Clemson vs Boston College ACC Tournament notes

Clemson has won five of the last six meetings with BC.

by CU Athletic Communications - Thu Mar 10 17:09:39 GMT-04:00 2011

GAME SETUP

Site: Greensboro Coliseum (23,500)

Date: Friday, March 11, 2011

City: Greensboro, NC

Time: 2:00 PM

TV: Raycom (Tim Brant, Mike Gminski)

TV: ESPN2 (Dan Shulman, Len Elmore, Jeannine Edwards)

Radio: Clemson Tiger Sports Properties (Pete Yanity, Tim Bourret)

SERIES NOTES (BOSTON COLLEGE)

Overall: Clemson leads 9-4

at Clemson: Clemson leads 5-0

at Littlejohn: Clemson leads 5-0

at Boston College: Boston College leads 4-1

at Neutral: Clemson leads 3-0

In ACC Tourney: Clemson leads 1-0

First Meeting: Clemson, 80-60, on Dec. 29, 1975

Last Meeting: Clemson, 77-69, on Feb. 8, 2011

Streak: Clemson has won five of the last six meetings

QUICK FACTS

• By virtue of its 9-7 finish, Clemson earned the No. 4 seed for this week’s ACC Tournament and received a first-round bye. The Tigers will take on the winner of Boston College vs. Wake Forest on Friday, March 11 at 2:00 PM.

• Clemson has produced four straight winning seasons in ACC play. The Tigers were 10-6 in 2007-08, and then 9-7 each of the last three years. It is the first time in Clemson history the Tigers have had four straight winning ACC seasons.

• Brad Brownell matched the Clemson record for wins by a first-year coach when he led the Tigers to their 20th victory of the season on Senior Day against Virginia Tech. He needs just one win to set the school record for a first-year coach.

• Brownell is tied for third among Division I first-year head coaches in total wins at their respective school. The national leaders are Tim Floyd (UTEP) and Tim Cluess (Iona), who both have 22 wins. Brownell’s team has 20 on the season.

• In eight years as a Division I head coach, Brownell’s teams have compiled a 15-5 record in conference tournaments. At both of his previous stops, UNC Wilmington and Wright State, his teams won the conference tournament his first year.

• Demontez Stitt was named third-team All-ACC on Monday, according to the ACSMA. It marked the fourth straight year Clemson had a player make an All-ACC team.

• Stitt led the Tigers in scoring at 14.1 points per game in the regular season. He enters the ACC Tournament having scored at least 14 points in eight consecutive games.

• Jerai Grant was named to the All-ACC Defensive Team. He was third in the ACC in the regular season with 2.4 blocks per game. Grant, Clemson’s second-leading scorer at 12.4 points per game, received All-ACC honorable mention.

• Andre Young is fifth in Clemson history in assist/turnover ratio. He has 233 assists in his career versus 120 turnovers for 1.94 ratio.

• Clemson’s legend representative at this week’s ACC Tournament will be Greg Buckner, who had one of the most memorable moments in school history in Greensboro at the 1996 tournament when his dunk with 0.6 seconds left knocked off North Carolina.

Probable Starting Lineups


2 Demontez Stitt 6-2 180 Sr.   G     0 Reggie Jackson 6-3 208 Jr.


(14.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG)                 (18.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG)


11 Andre Young 5-9 175 Jr.    G     5 Biko Paris 6-1 194 Sr.


(10.8 PPG, 3.0 APG)                 (9.9 PPG, 3.5 APG)


5 Tanner Smith 6-5 205 Jr.    F     11 Corey Raji 6-6 231 Sr.


(7.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG)                  (12.7 PPG, 6.6 RPG)


31 Devin Booker 6-8 245 So.   F     12 Joe Trapani 6-8 232 Sr.


(8.0 PPG, 5.3 RPG)                  (14.4 PPG, 7.2 RPG)


45 Jerai Grant 6-8 230 Sr.    C     52 Josh Southern 6-10 263 Sr.


(12.4 PPG, 6.8 RPG)                 (6.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG)

Clemson’s ACC Tournament History

• Clemson has a 16-57 record in the ACC Tournament with just two appearances in the finals (1962 and 2008) and no tournament championships. Clemson is the only original member of the ACC that has never won the ACC Tournament. There have been 57 ACC tournaments and Clemson has played in all of them.

• Clemson has struggled in the ACC Tournament over the years and has never won more than five games in any decade. Clemson was 5-10 in the 1990s, 1-10 in the 1980s, 3-10 in the 1970s, 3-10 in the 1960s and 0-6 in the 1950s. Clemson finished 4-10 in the first decade of the 21st century, including a 3-6 record under Oliver Purnell. The 2010 tournament began a new decade and the Tigers are 0-1 in this decade.

• One of Clemson’s most exciting victories in the ACC Tournament took place in the 1996 tournament in Greensboro when Clemson downed North Carolina, 75-73. It is Clemson’s only win over North Carolina in the ACC Tournament and it was Clemson’s first win over the Tar Heels in the state of North Carolina in 29 years. Greg Buckner’s dunk with 0.6 seconds left won the game for Clemson. Buckner will be Clemson’s Legend representative this year.

• Clemson had three memorable wins in the last decade. The first win at Washington, D.C. in 2005 against Maryland gave the Tigers three wins over the Terrapins that year, a first in Clemson history.

• In 2008, the Tigers reached the ACC championship game for the first time in 46 years with wins over Boston College and Duke. The win over Boston College was by 34 points, the largest victory margin in Clemson history in a postseason game and tied for Clemson’s largest victory margin over an ACC team regardless of site. The win over Duke was against a seventh-ranked Blue Devil team and it broke a 22-game losing streak to the Blue Devils. Current Clemson seniors Demontez Stitt and Jerai Grant played in that tournament as freshmen.

• Clemson defeated Maryland in the 2005 ACC Tournament, 84-72 in the first round, then lost to North Carolina, 88-81 in the second round. That North Carolina team went on to win the National Championship. Clemson had a 13-point lead in the second half of that game.

• Clemson has won an ACC Tournament game in consecutive years just twice, the 1993 and 1994 seasons and in three consecutive years under Bill Foster, 1975, 1976 and 1977.

• Clemson is 3-13 in Raleigh, 5-12 in Charlotte, 5-22 in Greensboro, 1-5 in Atlanta, 1-3 in Landover, MD, 1-1 in Washington, D.C. and 0-1 in Tampa, FL over the years in ACC Tournament play.

• Clemson has a record of 3-10 in the first round (including a 3-5 record in the 8/9 game), 11-36 in the quarterfinals, 2-9 in the semifinals and 0-2 in the finals for an overall 16-57 record in ACC tournament play.

• Clemson lost its first eight ACC Tournament games between 1954-61. Its first win in the tournament was a 67-46 victory in 1962 over NC State in Raleigh. That 21-point victory is the second largest margin of victory in Clemson history in an ACC Tournament game trailing only the 34-point win over Boston College in 2008.

• Clemson has been seeded in the top four of the ACC Tournament just 13 times (including this year) in the 57 tournaments. Clemson is 8-12 as a top four seed. The first year Clemson reached the finals of the event (1962), Clemson was seeded sixth. Clemson has a record of just 8-45 as a No. 5 seed or lower.

• Clemson has been the No. 1 seed just once, 1990, the only year Clemson has won the regular season of the ACC. Clemson won a first round game with Wake Forest that year in Charlotte, but lost to Virginia in the semifinals.

• Clemson has reached the tournament semifinals 11 times, including four times in the 1990s (1990, 1993, 1996 and 1998). Clemson did not reach the semifinals any year between 1981-89. Clemson went from 1999 until 2007 without reaching the semifinals. That streak ended in 2008 with the trip to the championship.

• Clemson has been to the ACC Tournament Championship game just twice, in 1962 and in 2008. In 1962 Clemson was seeded sixth in the tournament in Raleigh and upset No. 3 NC State and No. 2 Duke before losing to No. 1 seed Wake Forest, who was led by point guard Billy Packer. Clemson had been 0-2 during the regular season against both NC State and Duke that year. Wake Forest went on to the Final Four. Jim Brennan scored 34 points in Clemson’s semifinal victory over Duke in 1962. Duke was ranked eighth in the nation overall heading into that tournament. In 2008, Clemson beat a seventh-ranked Duke team in the semifinals.

•Clemson is 1-1 as the No. 1 seed, 0-1 as No. 2, 5-6 as No. 3, 2-5 as No. 4, 1-5 as No. 5, 3-9 as No. 6, 1-12 as No. 7, 1-12 as No. 8 and 2-7 as No. 9. Clemson will be the No. 4 seed this year.

• In ACC Tournament play Clemson is 4-5 vs. Duke, 2-4 vs. Florida State, 0-3 vs. Georgia Tech, 2-9 vs. Maryland, 1-14 vs. North Carolina, 2-6 vs. NC State, 1-0 vs. Boston College, 1-6 vs. Virginia, 0-1 vs. Miami (FL), 3-7 vs. Wake Forest and 0-2 vs. South Carolina. Clemson has never played Virginia Tech. Clemson has played Florida State six of the last 18 tournaments.

• Clemson’s only postseason tournament championship in history took place in 1939 when the Tigers won four games in four days at the Southern Conference Tournament in Raleigh. The Tigers defeated North Carolina, Wake Forest, Davidson and Maryland to win the event. Clemson did not lead at the half in any of those games. Banks McFadden, who passed away in 2005, was the star of the Clemson team.