Tigers Prepare To Face Demon Deacons

by Tiger Source Staff - Tue Jan 10 23:47:04 GMT-04:00 2006

- Clemson opened its ACC slate with a 61-55 win over Florida State last Wednesday. It marked the first time since the 1997-98 season that Clemson won its first ACC game of the year.

- Clemson has a +3.47 turnover margin, fourth best in the ACC and a figure that would rank third best in Clemson history for a season. Clemson is forcing 19.33 turnovers per game, second best in the ACC and at a pace to rank second best in Clemson history over a season. Clemson's 11.07 steals per game is ahead of the single season record of 10.89 set in 1976-77.

- Clemson is off to a 12-3 start, its best 15 game start since 2002-03 when Clemson was also 12-3.

- Clemson has been up and down in terms of rebounding in its two ACC games, and has had a direct effect on the outcome. Clmeson was +14 on the boards in the win over Florida State and -18 in rebound margin in the loss at Virginia last Saturday.

- Point guard Vernon Hamilton, a native of Richmond, VA, is Clemson's scoring leader with a 11.9 average. Hamilton is shooting 48 percent from the field He entered the season with a 40.4 percent field goal percentage. He has 11 double figure scoring games in the first 15 contests this year. He had eight double figure scoring games all of last year. Hamilton is trying to become the first Tiger guard to shoot 50 percent or better over the course of a season since Michael Tait shot .517 in 1986-87.

- Shawan Robinson has 26 three-point goals and 166 for his career. He needs just two to go past Chris Whitney (167) into third place on the Clemson career list. He needs 51 points to reach 1000 for his career.

- Clemson has not beaten Wake Forest since a 118- 115 double overtime victory at Littlejohn Coliseum during the 2001-02 season, Skip Prosser's first year at Wake Forest.

- Akin Akingbala scored 16 points in a loss to Wake Forest last year. That is Akingbala's career high in an ACC game in his four years at Clemson.

Clemson coach Oliver Purnell and Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser met 13 times when Purnell was at Dayton and Prosser at Xavier (1994-01). Prosser had a 7-6 advantage in those games. The home team won 12 of the 13 games and Prosser won the only neutral site game.

- Clemson is averaging 7.4 made three-point goals per game this year. That would be the second most on a per game basis in Clemson history if the season ended today.

- Nine different Tigers have led or tied for the team lead in scoring in games this year and no Tiger is averaging over 12 points per game.