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LOCATION: Clemson, SC
CONFERENCE: Atlantic Coast (ACC)
LAST SEASON: 20-15 (.571)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 5-11 (t-7th)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 4/1
NICKNAME: Tigers
COLORS: Orange & White
HOMECOURT: Littlejohn Coliseum (11,020)
COACH: Larry Shyatt (College of Wooster '73)
record at school 20-15 (1 year)
career record 39-24 (2 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Scott Duncan (College of Wooster '78)
Darren Tillis (Paul Quinn College '96)
Matt Driscoll (Slippery Rock '92)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 15-18-23-18-20
RPI (last 5 years) 80-46-11-29-68
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in NIT championship game.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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You know things aren't going as planned when you have to replace the replacements. Larry Shyatt, in his second year at Clemson, knew he was going to have to revamp the lineup that led Clemson to its first ever National Invitation Tournament championship game last year, what with four senior starters ending their eligibility and a handful of others leaving the program. All four of last year's seniors point guard Terrell McIntyre, small forward Tony Christie, power forward Harold Jamison and center Tom Widemen had been starters or heavy contributors their entire careers. The Tigers also lost shooting guard Vincent Whitt, who missed most of last season after being suspended along with senior Johnny Miller in January, and center Mohamed Woni, who left school in December. Whitt transferred to South Carolina State, and Woni resurfaced at Hampton. In all, the Tigers lost 70 percent of their scoring and do not return a single player who averaged in double figures. That doesn't bode well for this season, considering that Shyatt's debut last year was a significant disappointment for a team so loaded with experience. Clemson was 11-1 through December and ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. But things fell apart in January, as internal conflict and injuries took their toll and the Tigers lost 10 out of 12 games at one stretch. After a loss to Florida State in the first round of the ACC Tournament, the Tigers stood at 16-14, and barely slipped into the NIT. They finally put things back together there, winning four times to get to the championship game, where they lost to California, 61-60.
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT C BENCH/DEPTH D+
FRONTCOURT C INTANGIBLES C
Despite the strong postseason performance, last season was a disappointment for the Tigers, a talented team with more experience than any team in the ACC. Things couldn't be more different this year. Shyatt isn't sure where his scoring, defense or leadership will be coming from, though Andrius Jurkunas will be expected to contribute in all those areas. Trouble is, with Duke and Maryland, who both spent most of last season in the top 5, also losing four key contributors, the Tigers won't even be the most depleted team in its own league. Still, this year will be devoted to rebuilding the infrastructure of a team that had overachieved during the Barnes/Shyatt era until about December of last year. Shyatt likes the fact that he has three experienced returnees at critical positions: Jurkunas at small forward, Allenspach at center and Solomon at the point. "I wouldn't trade them right now," Shyatt said. None of them, however, has proven they can do anything for an entire season and that will be their burden if the Tigers want to play in the postseason for the eighth consecutive year. More realistically, however, Shyatt should get out his umbrella and prepare for plenty of raindrops in the form of losses to keep falling on his head. |
Unfortunately, not many of the key performers are still around to benefit from that strong finish. The Tigers have only five scholarship players back, with 6-9 forward Andrius Jurkunas (7.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg) the lone returning starter and only senior. Lanky 7-1 center Adam Allenspach (4.8, 3.5) is the only junior. Shyatt, one of three coaches in the ACC who will have to replace four starters, went out and signed a huge recruiting class that at one time numbered seven players. Only one newcomer, however, garnered national acclaim as a future star: Ronald Blackshear, a shooting guard from Georgia who signed with the Tigers last fall. Shyatt should have known that Blackshear, rated among the 40 best high school players in the country, might have had some problems when he was kicked out of Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. He returned to Mitchell Baker High School in his home town of Camilla, Ga., and averaged 25.0 points and 5.0 rebounds. However, in August, the Educational Testing Service would not validate an SAT score that could have made Blackshear eligible to play this season, so the Tigers lost the cornerstone of their recruiting class. He was viewed a non-qualifier in the NCAA's eyes, and therefore could not be admitted to Clemson. ACC schools can accept only a limited number of partial qualifiers. Several recruiting analysts believed Blackshear could have been the sleeper freshman of the ACC this season. Now, he will end up somewhere else. So what's in store for the Tigers, who finally came on strong at the end of last season? Shyatt has no idea. "You hear a lot of coaches across the country who say they don't have any idea how their teams will play in the coming season," Shyatt said. "I truly can say at this point that I have no idea. I have no feel for how we will play as a team and won't until we can start individual workouts in the fall." In other words, if the Tigers are going to continue their school-record string of seven consecutive postseason appearances, they will have to sneak up on some people. "There is not a player on our roster that anyone in our league is concerned about," Shyatt said. "We just have to hope that we have a Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid type of team. When we leave at the end of the night, we hope the opposition asks, 'Who were those guys?' " Perhaps the most formidable challenge Shyatt will face is finding someone to replace the scoring, ball-handling and leadership of McIntyre, who ended his collegiate career as Clemson's all-time leader in assists and No. 2 all-time scorer. Both 6-2 sophomore Will Solomon (6.3 ppg, 1.5 rpg) and 6-5 sophomore Dustin Braddick (2.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg) return in the backcourt. Solomon took turns at the shooting and point positions, though he was recruited, sight unseen, to become McIntyre's replacement. Braddick, not a blue-chip player out of high school, made his mark defensively, and Shyatt hopes he can be the stopper his team needs on the perimeter. Shyatt will try several combinations in the backcourt, giving 5-11 freshman point guard Ed Scott (17.0 ppg, 4.6 apg, Lower Richland HS/Hopkins, S.C.) a chance to run the offense and letting Solomon, who scored 19 points against top-ranked Duke and 20 points against Georgia Tech, try his hand at being a shooter. Scott was South Carolina's 4-A Player of the Year after leading Lower Richland to the 4-A championship last year with a 28-3 record. "I am not against starting a first-year freshman at the point," Shyatt said. "We have seen a lot of ACC teams start freshmen point guards in recent years. In fact, three did it last year." Clemson, Duke, Maryland and Virginia could all do the same thing this year; however, Scott's debut will be delayed while he recovers from a broken bone in his left foot. A pin will be inserted in his foot and he'll be out of action for 4-6 weeks. Also joining the squad is 6-3 walk-on point guard Walker Holt of Greensboro, N.C. He was an all-state player at Grimsley High School and played in the North Carolina-South Carolina All-Star Game. Blackshear, a pure shooter with a sweet stroke, would have been a capable scorer on perimeter. Instead, the Tigers will look to 6-3 redshirt freshman Pasha Bains (38.4 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 6.0 apg at Richmond Secondary School/Richmond, British Columbia, Canada), who will become eligible on Dec. 11. Bains, who scored 40 or more points 10 times in high school, is a shooter who was recruited by Shyatt during his one year as head coach at Wyoming. Bains wasn't happy there, particularly after he broke his elbow and needed surgery to insert four pins. He opted to join Shyatt at Clemson last winter, and got a gift from the NCAA when it restored his freshman eligibility because of the injury. He was eventually able to join the Tigers in practice late in the season, which should be helpful this fall. Bains will miss the Tigers' first seven games this year and become eligible on Dec. 11. For all the questions about the Tiger backcourt, it is the frontcourt that has the most to prove this season. Losing Wideman, a strong post defender, and Jamison, who led the ACC in rebounding last year, will have a huge impact on what style of offense and defense the Tigers are able to play. Allenspach (4.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg) is not the rugged inside player that Jamison and Wideman were. And even though Jurkunas (7.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg) is 6-9, his 105 career three-pointers tells you that he doesn't exactly play with his back to the basket. Shyatt wants that to change. "Andrius will have to be more of an inside guy this year," Shyatt said. "He will have to spend some additional minutes in the post compared to the past. But, that is where Andrius is so effective. He can do both." Allenspach improved during the latter part of the season, and hoped to get more experience this summer as a member of the NIT all-star team that toured Europe. Shyatt thinks Allenspach will continue to blossom this season, which would be good no other team in the ACC besides North Carolina with Brendan Haywood can call on a seven-footer. But who will provide the inside hacks that Clemson has become so famous for under Rick Barnes and Shyatt, who was Barnes' top assistant for three years? Most likely, that will come from a combination of two newcomers and 6-8 sophomore forward Chucky Gilmore (1.1 ppg, 1.7 rpg). Gilmore spent last year as an intern, learning the physical ways of the world from Jamison and Wideman. He didn't get a chance to show what he learned on the court very often, becoming the least-used scholarship player on a short-handed roster. The most experienced newcomer on the team is 6-10, 260-pound forward Arturus Javtokas (15.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg, Western Nebraska JC/Siauliai, Lithuania). He is joined by 6-8 forward/center Ray Henderson (16.0 ppg, 15.0 rpg, West Mecklenburg HS/Charlotte, NC), who Shyatt said has the potential to be "a monster" inside. He's already drawing comparisons in body build to the athletic though shooting impaired Jamison. "We have always prided ourselves on having a physical presence on the inside," Shyatt said. "Art and Ray will continue that tradition. Along with Adam and Andrius, Art and Ray will give us a bit more balance when it comes to scoring on the inside. They will do more than just screen and play defense in the box. They will show more versatility offensively than what we have had on the inside in recent years." The final newcomer is 6-9 forward Tomas Nagys (17.0 ppg, 4.6 rpg, Montgomery (AL) Catholic HS/Mazeikai, Lithuania), a player very much in the mold of Jurkunas. He likes to shoot from the outside, but has the height to play inside and was noted in high school for his rebounding ability.
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