2008–09Clemson Tigers men's basketball
Charleston Classic champions
NCAA tournament, first round
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
AP	No. 24
Record	23–9 (9–7 ACC)
Head coach	Oliver Purnell
Assistant coaches	Ron Bradley Frank Smith Josh Postorino
Home arena	Littlejohn Coliseum
Seasons ← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The2008–09 Clemson Tigers men's basketball team representedClemson University. The head coach wasOliver Purnell. The team played its home games inLittlejohn Coliseum inClemson,South Carolina. All games were produced andbroadcast locally by theClemson Tigers Sports Network.

On Tuesday, October 21, 2008, theNCAA suspended Freshman Catalin Baciu for the first five games of the season for his participation with aRomanian professional basketball team. The term of the suspension equals the number of games Baciu played as a 15-year-old forU-Mobitelco Cluj, a club team that plays in Romania's top pro division,Divizia A. Although Baciu was not paid for his participation, NCAA rules prohibit student-athletes from playing on a professional team, regardless of whether they are employed. He played for a total of four minutes in his five games with U-Mobitelco Cluj.^[1]

On Sunday, October 26, 2008, members of theACC media were polled and picked Clemson to finish fifth in the conference behind North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and Miami respectively.^[2]

On Sunday, November 16, 2008, The Tigers won theinauguralCharleston Classic 8-team tournament inCharleston, SC. This marks the 25th time in school history Clemson has won a regular season tournament.^[3]

On Saturday, November 22, 2008, Clemson beatCharlotte 71–70 atHalton Arena, marking the first time ever a current member of theAtlantic Coast Conference has played at Charlotte. (Miami played during there during their time as a member of theBig East).

On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, Clemson lost toNorth Carolina 94–70. This extended the NCAA record for the longest road losing streak against one opponent to 54 games. This also ended Clemson's streak of not losing back-to-back ACC games that dated back to the 2006–07 season.

On Sunday, January 25, 2009, with a 73–59 victory overGeorgia Tech, Senior guardK. C. Rivers broke the team record for most career wins as a player with 85. The previous record of 84 was co-heldCliff Hammonds andElden Campbell.

On Monday, February 2, 2009,EA Sports announced that Littlejohn Coliseum was one of the Top-15 toughest places to play inCollege Basketball. Through an online poll, Fans determined 15 finalists, whose home courts were judged to be the most difficult for opposing teams to play in. These results will form an integral part of a new game mode in theEA SPORTS NCAA Basketball videogame franchise for 2009–10.^[4]

On Wednesday, February 4, 2009, Clemson defeated No. 3Duke in Littlejohn Coliseum by a score of 74–47. With the win, Clemson snapped a 22-game regular season losing streak to theBlue Devils dating back to January 7, 1997. The win was also Clemson's first win over a top-5 team since a victory over No. 5Virginia in 2002.

The 27-point victory was Clemson's largest margin of victory against a top 25 team in history. The previous best was a 22-point victory margin on two occasions. Clemson defeated a fourth-rankedNC State team led byDavid Thompson at Clemson 92–70 on Feb 22, 1975 at Clemson, and defeated a 13th rankedMaryland team by 22 points, 93–71 on January 19, 1977, at Clemson.

The defeat was also the worst suffered by Duke since theNCAA Championship game of 1990, a 103–73 victory byUNLV on April 2, 1990. The 27-point margin was the largest for Duke in an ACC regular season game since January 18, 1984, whenWake Forest defeated Duke atWinston-Salem, 97–66.^[5]

Clemson's 10-point win over Boston College in Boston on Feb 10 was just the third ACC road win over an ACC team that finished the year with a winning record in the last 22 years. Boston College finished the ACC regular season with a 9–7 record and went to the NCAA tournament.

On Tuesday, February 17, the EA Sports Tour visited Littlejohn Coliseum as Clemson hosted Maryland. Along with judging the game day atmosphere, the tour handed out video games, T-shirts and hosted an NCAA Basketball 09 tournament leading up to the game. After their visit, Novell Thomas, the producer of theNCAA Basketball game, wrote that "Hands down, Clemson just set the bar for all hosts of the EA SPORTS Toughest Places to Play, tour."^[6] The 29-point victory was the largest margin of victory in Clemson history over Maryland, and tied for the largest margin of victory for a Clemson team against an ACC team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Clemson defeated Florida State in 1997–98 by 29 points.

The Tigers finished the season at 9–7, which gave them back-to-back winning seasons in the conference for the first time since the 1965–66 and 1966–67 teams did it. It is also Clemson's eleventh winning season in the conference since 1953.^[7]

Clemson defeated five NCAA tournament teams during the regular season inDuke,Maryland,Boston College,Temple andIllinois. It is the most wins over NCAA Tournament teams in the regular season for the Clemson program since 1997–98.

Clemson finished the regular season with a 14–0 record against non-conference teams, one of just eight Division I teams with a perfect non-conference record. The others werePittsburgh,UConn,North Carolina,Wake Forest,Minnesota,Illinois State andStanford.

The Tigers won seven regular season ACC games by double digits, the most regular season league wins by 10 points or more in Clemson history. Statistically, Clemson finished the year with a +10.3 average margin of victory, third best in school history. Clemson's .688 free throw percentage was the third best for the program in the last 22 years. Clemson's .374 three-point percentage was the fourth best in school history.

Clemson entered theACC tournament as the No. 5 seed with a 9–7 record in the ACC Regular Season. The Tigers lost their opening game to No. 12 seed Georgia Tech 86–81 dropping their record to 3–8 all-time in the opening round of the tournament.

Clemson was selected for theNCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, joiningDuke andNorth Carolina as the only ACC schools to make the tournament each of the last two years. It was just the third time in Clemson history that Clemson has gone to the NCAAs in consecutive years.^[8] The Tigers opened the tournament inKansas City, Missouri, as the No. 7 seed in the South Region. Down by double digits against #10-seedMichigan in the first round, the Tigers went on a 14–0 run to make it 58–57 with just over a minute left. Clemson had a chance to tie the game with 13 seconds left, but K. C. Rivers' contested 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short. The 59–62 loss droppedOliver Purnell to 0–5 all-time in NCAA Tournament games as a head coach.^[9]

College recruiting information

Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight	Commit date
Devin Booker C	Union, SC	Union (SC)	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Mar 25, 2007
	Recruit ratings:Scout:    Rivals:    (89)
Donte Hill G	Virginia Beach, VA	Norfolk Collegiate School (VA)	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Aug 9, 2008
	Recruit ratings:Scout:    Rivals:    (85)
Milton Jennings PF	Summerville, SC	Pinewood Prep (SC)	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Apr 9, 2008
	Recruit ratings:Scout:    Rivals:    (95)
Noel Johnson SG	Fayetteville, GA	Fayette County High School (GA)	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Jun 19, 2009
	Recruit ratings:Scout:    Rivals:    (95)
Overall recruit ranking:   Scout: 22
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "Clemson Basketball Commitments". Rivals. RetrievedMarch 5, 2009. "2009 Clemson Basketball Commits". Scout. RetrievedMarch 5, 2009. "ESPN". ESPN. RetrievedMarch 5, 2009. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout. RetrievedMarch 5, 2009. "2009 Team Ranking". Rivals. RetrievedMarch 5, 2009.

Finals Stats^[10]

Trevor Booker

• Charleston ClassicMost Valuable Player.^[11]
• ACC Player of the Week, November 17, 2008^[12]
• Naismith College Player of the Year Mid-Season Candidate^[13]
• Second Team, All District, District 2,National Association of Basketball Coaches^[14]
• First Team, All-District, District III,United States Basketball Writers Association
• Second Team, All-ACC Team
• All-ACC Defensive Team

K.C. Rivers

• ACC Player of the Week, December 22, 2008,^[15] February 2, 2009^[16]
• Honorabe Mention, All-ACC Team

Tanner Smith

• ACC All-Academic Team (To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career.)^[17]

Oliver Purnell, head coach

• Henry Iba Award Finalist^[18]
• Coach of the Year, District III,United States Basketball Writers Association

Ron Bradley, associate head coach

• Assistant coach-of-the-Year Semi-Finalist, BasketballScoop.com^[19]

^[20]

Clemson finished the season with a 23–9 record for a .719 winning percentage. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Clemson has improved its winning percentage from the previous year. Head Coach Oliver Purnell joins former Georgia Tech coachBobby Cremins as the only coaches in ACC history to take a program to a better winning percentage in five consecutive years. Cremins did it from 1980 to 1981 through the 1986–87 season. The team finished the year with 23 wins, tied for the fifth highest total in school history. The .719 winning percentage ranks in a tie for fourth best in school history and the best since the 1989–90 team was 24–8 for a .750 winning percentage. The 23 victories gave Clemson at least 20 wins for the third straight year, a first in Clemson history. Clemson has 72 wins over the last three years, third among ACC teams behind North Carolina and Duke.

Clemson finished the year ranked 24th in the finalAssociated Press poll. It marks the second consecutive year Clemson has been ranked in the final AP poll, the first time in history Clemson has finished in the top 25 in any poll in consecutive years. Clemson was ranked in the AP poll for 14 consecutive weeks and in theUSA Today poll for 13 consecutive weeks, the second longest streak of weeks in the top 25 in the same season in Clemson history and most since 1996–97 team was ranked in all 19 polls. Clemson reached a high ranking of No. 9 in the USA Today poll on Feb 9, the highest ranking for the program since the 1997–98 season.

Clemson won 10 games away from home, including seven on the opponent's home court. The 10 wins away from home were the most since the 1996–97 team won a record 11. The seven road wins were the most since the 1986–87 team won eight on the opponent's home court. The Tigers posted a 4–4 ACC road record this year, the most ACC road wins in a season for the Clemson program since 1996–97.

Clemson's senior class of K.C. Rivers, Raymond Sykes and Jesse Yanutola finished their careers with 91 victories, a Clemson record for a four-year class. The previous record was 84. The class also had a record 33 ACC regular season wins and 12 ACC road wins. The .679 winning percentage is second best in Clemson history behind the seniors of 1979–80.

• JuniorTrevor Booker led the ACC in field goal percentage and rebounding, the first ACC player to do that sinceTim Duncan in 1996–97. He is the first ACC underclassman to do it sinceDale Davis of Clemson in 1989–90. Booker finished his junior year with 1,239 points, the fifth highest total in Clemson history for a junior. He finished the year seventh in school history in career rebounds with 792 and will need just 208 rebounds his senior year to become the third player in Clemson history with at least 1000 rebounds, joiningTree Rollins and Dale Davis. Booker is already first in Clemson history in rebounds among players 6–7 or shorter. Booker will enter his senior year with a .576 field goal percentage for his career, fifth best in school history. He also stands fifth in career blocked shots with 204.
• Senior K.C. Rivers leaves Clemson as the school's career leader in victories (91), ACC wins (35), three-point goals (281) and tied for first in games played (134). He is third in steals (210), fourth in double figure scoring games (90), fourth in field goals (625), sixth in career scoring (1684), and 11th in rebounding (721). He is first among Clemson players 6–5 and under in rebounding. Rivers finished his career with 210 steals and 174 turnovers, just the second player in Clemson history to complete a career with more steals than turnovers (Sean Tyson 1987–91).
• Freshman guard Andre Young finished the year with a 2.87/1 assist/turnover ratio (66/23), the second best assist/turnover ratio in Clemson history.
• Senior Raymond Sykes finished his career with 102 career blocked shots, ninth best in Clemson history. He played in 85 victories, second on the Clemson all-time list.
• SophomoreTerrence Oglesby made 92 three-point goals in 2008–09, fourth highest single season total in school history. Oglesby enters his junior year sixth in school history in three-point goals with 177.
• Sophomore Demontez Stitt took 18 charges this year, tied for sixth best in Clemson history and most by any Clemson player sinceJerry Pryor had 21 in 1987–88.

• 2008–09 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season
• ACC men's basketball tournament
• 2008–09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
• 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

• 2008–09 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season
• 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament participants
• Clemson Tigers men's basketball seasons

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• Use mdy dates from January 2013