Former Clemson Basketball Star Demontez Stitt, Dead At 27, Remembered

Former Clemson Tigers and Butler High School guard Demontez Stitt was found dead at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Tuesday night. He was 27.

Former Clemson Basketball Star Demontez Stitt, Dead At 27, Remembered

Lead investigator Eric Wheeler in the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday there was not trauma found on the body of Stitt and that foul play is not suspected.

Cause of death, friends told the Charlotte Observer, is believed to be a sudden heart attack. The Associated Press reported that “Stitt reportedly suffered a cardiac issue.”

“I found out about it (Tuesday) night,” former Butler High boys basketball coach Kurt Wessler said, “and I spent the next 16 hours going from being completely devastated and in tears. … my family’s in tears. All four of us loved him. He was such a charismatic person; kind, beautiful, outstanding. There wasn’t a color code to him. There wasn’t a gender code. It was just you were you and he was him, and let’s go do something.”

Wessler received a text on his phone from Stitt just last week. Stitt wanted Wessler to work him out. They met at a gym that was too full to practice in but spent 30 minutes talking about basketball, life and the future.

Wessler also said many of Stitt’s former high school teachers have contacted him since hearing the news.

And they are beside themselves,” the coach said. “He was a good student, but he was a phenomenal person. He lit up a room when he came in.”

Many of Stitt’s former teammates and friends at Butler took to Twitter to mourn his loss, as did the school itself.

 Former Butler girls’ basketball star Cierra Burdick, who recently lost her coach at Tennessee, Pat Summitt, wrote: “I don’t understand why, but the Heaven Hoops team just keeps getting better and better … Heart is heavy.”

Former Butler football All-American and Stanford Univerity standout Peter Kalambayi wrote: “RIP Demontez Stitt … Best hooper to come out of BHS. Always on his job. Showed us we could make it.”

At Butler High, Stitt averaged 17.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.5 steals for his career. He played with Clemson from 2007-2011 and is the only Tiger in program history to start on four straight NCAA Tournament teams. He averaged 14.5 points and 4.3 rebounds as a senior in 2010-11.

Former Clemson running back C. J. Spiller also reflected on his friendship with Stitt.

Stitt had been playing professionally in Europe– most recently in Turkey. He averaged 19.0 points and 5.1 assists for Orkide Gediz Univeristesi this past season.

Wessler said words cannot describe how much Stitt will be missed.

“For a high school coach to be getting constant calls and texts about a player he coached nine years ago speaks to the type of person he was and the type impact he had,” Wessler said. “I’m a prayerful person and I’ve been talking to God about this a lot.”

Wessler’s voice then cracked.

“I told him, he’s getting a really great point guard, and I’m going to miss him an awful lot.”