Unhappy campers

If you're a Clemson fan, it's hard not to be irate in the wake of this Murphy Holloway story.

Not going to try to get into the details, because all the details are not entirely clear.

But it's not difficult to read between the lines in reading this story from The State.

Murphy Holloway has been denied by Mississippi his request to transfer to either the Clemson or South Carolina basketball program. The 6-foot-7 forward from Irmo, a key player the past two seasons for the Rebels, plans to appeal the decision.

"I was surprised about Clemson, not about South Carolina," Holloway said. "A couple people told me they thought they (the Tigers) were tampering with me because somehow something got out that I was going to Clemson. But if you read every interview I did, I never said I was going to Clemson."

Another notable excerpt:

Holloway is seeking a hardship transfer from the NCAA to be closer to his 6-month old daughter; he also said his mother was sick. The waiver would allow him to play next season; the NCAA normally requires a player transferring from one Division I program to another to sit out one season.

Holloway is holding out hope he could play for Clemson in 2010 if he can convince Mississippi to grant his appeal.
Failing that, Holloway could end up at USC or Clemson by paying his own way.

Holloway said he was considering that option but it was not his preference.

This quote from Holloway seems kinda strange:

"But if I do get appealed in my favor, and I get released to both of them, I'm also going to look at other schools."

If the kid is granted an appeal based on his desire to be close to home to tend to extenuating circumstances, then how is he going to capitalize on the appeal and go somewhere that's not close to home?

A few more Friday links...

Something tells me Bart Wright is not a fan of college fan types. The latest evidence is provided with today's column, in which he says college basketball has nothing on the NBA.

We all have, in our circle of friends, that annoying, myopic college sports guy.

You know the one. He’s at least 10 years past the 30 year-old cutoff for wearing sports jerseys, but it seems that’s all he owns. His favorite team, a college he didn’t attend, can do no wrong, even when it loses games it should win, keeps coaches it should fire and fires coaches it should retain.

Guessing Bart didn't pay Tigerillustrated.com a visit during his study of college sports fan culture.

Ron Morris writes on Clemson baseball and leads with last week's embarrassing episode between an irate fan and Jack Leggett.

I didn't witness it personally, but accounts from people who did make me wish I would've been there.

Mike Freeman's dad went nuts on the guy, threatening to rearrange his face.

Even Leggett's wife got in on the action, accosting the fan as he was escorted from the premises.

But back to the column: Morris concludes that all is not lost yet for this team.

If Clemson can find the gear that propelled it to a 17-2 start, look out. Because, despite losing two of three to lowly Duke and another pair to Elon, Clemson remains in position to host an NCAA regional tournament.

The Tigers are 28-17, a so-so record by Clemson standards. But they rank 25th in the USA Today coaches poll, possess the second-most difficult schedule in the land and carry a No. 13 RPI. Plus, Clemson's next six conference games are against the league's two bottom-feeders, Maryland and Wake Forest.

Three games behind first-place Florida State in the ACC's Atlantic Division, Clemson could position itself for a showdown with the Seminoles the final weekend of the regular season.

Hey, what ever happened to Jeff Jagodzinski? When last seen at Boston College, he was winning back-to-back Atlantic Division titles.

Now, he's in the exalted position of UFL head coach.

Apparently Greg Paulus still hasn't gotten the message that he's not very good at football.

Here's a look at how North Carolina plans to replace the Wear twins.

And how N.C. State might plan to replace Lee Fowler.

Good story here by Bruce Feldman on the perils of using Twitter in recruiting.

And Stewie Mandel has concerns about North Carolina's offense.

LW