Men’s Basketball Announces Schedule for the 2006-07 Season

Aug. 17, 2006

Clemson, SC – The Clemson men’s basketball schedule was released Thursday by the Atlantic Coast Conference. In addition to 16 regular season conference games, the Tigers will play three contests against SEC foes and will also play at Minnesota for the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. In total, Clemson will play 16 games against 2006 postseason tournament teams.

Thirteen of Clemson’s 16 ACC games will be televised and the Tigers will have 16 games overall on television. That includes six appearances on the ESPN family of networks.

The Tigers will open the season on November 10, one week earlier than last season. In fact, the November 10 opener is the earliest start to a season in school history. Clemson will travel to Norfolk, VA to take part in the Cox Communications Classic, a four-team tournament hosted by Purnell’s alma mater, Old Dominion. The Tigers will face Arkansas State on Friday, Monmouth on Saturday, and Old Dominion on Sunday. The Monarchs were an NIT Final Four team last season.

The 2006-07 season will mark the first year of a home-and-home series with SEC foe Mississippi State. The Bulldogs, an NCAA Tournament team four out of the last five years, will be at Littlejohn Coliseum on Tuesday, November 21 at 7:00 PM.

Clemson will play at Minnesota in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on November 29. The Tigers and Golden Gophers have met five times, including twice during the 1996-97 season. The two teams played to a double-overtime thriller that season in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, where Minnesota ultimately prevailed by a score of 90-84. This will be Clemson’s first trip to Minnesota since the 1993-94 season. The Gophers were an NIT team in 2005-06. Clemson has a 5-2 record all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The annual Clemson-South Carolina game will be held on December 2 at the Colonial Center in Columbia, SC. Clemson pulled off a 63-62 overtime win in Purnell’s first road game against the Tigers’ in-state rival in December of 2004. Last season, the Tigers won 82-63 at home over the defending and eventual NIT Champions.

Another highlight of the non-conference schedule will be a December 28 matchup with Georgia. It will mark the Bulldogs’ first trip to Littlejohn Coliseum since the postseason NIT in 1999. Clemson downed Georgia 77-57 in the first round and advanced to the NIT final that season. This is the final game of a four-year contract between the two schools.

The ACC slate begins January 3 at Florida State. Three of Clemson’s first four league contests will be played on the road, with trips to N.C. State on January 9 and Maryland on January 13. The Tigers will play host to both North Carolina and Duke on weeknight ESPN games in January and February. However, Clemson will not play at North Carolina for the first time since the 1983-84 season, when the two teams met in Greensboro, NC instead of Chapel Hill. The Tigers play at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke on January 25.

The Tigers will play home-and-home ACC series this year with Boston College, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Maryland. Clemson will play one game apiece against ACC foes Miami (FL-home), North Carolina (home), N.C. State (away), Virginia (home), Virginia Tech (away), and Wake Forest (away)

The ACC Tournament will have a change of venue this season. The league will hold its championship in Tampa, FL at the St. Pete Times Forum. That event will be held March 8-11, 2007.

Men’s Basketball 2006-07 Schedule

# – Cox Communications Classic (Norfolk, VA) ^ – ACC/Big Ten ChallengeNote: FSN-S – Fox Sports Net South; FSN-FL – Fox Sports Net Florida; NESN – New England Sports Network; RSN – Regional Sports Network; R/LF – Raycom/Lincoln Financial. Games in ALL CAPS are home games.