Clemson Men's Basketball: Mays Homecoming

Garner High School Product James Mays helped lead the Tigers to an 87-76 victory over NC State. It was a homecoming of sorts for the Tiger forward, who had 16 pts, 6 rebounds, 1 block, 1 assist, and 2 steals. Garner is just minutes from downtown and the NCSU campus. The Wolfpack played seven players last night, with Brandon Costner playing all 40 minutes. Maybe T "Turd" Ferguson needs a bit more playing time, as he was 1-1 with 3pts. Gavin Grant was also perfect from behind the arc at 2-2 3pt. Overall, the Wolfpack shot 64.3%, 9-14, from 3pt land and the Tigers were 10-19, 52.6%.

Several key points to the game, first postive, second negative:

1: We shot 52.6% on the big money 3pt shots, Hamilton was 3-6 and Rivers was 4-5. This is going to help us open us the inside game for the big boys down low. Booker and Mays took advantage of this, as Mays had 16pts and Booker had 8pts on 4-6 shooting

2: We had 46.7 FT%, 7-15, whereas State shot 81.8% on 9-11 FTA. Should we continue to have these problems, our team will, at some point, not be able to clear the final hurdle and will fall just short. Our FT% has been problematic, as everyone knows, for years now. This year, we need more than ever to work on our consistency. We are starting to have a few good FT% games, but we cannot follow through with them. With more, we will be on more solid footing.

As an aside, I sort of feel sorry for the Wolfpack, not because we beat them, but because watching them play is painful. They are not horrible, they just have no one on the team. Certainly someone at NCSU played HS ball and could be a warm-bodied, walk-on to allow a breather for some of the players.

Now, 3-0 in the ACC and 17-0 overall. This year, now, regardless of the outcome, which we all expect NCAA (+1), rather than NIT, is categorically a special season. We have tied our longest win streak ever and have a solid coach, team, and our fanbase seems to be getting stronger.

Go Tigers!