President's Day Sunday Thoughts

We are over halfway through the month of February. This means the basketball regular season schedule is nearing its homestretch and baseball is just getting underway. In terms of basketball, Clemson was able to hang on for a win in Atlanta against rival Georgia Tech. I still look back on the Virginia game with disgust and am disappointed that we couldn't convert when needed against NC State last Sunday. We get #3 Miami tonight in Littlejohn, so maybe this team can hand the Hurricanes their first conference loss of the season.

The big news this past week is the discussion surrounding Clemson's basketball home. A decade or so ago the powers that be made the decision to waste money upgrade Littlejohn Coliseum and practice facilities associated with the basketball program. Essentially, these improvements were outdated by the time they were completed-that is $31 million put to poor use. Now folks are reopening dialog on how to improve basketball facilities in the most economical fashion. We'll see if that results in an effort to build a new arena or if these folks come up with an alternate idea. I don't know enough about the numbers to have a definitive opinion. What I do know is that I don't want Clemson to blow tens of millions of dollars in the fashion they did 10 years ago. We've been all over facility improvement and will continue to follow this as well as fundraising items as we transition to new leadership in the athletics department.

In addition to Clemson basketball, the weekend has been a fairly entertaining one from a sporting perspective. We had the Budweiser Shootout, golf at Riviera, and-most importantly-the curling national championship. Curling is the second most popular sport in Canada. If we had some freaking ice, I would probably go ahead and give up golf and hit up the curling rink every weekend. The only issue is cost. As the Stunner pointed out yesterday, the brooms are like $2 grand a pop. Add to it that there is one location that produces the granite for the stones and you are talking some cheddar.

There were two epic matches yesterday in Green Bay. The women's title went into extra ends and, unfortunately, NBC Sports Net chose to go to a meaningless basketball game instead of sticking with the action on the ice. Erika Brown's team was able to pull it together and win yet again and team Clark put together a masterful men's championship match-throwing some gutsy stones and strategically limiting the opponents on the way to a national title. Congrats to both teams. In a chain of events that is no shock to anyone, Team Shuster got rolled up...and I am pleased with that fact. I only hope that Team Clark can carry this momentum into Olympic qualifying as I cannot take another epic collapse/choke job by Shuster on the world scale again in 2014. I guess I should point out that Shuster has won his share of events-though the 2010 Olympic failure sticks in my mind the most.

Is it just me or has wracin' gone downhill since Sprint/Nextel got involved. It was so much better when it was the Winston Cup Series. The All-Star race used to be good, now it is ruined as well. I hate the "Race for the Chase" and thought that neckcar was the last great sport that rewarded consistency. Now these jackasses have taken over the Bud Shootout. The Unlimited? WTF is this? I will say that I am excited about seeing the Car of Tomorrow, Part 2 in the Twin races this week and in the 500 next weekend. I will be tired of hearing about Danica Patrick and whomever she is hooking up with on the Cup Circuit. Check that, I am already sick of hearing about Mrs. Patrick. I want to see more pack racing and hopefully the 88 won't pull a Shuster again this year. He seems pretty confident, but that appears par for the course prior to not winning a championship.

That is all I have. Everyone have a nice President's Day and a great week.