NCAA Basketball: UNC, Memphis and UCLA among Skyy Clark’s top 4 teams
By Ian Mumm
4. UCLA Bruins
Mick Cronin is turning the Bruins program around and back into a Pac-12 contender. The team won 9 of their last 11 conference games, one game behind Oregon for the regular-season title. With the majority of the roster returning for the 2020-21 season, things are looking very bright. However, the point guard position is still not very deep.
Sophomore Tyger Campbell has been a strong leader for UCLA and has shown a lot of upside. He does a good job of commanding Cronin’s defensive scheme and helped create a lot of productive plays offensively for the Bruins. Scoring was not his strongest suit, however, and is a big area of improvement should the program add Skyy Clark.
Interchanging Clark’s potential 15 points per game in UCLA’s offense for Campbell’s 8.3 would significantly shake up the program’s potential in a positive way. The Bruins’ biggest area of depth is on the wings with sharpshooters Jaime Jacquez Jr. and Jake Kyman. Clark’s reliability as a scoring option will drastically open up the floor and shooting windows for these weapons and make UCLA a much more dangerous team.
Clark’s defensive production is also better than Campbell’s and gives more upside to Cronin’s scheme. If he managed to move into the 2021 class with Peyton Watson, the postseason outlook for this team goes way up. However, Clark’s move from Heritage Christian (CA) to Brentwood (TN) doesn’t give off great vibes about a potential return to California for college despite being his proclaimed home.