March 30th Practice Report

New Practice video..

Don Munson and his Practice report.

Clemson Final Basketball Numbers out

 

*Clemson’s ends its season with a 22-12 record overall, the program’s fifth straight season of at least 20 wins, the longest streak in program history. The 22 wins rank in a tie for eighth best in school history.

*Clemson reached the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year, a first in Clemson history. Clemson and Duke are the only two ACC schools to reach the NCAA Tournament each of the last four years. Seniors Demontez Stitt, Jerai Grant, Zavier Anderson and Jonah Baize were common players on all four teams and they were a big reason Clemson won 90 games over the last four years.

•Clemson is one of 19 schools nationally to play in the NCAA Tournament each of the last four years.

•Clemson had a 9-7 record in ACC regular season play, a fourth straight winning season in ACC play, a first in Clemson history. Clemson and Duke are the only two ACC schools with a winning record in league play each of the last four years.

*Clemson made 21-26 free throws against West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament and finished the year 493-703 from the foul line, a .701 free throw percentage, best for the Clemson program since the 2000-01 team made .702 for the course of the season. It is just the second time in the last 24 years that Clemson has shot at least 70 percent from the foul line for the year.

•All five Clemson starters shot at least 70 percent from the free throw line, the first time that has happened since the 1986-87 season.

•Clemson shot .747 from the foul line in ACC regular season play, third best in Clemson history and the best since the 1973-74 team shot .753 in league play.

*Clemson finished the year with 12 losses and all of them were by 11 points or less. It is the first season since 1934-35 that Clemson did not lose a game by more than 11 points in a season. Clemson was the only ACC team that could make that claim and joined Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt and Iona as the only schools in the nation who could make that claim.

•Clemson had a .402 field goal percentage defense this year, third best in Clemson history and the best since the 1958-59 team allowed a .371 figure.

•Clemson won an ACC Tournament game and an NCAA Tournament game in the same year for the first time since 1989-90 and just the third time in school history. The Tigers defeated Boston College in the ACC Tournament by a 70-47 score, and defeated UAB in the NCAA Tournament by a 70-52 score. It is the first time Clemson has had wins in both tournaments by double digits in the same year.

•Clemson’s 23-point win over Boston College was the second largest victory margin in school history in an ACC Tournament game and the 18-point victory over UAB was the program’s largest victory margin in an NCAA Tournament game.

•Clemson’s victory over UAB was the program’s first in an NCÅÅ Tournament game since 1997.

•Clemson ranked 23rd in the nation, and first in the ACC in scoring defense (through games of March 20). The Tigers were 16-1 this year when holding the opposition to 60 points or less. Clemson allowed just 61.4 points per game, the fifth best scoring defense by an ACC team since the shot clock era began in 1985-86.

 

Coach Brad Brownell

*Brad Brownell won .647 of his games in his first year, the best winning percentage by a Clemson first-year head coach since the 1920-21 season when Larry Conover had a 10-5 record for a .667 record in his first year.

*Brownell was the only first-year coach to win an NCAA Tournament game this year. He was one of just four first-year coaches to take his team to the NCAA Tournament. The others were Steve Lavin of  St. John’s,   Greg Lansing of Indiana State and B.J. Hill of Colorado. There were 54 coaches in their first year with a program this year across the nation.

•The 22 wins recorded by Brownell were the most by a first-year Clemson head coach. The previous record was 20 by Larry Shyatt in 1998-99. Clemson won nine ACC games and that was four more than any other Clemson first-year head coach in history.

•Brownell’s nine league wins were the third most in ACC history for a coach in his first year with an ACC program.

•Brownell has now won at least 20 games in each of his last six years as a head coach and in seven of his nine years at the Division I level.

•Brownell has coached at three different schools as a head coach and has taken each of the three (UNC-Wilmington, Wright State and Clemson) to the NCAA Tournament in his first year at each school.

•Clemson defeated Boston College in the first round of the ACC Tournament this year. Brownell is now 9-0 in his career in first round conference tournament games.

•Through games of March 20, Brownell’s 22 victories were the third best total by a first-year Division I head coach in 2010-11. Tim Floyd of UTEP had 24 and Tim Cluess of Iona had 23 and his team was still playing in the CIT.

 

 

Player Notes

*Andre Young finished the year with 102 assists and 40 turnovers for a 2.55 to 1 assist/turnover ratio, best in the ACC through games of March 20. That is the fifth best ratio in Clemson history for a single season. He now has two of the top five assist/turnover ratios in Clemson history for a season.

*Young will enter his senior year with 170 career three-point goals, seventh on the Clemson career list. He went ahead of Chris Whitney (167) today.

*Demontez Stitt ends his Clemson career with 1,365 career points, tied for 14th in school history with Stan Rome (1974-78). He also finishes  with 419 assists, sixth best in school history.

•Stitt also finished his career 12th in double figure scoring games (72, tied with Rome), 10th in minutes played (3513), fifth in starts (111), ninth in steals (164), and 10th in free throws made (344).

•Stitt was named first-team All-ACC Tournament after scoring 45 points in the two games. He scored at least 20 points in each game, the first time since Chris Whitney in 1993 to have consecutive 20 point games in the ACC Tournament. He was also third-team All-ACC for the regular season.

*Jerai Grant shot 15-25 from the field in the NCAA Tournament and was Clemson’s top scorer in the two games with 35 points. He finished his Clemson career making 326-555 field goal attempts for a .5874 field goal percentage, fifth best in school history among players with at least 200 field goals. He is also sixth in career blocked shots (197) and 25th in rebounds (541). Grant was named first-team All-ACC on defense for 2010-11.

*Grant ends his career with 88 career victories, fourth in school history and Stitt played in 85, tied for fifth best in Clemson history.

•Andre Young enters his senior year seventh in career field goals (170), third in assist/turnover ratio (2.01) and seventh in three-point goal percentage (.387).

•Milton Jennings, 6-9, led the team in free throw percentage wit ha .772 figure. He is the tallest Tiger to lead the team in free throw shooting since Adam Allenspach, a 7-1 center, led the team in 1999-00 with a .740 figure.

 

CLEMSON vs WVU Game Notes..

March 16, 2011

The Clemson men’s basketball team will face West Virginia in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Thursday at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL. The game between the Tigers and Mountaineers will tip off at 12:15 PM and will be televised by CBS.

Complete Game Notes

GAME NOTES
Clemson vs. West Virginia Series
* This will be just the fifth meeting between Clemson and West Virginia on the basketball court and the Mountaineers hold a 3-1 lead in the series that dates to the 1951-52 season. Three of the four games have been played in Morgantown and the fourth and most recent took place in the championship game of the 2007 NIT.
* The first two games of the Clemson vs. West Virginia series were played on consecutive days in Morgantown, Feb. 22-23, 1952. A 12th ranked West Virginia team defeated Clemson 88-73 and 80-69 on those consecutive days. Those were the first two games in Clemson history against a top 20 team.
* The Tigers played one of their best games ever in postseason play in winning in Morgantown in the 1994 NIT. That was a second round game and Tigers were victorious, 96-79. Devin Gray led a balanced Clemson attack with 22 points. Gray shot 9-10 from the field, Clemson’s best ever field goal percentage in a post-season tournament game, while Corey Wallace made 5-5 three-point shots, Clemson’s best ever three-point shooting game in postseason play. As a team, Clemson shot 65.4 percent from the field (34-54), Clemson’s best ever field goal percentage in a post-season tournament game. Clemson also had a +22 rebound margin.
* The 1994 NIT win over West Virginia was the final victory for Cliff Ellis at Clemson. He had announced his resignation effective at the end of the season on January 6, 1994. Clemson lost its next game in the NIT quarterfinals at Vanderbilt. Seventeen years later, Ellis is still coaching, now at Coastal Carolina.
* West Virginia won the most recent meeting, 78-73, in Madison Square Garden on March 29, 2007, the latest date on the calendar Clemson has played a game. John Beilein was the head coach for West Virginia and Oliver Purnell was the Clemson coach for that game.
* Frank Young scored 24 and De’Sean Butler added 20 points to lead West Virginia to the victory. All five Clemson starters were in double figures for the Tigers, led by K.C. Rivers with 18 and Vernon Hamilton with 16. A big difference in the game was three-point shooting as West Virginia made 12-20 and Clemson made just 6-23.
* The last time Clemson faced West Virginia, one of Clemson’s starters was freshman Trevor Booker, who had 13 points on 5-8 shooting, seven rebounds and four blocked shots. His brother, Devin Booker, will start in the frontcourt for the Tigers when Clemson plays West Virginia on Thursday afternoon.
* When Clemson faces West Virginia two of the top shot blockers in the nation will be leaders of their team’s respective defenses. Clemson’s Jerai Grant is 23rd in the nation in blocked shots per game, while West Virginia’s John Flowers is 25th. Both are at 2.4 blocks per game.
* Both Clemson and West Virginia have strong defensive numbers. Clemson is 20th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 60.9 points per game, and the Tigers are 28th in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot .400. Clemson is also 34th in the nation in blocked shots per game and 37th in steals per game. West Virginia is sixth in the nation in three-point percentage defense.

Other Team Notes
* Clemson arrived in Tampa at its hotel at 4:30 AM on Wednesday morning, March 16. It is the latest arrival from a road trip since Feb. 15, 2001 when Clemson arrived from a road trip at NC State at 5:30 AM. The Tigers flight after a 9:00 PM road loss at NC State was cancelled due to weather and the team had to bus back to Clemson from the Raleigh-Durham Airport. Clemson upset #1 ranked North Carolina in its next game.
* Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell took the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in his first year with the program. He is one of four first-year coaches nationally to do it. The other coaches to take teams to the NCAA Tournament in their first year at their school are Steve Lavin at St. John’s, Greg Lansing at Indiana State and B.J. Hill at Northern Colorado.
* Clemson has a 12-22 record against teams currently in the Big East, including a 64-58 victory over Seton Hall earlier this year in a game played in the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Clemson has played 14 of the 16 teams in the Big East. The only two teams Clemson has not played are Notre Dame and South Florida.
* Clemson has a 1-1 record against West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins. Clemson faced Huggins in consecutive years when he was the head coach at Cincinnati. The Tigers won the first meeting, 58-51 in a game played in the Civic Center of Anderson in Anderson, SC in December of 2002. That was the site of Clemson home games to start that season while Littlejohn Coliseum was being renovated. The following year, Cincinnati defeated the Tigers in Cincinnati, by a 79-56 score.
* Huggins and former Clemson football coach Tommy Bowden were classmates and had some of the same classes together at West Virginia.
* Clemson’s first round victory over UAB was the school’s first NCAA Tournament victory since a 65-59 win over Tula on March 16, 1997. Clemson had lost five straight NCAA Tournament games prior to Tuesday night. Clemson is now 9-10 in NCAA Tournament games in its history.
* Clemson has a 0-2 record in the St. Pete Times Forum, including an 0-1 record in the NCAA Tournament. Both games were close contests. The Tigers lost to Florida State, 67-66 in the first round of the 2007 ACC Tournament in the facility. Al Thornton made one free throw with 1.5 seconds left to give the Seminoles a victory that knocked Clemson out of the NCAA Tournament. The following year, Clemson lost to Villanova in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Tampa by a 75-69 score. Clemson had an 18-point lead in the first half of that game. Clemson senior Demontez Stitt played in that game for the Tigers as a freshman, and scored 14 points off the bench, including 4-4 from three-point range.
* Clemson has a 3-1 record on St. Patrick’s Day over the years and all four games have been played in postseason tournaments, three in the NIT and one in the NCAA Tournament. Clemson first played on St. Patrick’s Day in 1986, a 77-65 victory at Georgia. One of Clemson’s top players in that game was Horace Grant, whose nephew Jerai Grant is the current starting center for the Tigers.
* One of Clemson’s greatest victories in history took place on St. Patrick’s Day, 1990. The Tigers overcame a 19-point deficit in the second half to defeat LaSalle, 79-75 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Hartford, CT. That win advanced the Tigers to the Sweet 16 of the East Regional. LaSalle was ranked 12th in the nation and had just one loss, entering that game.
* Clemson then defeated Southern Mississippi, 96-85 on March 17, 1994, a victory at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum. The following year the Tigers lost at Virginia Tech on St. Patrick’s Day in the NIT, 62-54. That is the last time Clemson played on this date.
* Clemson’s victory on Tuesday night gives Brad Brownell 22 victories in his first season at Clemson. That is the most victories for Brownell in a season since he won 23 in his first year at Wright State (2006-07). Of course Wright State is in Dayton, OH, the city where Brownell got his first NCAA Tournament win on Tuesday night.
* With the victory on Tuesday night, Clemson now has a victory in the ACC Tournament and a victory in the NCAA Tournament. This is the first time Clemson has at least one win in each event in the same year since the 1989-90 season when Clemson won one ACC Tournament game and two NCAA Tournament games. The only other year Clemson has done it is 1979-80 when Clemson won one ACC Tournament game and won three NCAA Tournament contests.
* Clemson will face a 22nd ranked (AP) West Virginia team on Thursday night. Clemson has one win over a top 25 team this year and it was a 62-44 win over a 22nd ranked Florida State team at Clemson on January 29, 2011. This will be Clemson’s first NCAA Tournament game against a top 25 team since the Tigers faced a third ranked Minnesota team in the 1997 NCAA Tournament in San Antonio. Clemson’s last win over a top 25 team in the NCAA Tournament took place on March 17, 1990, a 79-75 win over LaSalle in the Hartford Civic Center. So Thursday’s game will be on the 21-year anniversary of that victory.
* Clemson’s 70-52 victory over UAB in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was its largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game. The previous best was an 83-70 win over St. Mary’s in Boise, ID in the 1989 NCAA Tournament. Clemson made 14-16 free throws in the game and the .875 free throw percentage was also the best for a Clemson team in an NCAA Tournament game. Clemson’s 10 steals were also a team best for steals in an NCAA tournament game.
* Clemson shot .520 from the field in the win over UAB and the Tigers are now 10-1 this year when they shoot at least 50 percent from the field.
* Clemson held UAB to 52 points on Tuesday night. The Tigers are now 16-1 when holding the opposition to 60 points or less.

Player Notes
* Clemson seniors Jerai Grant and Demontez Stitt are now two of the top six winningest players in Clemson history. Grant has played in 88 victories and ranks fourth, while Stitt has played in 85 and ranks tied for fifth. The record is 93 victories by Trevor Booker and David Potter, who were seniors last year. Clemson now has 90 wins over the last four years, but Grant and Stitt have not played in all the victories due to injury. The Clemson record for wins in a four year period is 93 set from 2006-10.
* Jerai Grant had a career high 22 points on a career high 10 field goals and two free throws in the win over UAB. His previous high was 20 against Georgia Tech earlier this year on two occasions. Grant’s 22 points were the most in an NCAA Tournament game for a Clemson player since the 1997 NCAA game against Minnesota when Greg Buckner had 22 in a double overtime loss. His 10 field goals tied for the most field goals by a Tiger in an NCAA Tournament game.
* Tanner Smith tied the Clemson record for steals in an NCAA Tournament game with four against UAB on Tuesday. Smith scored 10 points and hit 4-6 shots from the field, giving him consecutive double figure scoring games. Smith had been 1-13 from the field in two previous NCAA Tournament games. Smith has made 9 of his last 15 shots from the field and has 24 points over the last two games.
* Milton Jennings scored 11 points in 17 minutes in the win over UAB and was 4-5 from the field. Jennings has scored 27 points and made 10 of his last 13 shots from the field over the last two games. Jennings has scored in double figures in three straight games and is averaging 12.3 points per game over that time period.
* Andre Young has had a 25/4 assist/turnover ratio over the last six games and has made 11 of his last 24 three-point shots.
* Both Stitt and Grant have recorded career highs recently. Stitt had 25 against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament semifinals and Grant had his career high 22 in the win over UAB. Stitt did it in his 124th career game and Grant did it in game number 126 for him.
* Stitt needs just two points to move ahead of Vince Yockel into the top 15 in Clemson history in career scoring. Stitt has 1349 points and Yockel had 1350 between 1955-58. Stitt needs just 17 to move into 14th place ahead of Stan Rome, who scored 1365 from 1974-78. Stitt made is 110th career start against UAB in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That is tied for fifth in school history with Tree Rollins.
* Either Grant or Stitt have led Clemson in scoring in 18 of the last 20 games. Stitt had scored at least 14 points in 10 straight games prior to Tuesday night when he scored just seven.

What does HUNH stand for?

By: Cory Fravel

What is “HUNH?” Hurry up no huddle.

Coming this fall to Clemson. It will be exciting for fans, fun for players and a nightmare for opposing defensive coordinators. This is what the doctor ordered for the Tigers’ this fall. With the wealth of talent at WR, RB, TE and QB, the “HUNH” will utilize the talents and speed of the skill players Clemson has and bring the first look of this offense to the ACC.

Auburn’s Gus Malzahn is a pioneer in the HUNH and in the second year at Auburn he produced a national championship.

The knee jerk reaction of most fans and college football junkies is “looks like Clemson is going to run the spread.” It’s not the spread. The spread is what Rich Rodriguez ran at Clemson, WVU and Michigan. The spread is what Urban Meyer ran at Florida. Mike Leach ran a version of the spread at Texas Tech with his Air Raid offense. More often than not the spread offenses are more pass than run.

Clemson’s new OC Chad Morris started visiting Gus Malzahn’s games when he was in Arkansas coaching HS football and Malzahn thought he was spying on him and his offense. Malzahn learns Morris is just curious and wants to implement his system in high school just like he did. Two state titles and a year under his belt at Tulsa and Morris has his first big opportunity- revive Clemson’s anemic offense back to life. From early reports it looks like that is exactly what he is doing. Make no mistake about this folks, Clemson’s success this year will hinge on how well this new offense does. The defense is stacked just, give them some leads.

The HUNH is a 2-back offense that runs play-action and misdirection from the shotgun. It’s smash mouth football that spreads the field east and west and vertical. It’s very simple and uses basic plays relying on better physical conditioning and misdirection to wear opponents down. It’s turning a four quarter game in to five quarters by running plays a rapid pace.

What Clemson has to identify as goals to run the HUNH
1- Physical training is of utmost importance to run this offense. It’s not training in the gym either it’s running the same offense you run on Saturday on the practice field every single day conditioning your players to perform at a feverish pace.
2-Run first and balance are the keys. Despite being in the gun running the ball is the staple to make this work. If you watch the offensive line and not the motioning and extra WR’s you will see the old school counter trey, iso, power and sweeps run all game from different looks. Looks that are designed to get the defense out of position and take advantage of matchups.
3- After the running game has been established it’s important to take regular shots down the field to stretch the field vertically.
4- Never let the defense get comfortable- reverses, wildcat, jet, sweeps, fakes, fire alarms and misdirection need to be part of the game plan.
5- Be productive and score points. If Clemson can get to 28-30 points a game not many teams.will beat the Tigers.

Goals for Clemson OC Chad Morris
1- Be in great shape. Practice at this pace everyday. The offense will get to run a third more plays in practice doing this and it simulates game speed with pads. Traditional gym training doesn’t prepare the team like practicing the offense everyday. Auburn’s fourth quarter comebacks last year weren’t a lucky streak, by that point in the game opposing teams were gassed and mentally fatigued see Alabama game.
2- Opposing teams can’t prepare or simulate this pace in the 6 days they get to prepare. Video coordinators cut the film at the start and end of the snaps so pace is hard to scout.
3- Speed up the game. Turn four quarters in to five. Hand the ball the umpire, sprint in your personnel changes on and off the field.
4- Play more snaps. For Clemson this means going from averaging around 63 snaps a game to 80 snaps a game.
5- Get at least one first down a series. Score quickly and often.

Making it work
1- “Landmark calls” are very important in this offense meaning having certain plays to run between the 40 yard lines etc, red zone etc. Being at a landmark like say the 43 yard line triggers one of the deep balls down field rather than calling it off the cuff. This allows the OC and QB to know whats coming by landmarks on the field further speeding up the game.
2- The OL only has to zone block and worry about their gap assignments.
3- The QB’s job is to call the OL scheme for example- “color play or color number” there are two colors for each direction and two code words per play. For example so far at Clemson practice I have heard BLACK BROWN GO 4, who knows what that means?
4- The RB’s always call the protection scheme. For example- if the RB’s call for a run to OL the OL ignores the RB’s if the RB’s call a pass the OL listen to the RB vice versa for the QB.
5- The mysterious color and number board on the sideline at Tulsa and Auburn’s meaning- the color on the board tell the players whether to use the number on the board as the play call or look to the signals being sent. It happens so fast if opposing defenses spend too much time on it they will get burned.
6- Signal words are used to designate play calls to the sideline or boundary like “go here go there”
7- The QB on many plays will have three options- keep the ball, hand off or pass. This makes your QB’s decision making and footwork paramount to your success.
8- Formations dictate the personnel meaning players know when it’s one back 4 wide I am in or I am out.
9- The speed of play means lots of players touch the ball this means the defense can’t focus on one player as the play maker. The QB drives the pace. The TE known as the 3back in this offense often will burn defenses as he can easily slither out untouched.
10- You will see more and more Morris not coaching mistakes on the fields but rather letting the pace of play dictate success and failure in practice and coach off that in the film room.
11- Morris has a chart he keeps for fumbled, ints, dropped balls etc. This is used to teach fundamentals.

One would think with all this information it would be tough for the players to grasp this offense but from the people I have spoken with they have told me the opposite. Apparently it’s much easier for the players to grasp this system than the previous. In fact some players have already said they understand this offense better already than through second spring practice of former OC Billy Napier’s offense. This is encouraging for Clemson fans. This offense has nowhere to go but up from last year.

I think like Auburn when Malzahn arrived you will see Clemson start a little slow and then the light bulb will come on. The difference for Clemson is there is more talent at WR, RB and QB than the first year Malzahn had at Auburn.

Tajh Boyd will be the key for this to all gel. Let’s not forget that even in Clemson’s bowl loss Tajh led the team to two TD’s in the final 3 minutes sparking a furious late comeback. Boyd was born for this offense. With Boyd losing 15 pounds in the off season he looks great and his footwork gets better every practice. If he can limit the big mistakes this could be a huge year for him. With multiple options Boyd will be able to pull it down and take off running instead of forcing a throw. Let’s not forget this offense always has a 3back or RB floating around the line of scrimmage as a safety valve.

Clemson has a treacherous stretch early in the schedule facing Auburn, FSU and VT all
in a row. If the Tigers can get through that early stretch they are primed for a run as the rest of the year sets up nicely. From what we have seen so far out of Morris the players love him and love this offense. As many close games as the Tigers had with the bush league offense last year you can’t help but think the extra points this year will bode well for Clemson. This is a year Clemson will not be talked about except to say this coach or that coach is on the hot seat and no positive attention will be garnered early. The Tigers are in a corner and because of Chad Morris I feel Clemson may very well surprise some folks this year for once. With the arrival of Sammy Watkins, Charone Peake, Martavius Bryant and Mike Bellamy the future looks bright. You can bank on the fab four freshman making an impact this year. Andre Ellington will return healthy this fall and will likely be the ACC’s best RB barring injury.

 

pic property of Cory Fravel

Video of Tigers arriving in Dayton for the NCAA’s

Tigers VS UAB ..NCAA Tourney.. the Notes and Particulars

March 14, 2011

 

 

Complete Game Notes

 

GAME SETUP
Site: UD Arena (13,455)
Date: Tuesday, March 15, 2011
City: Dayton, OH
Time: 9:00 PM
TV: TruTV (Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, Steve Kerr, Tracy Wolfson)
Radio: Clemson Tiger Sports Properties (Pete Yanity, Tim Bourret)

SERIES NOTES
Overall: UAB leads 2-0
at Clemson: None played
at Littlejohn: None played
at UAB: UAB leads 1-0
at Neutral: UAB leads 1-0
First Meeting: UAB, 65-64, on Mar. 22, 1993
Last Meeting: UAB, 78-66, on Dec. 21, 2004
Streak: UAB has won both meetings

QUICK FACTS
• Clemson will travel to Dayton, OH to take on UAB as part of the NCAA Tournament First Four games. The game will be played at 9:00 PM on Tuesday, March 15 and will be televised by TruTV. The winner will advance to the second round to face #5 seed West Virginia in Tampa, FL at 12:15 PM on Thursday, March 17.
• This will be the third meeting in history between the Tigers and Blazers. UAB holds a 2-0 advantage, with the most recent game coming in the 2004 Rainbow Classic in Hawaii.
• Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell will be making a return trip to Dayton, the same city he spent the previous four years as head coach at Wright State. Brownell led the Raiders to the NCAA Tournament in 2006-07, his first season at the school. In fact, he has now taken each of his three schools (UNC Wilmington, Wright State and Clemson) to the NCAA Tournament in his first season at each school.
• Brownell and UAB coach Mike Davis faced each other in the NCAA Tournament when Davis was the head coach at Indiana and Brownell the top assistant at UNC Wilmington in 2002.
• Clemson’s senior class will be making its fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, a feat that had never been accomplished prior to the Selection Sunday announcement.
• Clemson advanced to the ACC Tournament semifinals for the second time in the last four years after the Tigers defeated Boston College by a score of 70-47 in the quarterfinal round on Friday, March 11.
• Demontez Stitt was named first-team All-ACC Tournament after averaging 22.5 points per game in Clemson’s two outings. Stitt is the first Clemson player chosen to the first-team All-Tournament Team since both Trevor Booker and K.C. Rivers were named to the squad in 2008.
• Stitt’s 25 points against North Carolina in the semifinals were a career-high for the native of the Tar Heel state.
• Clemson has seven players on its roster with NCAA Tournament experience, including seniors Stitt and Jerai Grant at three games apiece. Stitt has averaged 12.3 points per game in three tournament games.
• Clemson is 8-10 all-time in NCAA Tournament games and is looking for its first win in the “Big Dance” since the 1997 team advanced to the Sweet 16.

Tigers vs Blazers NCAA Tourney Press Confernece

 

2010 Season Highlights

Scrimmage video