Tigers to face UAB in NCAA Tournament first round

by TigerNet Staff - Sun Mar 13 17:24:59 GMT-04:00 2011

Clemson, SC---Clemson will face UAB in Dayton, OH on Tuesday at 9:00 PM in one of the First Four Games of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. The game will be televised by Tru TV.

The winner of the game will play East Regional fifth seed West Virginia in Tampa, FL on Thursday.

This is the fourth straight year Clemson has advanced to the NCAA tournament. Clemson and Duke are the only ACC schools that can make that claim. The Tigers will be making their 11th NCAA Tournament appearance overall. All have taken place since 1980.

Clemson enters the game with a 21-11 record, including a 9-7 mark in regular season ACC games. It was the fourth straight year Clemson has had a winning record in ACC play. Clemson also reached the semifinals of the ACC Tournament with a victory over Boston College.

Clemson is led in scoring by Demontez Stitt with a 14.7 average. Stitt just had consecutive games of at least 20 points in the ACC Tournament, 20 in the win over Boston College on Friday and 25 in the overtime loss to number-one seed North Carolina on Saturday. His 22.5 scoring average was second best in the tournament.

Stitt also leads the team in assists with 101 and is second in steals with 41. He has 1,342 career points, 413 assists and 340 rebounds over his 124-game career. Stitt is the first player in Clemson history to start on four NCAA Tournament teams.

Jerai Grant is the Tigers second leading scorer with a 12.1 average and he is the top rebounder with 6.7 and top shot blocker with 77. He also leads the team in field goal percentage at .568.

Andre Young is a third Tiger in double figures with a 10.8 average. He is in the top 10 in the conference in three-point goals per game, steals and assist/turnover ratio this year. He has 74 three-point goals to lead the Tigers.

Clemson’s most successful NCAA run came in 1980, the first year Clemson was selected. The Tigers won three tournament games under Bill Foster that year and reached the Elite Eight of the tournament before losing to UCLA. Clemson also made the Sweet 16 in 1990 under Cliff Ellis and 1997 under Rick Barnes.

Brad Brownell is taking his third different program to the NCAA Tournament. He took UNC Wilmington in 2003 and 2006 and Wright State in 2007. He has now taken each of his three schools to the NCAA tournament in his first year with the program.

UAB enters the NCAA Tournament with a 22-8 record. They had a 12-4 record in Conference USA during the regular season, then lost in the first round of the conference tournament to East Carolina. They had won their last four regular season games prior to the conference tournament.

The two teams had two common opponents, Duke and East Carolina. Both teams lost at Duke during the regular season. Clemson defeated East Carolina in a meeting at Clemson. UAB defeated the Pirates twice in the regular season, but the Pirates won the meeting in the Conference USA Tournament.

UAB is led in scoring by 6-5 senior forward Jamarr Sanders who has a 17.7 scoring average. The native of Montgomery, AL also averages 4.6 rebounds per game. Cameron Moore, a 6-10 junior, averages 14.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Aaron Johnson is a third double figure scorer with a 12.0 average. The 5-8 native of Chicago leads the nation in assists per game with a 7.7 figure. He also shoots 78 percent from the foul line.

Top half of East Regional

03/18 1 Ohio St.

16 UT-San Antonio / Alabama St. winner

03/18 8 George Mason

9 Villanova

03/17 5 West Virginia

12 Clemson / UAB winner

03/17 4 Kentucky

13 Princeton

More details coming soon including comments from Coach Brownell.