Clemson Men’s Basketball to Open Season Friday Night vs. Hofstra at Charleston Classic

Nov. 14, 2008

Game Setup Site: Carolina First Center (5,300) Date: Friday, November 14, 2008 City: Charleston, SC Time: 9:30 PM TV: Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (Matt Stewart, Nate Ross) Radio: Clemson Tiger Sports Properties Fri/Sat: (Don Munson, Philip Sikes) Sun: (Pete Yanity, Don Munson)

Series Notes Overall: Clemson leads 2-0 at Clemson: Clemson leads 1-0 at Littlejohn: Clemson leads 1-0 at Hofstra: Clemson leads 1-0 at Neutral: N one played First Meeting: Clemson, 77-63, in 1988-89 Last Meeting: Clemson, 91-58, in 1989-90

Quick Facts • Clemson returns three starters and 11 letterwinners from last year’s team that won 24 games and finished the season with a #22 AP ranking.

• The Tiger program is coming off some noteworthy accomplishments last season. Clemson advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998 and also made it to the championship game of the ACC Tournament for the first time since 1962.

• Oliver Purnell has guided the Tiger program to improvement in its winning percentage each of the last four seasons. Purnell’s teams have won 49 games the past two seasons, a school record for a two-year period.

• Friday’s game against Hofstra will be just the third meeting ever between the Tigers and Pride. Clemson won the two games in back-to-back seasons, 1988-89 and 1989-90.

• Clemson has an all-time record of 14-3 versus teams currently in the Colonial Athletic Association, which includes a victory over Old Dominion last season.

• The winner of the Clemson-Hofstra game will take on the winner of TCU and Western Michigan on Saturday at 8:00 PM.

• The Tigers have won two regular season tournaments in the past three years. Purnell’s club won the eight-team 2005 San Juan Shootout, then claimed the round-robin Cox Communications Classic in Norfolk, VA in 2006.

• K.C. Rivers has led the Tiger team in scoring each of the past two seasons, including 2007-08 when he averaged 14.7 points per game. Rivers was named team captain in the preseason by Purnell.

• Rivers ranks 19th on the all-time Clemson scoring list with 1,231 points. He ranks fourth in school history with 212 career three-point goals and also ranks among the school’s top 10 in steals.

• Trevor Booker enters his junior season with 141 career blocked shots, sixth-best on the school’s all-time list. Booker ranks 16th in ACC history with 2.01 blocks per game.

• Freshman center Catalin Baciu has been suspended by the NCAA for five games. The Romania native played in five professional games in his home country before coming to the United States as a high school junior.

• The three-point line has moved back one foot for the 2008-09 season to a distance of 20 feet and nine inches. This will actually be the third different distance used for the three-point line in Clemson history. The previous distance of 19’9″ was used from the 1986-87 season through the end of last season.