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Clemson Using NCAA Snub As Motivation

After starting the season 17-0, the Tigers finished the year on an 8-11 run that kept them out of the Big Dance.

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By
Stuart Hall

GREENSBORO –Clemson senior James Mays has been unable to shake the evening of January 28.

On that wintry night at Littlejohn Coliseum, the Tigers let a 15-point lead with seven minutes remaining slip away and lost to Virginia, 64-63 at the buzzer.

“We kept letting them back into the game and then they beat us at the buzzer,” Mays said. “That was a hard one to recover from.”

In actuality, the loss sent the Tigers spiraling. They promptly fell from the national rankings in the midst of losing nine of their final 13 regular-season games, not to mention to Florida State in the opening round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

“At one point we were 17-0 and on top of the mountain,” said Mays of a Tigers team that was ranked as high as No. 14 in the national polls and ultimately finished 25-11. “We saw what could have been. But that was just a taste, so we definitely want to get back to that point.”

Fifth-year coach Oliver Purnell believes Clemson’s return to that pinnacle began with a run to the NIT Invitational championship, where the Tigers lost to West Virginia.

“We were hugely disappointed when we lost to Florida State in the first round of the ACC Tournament,” Purnell said. “We were hugely disappointed when we didn’t receive an NCAA berth. But we came to practice that next day ready to work hard and not with a hangover of not making the NCAAs. That [NIT stretch] revealed the character we have on this team.”

Much to his delight, Purnell welcomes back five of his main six players from a year ago, including Mays, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward, who declared for the NBA Draft and then withdrew his name after participating in the league’s pre-draft camp. Mays averaged 12.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

“I told him [turning pro] is whatever you want to do, but if you come back, you’re going to be a part of something big,” said fellow senior Cliff Hammonds, who expects to man the Tigers’ No. 2 slot.

Mays says that love for the basketball program is profoundly in the air around Clemson, and that players have bought into Purnell’s expectations of not only winning an ACC Championship, but also making a run of at a national title.

Given that Clemson has not made an NCAA appearance since coach Rick Barnes’ final year in 1998 that is a heady prospect. But since a 10-18 debut in 2004, Purnell has improved the Tigers to 16 wins in 2005, 19 in 2006 and 25 last year.

“Teams that go deep in the NIT and return a significant number of players the following year see benefits from that run,” Purnell said. “You get two and a half more weeks of practice, you’ve won those games and it is just more time to improve.”

In addition to Mays and Hammonds, sophomore Trevor Booker, who tied Mays for team lead in rebounds, emerged as a dominant force. Booker averaged 12.4 points and 7.2 rebounds in the Tigers’ NIT run.

Junior K.C. Rivers should join Hammonds on the wing, while freshman Demontez Stitt is expected to crack Purnell’s starting five. If not, senior forward Sam Perry is expected to start at No. 3, thus moving Rivers to No. 2 and Hammonds to the point.

Purnell stressed the need to avoid losing slides like the one encountered a year ago. Hammonds said the answer is simple.

“We just need to learn how to finish off games,” he said. “We cannot let off the peddle to anyone, no matter what the score is and how much time is left.”

That particular loss to Virginia may eventually be the Tigers’ blessing in disguise.

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