10/30/07 - Bahamas Trip Tips Off Season Preparation …

Clemson Basketball is back in full swing and I hope everyone is ready for a great season! As you can tell the players, assistant coaches, and I are very excited and happy that we are officially underway. We are now two weeks into practice and starting to get closer to our season opener Monday, November 12th versus Furman.

We got practice started in the right direction on October 12th with a late night session from 7-10pm. The NCAA did away with the old start time of practice at midnight in favor of it being too late for young fans to come if schools were holding an open event such as Midnight Madness. It just so happened Clemson was on fall break that weekend and all the students were gone so we decided we would be better off waiting until the following weekend to hold our annual orange and white/purple scrimmage.

The fall break did give us a chance to hold our 2nd annual Tip Off for Success in Littlejohn Coliseum for local Oconee and Pickens County Elementary and Middle School students. This is a great event where our team is introduced to a huge group of young students and more importantly we put on an educational session for them using some basketball contests and experiences. This event was a huge success for the schools that attended and for our team. Every time our program has a chance to reach out to the community we want to take part in it and it proves over and over again to the players what role models they are in the community and how much these young kids look up to them!

The Orange and White scrimmage the following weekend was also a great day. It was homecoming here on campus and we received a big reception in Littlejohn with an early Saturday morning start time. A few thousand fans came dressed in orange ready for the football game vs. Central Michigan. They got a first glimpse at our team this season with a week of practice behind them. Overall, we played pretty well on both sides of the ball with spurts of great intensity and smart play. The game ended in a tie 76-76 with Terrence Oglesby leading the purple team with 21 points and KC Rivers leading the orange with 19. What I liked about the game was we started to establish the important things that are going to help us win this season. We were not very consistent yet with them all but there were sustained stretches where we showed the kind of exciting team we can be defensively and when we have the ball. After the game our players got a chance to sign autographs on our new schedule posters for the youngsters that hung around.

The next morning following the scrimmage Cliff Hammonds, James Mays, and I took the quick flight up to Greensboro for ACC media day. We were picked to finish fourth in the ACC this season by the media. This was the highest pre-season selection that our program has had in the last ten years. Our goals on a whole are obviously higher than fourth place but the recognition in this league is important for Clemson Basketball. This team realizes that it is talented and has a chance to be very successful this season but in order for that to happen there has to be commitment each and every day to getting better. That is the importance of pre-season practice and games, we have to keep improving and coming together as a team to reach our full potential. As you probably know I believe good Team Chemistry is vital to be successful and you can bet the hard work and sweat will be there for the next couple of weeks as we prepare for the opener vs. Furman. I hope I see you all at Littlejohn November 6th in our exhibition game against Augusta St.

Go Tigers!

-- Coach P