On The Rise
Clemson,S.C. – Clemson’s Trevor Booker wondered all season long when people would finally start believing in the Tigers. After the big win over No. 4 Duke, he’s not wondering anymore.
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“I know a lot of people saw this game and know we’re for real now,” Booker said.
It’s hard to argue with the 6-foot-7 power forward.
The 10th-ranked Tigers routed the Blue Devils, 74-47, on Wednesday night, Duke’s worst defeat since a 30-point loss to UNLV in the 1990 NCAA title game. The victory was Clemson’s second-in-a-row over Duke, a back-to-back occurrence that last happened in the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
It may have also been the most emphatic statement yet that Clemson’s not the team it used the be.
In most of Oliver Purnell’s six seasons, the Tigers were known for quick, perfect starts and solid routs over mid-major foes. When it got to the Atlantic Coast Conference, Clemson always collapsed.
its next 11 games and went from surefire lock for the NCAA tournament in January to NIT participant in March.
Even last year’s highlights of playing for an ACC tournament title for the first time since 1962 or making their first NCAA tournament since 1998 didn’t seem as bright after the Tigers, a fifth seed, lost to Villanova in the first round of the NCAAs.
So when Clemson followed its 16-0 start this season with defeats to Wake Forest and North Carolina, some in the college basketball world chortled about the “same old Tigers.”
“We’re a different team,” Clemson swingman David Potter said. “From two years ago, from a year, we’re not the same.”
The Duke game was just the latest example.
Last week, Clemson wiped out Virginia Tech’s 15-point, second half lead to win 86-82. Clemson coach Oliver Purnell liked his team’s composure and willingness to stick with its plan, even as the Hokies sprinted out of the gates.
The Tigers showed similar poise Wednesday night against Duke. Something they didn’t do against Wake Forest.
The then second-ranked Demon Deacons rolled into Littlejohn Coliseum less than three weeks earlier and handed the Tigers a 78-68 loss on Jan. 17. Clemson’s players allowed the situation – undefeated teams, sold-out arena, national TV game – to overwhelm them at times.
essons, he says, that were taught from the tougher times of the past.
“You’d like all those lessons to be positive, but sometimes you have to take them from losses,” the coach said.
It also doesn’t hurt to have dominating post players like Booker and Jerai Grant, a longball threat like Terrence Oglesby and a smothering defense that picked up 12 steals against Blue Devils.
Booker and Grant, the son of Harvey and nephew of Clemson’s Horace, were a combined 12 of 15 from the floor, including several dunks.
Oglesby knocked down five 3-pointers and K.C. Rivers tied a school single-game mark with seven steals.
Purnell was pleased with what he said several times was his team’s best performance of the season. However, he won’t allow himself or his players to look past the next game Saturday with Florida State.
Still, it’s hard not to project ahead a little. Six of the Tigers’ nine remaining opponents have non-winning ACC records, giving them a decent shot at staying in the race for a conference title and surpassing their record of 10 league wins set in 1990 and matched last season.
No one on Clemson, and certainly not Purnell, expected to blow Duke out of the building. Then again, Tiger expectations are changing.
“We’re starting to consider ourselves at the top of the conference,” Oglesby said.
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Posted: 2/6/09 12:50AM ET
