10/23/08 - Back in Basketball Mode...

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 just completed our first full weekend of practice and are looking forward to the upcoming season, which begins on November 14 against Hofstra in the Charleston Classic. Our first full weekend of basketball excitement was headlined by “Rock the ‘John” on Friday night. It was wonderful to see the excitement our fans have about our program this season and we hope that everyone will be ready to fill LittleJohn Coliseum up for our home games this year.

Along with our staff, the players are extremely eager to get the 2008-09 season underway. We return a solid nucleus from last year’s team that played for the ACC Championship and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years. K.C. Rivers returns this season and was the top scorer on last year's team with a 14.7 average.  He has already accumulated 1,231 career points, which is 19th best in Clemson history. K.C. has shown tremendous leadership during the off-season and I look for him to have a tremendous senior campaign. Raymond Sykes is our other senior, and will be counted on for extended minutes in the post. Raymond has worked hard over the last month and is primed to have a great season.

Trevor Booker is entering his third year here at Clemson and is in great shape. He worked extremely hard over the summer and in the off-season on his overall game. After a stellar sophomore season where he was named to the All-ACC Tournament First Team, Trevor will be looked on again to start at the power forward position. David Potter also returns after averaging 4.8 points a game last year. Potter should see his minutes per game increased during his junior season. Karolis Petrukonis is our other junior who returns at the center position and will challenge for playing time.

Our sophomore class of Terrence Oglesby, Demontez Stitt, and Jerai Grant all return this season. All three of these guys traveled abroad this summer to play internationally. We always encourage our players to do this and we were very excited that they had the opportunity to use the game of basketball to travel and see different parts of the world. Terrence returns after nailing 85 three pointers last season, which broke the Clemson record for a freshman. He is a tireless worker and we expect another big year from Terrence this season. Demontez Stitt also comes back after starting 21 games last year at the point guard position. He has put on about 10 pounds in our strength and conditioning program and looks phenomenal. His speed has increased and we are thrilled with the progress he has made. Jerai Grant is also back and will compete for time at the post position. Jerai has also worked hard in the weight room and put on some much needed weight, which will help him in the tough and physical ACC.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I am excited about this year’s freshman class. I have already seen the fruits of their hard work over our first full weekend of practice. Andre Young, Tanner Smith, Catalin (Bobo) Baciu, and Bryan Narcisse are all hard working and high-character student-athletes who I believe are going to have tremendous careers here at Clemson. We as a staff have been thrilled with their efforts thus far.

As you already know, I believe that team chemistry and hard work are vital to a good basketball team. Over the next three weeks we will work on bringing this team closer together and developing their skills in order to start the 2008-09 season off with a big win against Hofstra in Charleston. We look forward to seeing you there or at our home opener against Wofford on Wednesday, November, 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Go Tigers!

-- Coach P