Feb. 22, 2008

By Bill Hass
theACC.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Cliff Hammonds learned his lessons well.

"My parents taught me at a young age, `whatever you're doing, give it your all, have passion and don't ever slack off and give it second-best,'" he said.

No one can accuse Clemson's senior guard of giving anything less than his best effort. Ever.

He plays basketball so hard that one ACC coach showed his team film clips of Hammonds on "hustle plays." He takes his studies so seriously that, dissatisfied when his career GPA dipped slightly under 3.0 after his junior year, he boosted it by pulling a 4.0 this past fall. He immerses himself in his architecture classes so much that he will occasionally go without sleep.

On top of all that, he's married and has a 14- month-old son and is already planning his family's life after graduation.

Any one of those areas - playing ACC basketball, excelling in a difficult major (by the way, he's added psychology as a double major), being a family man - would be plenty for most anyone. Hammonds somehow handles all three.

"It's in knowing how to compartmentalize everything," he explained. "Whenever I'm on the court, I'm focused on playing basketball. Whenever I'm going to a class on architecture I'm focused on that. I try to focus 100 percent of my efforts on what I'm doing at that moment.

"Overall, I put family first. I'll put anything down to see about any needs that my family has. That's the number one thing in my life. I learned that at a young age. My father was in the military for over 20 years, and the discipline and feelings that he taught us when I was growing up as a military brat have stayed with me as I have gone through college. I know how to manage myself and I put my family before anything I do."

It's not easy. While he completes his senior year, his wife, Lakendra, and son, Clifford Daniel Hammonds V, are living in his hometown of Cairo, Ga. She's finishing her degree at Thomas University in nearby Thomasville.

"They come up on weekends whenever they can," Hammonds said. "Her parents and my parents are helping out as much as possible taking care of him while she furthers her education. I know it gets hard on me sometimes, but I always think how much harder it must be on them. Even though we're not together right now, at the end of the year she's graduating and I'm graduating, so we're going to be together for a very long time after that."

Family roots are important to Hammonds. His great-grandfather, the first Clifford Daniel Hammonds, was a farmer and a preacher. When he was a youngster, Hammonds was able to spend some time with him and believes he's the one who passed on the value of hard work and other character traits that run deep in his family.

"I hear nothing but good things when the older people in the community around Cairo talk about him," Hammonds said.

His grandfather worked on the construction of Walt Disney World in Orlando. So, when he was 9 or 10, Hammonds researched jobs in the construction business and became interested in architecture.

"It was a job description that fascinated me and stayed with me ever since," he said.

Hammonds wants to earn his master's degree in architecture, at Clemson if possible, with help from a post-graduate ACC scholarship he just received. He also wants to play pro basketball, either in the NBA or overseas, and said he'll find a way to work on his graduate degree in the summers while he plays ball.

Ultimately, he wants to use his architectural skills to plan residential and apartment complexes to help low-income people.

But that's long-range. For the immediate future, Hammonds will try to help Clemson finish the season strong and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are 19-7 overall and 7-5 in the ACC after a somewhat surprising loss at Florida State in their last outing. Their next game is at home Wednesday against Miami, which recently upset Duke.

"We've got to redirect our focus on defense and try to establish ourselves as a defensive team," Hammonds said of the remainder of the schedule. "We have to come out each and every practice defensive-minded, knowing that our offense will come, knowing that we're one of the best defensive teams in the country."

As a senior, making the NCAA field means everything to Hammonds.

"It's something I've been dreaming of doing since about the time I started playing basketball," he said, "Once you get into the tournament, anything can happen. It would mean a lot for this program and definitely for our seniors. We've put in a lot of hard work, only to fall short by a hair these last two years. It would mean a lot for us to go into the tournament on a hot streak, ready to do some damage."

A four-sport athlete in high school, Hammonds stood out in football and hoops. He said he loved basketball a little bit more, so he chose an offer from Clemson over a football offer from Stanford. Since he entered the Tigers' program, he has started all but one game and become the fifth player in the ACC to hit the levels of 1,300 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals (Duke's Grant Hill, Florida State's Bob Sura, Georgia Tech's Bruce Dalrymple and Maryland's Johnny Rhodes are the others).

"I think he's one of the most underrated players in ACC history," said Clemson coach Oliver Purnell. "There are only five guys who have played in the league who have done what he's done in four different categories. Not only that, every year he's been here we've gotten significantly better.

"We've got a chance again this year to be better and he has everything to do with it. He's the guy we look at as the face of our program because of the kind of student-athlete he is. He's our senior captain and what he's given us from a leadership standpoint all season long, this tough stretch drive, is incredible."

This season Hammonds is averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists while shooting 47.5 percent from the floor and 40.6 percent from 3-point line. His career assists-to-turnover ratio is nearly 2-to-1. All the while he draws a tough defensive assignment and plays the role of a leader.

But he admits he's his own worst critic and is determined to do even more.

"I could be having a lot better season," he said. "I'm not shooting that well from the free throw line (41 percent), so I work every day on that because I know that come tournament time, we're going to need free throws in late-game situations.

"Also, I think I could be shooting better from the field. There's a lot more I could be doing for the team that I'm not doing. I'll try to do more in the next couple of weeks and lead the team as far as we can go - and I think we can go a long way."

If there's more that Hammonds can do, he will no doubt add to his growing number of admirers.

"I absolutely love him," said N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe. "I love his demeanor, I love the way he approaches the game, I think he's the heart and soul of that team with his energy and his effort and just the way he plays.

"He's the one guy who we showed to our team, clips of him, on hustle plays. He was on the bench and Oliver called him to go in the game (and) he sprinted off the bench to the scorer's table. That tells you a little bit about a player and how he appreciates this game and how he plays this game. I think he's a tremendous young man, he's a great talent and I admire the way he approaches the game on this level."

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton called Hammonds "the backbone of their team" because of his intelligence, passion, confidence, leadership and ability to play both guard spots.

"He seems to always be the guy that, when the game is on the line, steps up and makes the good decision or the right play," Hamilton said. "He seems to have that knack for just doing the things that give them the chance to win. He's smart, very competitive and I think that puts him in a very special category."

During his career Hammonds has started at small forward, shooting guard and point guard. Although he's running the team now, he doesn't split hairs over definitions.

"I don't consider myself as a point or a two, I consider myself a guard," he said. "I do the things that are necessary for a guard to do to win. I've been handling the ball ever since I got to Clemson and tried to lead my team ever since I got here. Those things come pretty naturally to me."

Purnell said Hammonds is just "a basketball player" and wherever he plays gives the coach a special feeling.

"I feel very secure when I see him run out for introductions as a starter," Purnell said. "He's going out there like a prize fighter, he's ready to go. He makes you feel like you've got a great shot at winning."

Above all on the court, Hammonds considers himself a competitor. And it should come as no surprise that the credit goes to his family.

"When I was younger I always wanted to win; that's something that's never going to leave me," he said. "Everything I am today I credit to my parents and the way they raised me, just to have them proud of me, to see them happy to come to the games and watch me play, (to know that) whatever grade I get I worked my hardest and gave it my all, gave it 100 percent."

Cliff Hammonds learned his lessons well.

Bill Hass is a long-time observer of ACC sports. His career at the Greensboro News & Record spanned 36 years, from 1969 until his retirement in March, 2006. He is now writing "Bill Hass on the ACC" for theACC.com. His weekly columns will keep fans plugged in to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

This article can not be copied or reproduced without the express written consent of the Atlantic Coast Conference.