Tigers to Face Illinois on the Road Tuesday Night in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Dec. 1, 2008

Game Setup Site: Assembly Hall (16,618) Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008 City: Champaign, IL Time: 7:30 PM (Eastern Time) TV: ESPN2 (Jon Sciambi, Fran Fraschilla) Radio: Clemson Tiger Radio Network (Don Munson, Philip Sikes)

Series History Overall: Illinois leads 2-0 at Clemson: none played at Littlejohn: none played at Illinois: Illinois leads 1-0 at Neutral: Illinois leads 1-0 First Meeting: Illinois, 71-61, in 1997-98 Last Meeting: Illinois, 67-50, in 1998-99

Quick Facts Tuesday’s game will be the third meeting between Clemson and Illinois. The schools played each other in consecutive seasons, first in 1997-98 and then in 1998-99. The Illini claimed wins in both contests.

Clemson has an all-time record of 7-2 in the ACC/ Big Ten Challenge. The Tigers have won four of the five ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchups under current Head Coach Oliver Purnell.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has won all nine of the challenges to date. Only Duke (9-0) and Wake Forest (7-1) have a better record than Clemson in the history of the event.

Clemson is 3-2 on the road in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but won each of its last two away games, at Penn State and Minnesota in back-to-back years (2005, 2006).

Head Coach Oliver Purnell earned his 100th win with the Tiger basketball program on Nov. 25 after the Tigers defeated Savannah State, 81-49. He has 357 victories in his career and has now won at least 100 games at both Dayton and Clemson.

Clemson was once again strong in November, having won its last 26 games in the month under Purnell’s watch. The Tiger program owns an alltime record of 94-15 in November as well.

The Tigers are 1-0 on the road this season and 4-0 away from home. Clemson has won its last seven non-conference road games dating to the start of the 2006-07 season.

As a team, Clemson ranks first in the ACC in blocked shots with 7.7 per game. Two players, Trevor Booker and Jerai Grant, rank among the top 10 individual shot-blockers in the league.

Booker leads the ACC in blocks per game (2.7) and is fifth in rebounds per game (9.7). He is Clemson’s leading scorer at 14 points per game.

Grant has made 15 of 17 field goal attempts so far this season, which equates to an incredible 88 percent accuracy. He made 5-5 in Clemson’s last game and posted a career-high 11 points against Presbyterian.

K.C. Rivers had one steal against Presbyterian and tied James Mays for seventh on the school’s all-time steals list (166). Rivers is tied with Sharone Wright for 17th on Clemson’s all-time scoring list with 1,308 career points.

Terrence Oglesby ranks second in the ACC in both three-point goals per game (2.6) and three-point accuracy (.486).

Freshman guard Andre Young has 20 assists this season, compared to just four turnovers. He is one assist shy of qualitying for the ACC stats, where his 5/1 ratio would be second to UNC’s Ty Lawson.