The Leggett argument

The recent past, the present, and the future under Jack Leggett have been the topic of serious and polarizing debate lately on the message board.

As is the case with most arguments, er, discussions in a group setting, the two vocal extremes comprise the minority.

One side says this thing has gradually deteriorated into a train wreck and that Leggett should hit the bricks.

The other side says everything is fine, nothing to see here, and so on.

I'd imagine more people are closer to the middle in all this, and here's an attempt to frame what that moderate view is:

There have been some disturbing trends in recent years, trends that cannot be ignored. Leggett's overall record and list of accomplishments give him some benefit of the doubt, but if the Tigers again underachieve this year then it will not be unreasonable to think some heat should be on Leggett next year.

First off, this season in no way should be written off at this point. Crazy things happen in sports, and who knows? Writing an obituary on May 27th will look silly in hindsight if this bunch rebounds and makes a dramatic postseason run.

But we can all agree that, at this point, this team has largely played below its potential this season. Losing 15 of 23 games after the 17-2 start was confounding, and it remains confounding. This team has weaknesses, sure, but some of the stuff we saw during that stretch was simply not reflective of a good baseball team. And this was supposed to be a good baseball team.

We saw some of those same things in last night's loss to N.C. State. Air-headed plays on defense. Base-running blunders. And, of course, a pitching staff that is numbingly inconsistent.

Here's the biggest question I have about this program right now: Have the standards been lowered?

Yes, "Omaha" is still stitched on the back of the team's caps. And yes, everyone still burns to reach the CWS as much as they always have and always will.

But if this bunch reaches a Super Regional this year, it will feel like an accomplishment. And that hasn't always been the case. From 1991 to 2006, when this program reached Omaha six times, anything less than Omaha was a shattering disappointment.

If the Tigers don't reach the CWS this year, the four-year drought will be their longest since the 10-year absence between 1980 and 1991.

Included in that drought was the disaster of 2008, when Clemson finished 31-27 and failed to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1986.

This is what Leggett said after last year's Super Regional loss at Arizona State:

“I come off this season with a much better feeling because of the young kids we’ve got coming back, the attitudes, how hard they’re working. They got off the bus, saying, ’OK, we’ll be back next year coach, we’ll get to Omaha. We know what it takes.'"

To be fair, that was before Leggett's program took yet another hit from the MLB Draft. Pitchers Chris Dwyer and Graham Stoneburner left early. Madison Younginer never reached campus. Ben Paulsen also took the money and ran.

The draft affects everyone, so you don't want to take the "What if?" thing too far. But are the current pitching issues nearly this pronounced if two of the aforementioned hurlers are still in college? Or just one of them?

Also in Leggett's defense, the late-season rebound (12 wins in 14 games) and the division title that came with it means something. This team did not collapse emotionally under the weight of that midseason swoon. This team rebounded when it had to with last week's impressive, division-clinching sweep of Florida State.

The draft could inflict damage again this year. Kyle Parker is a prime draft candidate. And I haven't done much draft homework on John Hinson and Jeff Schaus, but you'd assume they'd be in the mix as well.

Still, things are shaping up for this bunch to have a good shot at returning to Omaha next year.

Then again, we were all saying the same thing heading into this year.

Some Thursday links...

Greg Wallace made the trip to Greensboro and has this game story, plus a notebook that looks at the ACC Tournament's attendance.

Here's another game story from The Greenville News.

“You've got to give a lot of credit to the N.C. State hitters,” Tiger designated hitter Brad Miller said. “They battled. And when they got to two strikes, they won the battle.”

In the wake of the sanctions at Michigan, John Walters of Fanhouse nails the essence of this whole scandal:

Aside from lying to investigators, Michigan didn't really do anything other big-time powers (and aspiring big-time powers) aren't doing. The Wolverines merely got caught.

College football pays lip service to compliance but it pays big money, the type of dollars that can fund an entire athletic department, for going 13-0 (or 14-0). It's as if every head coach at a major program finds himself stranded in an entire grove of trees of forbidden fruit and, while each is warned not to touch the fruit, they look around and notice their peers who possess more knowledge of good and evil seem to lure a more attractive Eve.

Michigan's sins - a surfeit of paradoxically-titled "quality control" coaches, an excessive amount of off-season practice time, an underling who misleads the NCAA (surely on his own; it's not as if, had he been candid with the NCAA, he would ever have been black-balled from the profession) are not necessarily venal.

But the system is.

In Alabama, F-Baum opines on the colossal blunder by a guy running for governor in that state.

Also in Alabama, Kevin Scarbinsky says Mike Slive earned every penny of his hefty bonus.

Clemson ranks 25th nationally in all college merchandise solid.

Good stuff by Ivan Maisel on the economic decline of the Rust Belt. Now you see why the Big Ten is so interested in expanding its footprint to the South?

And congrats to former Clemson director of basketball ops Michael Morrell, who landed on his feet as an assistant at Charleston Southern.

Ah, Charleston. There are worse places to be.


LW