Donovan Clingan

[HuskyHawk]

Agreed. No need to elevate expectations to unreasonable levels. The vast majority of bigs take time to develop... Sanogo was an anomaly. Clingan has played a top 100 center 2x in his entire career.

Give him 10 mins a game giving Sanogo a breather. Focus on defense and limiting turnovers this season, with opportunistic scoring. He's going to take time but he'll be a beast before long.

Which is not to say that I'd be displeased if he is suddenly Bill Walton. I just think got a bit ahead of ourselves evaluating a nice performance against a bad, short team that doesn't even have a center.

 

[Waquoit]

Yeah I was going to say that I remember Knight being ranked in the 40-50 range. He definitely was not a "find".

I'm glad I didn't bet. I forgot he was ranked that high. I was more impressed with an LDS kid leaving Utah.

 

[HooperScooper]

I'm glad I didn't bet. I forgot he was ranked that high. I was more impressed with an LDS kid leaving Utah.

Ah, maybe I need to walk my post back. But #100 is still not a "find".

"Knight is really a finesse player," Gibbons said. "He tends to have an aversion to banging inside. He's going to have to get stronger and do some work inside, if he's going to be a solid player in the Big East."

Because of this, Knight dropped from the 38th-ranked high school senior in Gibbons' preseason report to 100th in his season-ending report.

I had to laugh at this though.

Gibbons said a boost to UConn's ranking was point guard Covington Cormier from Clarendon (Texas) College. Cormier, Gibbons' top-ranked junior college point guard and 17th-ranked JC player overall, averaged 21.2 points and 5.9 assists last season.

"He's ideal for what UConn needs after Chris Smith," Gibbons said. "Chris tended to dominate the ball, and at times the other guys watched Chris. Cormier loves to give the ball up. He can average nine points and seven assists in the Big East."

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1992-07-22-0000114805-story.html

 

[huskypantz]

I agree. Clingan is much more ready than freshman Travis. It’s not fare to either of them to use TK as a comp.

Travis was 5 fouls and a foul line jumper for his first two seasons. He was a stick. DC is a thick dude with a solid interior game. He’s at least a year ahead of Travis on the interior, by the end of the year maybe two.

 

[Huskyforlife]

The dunks this kid is doing in the layup line are not normal. He’s a great athlete.

 

[husky429]

The dunks this kid is doing in the layup line are not normal. He’s a great athlete.

Losing that weight is going to change his career. Looks like a different player out here

 

[ToolzieFan]

Man, it would have been sweet if he connected on one of those lobs. We’ll see plenty of those go down over the next couple of years, though. He just changes the game when he’s on the floor.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Surprising Clingan was only a 4 star. Over 7', mobile, cooordinated with nice hands and skills.... arguably athletic. Isn't that normally a top 10 caliber recruit?

 

[Huskyforlife]

Surprising Clingan was only a 4 star. Over 7', mobile, cooordinated with nice hands and skills.... arguably athletic. Isn't that normally a top 10 caliber recruit?

Yes, but I’m guessing there was questions about his production being inflated against scrubs. The weight loss is also more recent.

 

[jibsey]

He’s a freshman but he’s looking good so far. Couple quick throw up shots, needed more time but other than that he’s great. Hurley must be thrilled.

 

[uconnfan68]

Needs to dunk everything.

 

[ToolzieFan]

Needs to dunk everything.

He’s trying to, and doing okay so far.

 

[superjohn]

Needs to dunk everything.

Sanogo

 

[navery12]

Surprising Clingan was only a 4 star. Over 7', mobile, cooordinated with nice hands and skills.... arguably athletic. Isn't that normally a top 10 caliber recruit?

I think the weight loss is a big factor as @Huskyforlife said. But also I don't think he'd be a top 10 recruit regardless since a lot of recruiting sites also end up factoring in NBA potential as well

 

[superjohn]

I think the weight loss is a big factor as @Huskyforlife said. But also I don't think he'd be a top 10 recruit regardless since a lot of recruiting sites also end up factoring in NBA potential as well

Yes on the weight loss and I don't know about top 10 but he seems like he'll have pretty serious NBA potential.