It's a perfectly nice day in South Carolina. No snow in sight.
CLEMSON, S.C. – The title of this post for all intents and purposes captures tonight’s match-up in four words.
The visitors have won six of seven, while playing their best basketball of the season. That high level of play hasn’t waned in their three road games during that stretch. They just hope they can keep it going.
For a full run down of the Clemson men’s basketball team’s various ailments, The Greenville News’ Scott Keepfer has the doctor’s report, or as close as we’re going to get before the scheduled 5:30 tip. But basically, point guard Demontez Stitt remains doubtful with a sprained foot and the Booker brothers, Trevor and Devin, are bothered by the flu and a broken nose, respectively.
Tiger coach Oliver Purnell, whose team is mired in a three-game conference losing streak, has called it the most important game of the season. Not being at 100 percent doesn’t help his team’s cause.
Coach Gary Williams addressed Stitt’s impact Saturday, saying losing a player who logs big minutes can really mess up a rotation. (Williams compared it to his team losing Dino Gregory, but don’t forget that Stitt is his team’s second leading scorer, too.)
“Especially when you’re a pressing team, you take a guard that’s maybe their best presser, and you still try to play the same way, but you can’t,” Williams said.
As for gauging the importance of Trevor Booker potentially not being at full strength, you can just look at Greivis Vasquez’s reaction when asked about Stitt’s impact on the Tigers. Vasquez downplayed Stitt’s role in Clemson’s success, but he also praised Booker, who is averaging 16 points and more than eight rebounds per game this season.
“If we’re talking about a difference, maybe if Booker is out, that’s a big difference,” Vasquez said. “Stitt is a good player, you’ve got to give him credit. But we’re not intimidated of him being out of the lineup. Who is he in terms of like the best players in the ACC?”
The Terps’ defense has been good. Their latest run of success has bumped them up to seventh in the country in field goal percentage defense. Opponents are shooting just better than 37 percent against them this season.
If the Tigers’ top two scorers are hampered, it’s going to make life even tougher, even buoyed by a partisan Littlejohn Coliseum crowd.
The Clemson women’s basketball team just put the finishing touches on a 69-56 win here at Littlejohn.
Tip-off is scheduled for a little more than an hour from now. I’ll be back with updates if any more news pops up before then.
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Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.