2010-2011 ACC Preview

#8: Clemson

Games against 2010 NCAA Tournament teams: 8
Best non-conference game: Dec. 5 at South Carolina

Projected Starting Five:
F - Devin Booker (Sophomore)
F - Jerai Grant (Senior)
G - Noel Johnson (Sophomore)
G - Tanner Smith (Junior)
G - Demontez Stitt (Senior)

Like Boston College, the Clemson Tigers are dealing with an entirely new regime. Surprisingly, Oliver Purnell chose to go to DePaul. That left Clemson to fill the void with Brad Brownell, a coach with some pretty good success at Wright State. And I think like Boston College, the transition will take some time.

In terms of personnel, Clemson has a decent amount of talent. They lost Trevor Booker, but return a good deal of talent in the frontcourt. One of those frontcourt players is Trevor's brother Devin, who looked pretty good at times in his freshman year. I think Jerai Grant will have a good year down low as well, in his senior year. The backcourt is a little bit more of a question mark. Demontez Stitt is a solid player, and Andre Young should give them a lift off the bench. But I don't really see a lot of big scorers out of their guards. The only freshman on Clemson's roster is Cory Stanton, a guard who originally committed to Wright State.

Clemson is another team that I think has a pretty weak non-conference schedule. They are playing in a tournament that is in the Virgin Islands, but the only other NCAA participant in that field is Xavier. And besides their ACC/Big Ten game and their rivalry game against South Carolina, there isn't much out there.

Oliver Purnell did a great job of elevating Clemson's program to the point where they were consistently in the NCAA Tournament. I don't think they'll get there this year with a new coach and some question marks in the backcourt. But they have enough talent in the frontcourt to scare some people.