Clemson To Face Air Force In NIT

March 23, 2007

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70th Annual Mastercard NIT

Site: Madison Square Garden (19,594) Date: Tuesday, March 27 Tickets: Ticketmaster (212) 307-7171 City: New York, NY Time: 9:00 PM (20 min. after 1st game) TV: ESPN-Ron Franklin, Bill Raftery, Frank Fraschilla Radio: Clemson Tiger Sports Properties (Pete Yanity, Tim Bourret)

SERIES NOTES

Overall: First Meeting Clemson History in the NIT Overall: 14-13 at MSG: 1-2 at Clemson: 8-3 Semifinal Record: 1-0 (1999) Finals Record: 0-1 (1999) Best Finish: 2nd in 1999

Clemson has advanced to the NIT Semifinals for just the secondtime in its history. The previous occurrence took place in 1999when the Tigers lost in the championship game to California, 61-60.Clemson has 24 wins so far this year. A win over Air Force wouldgive the Tigers 25, tying the school record set in 1986-87.Obviously an NIT championship would give this team the schoolrecord 26 wins for the season. While one more win will tie aClemson record for wins in a season, one win would establish apersonal high for Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell. He also won 24games at Dayton in 2002-03, his final season with that program.Overall, this will be just the third time Clemson has traveled toNew York to play in Madison Square Garden. Clemson is 1-2 in theMSG, a loss to Providence in the 1975 NIT, a win over Xavier in the1999 semifinals and the loss to Calfornia in 1999 finals. Clemsonhas had a signficant advantage in threepoint shooting in the NIT.Clemson has made 36.7 percent (22-60) from long range, whileholding the opposition to 20.8 percent (10-48). Clemson made 9-19three-point shots in the win over Syracuse, and the .474 percentagewas the second best against the Orangemen all year. K.C. Riversscored a career high 29 points in the win over Syracuse, including21 in the first half. That was the third most points in apostseason game (NIT or NCAA) in school history. Rivers hasaveraged 19.3 points per game in the three NIT games. Clemson andAir Force have never met on the basketball court, but the two teamshave three common opponents this year in Duke, Georgia and WakeForest. Air Force is 2-1 against those teams and Clemson is 1-3.Clemson and Air Force are the two highest ranked teams left in theNIT according to the RPI. Air Force was ranked 25th through gamesof March 21, while Clemson was ranked 35th. Clemson has 24victories, more wins this year than all-time top 10 winningestprograms Duke, Kentucky and Indiana. It marks the first time since1937-38 that Clemson has recorded more wins than those threeprograms in the same year. Cliff Hammonds has made at least onethree-point goal in 25 consecutive games and 33 of the 34 thisyear. He has made 15 of his last 34 3pt shots (.441). Tuesday’sgame will be his 99th at Clemson. Clemson is 12-1 this season whenK.C. Rivers scores at least 16 points, 23-4 with 10 or more. Pointguard Vernon Hamilton has scored in double figures in 16 of hislast 18 games. Tuesday’s game will be his 126th at Clemson.