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Men’s Basketball in the Elite Eight at the NIT

March 17, 1999

National Invitational TournamentClemson vs. Butler At Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, SC March 18, 1999 7:30 PM

Probable Starting Lineups

    No   Clemson  (18-14, 5-11 ACC)                  Pos NO  Butler  (22-9, 11-3 MCC)        5   Terrell McIntyre     5-9  182 Sr.             G   5   Thomas Jackson        5-11   160 Fr.        (17.8 PPG., 5.2 APG)                                  (5.9 PPG., 2.9 APG)    44  Tony Christie        6-6  210 Sr.             G  34   Michael Hicks          6-3   180 So.        (5.6 PPG., 2.2 RPG)                                   (5.5  PPG., 2.1 RPG)    33  Tom Wideman          6-10 250 Sr.             C  22   Michael Marshall       6-4   235 Jr.        (7.1 PPG., 6.6 RPG )                                  (9.8 PPG, 7.0 RPG)    32  Harold Jamison       6-8 250  Sr.             F   3   Andy Hirschy           6-0   195 Sr.        (12.2  PPG., 9.9 RPG)                                 (8.9  PPG, 2.0 RPG)    3   Andrius Jurkunas     6-9 235  Jr.             F  42   Rylan Hainje           6-6   235 Fr.         (7.6 PPG, 3.8 RPG )                                   (8.3 PPG., 4.8 RPG)         

Head Coach: Larry Shyatt (College of Wooster ’73) Head Coach: Barry Collier (Butler ’76) 18-14 at Clemson, 1st year 173-123 at Butler and overall (10th year) 37-23 overall, 2nd year 0-0 vs. Butler 0-0 vs. Clemson

Series Record: First MeetingTelevision: NoneTickets: Available for $8 for adults and $4 for students college age and under. Tickets available at Clemson ticket office and in Greenville at Mr. Knickerbocker’s. Clemson ticket office # is 1-800-CLEMSON

Officials: Paul Kaster, John Higgins, Steve Morris

Clemson in the NIT

Appearances:    11thOverall:        8-10at Clemson:     4-3 (won last 4)Away:           4-6Neutral:        0-1 lst Round:      5-62nd Round       3-23rd Round:      0-2Best Trn:       Final 8 in 1986, 1994 and 1999

Streaks and Notes This will be the first meeting between Clemson and Butler in basketball. Clemson is 3-0 lifetime against teams from the MCC (Midwestern Collegiate Conference). The Tigers own wins over Cleveland State (1976-77, 77-55), Illinois-Chicago (1982-83, 92-88) and Wisconsin-Green Bay (1990-91, 75-68). Clemson trailed at the half in the Cleveland State and Wisconsin-GB games.

The MCC holds a 1-0 lead over the ACC this year. Butler defeated Florida State in a game played in Indianapolis in December. The ACC is 3-1 against the MCC over the last five years combined.

This is the third time Clemson has advanced to the Elite Eight of the NIT. The other seasons were in 1986 and 1994. Clemson lost on the road to Wyoming in 1986 and at Vanderbilt in 1994 in contests that determind a bid in the Final Four in New York.

Clemson is coming off a 78-68 victory at Rutgers on March 16th. It was just the second time this year Clemson had won on an opponent’s homecourt. The Tigers were led by Terrell McIntyre with 16 points and nine assists, while Harold Jamison had 12 points and 15 rebounds. Clemson’s reserves scored 27 points and made 10-15 shots from the field.

Harold Jamison had 15 rebounds at Rutgers and moved into fourth place on the Clemson all-time rebounding list. The 6-8 senior now has 908 for his career, five more than Sharone Wright posted between 1991-94. Jamison is on quite a rebounding roll, he has 50 rebounds in his last three games and has a double-double in six of the last eight games.

Clemson has a 13-3 record at home this season and has won its last five home games by a margin of 23.8 points per game. The victories have come over North Carolina, Virginia, Florida St., Georgia Tech and Georgia. *Harold Jamison now leads the ACC in rebounding with a 9.9 average. If he gets 13 rebounds against Butler he will average 10 rebounds per game for the season. Terrell McIntyre is second to Elton Brand in the ACC in scoring with a 17.78 average. Brand has a narrow margin (17.80) heading into this week’s NCAA Tournament play.

Clemson is one of the top rebounding teams in the nation. The Tigers have a +7.9 rebound margin for the year, far ahead of the school record for rebound margin in a season. Clemson has been very impressive over the last three games in this area, out-rebounding the opposition by 53 rebounds in that time. The Tigers have 60 offensive rebounds in the last three games.

Clemson coach Larry Shyatt has posted 18 wins in his first year as Tiger coach, tying Bill Foster’s record for victories by a first-year Clemson coach. Foster was 18-10 in 1975-76, his first year with the Tigers.

Clemson held Georgia to .237 field goal shooting in the first round of the NIT (14-59), the fifth best field goal percentage defense in Clemson history. Rutgers was just 38.9 percent on 21-54 shooting. Thus, the Tigers have allowed just 35-113 shooting from the field in the two NIT games, 30.97 percent. That includes 12-62 on three-point shooting, 19.35 percent.

Terrell McIntyre needs 19 points to reach 1800 for his career. Only Elden Campbell (1880) now with the Charlotte Hornets, has reached the 1800 mark in schoo history.

Clemson in the NIT Clemson has an 8-10 record in the NIT over the years. Clemson first played in the event in 1975, a 91-86 loss to Providence in Madison Square Garden. That was the first postseason tournament appearance in Clemson history and in those days only 16 teams were selected and all 16 went to New York.

Clemson has appeared in the event 10 previous seasons. This is the first appearance for the Tigers since 1995 when Clemson lost at Virginia Tech in the first round, 62-54. Current Clemson graduate manager Bruce Martin played in that game and was Clemson’s leading scorer with 18 points, including six three-point goals.

This is Clemson’s third appearance in the quarterfinals, the others took place in 1986 and 1994. That win over Georgia in Athens sent the Tigers to the quarterfinals where they lost at Wyoming. Clemson defeated Southern Mississippi and West Virginia (the latter on the road) to get to the quarterfinals in 1994.

Thus, Clemson is 0-2 in the third round of the tournament. The Tigers meet Butler at Littlejohn Coliseum on March 18. Clemson has won four straight NIT home games, including this year’s victory over Georgia.

One of Clemson’s top victories in history took place in the 1979 NIT at Kentucky. Before the largest crowd ever to see an NIT game, the Tigers downed Kentucky in Rupp Arena, 68-67. Bill Foster’s team used the Tiger Paws Offense to gain the victory. That was a contest between two teams who would have been in the NCAA tournament under today’s format. In those days only 40 teams got in the NCAAs. Clemson was then upset by Old Dominion in double overtime at Clemson, 61-59.

Clemson in the NIT (8-10)

    Year    Opponent        St  Score   W/L    1975    Providence      N1  86-91   L    1979    #Kentucky       A   68-67   W        ##Old Dominion      H   59-61   L    1981    Temple          H   82-90   L    1982    Mississippi     H   49-53   L    1985    UT Chattanooga  A   65-67   L    1986    Middle Tenn St. H   99-81   W            Georgia         A   77-65   W            Wyoming         A   57-62   L    1988    Southern Miss.  A   69-74   L    1993    Auburn          H   84-72   W            Alabama-Birm.   A   64-65   L    1994    Southern Miss.  H   96-85   W            West Virginia   A   96-79   W            Vanderbilt      A   74-89   L    1995    Virginia Tech   A   54-62   L    1999    Georgia         H   77-57   W            Rutgers         A   78-68   W    N1--Madison Square Garden,  # Overtime

Clemson 77, Georgia 57 Terrell McIntyre scored 19 points in just 23 minutes and Harold Jamison led a dominant rebound effort, leading Clemson to a 77-57 victory over Georgia in the first round of the NIT at Clemson on March 10. It was just the third meeting in 35 years between the two football rivals located just 75 miles apart.

Jamison finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds, his fifth double-double in the last seven games. He also had six offensive rebounds, had two assists and no turnovers and took a pair of charges. McIntyre had 19 points in just 23 minutes, his fewest minutes played since December. The senior guard was limited by foul trouble. Andrius Jurkunas had 16 points, including 3-5 shooting from three-point land and had seven rebounds. Tom Wideman scored just four, but had 10 rebounds.

Clemson owned the boards 57-38 and held a 19-14 advantage in offensive rebounding. Georgia made just 14-59 shots from the field, .237 and was just 5-32 on three-point shots. It was the most three-point attempts by a Clemson opponent since the 1993 NIT when Clemson defeated Auburn.

Both teams struggled from the field in the early going and it was 10-10 through the 10:45 mark. At that point Terrell McIntyre picked up a second foul and went to the bench. Instead of Clemson losing ground with its star on the bench, The Tigers went on a 14-0 run to take a 24-10 lead at the 4:17 mark. Georgia missed 12 consective shots and did not make a field goal over the final 10:45 of the half. The Dawgs were just 4-20 from the field in the first half, 1-15 from three-point land.

Clemson upped the lead to 40-18 in the first four minutes of the second half and Georgia never cut the advantage below 20 the rest of the way. Jumaine Jones led Georgia with 20 points, but he was stymied most of the game by Harold Jamison. Jones was 6-18 from the field and had six turnovers. Nine of his 20 points were scored when Jamison was out of the game.

Clemson shot just 38.3 percent for the game, but the Tigers were 9-19 on three-point shots, including 1-1 by walk-on Jermel Douglas in the final minute. The victory was Clemson’s largest margin of victory in a postseason game in history.

Clemson 78, Rutgers 68 Terrell McIntyre scored 16 points and dished out nine assists, and Harold Jamison had 12 points and 15 rebounds to lead Clemson to a 78-68 victory at Rutgers in the second round of the NIT on March 16th. It was just Clemson’s second win on an opponent’s homecourt this year and broke an eight-game road losing streak.

Will Solomon led an impressive performance by the Clemson bench with 15 points and three blocked shots, while Adam Allenspach added eight off the bench. Overall, Clemson won the bench scoring 27-10 and the Tiger reserves made 10-15 shots from the field.

Andrius Jurkunas continued his improvement over the second half of the season and scored 14 points, had seven rebounds and made 6-6 free throws. Tom Wideman added eight points on 4-5 shooting and pulled in six rebounds, all offensive.

Clemson made 49.1 percent of its shots from the field , Clemson’s best road game shooting exhibition of the season. Even more impressive was Clemson’s .704 free throw shooting performance on 19-27. It was just the third time this year that Clemson had made over 70 percent of its free throws, given a minimum of 20 attempts. The Tigers made 17-24 in the second half and made 9-10 inside the last five minutes. Clemson entered the game making .609 of its free throws for the year, last in the ACC.

For the second straight game the Tigers fell behind early. Rutgers scored the first seven points of the contest and the sellout crowd was into the contest from the beginning. But, the Tigers responded with a 17-0 run, tied for the longest string of consecutive points by the Tigers all season, and took a 17-7 lead. Rutgers battled back to tie the game at 24-24at he 7:03 mark.

Clemson then played some of its best basketball in recent weeks, closing the half with a 16-5 run. Tom Wideman made three of the hoops, all on offensive rebounds to give Clemson a double digit lead at intermission, 40-29.

Clemson held a lead of between eight and 14 points for the first 10 minutes of the second half. But, a layup by freshman Roshod Kent cut Clemsonls lead to four with 7:33 remaining. But, like the end of the first half, Clemson wore down the Scarlet Knights. The Tigers ran the lead to 12 points at 67-55 with 4:00 left on a dunk by Harold Jamison. As stated before, Clemson made its free throws down the stretch, 4-4 by Terrell McIntyre and 5-6 by freshman Will Solomon.

Tigers Hold Georgia to .237 FG% Clemson has held the opposition to 25 percent or under field goal percentage eight times in history and three of those defensive efforts have taken place this year. Georgia made just 14-59 from the field against the Tigers and that 23.7 mark ranks as the sixth best defense in Clemson history. A contributor to the defensive effort was perimeter defense as Clemson held Georgia to 5-32 three-point shooting 15.6 percent. Georgia entered the game shooting 37.6 percent on three-point shots, 15th best in the nation as a team. Clemson continued the fine defense at Rutgers, holding the Scarlet Knights to .389 shooting from the field, including .233 from three point range. The two NIT opponents have made just 31 percent of their field goals overall, including just .192 from thre-point land (12-62).

Clemson opponents have shot 41.4 percent from the field and averaged 64.3 points per game for the season. Stetson (15-60) and Radford (12-53) also failed to shoot 25 percent from the field. Clemson’s best field goal percentage defense in a game took place in 1995-96 when Wofford made just 9-50 shots from the field, 18 percent.

Clemson’s Top Field Goal % Defense–Single Game

     Pct   FG-FGA    Site-Opponent                Date    .180     9-50    H-Wofford                   2-6-96    .200    13-65    A-Wake Forest               1-4-64    .211    16-76    N2-Florida International  12-29-87    .220     9-41    N3-Army                   12-29-93    .226    12-53    H-Radford                 11-30-98    .237    14-59    H-Georgia                  3-10-99    .239    16-67    H-Armstrong State         12-17-86    .250    15-60    H-Stetson                 11-16-98    Note:  1998-99 Season in boldfaced.    

Jamison Pounding the Boards Clemson power forward Harold Jamison has been on a rampage in terms of rebounding coming down the stretch of his senior year. The 6-8, 250-pounder is now first in the ACC in rebounding with a 9.9 average. He needs 13 rebounds against Butler to average 10 rebounds per game and thus average a double-double for the season. No Tiger has done that since Sharone Wright in 1993-94.

Jamison is being challenged by Elton Brand of Duke, who has a 9.5 average, and Alvin Jones of Georgia Tech, who finished his season with a 9.7 average.

Jamison has had 99 points and 100 rebounds over his last eight games. In other words he has averaged a double-dozen over the eight game period and has had a double-double in six of the eight games. For the season, Jamison has 12 double-doubles and now has 17 for his career. The Clemson record for double-doubles in a season is 19 by Tree Rollins, who had an incredible 62 double-doubles in his career, the all-time school record.

Jamison has been a terror on the offensive boards all year and has 115 for the season. He went over the 300 mark in total rebounds, the first Tiger to do that since Sharone Wright in 1993-94. Jamison moved ahead of Wright into fourth place on the Clemson career list with his 15 rebounds at Rutgers. Jamison has led Clemson in rebounding in six of the last seven games and 20 overall this year.

With his .667 field goal percentage and the 9.9 rebounds per game he is on pace to become the first player in Clemson history to lead the Tigers in rebounding and field goal percentage for four straight seasons.

Clemson vs. Midwestern Collegiate Conference Clemson has a 3-0 all-time record against the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, but the victories have not been easy. All three wins have been at Littlejohn Coliseum, but the Tigers have led at the half in only one of the games.

Clemson has wins over Cleveland State, Illinois-Chicago and Wisconsin-Green Bay. Clemson trailed at the half against Cleveland State in 1976-77, 32-31, before coming back to win 77-55. Up until last year, it stood as Clemson’s largest margin of victory in a game it trailed at intermission. Clemson defeated Illinois Chicago by a 92-88 margin in 1982-83, then defeated Green Bay, 75-68 in 1990-91. Clemson trailed by seven at intermission in that game before Dale Davis in the Tigers got in gear in the second half.

The MCC has the upper hand over the ACC this year. In the only meeting on the hardcourt, Butler defeated Florida State 77-65 in Indianapolis. Over the last five years the ACC has a 3-1 lead.

Florida State was the only common opponent for Clemson and Butler. The Tigers lost two of three to the Seminoles, yet had the advantage in points scored. Clemson lost by six at Tallahassee and by two in the ACC Tournament, but Clemson won by 33 in the game at Clemson.

Clemson in the NIT in 1999 Clemson is 2-0 in the NIT, a 20 point win over Georgia and a 10-point victory at Rutgers. In the two games combined, Clemson is shooting 43.5 percent on field goals, and has made 39 percent on three-point goals. The Tigers have won the rebounding by 16.5 and have averaged 77.5 points per game, 6.0 points a game higher than Clemson’s overall season average.

The area Clemson has shown the most improvement compared to the regular season is free throw shooting. Clemson is shooting 68.3 percent from line in the two games, 41-60. That includes a 19-27 performance on the road against Rutgers, Clemson’s top road free throw percentage of the season, given a minimum of 20 attempts.

Clemson has four players averaging in double figures in the NIT. Terrell McIntyre leads the way at 17.5 a game, but Andrius Jurkunas, a 7.3 scorer for the regular season, has a 15.0 average in the two NIT games. Harold Jamison stands at 13.5 points and 15 rebounds a game in the NIT, while Will Solomon is at 10.5 points a game for the two contests.

McIntyre Sets Two More Records Clemson point guard Terrell McIntyre established two more records in the victory over Rutgers. McIntyre played all 40 minutes, the fourth time this year he has gone the distance, and he became Clemson’s career leader in playing time in the process. McIntyre has now played 4081 minutes in his career that has spanned 123 games, an average of 33.2 minutes per game. He broke the record of 4064 minutes played by Grayson Marshall from 1984-88.

McIntyre also had two three-point goals against Rutgers, giving him 88 for the season. That broke the record formerly held by Chris Whitney, who made 87 threes in 1992-93. McIntyre earlier this season set the Clemson record for career three-point goals and now has 248.

Here is a list of Clemson records held by Terrell McIntyre:Most Three-point goals in a season: 88 in 1998-99Most Three-Point Goals in a career: 248 from 1995-99Most Three-point goals in a game: 8 at Florida State, 1998-99Most consecutive games with a three-point goal: 26, 1997-98 to 1998-99Most steals in a career: 192, 1995-99Most minutes played in a career: 4081 from 1995-99Most steals in a game: 7 vs. Georgia Tech, 1997-98ndicates tied record

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