The Clemson men’s basketball team tips off the 2018-’19 season today when it hosts The Citadel at 7 p.m. at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson.
The Tigers have won 33 straight home openers and 15 straight against The Citadel.
Clemson is coming off a Sweet 16 season from a year ago in which they finished third in the ACC standings. The Tigers also advanced to the semifinals of the ACC Basketball Tournament.
Clemson returns four seniors from last year’s team in Marcquise Reed, Shelton Mitchell, Elijah Thomas and David Skara. Sophomore forward Amir Simms, who started 14 games last year, also returns.
GAMEDAY SETUP
No. 22 CLEMSON vs. THE CITADEL
Date: Today
Tipoff: 7 p.m. ET
Arena: Littlejohn Coliseum (9,000)
Radio: CTN (Don Munson; Tim Bourret -color)
TV: ACC Network Extra (Pete Yanity and Kelly Gramlich -color)
Clemson has won 33-straight home openers dating back to the 198586 season.
This marks the 83rd all-time matchup between the Tigers and the Bulldogs and the first meeting since the 2012-13 season – a 92-52 Tiger victory.
The Tigers own an overall record against the Bulldogs of 60-22.
Clemson has won 15-straight contests dating back to the 1980-81 campaign. • This marks the second time since the beginning of the 2009-10 campaign that Clemson will begin the season nationally ranked.
TIGER TRACKS
The Tigers enter the season with Marcquise Reed, Shelton Mitchell and Elijah Thomas closing in on 1,000 career points.
Reed is a little bit different than the other two players in that, he surpassed the 1,000-point mark a year ago for his career in a game against Florida.
Reed has posted 1,411 career points but is nearing 1,000 points scored in a Clemson uniform (882). Needs 118 points
Thomas (ankle, bone bruise) will likely not play tonight.
Brad Brownell can achieve his 150th career win as Clemson’s head coach with a win tonight. Brownell is third all-time in Clemson history with 149 wins – just eight shy of surpassing Bill Foster (1975-84) for second all time. Last season, Brownell earned his 300th career victory as a head coach with a 71-69 win over Florida.
SCOUTING THE CITADEL
Over the last three seasons, The Citadel has been the top 3-point shooting team in the country, converting 1,146 treys in that span. That is 66 more than Akron, the team with the second most 3-pointers over the last three seasons.
Senior forward Zane Najdawi was tabbed to the 2018 Preseason AllSouthern Conference Team. Najdawi is coming off a breakout junior season that saw him earn First-Team All-SoCon honors from both the media and coaches after he became just the 27th player in SoCon history, and second player in program history, to eclipse 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 100 blocks for his career. He is just the fourth player in program history to earn first-team honors from both the media and coaches.
Head coach Duggar Baucom is the first coach in program history to improve his Southern Conference record in each of the first three seasons at the helm and is just the fifth coach in program history to post double-digit wins in each of his first three seasons.
Seniors Matt Frierson and Quayson Williams are closing in on 1,000 career points. Frierson enters his final year of eligibility with 786 career points, while Williams has 767 career points. Thirty-three Bulldogs have scored 1,000 career points in the history of the program.