Tigers Looking for Third Straight ACC Road Win
Clemson heads to South Bend, Indiana tonight to take to take on a surging Notre Dame team at Purcell Pavilion. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and will be broadcast on Bally Sports.
The Tigers (10-5, 2-2 ACC) will be looking for their third consecutive ACC road win. Clemson has won each of its last two ACC road games, a 67-50 win at Virginia on Dec. 22 and a 70-65 victory at NC State last Saturday.
If Clemson can win at Notre Dame (9-5, 3-1 ACC), it would be the first time the Tigers have won three straight ACC road games in 25 years.
Fanduel Odds: Clemson is a 2.5-point underdog
SETTING THE SCENE BETWEEN THE TIGERS AND IRISH
The contest will be televised on RSN with Evan Lepler and Mike Gminski calling the action, while Don Munson and Tim Bourret will call the action on the radio waves. The radio call will be available on the Clemson Athletic Network and Tunein.com.
CLEMSON BASKETBALL HEADLINES
• When Clemson won at NC State last Saturday, it was the 30th ACC road win of Brad Brownell’s Clemson career. The Tigers are 2-1 on the road in ACC games this year. It marks the 11th time in his 12 years he has coached the Tigers to at last two ACC road wins in a season.
• Clemson had at least two ACC road wins in 21 of the 57 ACC seasons before Brownell came to Clemson. Brownell’s 30 ACC road wins are 14 more than any other former Clemson coach (Oliver Purnell, 16) and Brownell also has the best winning percentage in Clemson history in ACC road games at .303.
• Overall, Brownell is 97-101 in ACC games and needs just three more conference victories to become the first Clemson coach with 100 ACC victories. His winning percentage of .490 in league games is also best in Clemson history.
• Clemson is first in the ACC and is third nationally in 3-point shooting: 40.9 percent (126-for-308).
• Hunter Tyson is averaging 12.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists over his last six contests, while shooting 52.1 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from three.
• Nick Honor is one of four players nationally to have at least: 40.0% FG, 40.0% 3FG (min. 50 attempts), 90.0% FT and 40+ assists. He is second in the ACC and 48th nationally in assist/turnover ratio: 2.47.
• Alex Hemenway will return to his home state when Clemson plays at Notre Dame. Hemenway, a junior on the Clemson team, attended Castle High School in Newburgh, Ind.
• Hemenway is averaging 5.2 points per game this year and has played in 13 of the 15 games. He has shot 58.6 percent on three-point shots, including making 12 of his last 16 from long range. He is a 45.9 percent three-point shooter for his career.
• Hemenway had 16 points in just 19 minutes against Notre Dame two years ago in the game at Littlejohn Coliseum, a game won by the Irish 61-57. He made 4-of7 three-point shots in that game. That is the only game Hemenway has played against Notre Dame in his career as the two teams did not play last year.
• That 16-point performance vs. the Irish is tied for the third-highest scoring game of his career. He had 17 in a game last year at Wake Forest and 17 this year against Miami (Ohio).
• Hemenway is the only Clemson basketball player who is a native of Indiana to play a game for Clemson in the Hoosier State. Seven Clemson players have listed their hometown as being from Indiana. The best Tiger from the Hoosier state has been Derrick Johnson, a native of Indianapolis, who scored 1,014 points and had 476 assists between 1975-79.
• However, Hemenway is not the first Tiger to play in the Hoosier State who played high school basketball in Indiana. Adonis Filer listed his hometown as Chicago, Illinois when he played for the Tigers for two seasons (2012-14), but he played high school basketball at two different schools, including Bishop Noll in Hammond, Ind.
SERIES HISTORY VS. NOTRE DAME
• Clemson and Notre Dame will match up for the ninth time in program history.
• The Tigers have won two out of the last three against the Fighting Irish in the series after dropping the first five.
• Clemson hasn’t played Notre Dame since Feb. 9, 2020 – a 61-57 loss at home.
• The Tigers were playing without Aamir Simms in that game (flu).
• Last year’s matchup was postponed/cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols within the Tigers’ program
TIGERS LOOK FOR THIRD-STRAIGHT ACC ROAD WIN
• Clemson has won each of its last two ACC road games, a 67-50 win at Virginia on Dec. 22 and a 70-65 victory at NC State on Jan. 8. If Clemson can win at Notre Dame on Jan. 12, it would be the first time Clemson has won three straight ACC road games in 25 years.
• During the 1996-97 season, Rick Barnes Tigers won their first three ACC road games, wins at Virginia, Florida State and Maryland between Dec. 7, 1996 and Jan. 15, 1997.
• There are only two other times Clemson has won at least three ACC road games in school history. In 1976-77, Tree Rollins’ senior year, the Tigers won three in a row on the road at Duke, Virginia and Wake Forest between Jan. 12 and Feb. 8.
• Clemson’s longest ACC road winning streak in history is five, set in 1986-87, Horace Grant’s senior year. That year Clemson won its first five ACC road games, victories over Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Maryland, NC State and Virginia. That Clemson team won its first 10 games on the road including all games and was the last team in the nation to lose a road game, a loss that didn’t come until Feb. 21, 1987 at North Carolina (96-80).
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT CLEMSON
“A lot of respect for Clemson,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. “Here’s the weird thing. We haven’t seen Clemson for two years. I think it was Feb. 9, 2020 - that was the game down there. Rex (Pflueger) played great, and we stole a road win down there. We haven’t seen them. I was kidding with our staff. We’ve actually played Clemson twice in football and we haven’t played them.
“You look at them and he’s had some change in personnel. You didn’t really pay attention to them last year. You never even got to the scouting report because we didn’t play them. They’re an offensive group. They’re still solid defensively. He always hung his hat on D. They’re shooting the ball and skilled. It’s really like playing against ourselves a little bit - a gifted offensive team.
“They’ve won on the road at NC State and Virginia. They’re a hell of a challenge. I was very impressed with them. They kind of snuck up on me the last couple days because we didn’t play them last year. You weren’t paying attention to personnel. There’s been a little more catch up from me with Clemson.”
--Clemson Athletic Communications and Irish Sports Daily contributed to this story
