March 14, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Clemson senior guard Cliff Hammonds has been named recipient of the inaugural 2008 "Skip" Prosser Award, emblematic of the top scholar-athlete in men's basketball, ACC Commissioner John Swofford announced today.

Wake Forest head basketball coach George Edward "Skip" Prosser passed away on Thursday, July 26, 2007. Prosser compiled a 291-146 career record in 14 seasons as a head coach, including a 126-68 mark in his six years with the Demon Deacons. The 2003 ACC Coach of the Year, Prosser won 20 plus games and led Wake Forest to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first four seasons in Winston-Salem and brought the school its first outright ACC regular season title in 2003. Every Wake Forest senior he coached graduated and the Deacons placed nine players on the annual All-ACC Academic Basketball Team during his tenure.

In order to be nominated for the award, a student-athlete must be an upperclassman with a grade-point average of 3.0 or better - both in his career and in the previous two semesters. Sixty percent of the award is based on academic achievement and 40 percent on athletic accomplishments.

Hammonds is a three-time member of the All-ACC Academic Basketball team and a 2008 First-Team Academic All-District III by CoSIDA. The Cairo, Ga., senior carries a 3.21 career GPA in his major of Architecture and Psychology and is one of three Clemson student-athletes to receive the ACC's Weaver-James-Corrigan postgraduate scholarship for the 2007-08 academic year. A five-time Dean's List honoree, Hammonds is also a member of Clemson's prestigious Blue Key Honor Society.

Hammonds is one of only five players in ACC history with at least 1,300 points, 400 assists, 400 rebounds and 200 steals in his career. A four-year starter for the Tigers, Hammonds currently ranks second in the ACC in assists to turnover ratio (2.33:1), third in steals per game (1.9), fourth in minutes played (34.5) and seventh in assists per game (4.0). The 6-3, 200-pounder ranks in the top 10 in Clemson history in games played, starts, three-point field goals, steals and assists.

"Cliff Hammonds is the best all-around student-athlete I have been around in all my years of coaching," said Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell. "Cliff has the total package. He has been an outstanding player, one who ranks among the top players in ACC history when it comes to his contributions in many different areas of the game. He is a top student with an academic honor roll resume in a unique double major (architecture and psychology). He is also an outstanding husband, father and person."

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