A few years back on a Friday night at Clemson, the Elon Phoenix under coach Ernie Nestor went into the Tigers den at Littlejohn Colsieum and flat out beat the Clemson Tigers…
Which upset was bigger, the win by Elon over Clemson or the victory by the College of Charleston when Bobby Cremins’ boys topped North Carolina back on Monday night in Charleston, South Carolina?????
The way the votes and news have come in, we now have to look at the win by the Cougars over the Heels, as an upset of sorts, but what about the road win by a realatively new Southern Conference memeber Elon when they went to Clemson and came out the winner on a Friday night in December when most of us were watching college football bowl games…..
Which win was bigger overall and you have to look at this and say which win was bigger for the Southern Conference as a whole? Maybe the Elon win was bigger for Elon, but maybe at this time with North Carolina having been ranked #9 in the nation, maybe the win by College of Charleston was bigger for the Southern Conference than it was for COC……
The nation as a whole seemed to be more into the win by COC than they were when Elon won, but I still feel that at the time, the Elon win over Clemson was huge, as the Tigers were unbeaten at that stage of the season, as they usually are in December…..
Elon beating Clemson was the bigger upset for the shear fact that Elon had only two wins heading into that game…non of which were even against D-1 teams. That season before Clemson, they struggled against High Point and other mid-majors. The Clemson game completely changed the season for Elon from lucky to get 8 wins all year to the North Division title.
How many teams with more than 5 Mcdonald’s All Americans have lost to a SoCon squad?
This comparisn would be like asking if Furmans football win against UNC at Kenan was bigger than Appalachian’s at Michigan. No contest here.
Comparing Elon’s final record and ranking from five seasons ago to CofC’s current season would not be prudent at this time. However, a win over a top ten team gives CofC a better opportunity at an at large bid in the NCAA’s should they fail to win the Socon Tournament just like Elon did that season.
The Elon win was such a big upset that you guys didn’t even post an article on it back in 2005/2006. On the flip side, there were articles on Appalachian’s 2005 I-AA football championship, a comparison on UNCG head coaches (Mike D and Fran M), some High School stuff, and a great article on the 1973 Guilford Quakers, but for some unforseen reason, nary a word about Elon’s win. Go figure.
At the time I think we just sort of let games like the Elon win over Clemson fall through the cracks both locally and nationally….
Now fans are making a bigger deal about wins such as this….
The turning came when Appalachian went to Michigan and defeated the Wolverines. Ever since then, games involving teams from the Southern Conference and others like it have been approached differently in both basketball and football…
The Appalachian win was the turning point and now there is no looking back. Recent studies have shown fans now take Southern Conference teams more serioulsy and it will be that way from now on..
If Elon had beaten Clemson this past December 2009, you can bet that everyone would have raised the roof, because now the bar and the standards for excelllence in college sports have changed forever….
Clemson has also made serious strides under Coach Oliver Purnell…..They were a threat to both Duke and North Carolina in the ACC last season and that was not the case back when the Tigers lost to Elon.
There are many different variables to look at here and we are here to help you all do just that….
Good observations and let’s keep the debate going….
I would to hear from some Elon College/University students and get their input on this subject……
Then why did you guys not make a big deal when Western Carolina stomped Louisville in KY earlier this year?
Come on man, quit making excuses for Roy and your beloved Heels. The only reason you care now is to make all the crybaby fans feel better. Nice try, but your actions speak louder than your insincere words.
Clemson/Elon game from 5 years ago! Are you guys really in tune with sports? Give the Cougars some deserved credit!
The win by Western Carolina did come up on the site, because one of our local kids at Western Guilford, Reggie Perkins has committed to WCU and that was a huge win as the Catamounts topped Pitino and I have nothing but total respect for WCU’s coach Larry Hunter, a former assistant to Herb Sendek at N.C. State….
Pitino is now playing second fiddle to Calipari in the state of Kentucky any ways these days….
College of Charleston is getting their due, but they will not get at the expense of one of our ACC schools….
Our blood bleeds ACC Red, White and Blue around and where do we pick up our credentials for the ACC tournament.
We are at all games and know every team and who has one and in many cases I know the guy that mopped the floor after the game was over.
I was always on the side of John Kresse when he was in charge of the Cougars and more power to College of Charleston, but even more power to my home league, the ACC…..
WCU win only came up because some passerby posted it on here. You even had a heads up, and still didn’t post an article on it? Way to treat the Socon “differently” as you stated above.
This it only ploy to make the Heels feel better. Admit it, move on. Your 5+ years of postings on here prove your words to be hollow yet again.
Liberty beat UVA last year if you missed it. You probably did.
OF COURSE ANDY IS BIASED, IF HE WASNT… HE WOULDNT GET ANY BLOGGERS!
Biased is okay, being sincere and honest is where I question the integrity of this Blog.
I remember the win by Liberty over Virginia very well. Liberty beat the Cavaliers and then went down to Clemson and led the Tigers by 5 at the half before falling to the Tigers….
The Liberty Flames of the Big South were coached then by Ritchie McKay who now is Tony Bennett’s assistant coach at Virginia and Seth Curry was with Liberty last year when they took down the Cavs and now he is at Duke….
I wish we had time to talk about all of these games right when they happen, but rest assured that we are on them and I’m glad you brought them up so we can talk about them now.
On the Bobby Cremins-Roy Williams coaching comparison, Roy made better career coaching decisions than Bobby did.
Cremins had the world by the tail and nearly took Georgia Tech to the Final Four, but he was always undecided about what he really wanted to do….(Didn’t Paul Hewitt take Tech there a short time later…)
He probably should have gone to South Carolina as coach back in the 80’s, locked it down there and he could have made that program a national contender….
Roy was and has been on a mission and he has won the National Championships and you can’t take that away from him….
College of Charleston took UNC out on Monday, but now the Cougars have to follow that up with a season of upsets to just to get into the field of 65 and let’s hope they do.
Bobby Cremins is a good guy, but he could have done more and gone further, but hey, maybe he didn’t want to and let’s just asume he’s happy at this stage of his life and that’s a good thing…
Good discussion and we need to do this more often about these Big Upsets as we break them down….
Virgina falling to Chaminade(Check spelling later) or Chaminade’s win over Virgina still has to rank as the biggest in college basketball history with the win over the Cavaliers in Hawaii….This is the one that people seem to never forget, the measuring stick of upsets if you will…..
What do the rest of you think?????
And again, we can only cover so much here, so why don’t more of you bring topics like this to the table…You’ll be amazed how much I can tell you about these games…
The Virginia/Chaminade game is widely considered the greatest upset in NCAA basketball history. Afterall…..Virginia was the #1 team in the land. That should make the Tarheels feel better. Afterall, Virginia did the same thing……over 25 years ago.
Cremins did take Tech to a Final Four. Lost to that unbelievable UNLV team in the semis.
7 McDonalds All Americans on one team have never lost to a team from the Southern Conference.
Just the FACTS maam.