RE: McClung, Kid has crazy ups. Updated Feb 12th
You beat me to it, Rod, last night on the Illinois comment. I excerpt my comments from the "FWIW: Mercer played Georgia St...…." thread concerning McClung in that thread:
"And yes, McClung is the real deal - other than his 3-ball shooting, which he *can* do, but clearly hasn't found it yet this year. Bluntly, the Illini couldn't guard him. He could beat every player they tried on him off the dribble. Most of the time they would defend him with back-side help, but he had some really delicious deals. Like in their first game, he had a highlight-reel backwards-over-the-head dunk after a steal (which gave the Hoyas their final lead which they kept). Even more impressive is their *other* freshman guard (who I believe I commented on in that McClung thread), James Akinjo, who can deal *and* shoot. He could easily be on the Big East all-Freshman team. Further...…...yet another freshman, slasher Josh LeBlanc looked good, too. Defensively, I'd say McClung was at worst adequate. I only saw him get beat badly once, and that was by Dosunmo, so not shocking there. And he got turned over at least twice, once when they double-teamed him. Both announcers were going gaga over the Hoyas' freshmen, including McClung.
I hate saying "I told you so", but in this case it's so obvious already. It's WAY too early to judge his career there, but to those who said he wasn't fast enough (including at least one hereon who said he wasn't fast enough to play for ETSU)……….well, you're just plain wrong.
Georgetown vs. Illiois highlights"
I've been following his games, and watched segments of a couple since then. He's clearly still finding his place. He's clearly struggled with his 3. I know he missed his first 11 from deep, and may have ended up being more than that. But he's beginning to find his range on that some. (He's hit 5 of his last 12 over the last 3 games.) He's no Trey Boyd, but he's not trying to be. He's more of a facilitator - not massive amount of dishes, but some real good ones, and he puts pressure on the other team's D. I believe he's started every game, and is getting something like 20-25 minutes most games. Ewing wouldn't be playing him that much if he wasn't an asset on the court. He's sort of an "intangibles" guy a lot of the time. And he hasn't seemed to be a defensive liability - at least not yet.
And you know...….averaging 8 and 2 as a freshman in the Big East isn't all that shabby. Even tho they haven't really played any Big East games yet (they are at the 'cuse in the Carrier Dome tomorrow).
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