Clemson "El Jefe" en San Juan?

[Captain Kangaroo]

Puerto Rico trip to give Tigers three extra games

By JON SOLOMON

Staff Writer

CLEMSON — The Clemson men’s basketball team will play at the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico in December, the tournament’s organizer said Friday.

Sport Tours International, Inc. president Lee Frederick said Clemson, Akron, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Mount St. Mary’s, Liberty and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez are confirmed for the eight-team field. Mississippi State, Denver, Tennessee Tech and Fresno State are reportedly candidates for the other two spots.

Each team is guaranteed three games at the Dec. 19-21 tournament, and the games do not count toward the 27-game limit for regular-season schedules.

Winners’ and losers’ brackets will be set up after the first round. First-round matchups have not been determined.

Southern Conference champion Tennessee-Chattanooga went 20-11 and lost to Wake Forest in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

Akron (19-10), Liberty (13-15) and Mount St. Mary’s (7-20) did not reach the postseason, and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez is a Division II independent.

Clemson made the NIT with a 16-16 record.

“We don’t have a major, major field,” Frederick said. “(Clemson coach Oliver Purnell) is liable to win three games there if he’s got it going like he did last season. We’ve worked with Oliver before and always try to get him when we can.”

Purnell coached in the San Juan tournament while at Dayton. Under former coach Larry Shyatt, Clemson was 1-2 at the San Juan Shootout in 2000.

The tournament returns to eight teams after using four in 2004 due to NCAA restrictions on how often teams are allowed to play exempt games. Toledo won last year’s round-robin tournament by a tiebreaker based on average margin of victory.

The “two-in-four” rule limits a school to playing in an exempt tournament two years out of any four-year period. Because Clemson played last season at the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, the San Juan trip will mark the Tigers’ last exempt games until 2008-09, unless the rule changes.

This month the NCAA turned down a proposal that would allow teams to play in exempt tournaments every year — a measure some coaches expected would pass.

The National Invitation Tournament goes to trial July 5 in an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA over postseason participation.

The NCAA informed schools there likely would be an appeal regardless of who wins the case, meaning the “two-in-four” rule will remain in place during that time. The NCAA won an antitrust decision last year, allowing it to limit the number of times teams can play in exempt tournaments.

Frederick was one of three promoters who filed the lawsuit, which won in district court before being overturned.

“The Supreme Court is considering whether they’ll hear it,” Frederick said.