08/07/08 - A Productive Summer...

I hope the summer has treated everyone well.  We have had numerous activities throughout the summer that have kept our staff and players busy and excited about the upcoming season. Everything from two summer school sessions with our players, recruiting, staff changes, summer camps and orientation among other activities have made this an eventful summer for our program.

Our incoming freshman class of Andre Young, Catalin Baciu, Tanner Smith, and Bryan Narcisse just finished second session summer school classes, as did returnees Demontez Stitt and Trevor Booker. This was a great opportunity to introduce our freshmen to their new surroundings and get them ahead of the game academically. Our efforts in the classroom paid dividends this past season again as Cliff Hammonds earned a spot on the ACC All-Academic Team.

Over the course of this summer our players have strived to improve their basketball skills and concentrate on what it will take to win the ACC Championship. It will be here in the summer that we make some of our greatest strides individually as players and coaches to help us accomplish our goal of winning an ACC and National Championship. Our staff has stressed to each player what skills they need to develop during the off-season to return to Clemson a better player. Also, while they are enrolled in summer school the players are able to work out with Strength and Conditioning Coach Jon Sanderson to enhance their strength, mobility, and speed. While these workouts are voluntary, each one of our players understands the importance of staying in shape and gaining strength in order to compete in the best conference in America.

This summer also saw some of our players travel outside of the country to play abroad.  Terrence Oglesby, Demontez Stitt and Jerai Grant all spent time playing outside of the country this summer. Terrence Oglesby shined in the FIBA Under 20 European Championships. Terrence, who was born in Norway and is a citizen of the country as well as the United States, was the leading scorer in Division B at the tournament and averaged over 24 points per game. He also had a game-high 32 points versus Finland. Demontez Stitt and Jerai Grant also played abroad as they traveled to the Dominican Republic to compete with SCORE International. While they were in the Dominican, both had the opportunity to play against several current and former NBA players. Demontez had several strong performances as he led the team in scoring with 17 points against the Dominican National Team. Jerai also had some strong play during the trip and I am confident that both will come back better players due to their experiences. It is great to see our guys getting the opportunity to travel and see the rest of the world through the game of basketball. I am very proud of their performances this summer!

Our program held several Oliver Purnell Basketball Camps this summer. These camps are a significant part of our program and something we strive to excel in. We began the summer with an Individual Overnight Camp that saw over 225 campers embark on Clemson University. The first camp was a tremendous success as these campers had the opportunity to interact with our players and staff as well as other collegiate and high school coaches from throughout the country. Our team camp also had a huge turnout with over 75 high schools from all over the Southeast participating. All together the camps brought in over 1,200 players, coaches, and camp staff in the month of June.

Staff changes have also made our 2008 summer interesting and exciting. Shaka Smart left to take another assistant position at the University of Florida and was replaced by a very familiar name in former Director of Basketball Operations Josh Postorino. Coach Postorino served this past season as our Director of Operations and before that was an assistant coach for four years at Marshall University. I am very excited about promoting Josh and am very confident he will do a tremendous job in his new capacity! We hired Michael Morrell to be our new Director of Basketball Operations and he is also no stranger to our program. Michael served as our Graduate Assistant last year and did a tremendous job for us. Loyalty is a key component in our program and I am very excited about promoting Josh and Michael and know they will continue to do a great job for us here at Clemson. We also would like to wish Coach Shaka Smart the best of luck as he moves on to Florida. Coach Smart was a key member of our staff and was an important part of our success during the past two seasons.

Finally, we just finished the July recruiting period and are excited about the future of Clemson Basketball. This is a very essential time for us as we evaluate many of the best players in the country against some of the best competition.  Our efforts on the recruiting trail have paid dividends for our program and we already have two commitments for our 2009 class. The month of July is always a hectic time for me, but I thoroughly enjoy traveling the country and watching the game of basketball played at a very high level.

I will check back in with you shortly as our players return to campus and our freshmen begin their careers here at Clemson. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the summer!

Go Tigers!

-- Coach P