11th-Ranked Tigers to Face Virginia Tech in Blacksburg Thursday Night

Jan. 28, 2009

Game Setup Site: Cassell Coliseum (9,847) Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009 City: Blacksburg, VA Time: 7:03 PM Television: ESPN2 (Brent Musburger, Bob Knight) Radio: Clemson Tiger Radio Network (Pete Yanity, Tim Bourret) Rankings: Clemson – 11 USA Today, 12 AP

Series History Overall: Virginia Tech leads 10-9 at Blacksburg: Virginia Tech leads 6-4 at Clemson: Clemson leads 5-4 at Neutral: 0-0 First Meeting: Virginia Tech 27-13 in 24-25 Last Year: Clemson won at CU, 70-69 Streak: Clemson won 3 in row; Last 6 decided by 5 or less Last Tech Win: 75-74 (OT), 2005-06 Next Meeting: Feb. 25 at Clemson

Quick Facts Since Oliver Purnell became the Clemson Head Coach in 2003-04, the Tigers have faced Virginia Tech and Seth Greenberg six times. All six games have been decided by five points or less and five of the six have come down to the last possession.

K.C. Rivers became Clemson’s winningest player when he played in the victory over Gerogia Tech. That was his 85th victory as a Tiger, one more than Elden Campbell and Cliff Hammonds.

Rivers needs just six points to reach 1500 for his career. He will become the ninth player in Clemson history to reach 1500 points, the first to reach that mark since Terrell McIntyre, who was a senior in 1998-99 and finished with 1839.

Clemson sophomore Jerai Grant has 31 blocked shots in 293 minutes this year, a blocked shot every 9.45 minutes. That is on pace to be the seventh best blocked shots per minute figure in Clemson history. He is fifth in the ACC in blocked shots.

Oliver Purnell has caoched against Virginia Tech with three different schools, Old Dominion, Dayton and Clemson. He is 8-10 overall, but has a 4-2 mark against Virginia Tech as the Clemson coach.

Clemson is the only school in the nation ranked in the top 10 in blocked shots and steals.

Clemson is shooting 67.7 percent from the foul line this year, on pace to be Clemson’s best percentage from the charity stripe in eight years. Clemson shot .702 from the line in 2000-01, the only year in the last 21 that Clemson has shot 70 percent from the line over the course of a season.

Five of the last six games between Clemson and Virginia Tech have been decided by two points or less. Clemson has won three in a row in the series, including each of the last three by one point. Clemson has won the last two games in the series at Virginia Tech, in 2005-06 and 2006-07 and both were on Virginia Tech Senior Nights.

Terrence Oglesby was Clemson’s top scorer in the win over Georgia Tech with 18 points and is now Clemson’s top scorer against ACC teams with a 15.0 average. He made five three-point goals in the game and now has 139 for his career, ninth best in school history. .

Clemson is ranked in the top 12 in the nation in both polls this week, the fourth straight week Clemson has been ranked in the top 12 in the nation. This is the first time Clemson has been in the top 12 in both polls for at least four straight weeks since the 1996-97 season when it had a 14-week streak.

This will be the first time Virginia Tech has played a ranked (top 25) Clemson team. Clemson is 1-0 against ranked Virginia Tech teams, a 75-74 win at Virginia Tech in 2006-07.