Clemson - North Carolina Game Notes

The Tigers look to end one of the longest streaks in college basketball history.

* Saturday's game in Chapel Hill will be the 500th in the coaching career of Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell. All 500 games have been as a Division I head coach at Radford, Old Dominion, Dayton and Clemson.

* Purnell and North Carolina head coach Roy Williams coached together this past summer as assistant coaches under Larry Brown on the United States Olympic team.

* Clemson has defeated North Carolina four times since 1999, including last year at Clemson, 81-72. Three times since 1999 Clemson has beaten a top 20 UNC team. Clemson has 12 wins over top 20 North Carolina teams, more than any other school.

* Clemson senior center Sharrod Ford has played some of his best basketball against North Carolina. He has a 9.7 scoring average and has made 29-44 field goal attempts (66 percent) over his career against the Tar Heels. That includes a 12-17 shooting performance in three previous games in the Smith Center.

* Ford has played some of his best basketball on the road this year. He has scored in double figures in every road game this year and 12 of 13 over the last two years.

* This will be Clemson's first road game since January 26 when the Tigers played at Miami (FL). * Clemson was the only ACC school that had to play five of its first seven league games on the road. Clemson has a 2-5 record on the opponent's home court this year and has been within nine points in every game. The seven consecutive road games without a double-digit road loss is the longest by a Clemson team since the 1986-87 team that featured Horace Grant and won 25 games.

* Clemson freshman Cheyenne Moore made 4-7 three-point goals and scored 12 points in the win over Georgia. Moore made 4-7 three-point goals against North Carolina in the first meeting this year. Since opening the season just 9-41 on three-point shots, Moore has made 19 of his last 50 (.380).

* Clemson must improve its defense in the second half. In the 11 ACC games so far this year, the opposition has shot 55 percent from the field, including the 67 percent performance by Miami last Saturday. The ACC opposition has failed to improve its field goal percentage in the second half just once in the first 11 league contests.

* Two Tigers on the 2004-05 squad are from the state of North Carolina and will have a big ticket demand for Saturday's game. Shawan Robinson is a native of Raleigh and Leesville Road HS, while James Mays is from Garner, NC and Garner HS.