FACTS & STATS: Site: Sprint Center (18,381) -- Kansas City, Missouri. Television: CBS. NCAA Tournament Record: Michigan 41-19, Clemson 8-8. Series Record: Michigan leads, 2-0.

GAME NOTES: Back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade, the Michigan Wolverines try to make this trip last as they contend against the Clemson Tigers in first-round action of the South Regional at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

Michigan head coach John Beilein, who defeated Clemson in the NIT title game back in 2007 when he was the lead man at West Virginia, is now one of seven coaches to take four different teams to the NCAA Tournament, having turned the trick previously with the Mountaineers, Canisius and Richmond before arriving an Ann Arbor. This season Michigan posted a 20-13 record overall and split 18 meetings in the Big Ten Conference. The squad was rather sporadic down the stretch, winning back-to-back games just once since the middle of January. The 10th seed in this year's tourney, Michigan defeated Iowa in the conference tournament before bowing to Illinois.

As for the seventh-seeded Tigers, they too had a bit of an enigmatic season as they won 16 straight to begin 2008-09. The team, which is 8-8 in the NCAA Tournament all-time, ran into problems against the rest of the ACC and finished up the regular season with three defeats in four tries. From there the team was taken down by Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament in Atlanta a week ago in an 86-81 final, leaving the Tigers 23-8 on the season overall and waiting for the call as an at-large participant in the postseason.

Michigan owns a 2-0 record all-time versus the Tigers, the most recent of those wins coming in the Maui Invitational back in 1998, sporting a 59-56 victory. The winner of this event will move on to challenge the winner of the Morgan State/Oklahoma bout in the second round on Saturday.

Aside from running with what figures to be a four-guard offense to start, the Wolverines do so with a pair of freshmen in the lineup in Zack Novak (6.8 ppg) and Stu Douglass (5.9 ppg). Both players supply consistency and support and give the team a perimeter threat, having combined for 99 three-point baskets over 33 games. However, both players are shooting just 37.7 percent from the floor overall which means they cannot always be counted on to make the easy shot. Instead, the Wolverines lean heavily on Manny Harris and his team-best 16.8 ppg. But more than just a scorer who has made good on 166-of-194 (.856) at the charity stripe, Harris is also first on the team in both assists (145) and steals (42) and is just a single rebound behind DeShawn Sims in terms of his work on the glass with 6.9 boards per contest. Sums, a 50.8 percent shooter from the floor, accounts for 15.7 ppg, which means he and Harris combine for almost half the team's scoring production. However, while Sims is guaranteed to be a big part of the rebounding battle (6.9 rpg), him having his hands on the ball is not always a positive for the rest of the team, seeing as how he has a mere 25 assists in 33 games.

Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell has been patrolling the sidelines in college basketball for 21 years now, previously with the likes of Radford, Old Dominion and Dayton, and has had plenty of experience in the postseason. However, coach Purnell has never made it out of the first round in the NCAA Tournament, which means he could either be stuck there again or perhaps he's finally figured out how to advance. Regardless of what the answer might be, the coach will go into battle today with Trevor Booker as one of his main contributors. Booker led the team in scoring and rebounding this season with averages of 15.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per outing, shooting 56.7 percent from the field along the way. Providing a strong presence in the paint at both ends of the floor, Booker was also responsible for a team-best 62 blocked shots. K.C. Rivers and Terrence Oglesby also figure heavily into the equation after putting up 14.2 and 13.5 ppg, respectively, for a program that registered a hefty 79 ppg in 2008-09 and held opponents to just 68.2 ppg at the same time.

Asking Sims and Harris to carry the load for the Wolverines is nothing new, but if Michigan's youthful guards come up small on the big stage it could spell doom for the squad today.

Predicted Outcome

Clemson 74, Michigan 66