THE BASICS
The Drake University men's basketball team will participate in Holiday Hoopsgiving at State Farm Arena in Atlanta against Clemson on Saturday (Dec. 11) with a 1 p.m. (CT) tip-off.
After trailing by 11 points early in the second half,
Tucker DeVries led all scorers with 24 points to lead the comeback en route to a 78-70 road win at Omaha.
SENIOR CLASS AWARD
Senior forward ShanQuan 'Tank" Hemphill was named a candidate for the prestigious men's basketball Senior CLASS Award.
PENN SIDELINED
Drake guard
Roman Penn, a first-team all-conference performer who led the MVC in assists last season (5.5 avg.) will be sidelined indefinitely after suffering a small fracture in his left foot. Penn missed Drake's final seven games of last season with a similar injury.
MID-MAJOR TOP 25 POLL
Drake is ranked No. 9 in the latest men's basketball CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll.
SCOUTING CLEMSON
Clemson is coming off an 80-75 loss in its ACC opener at Miami on Saturday (Dec. 4) following a loss at Rutgers in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge (74-64) on Nov. 30. The Tigers led the Hurricanes, 70-61 with 5:02 remaining before surrendering the lead.
Sophomore center PJ Hall paces Clemson with a team-high 13.9 points per night while hauling 5.4 rebounds per game. Junior guard Nick Honor has a team-best 33 assists and averages 11.2 points per game.
CLEMSON SERIES NOTES
This will be the first-ever meeting between Drake and Clemson in men's basketball.
It will also be the first test for the Bulldogs against an Atlantic Coast Conference team since beating Wake Forest, 77-74, in the opening round of the Virgin Islands Paradise Jam Nov. 17, 2017.
GEORGIA ON MY MIND
Surprisingly, this will mark the first time Drake has ever played a basketball game in the state of Georgia.
However, Drake has played four schools from the state of Georgia: Georgia, (1973,1983); Georgia Southern (1988, 2006, 2008), Georgia State (2009), and Kennesaw State (2019) but the games were either played in Des Moines or neutral sites.
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs return to the Knapp Center to play host to Jackson State on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m.
