TAMPA, Fla. — If Clemson is to advance in this year’s NCAA Tournament, there is one thing they have to accomplish first. They have to stop Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz. The Tigers, the No. 8 seed in the South Region, play No. 9 Iowa in the first round on Friday.

The Hawkeyes’ senior guard is averaging 20 points per game, 22 in Big Ten games, while shooting 37.6 percent from three-point range and nearly 50 percent overall. He also averages 4.5 assists per game.

“Yeah, I think he changes speeds exceptionally well. Terrific talent, really good athlete, great quickness, ball skills, size at the point guard position,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said during media interviews Thursday from Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Fla. “Can shoot over you, competitive spirit, will to win. You see all of it when you watch him play. He’s really an outstanding player.”

Though the Tigers (24-10) need to stop Stirtz, guard Dillon Hunter says they have to concentrate on other people too or they could be in trouble.

“They are a well-balanced team, kind of like us in that aspect,” he said. “A lot of people score for them. They have a really good point guard, that is the head of the snake, but we have to contain him, be versatile on the defensive end and do a lot of things.”

As Hunter said, Iowa (22-12) is a lot like the Tigers. They are very fundamental and play team basketball.

“They are very slow paced and very disciplined,” guard Jestin Porter said. “We are very disciplined, too and kind of a slow paced team, so they’re kind of similar.”

Porter, along with Hunter and Ace Buckner and Butta Johnson, will be one of the four guards called on to help slow down Stirtz, which no one has really done this season. He scored 30-plus points three times and 20-plus points in 11 of the last 15 games (18 times this season — third-most in Big Ten).

“I am ready for whomever Coach puts in front of me,” Porter said. “I am ready for the competition. I am ready to go out there and compete.”