Texas Tech Basketball: A look at what Mac McClung brings to Red Raiders

Offensive Strengths

Although McClung is an elite scorer when he is able to catch the ball at the top of the key, or either wing and go to work, he is a much better scorer when he is on the move. When he is coming off screens or sprinting to certain spots on the floor, to make himself available to his teammates, it seems as though he is able to score effortlessly. This is because his defenders are usually on his hip or behind him, and he is able to take one or two dribbles, rise up, and comfortably shoot a pull-up jump shot.

He has two clear go-to moves that were fairly effective last season. He likes to crossover from his left hand to his right, and go between his legs before completing a tight crossover, right into a mid-range jump shot. These moves are difficult for players to defend because he does a great job of selling them. Some players are too dramatic with their crossovers, but because McClung simply uses his lightning-quick feet to get his defenders leaning in one direction, he is able to successfully pull them off.

He is also a player that understands how to attack defenders who are shading him to one side, or who have their left or right foot too high and will, therefore, be unable to recover if he doesn’t play around with the ball. He clearly knows how important it is to see how defenders are guarding him and analyze their footwork before he decides to go at them.

His athleticism allows him to be creative with his finishes, and hang in the air longer than many players his height can. He knows when to attack big men, and use his strength to initiate contact before finishing, and when to shoot a high arching floater over a ferocious shot-blocking big man.

If there is one thing that I really love about McClung’s offensive game, is that he doesn’t let defenders off the hook, when they don’t close out on him properly. If they are flat-footed or don’t chop their feet in order to keep him in front of them, he will immediately catch the ball and accelerate to the rim. He also makes sure that he completes his footwork in advance so that he doesn’t have to worry about getting whistled for a travel.

His ability to improvise when his go-to moves are unsuccessful makes him difficult to stop consistently. He can quickly go behind his back, execute a sharp spin, or step back before making a decision about what to do with the ball next. This is not something that is easy to do, because if you don’t have the ability to think quickly on your feet and assume that your defender will try to make a play on the ball because he knows that certain moves are coming, you won’t be able make follow up moves. Luckily for McClung, he understands the importance of being able to execute a series of moves and counter moves based on how defenders react.

If you have watched McClung play at all, you should know that he is fearless, and constantly rises to the occasion, by stepping up and making big shots in crunch time. Many players are more than happy scoring 25-30 points throughout the course of a game, but when it is time for them to make a play or two to possibly ice it, they can’t build up the courage to get the ball and live with whatever happens next. You won’t have to worry about that with McClung, because he is a player that knows that the shots he takes late in games may not always fall, but that does not deter him from attempting those shots with a great deal of confidence.

Last season, McClung illustrated that he knows how to use ball screens correctly. He showed that he is capable of understanding when it is appropriate to split double teams, and when it isn’t. If he saw that defenders were leaving too much space for him to push the ball out in front of his body, and weave his way to the rim, he jumped on the opportunity.

If he saw that he wouldn’t be able to keep the ball out of their reach, he elected to distribute the ball to his teammates while maintaining his dribble or attempted to attack the defender who wasn’t in the best defensive stance. Likewise, I also noticed that instead of getting rattled after occasionally picking up the ball, because he was getting harassed, he always kept his composure, and managed to pass out of them effectively.

While this may not be an underrated skill to many, McClung is a solid post entry passer, who knows when to use a bounce versus an overhead pass, and waits until his bigs have sealed off their defenders, before entering the ball into them. Those passes can be tricky sometimes, because you may not be sure if you have a great passing angle initially, and your defender may have great length and athleticism, which would make it difficult for you to successfully fire a pass by them. However, McClung’s patience and commitment to trying to limit the amount of post moves his big men have to make, is what allows him to thrive in that area.