POY awards might be tough depending on who returns. I mean Edey and Tshiebwe could both return to college ball. BE also returns Kolek, Kalkbrenner and Hopkins.
But he makes the 2nd one a lot ….will he now make the first and miss the 2nd one short then?
The defenders pretty much gave him the three. Rarely had one close within 3 feet of him, and late in the season, when a defender DID come out with the matador defense, he just drove by him on a one step drive to the hoop or to pass. After a couple of those, it pretty much eliminated the attempts to cover him at the arc.
There's only one person understanding the FT jumps from big men in this conversation. This is all players over 6'9" from BartTorvik who were freshman in freshman in 2021. Not a full list because for some reason the 2021 data is incomplete (I know Zach Edey is missing from that year for some reason). It's very rare to see that significant of a jump in FT%
| Player | Freshman FT% | Sophomore FT% | FT% Gain | Junior FT% | FT% Gain |
| Abou Ousmane | 57.3% | 72.2% | 14.9% | ||
| Adama Sanogo | 57.7% | 68.6% | 10.9% | 76.6% | 8.0% |
| Amari Williams | 61.0% | 60.6% | -0.4% | ||
| Andre Screen | 60.5% | 56.8% | -3.7% | ||
| Andrew Carr | 84.4% | 65.7% | -18.7% | 77.3% | 11.6% |
| Ben Wight | 66.7% | 65.3% | -1.4% | 64.0% | -1.3% |
| Bernardo Da Silva | 74.6% | 50.9% | -23.7% | ||
| Charlie Peterson | 54.1% | 45.3% | -8.8% | ||
| Chris Nix | 65.2% | 51.0% | -14.2% | ||
| CJ Huntley | 60.9% | 74.2% | 13.3% | ||
| Clifford Omoruyi | 60.2% | 60.4% | 0.2% | ||
| Coleman Hawkins | 65.0% | 61.4% | -3.6% | ||
| Damian Forrest | 73.0% | 55.7% | -17.3% | ||
| David Skogman | 82.9% | 88.2% | 5.3% | ||
| Essam Mostafa | 59.8% | 61.0% | 1.2% | 68.7% | 7.7% |
| Garrett Hien | 53.1% | 51.0% | -2.1% | ||
| Hunter Dickinson | 73.9% | 80.2% | 6.3% | 72.7% | -7.5% |
| Jeff Woodward | 52.9% | 58.9% | 6.0% | ||
| Johnny O'Neil | 62.5% | 57.6% | -4.9% | 61.4% | 3.8% |
| Jordan Brown | 62.3% | 60.0% | -2.3% | ||
| Josh Bannan | 83.8% | 79.0% | -4.8% | 76.9% | -2.1% |
| Josh Cohen | 63.7% | 64.6% | 0.9% | ||
| Liam McChesney | 81.6% | 73.9% | -7.7% | ||
| Matt Rogers | 65.5% | 68.7% | 3.2% | ||
| Max Fiedler | 69.9% | 60.6% | -9.3% | ||
| Mike Marsh | 54.9% | 68.9% | 14.0% | ||
| Moussa Cisse | 32.4% | 56.2% | 23.8% | 41.0% | -15.2% |
| Nelly Junior Joseph | 63.8% | 65.7% | 1.9% | 62.4% | -3.3% |
| Patrick McCaffery | 71.4% | 77.1% | 5.7% | ||
| PJ Hall | 78.1% | 78.6% | 0.5% | ||
| Rienk Mast | 73.1% | 68.8% | -4.3% | 73.6% | 4.8% |
| Ryan Kalkbrenner | 73.6% | 79.5% | 5.9% | ||
| Sam Mennenga | 51.6% | 62.5% | 10.9% | 62.2% | -0.3% |
| Steve Settle III | 76.1% | 79.8% | 3.7% | ||
| Steven Crowl | 80.0% | 63.4% | -16.6% | ||
| Supreme Cook | 58.1% | 63.7% | 5.6% | 63.0% | -0.7% |
| Tim Fuller | 42.9% | 60.8% | 17.9% | ||
| Trayce Jackson-Davis | 67.4% | 69.5% | 2.1% | ||
| Tristan da Silva | 79.7% | 75.5% | -4.2% | ||
| Tsotne Tsartsidze | 78.0% | 66.7% | -11.3% | ||
| Tyson Jackson | 65.8% | 57.0% | -8.8% | ||
| Zach Edey | 64.9% | 73.4% | 8.5% |
www.courant.com
Doing some other good work.
“It means a lot to see some of the smiles on these kids’ faces, just bringing joy into their day,” Clingan said. “Making people happy is something that I’ve always tried to do and seeing these kids, what they go through and the struggle they face, just giving them a little something in their day to make them happy and bring a smile to their face means a lot to me.”
UConn’s Donovan Clingan makes day for kids at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital through Dunkin’ partnership
UConn men’s basketball star Donovan Clingan, a Bristol native, spent time signing autographs, playing games and talking with the children at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital on Tuesda…
Alternate free access:
UConn’s Donovan Clingan makes day for kids at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital through Dunkin’ partnership
Yes, good for him but a 50 yo coach in the spotlight should be able to handle it better, especially when there is a ton a buzz about it so he doesn't need a shadow.
I was kind of surprised he hadn't already developed a baby hook. No doubt he needs to improve his FT%, but while jump shooting and an occasional 3 is ok, i think the 2 things that would make him unstoppable would be to 1) learn a bit of Sanogos patience around the hoop even if he never comes close to Sanogo’s A+ footwork and 2) a consistent baby hook. Very hard to stop him with those 2 improvements in addition to the FT.
Some of that is because his 7’2” back up had a great freshman season, but some of that is also the unspoken notion that when you win a national championship for us, you have “earned” to go pro and some of that is national championship afterglow.
Torvik defaults to filtering sub 40% minutes by default, could be the issue.
Early mock actually has both guys as top 10 picks.
nbadraftroom.com
Fair enough on your "under" comment but I do remember a few up fake moves that he took advantage of.. Faking the defender into the air /he did not dunk.. And laid the ball in softly with decent footwork.. Had a McHale vibe to them.. And I realize Kevin was a PF.. Not a 7'3'' dude..
Of the many skills that he possesses.. I was impressed with his hands.. The strength to take control of the ball and the softness to catch tough passes .. Also helps with touch on passing-which he's very good at as well.
