GREENSBORO— Larry Shyatt knows he coaches basketball at a football school. So when he sat down at a table with nine sportswriters, the first thing out of his mouth was, “I think we should’ve thrown to the tight end more.”
Shyatt, in his third year at Clemson, was referring to the Tigers’ loss to Georgia Tech a day earlier. And he was serious.
You see, Larry Shyatt is not just a Clemson coach. He is a Clemson fan. And he has grown to love the color orange, regardless of the shape of the ball.
When he sat down with the media on Oct. 29 for Operation ACC, it was football season. And Larry Shyatt is a football fan right now.
“It can only be exciting when there’s 90,000 people and they’re all wearing the same color,” he said of being a part of Death Valley on a very orange Saturday afternoon. “You know there is a high level of love for the university.”
Shyatt apparently does not care about snaring the spotlight from another sport. He has been at schools where hoops dominates.
“New Mexico is sort of a basketball junkie’s place,” he said of The Pit, where Jim Valvano won the national title in 1983. “They’ve got 18,000 alcoholics in there before every game. Providence is a basketball-only school. But Clemson is a good mix for me. I’m a ‘we’ guy.”
At Clemson, you better be.
“We’re the only university I know of where every coach works under the same roof,” he said. “It promotes great camaraderie.”
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After cheerleading for Tommy Bowden’s football team, he did a little for the basketball played at Clemson. Why can’t the football school be a basketball place too?
“Our people came,” he said. “Now, all we have to do is give them something so they’ll come again.”
There are things in the works: Recruiting, scheduling and a new facility.
Clemson plays in Littlejohn Coliseum. Shyatt wants it to be BigJohn. He wants a form of “Death Valley Inside.”
And recruits want to play at a school where they see the pride in basketball as well as football.
Which brings us to Shyatt’s latest freshman class, rated in the top 20. His recruiting pitch is obviously working.
“And we’ll have everyone returning next year except Adam (Allenspach, the 7-1 senior),” said the eternal optimist.
But for now, Shyatt is playing the role of the underdog.
“Like Patton said, ‘America loves an underdog.’ People want to throw at me that in 65 years, Clemson’s only finished 4-3-2-1 five times,” said Shyatt. One of the reasons? Look around this room. There are some pretty good basketball corporations with some pretty good players and coaches. And they’re pretty proud too.”
So, along with recruiting, Shyatt has upgraded the schedule.
“We’re playing Seton Hall, Cincinnati — that’s why guys want to play in the ACC and go to Clemson,” Shyatt said. “Let’s test the waters.”
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But Shyatt will be the first to tell you that football and basketball on the collegiate level are treated differently.
“It’s a joke that all the kids except for the field of 64 know they’re a failure. They’re told they’re a failure — and the administration and the coach are failures.
“But (in football) if we’re 5-5 and win our last game, we’re elated. We’re going to a bowl. Everybody’s pumped up. Kids are going to get bowl watches.”
Shyatt thinks back to his first year as Clemson coach, when the Tigers went all the way to the NIT Finals before losing to California at Madison Square Garden.
“It was demeaning to be in the championship at the Garden,” he said. “What a shame.”
And that’s why he would like to see 128, not 64 teams in the NCAATournament.
“I’ve fought like heck to get more teams in,” he said. “One hundred twenty-eight teams suggest more kids get the benefit of a great time.”
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If the increase happens, Shyatt will point to North Carolina’s run to the Final Four last season.
“North Carolina was the 32nd best team in the NCAATournament and came within an inch of winning the national championship,” Shyatt reminded. “What better proof than the 32nd team being ridiculed at the end of the season and coming that close?”
Shyatt is a persuasive talker but can he persuade his Tigers, coming off a ninth-place finish in the ACC, to believe his words?
“You expect six teams from the ACCto vie for the national championship — and they should,” he said. “If six are accepted, all we have to do is fight for one spot. That’s what I want my guys thinking.”
And if Shyatt has his way, one day they’ll be churning out orange shirts for 90,000 fans showcasing a football — and a basketball — on the front.
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.
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