Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990 TAG: 9003133421
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
No other Tiger coach has won the award, voted on by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Writers Association for the past 37 years.
"It's been a great year. It has been an absolutely great year," Ellis said in a telephone interview, "because something has happened at Clemson that's never happened before and you'll never take it away."
Of the 88 ballots cast, the 44-year-old Ellis was named on 57 of them.
Gary Williams, in his first year at Maryland, was a distant second to Ellis with 15 votes. Virginia coach Terry Holland, retiring after the NCAA Tournament, was third with 12 votes. Mike Krzyzewski of Duke received three votes and Bobby Cremins of ACC Tournament champion Georgia Tech one.
The Tigers were 23-7 in the regular season and 10-4 in the ACC, marking only the second time Clemson has won 10 conference games. Ellis said the pace takes its toll.
"The regular season will drain you. It is emotionally draining," he said. "But we've never been in the [ACC] race to the finish, never, ever. There's so much pressure on the 17- to 21-year-olds to win every night. You've got to respond to anybody that doubts you because if it's never been done, people are going to say `How are you going to do it if it's never been done?' "
Ellis said he spent the season trying to avoid the distractions associated with climbing to the top of the ACC.
"This team handled it. It should be admired because they knocked tradition, they beat it," Ellis said. "They won a league that is full of class and has some great institutions."
Ellis will be taking the Tigers to their sixth straight postseason appearance this week when they face Brigham Young in the NCAA East first-round at Hartford, Conn.
"It is a reward to be where we are. And at the same time, we're trying to bounce back from what has been a physically hard three and a half months of play because we went to the wire and stayed until the wire," he said. "We're going to bounce back and we'll play hard in the NCAA."
In 15 years of coaching at Cumberland College, South Alabama and Clemson, Ellis' teams have compiled a 288-152 record.
by CNB