True colors

It's a long baseball season, so it's usually not wise to make season-long judgments on the strength of a mere weekend series.

But Greg Wallace of the Independent-Mail says this Clemson team showed its true personality in a series defeat at lowly Wake Forest, and it's hard to disagree at this point.

Here are some facts that make it tough to stomach losing two of three to the Deacons -- especially at this point in the season:

-- The Deacons are a bad team. They entered as the league’s second-worst hitting, pitching and fielding team, ahead of Maryland, who Clemson swept last weekend. They had four league wins (two over Duke, one apiece over N.C. State and Virginia Tech). Their RPI hovers around 130.

-- Wake Forest reached double-digit runs for only the second time in 27 ACC games. How bad was it? The Deacs built an 8-1 lead after five innings and scored in six of eight frames.

-- It was a rollover, get-out-of-town effort that exposed Clemson’s lack of a No. 3 starter (freshman Dominic Leone allowed five runs, although only one earned) in 1‚ innings, its poor defense (two errors) and flammable bullpen.

It's appropriate that Wallace focuses on this team's personality, because the available evidence points to a lack of strong personalities who normally kick everyone else into shape and will the team out of slumps.

As this team's chances of playing host to an NCAA Regional shrink, perhaps what it needs most is a ... shrink. Jack Leggett has spent most of the season trying to figure out this bunch mentally, and he might end up spending a long offseason doing the same thing.

Should this team be struggling this much? I don't think so. Before the season, people who have been around here a long time were comparing this outfit to the 2006 group that advanced to Omaha.

I had some doubts they were that good, mainly because of numerous question marks with the pitchers. But you figured this group would be a lock to merely play host to a regional, and the increasing likelihood of that not happening is a huge disappointment.

Have the standards of this program subconsciously changed as the Tigers have found it more difficult to get to Omaha? It almost feels as if reaching a Super Regional has become the benchmark, as if getting to that point leaves people ecstatic.

Unless Clemson pulls off a stunner and reaches the CWS this season, it'll be four straight seasons without a trip to Omaha. That would be the longest drought since a period from 1980 to 1991.

From 1991 to 2006, the Tigers advanced to the CWS six times.

Next year's team, assuming no major draft damage, would figure to be a good bet to end the drought. Then again, earlier this season no one was thinking this team would have to hit the road for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Kendall Rogers of Rivals lists Clemson on his collection of weekend losers.

The Tigers really haven’t played good baseball since the first couple of months of the season. The Tigers’ disappointing play in the ACC continued over the weekend with a dismal series loss to cellar-dweller Wake Forest. The series win was just Wake’s second of conference play (Duke was the other). With the series loss, the Tigers now have an unimpressive 15-12 mark in the ACC.

Here's an update from Florida State, which visits Clemson for a three-game series this week.

The good thing for the Tigers? It's a Thursday-Saturday series. Florida State hasn't yet lost on Sunday this season.

During this incredible run, they have tried six different starting pitchers. Gone with numerous batting lineups. Played at home and away. Trailed more times than they would care to remember.

And yet they have never lost.

Fourteen times this 2010 Florida State baseball team has played on Sundays. Fourteen times the Seminoles have won.

Yesterday, all the Seminoles did was surmount an 8-0 deficit in a rain-shortened game in Tallahassee.

On to the latest expansion speculation...

Ray Melick of the Birmingham News asks a question I've been asking in the wake of all these schools denying last week's report that they were mulling offers from the Big Ten:

What did you expect them to say?

Since when have denials meant anything in college sports? Don't coaches always deny they are leaving their current school until the day they are introduced at their new jobs? Don't ath letic directors deny they are talking to coaches about jobs right up until they trot them out to introduce them as the next savior of their struggling program?

So why would we believe Big Ten officials when they say no offers have been made to any schools, or be lieve schools like Missouri when officials to issue stan­dard non-denials that could have come from any coach ing search?

It would be embarrassing, except that schools at this level have almost no con­cept of shame.

Dennis Dodd thinks he's found a smoking gun in this whole thing, at least from Missouri's vantage point.

The school denied a Freedom of Information request seeking details on negotiations with the Big Ten.

The school said it was protected from releasing any information that includes "sealed bids and related documents until the bids are opened," or "documents related to a negotiated contract." While Missouri would not confirm or deny whether such documents exist, that is its stance. The paper's attorney said the school's response was "correct, as long as you have contract negotiations going on."

Very interesting.

Back to the rampant speculation: This piece from Iowa wonders why in the world someone would suggest Georgia Tech to the Big Ten, and in doing so reveals that ACC coaches have been calling Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz for advice on stifling Paul Johnson's option.

Kevin, is that you?


LW