ACC's Top 25: No. 11, Demontez Stitt

For the past few years, everything and anything the Clemson Tigers did went through Trevor Booker. He scored, he rebounded, he probably sold tickets before game time. The Clemson big man was the focal point of the Tigers' offense. If he didn’t get his touches, this team didn’t win. This is a fact.

You like facts? Me too. What another one?

Booker is gone, thus leaving a giant hole inside that not even his brother, sophomore Devin Booker, will be able to fill next year. You can almost see why head coach Oliver Purnell ran off to DePaul now, don’t you?

So with a frontcourt emptier than a Nicolas Cage castle, this means the scoring load will fall directly onto the shoulders of Clemson’s backcourt trio of Demontez Stitt, Andre Young, and Tanner Smith.

The threesome will roll into 2010-2011 with plenty of experience (all logged 24-plus minutes last season), and the three are the top three scorers returning to LittleJohn Coliseum next year. Yet, which one can step up and fill both the scoring hole and the leadership role left empty by Booker?

Of the three, Stitt is the only senior (the other two are juniors) who has played 22-plus minutes per game since arriving at Clemson. He’s officially the team’s point guard, but often gives up the ball to the smaller Andre Young and plays small forward.

Heading into college as a freshman, Stitt was the 18^th ranked PG in the country, but after two seasons, he wasn’t impressing the masses...unless you’re into crappy shooting point guards who turn the ball over too much. If that’s the case, Stitt was your man.

Anyhow, despite being an athletically gifted player with the quickness to get by most defenders, Stitt struggled to be a scorer. He never cracked double digits in his first two years, shooting around 40 percent from the floor.

You see, the problem was Stitt was one-dimensional. Sure he could take it to the hole and finish with a high-flying dunk, but the guard couldn’t hit a three if his dog’s life depended on it

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