the outset, and trust me people, though the outside of Death Valley looked good at the time, there were structures on the inside that needed major work. Not until athletic director Terry Don Phillips came on board in 2002, and included his ideas in with Bowden, did the Clemson administration finally start working on improving the football program’s facilities as well as the rest of the sports programs at Clemson.

I think Tommy Bowden does and will belong in the Clemson Hall of Fame one day, but I was curious as to what you guys think. In your opinion, does he deserve to get in? I’m going to put these facts out in front of you and then compare these numbers with other Clemson coaches. You tell me if he deserves that honor or not?

Tommy Bowden facts (according to the 2008 Clemson football media guide)

He was 72-45 (.615) in 10 seasons at Clemson

He had three teams win at least 9 games (tied with Howard for second most in school history)

Coached Clemson in 8 bowl games (tied with Ford for most all-time)

Recorded a winning record in eight of his 10 seasons as head coach

None of his teams had a losing record (joining only Danny Ford to coach five or more years without a losing record)

Eight straight years his teams recorded winning records (Clemson record)

Record 43 ACC wins in his 10 seasons (second only to his father, Bobby Bowden, at Florida State during that time)

Was the fifth head coach in ACC history to record eight straight winning seasons

He was 7-2 vs. South Carolina. The best record for a Clemson coach against the Gamecocks.

His 72 overall wins are third most in Clemson history (only Frank Howard and Danny Ford have more)

Three straight 8 wins or more seasons from 2005-’07 (first Clemson coach to do that since Danny Ford)

Twice named ACC Coach of the Year (ties Howard, Charlie Pell and Ford)

His 10 seasons as head coach is the third longest tenure in school history (only Howard and Ford coached longer)

Nearly 80 percent of seniors graduated during his time as head coach and each of the top eight semester team GPA’s were recorded during his tenure.

Swinney will get the job done

By: Will Vandervort

Okay, I have seen it posted on some of the message boards where some guys question whether Dabo Swinney is the man to take Clemson to the next level.

Some say his mottos, like “All-in” are cheesy. Some even made fun of his fantasy camp, which for the record I thought was a great idea and had a good time covering it.

Some question his leadership skills and some say he is all talk. Some look at his background, and say “how can he be a head coach when he wasn’t even a coordinator?”

I can understand Clemson fans' concerns. They have a right to be. The football program has not produced an ACC Championship since 1991.

But what I can’t understand is this thinking that Swinney can’t get the job done at Clemson.

Why? I want to know where this thinking comes from.

If anyone has read the story of Dabo Swinney and his life to this point, the one thing they should take away from it – this guy gets the job done.

Go look at his track record. He was an A-student in high school despite playing three sports and dealing with serious family issues at home, and keep in mind he was still trying to be a teenager.

He somehow worked his way to the University of Alabama – his dream at the time – to attend school. Despite those that said there was no way he could make it or could find the funds to attend college, he made it happen.

“I always worked to go to Alabama,” he said. “That was my first goal. I got Pell grants and student loans and that’s how I made it.

“I was going to be a doctor. I majored in biology and was going to make something of myself. I wanted a better life.”

When he decided to walk on to the football team at Alabama people laughed at him and coaches said they doubted he could make the team. What did he do? He made the team.

When he said he was going to earn a scholarship and was going to play instead of just being a punching bag for the starters, again people doubted him. What did he do? He played and he won a national championship by doing it.

When he decided he was going to be a coach at Alabama, he became one of the best young assistants in the country.

Even off the field Swinney has got the job done. In high school and in college, he cleaned gutters to make some extra money. What did he do? He became the best gutter cleaner he could be – he always had jobs lined up.

While staying at Alabama and working out in the summer, Swinney took on a job as a door-to-door salesman for a knife and kitchen company. What did he do? He became one of the company’s top salesmen and was honored for such.

After leaving Alabama in 2000, Swinney got involved in commercial real estate at AIG Baker. What did he do?

“I made more money than I had ever made in my life while I was there,” Swinney said.

But something was missing and when Tommy Bowden called, he decided to take the job at Clemson. People thought he was crazy to get back in coaching, but Swinney missed it. He wanted to make a difference.

“I missed coaching football,” he said. “I mean (AIG) was a good job, but I didn’t feel like I was making a difference with kids and stuff. Sure I was coaching little league, teaching at clinics and going to speaking engagements, and I had my children, but I missed coaching.

“I had coached too long and I had too much knowledge in my head. I was almost a coordinator when I was 30 years old, but I turned that job down to stay at Alabama. I knew I still wanted to coach, but it would have to be at the right time, with the right coach, the right staff and the right school.”

After joining the Clemson staff, Swinney was out to prove he made the right choice. He instantly became a difference maker as Clemson’s wide receivers coach – coaching an All-ACC first-team receiver each year as the position coach – while becoming one of the top recruiters in the country.

Then last year came. No one gave Clemson a shot to do anything after the school fired Tommy Bowden at midseason. I heard some say; “the Tigers would not win another game.” But Swinney again proved he can get the job done.

There are those out there that say he isn’t a proven coach. Hello! If getting your team to go 4-2 when all else seemed lost than I don’t know what a proven coach is.

By the way, I’m not counting the Georgia Tech game because having less than three days to prepare for a team with all that was going on you can’t really count that. Clemson University should be charged with that loss. And even with all that, Clemson nearly won that game.

Also, keep in mind he led Clemson to wins at Boston College and at Virginia, places the Tigers had not played well in past years. Then he beat Steve Spurrier and South Carolina with the pressure of trying to avoid being the first Clemson team not to be bowl eligible or have a winning record for the first time in 10 years.

If that’s not a proven coach, I don’t know what is.

As for those that question whether Swinney should have been hired since he was never a coordinator. What does that have to do with anything? Danny Ford was the offensive line coach and was never a coordinator before he got hired. I think he did fairly well, right?

Frank Howard was never a coordinator. I think he did okay, right?

Like Howard and Ford before him, Swinney seems to understand it’s who he surrounds himself with that will make or break him as a head coach. Like Ford did, he has compiled a staff that has a good mix of youth with age and experience to build. Each member of the staff brings a little bit of something to the table.

And also like Ford, most of the experience on Swinney’s staff is on the defensive side of the ball. And that my friend is no consistence.

There is no doubt in my mind that Dabo Swinney will get the job done at Clemson. His history says he will.