Posted by BillFromTampa

Florida State travels to Clemson for its first ACC conference game of the 2005-2006 season. Tobacco Road has not exactly been kind to the Seminoles where the Tribe is only 1-23 since Leonard Hamilton became head coach with the lone victory coming at North Carolina State last season.

The 9-1 Seminoles will attempt to keep the momentum going from its win last Saturday over Nebraska on a neutral site court.’,'The Tigers began the season rolling to an 11-0 record albeit over lower tier competition that included Division II team Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. The tougher part of the early schedule saw Clemson beat Penn State 96-88 at Happy Valley and at home over South Carolina 82-63.

Since their win over Akron to get to 11-0, Clemson has lost two straight games. A late rally in Athens fell short and Clemson lost to an improved Georgia team 72-69.

It was the first game following the announced suspension of the Tigers’ leading rebounder James Mays (7.6 rpg, 9.2 ppg) due to academics. It was stunning news for the team who were apparently caught off guard and struggled somewhat to get on track in the game.

And then came the 74-69 loss to Elon last Friday. Again the Tigers struggled from the floor shooting just 36% while allowing the Phoenix to connect on 52% of their shots. Prior to the game Elon had just two victories, both over Division III teams.

The job for head coach Oliver Purnell is to right the ship and replace what has been lost with the absence of Mays.

Replacing Sharrod Ford this season Purnell has relied on Akin Akingbala in the center spot. The 6-9, 240 pound forward/center, while not quite the player Ford was, has produced 10 ppg to go along with 7.2 rpg. He does have the reach like Ford did proving to be a defensive force. As Ford was last season, Akingbala is the team’s leading shot blocker with 20. Although he does not touch the ball as often as Ford did, when he does he finds the basket often leading the team with a 64% from the floor.

The two forward spots are filled with sophomore Sam Perry and true freshman K.C Rivers who has replaced Mays. Both are 6-5 and right around 210 pounds. Perry averages 8.0 ppg along with 2.9 rpg with Rivers, a top recruit for Purnell, averaging 7.7 ppg and 5.5 rpg and is a threat to hit the perimeter shot.

Junior Vernon Hamilton (6-0, 195) and sophomore Cliff Hammonds (6-3, 197) are in the backcourt. They are basically interchangeable with one another as they average 3.6 and 3.4 apg. Hamilton is the team’s leading scorer at 12 ppg who has the ability to hit the three point shot. Hammonds, who wanted to come to FSU, averages 9.1 ppg. Although he is just 25% from behind the arc, Hammonds takes a lot them (75) and last season has been productive.

Backing up Akingbala is 6-10, 250 pound senior center Steve Allen. Averaging 13 minutes a game, Allen is equally productive from the floor when he gets the ball shooting 59% from the floor and 3.9 ppg.

Key for the Seminoles will be keeping Akingbala and Allen further away from the basket as they would normally like.

Freshman forward Julius Powell (6-7, 190), another top 100 recruit for Purnell, has been a fairly effective role player off the bench for the Tigers. In his 14.4 mpg, Powell averages 4.5 ppg and pulls down 3.0 rpg.

Shawan Robinson, a 6-2 senior guard, is an active athletic scorer off the bench. Second on the team in scoring (11.2 ppg), Robinson gets plenty of minutes on the floor (22.7 mpg) and has been the team’s high scorer in three games this season. He also is by far the team’s best free throw shooter missing just 2 of his 29 attempts.

If there is one glaring flaw with the Tigers, it is their free throw shooting. The rest of the team is horrid at it. Even with Robinson, Clemson averages only 58.9% from the line.

As a team Clemson shoots 47% from the floor and 31.7% from the bonus sphere but does make 7.38 of them per game. That compares to FSU’s 50.5% and 36.7% (6.4 threes per game) but is holding its opponents to just 39.1% shooting.

Purnell, like Leonard Hamilton, has wanted his team to push the tempo up. That has resulted in 15.9 turnovers per game. Florida State has not been any better in that area averaging 17.2 miscues per game so far.

Tip off is at 7:00 PM and there is no television for this game. Since the Rose Bowl is on the same night it’s not difficult to see why not.