NCAA Basketball: UNC, Memphis and UCLA among Skyy Clark’s top 4 teams
By Ian Mumm
3. Memphis Tigers
The move to Brentwood (TN) for his junior season firmly places Clark in the backyard of one Penny Hardaway. The coach of the Memphis program has not had issues recruiting top talent to his team, despite only being on the job for two years. Penny has specifically not had any issues at all signing 5-star bigs to play for him, but 5-star guards have eluded him so far.
The Tigers play very quickly and love to shoot the ball from the perimeter and early in the shot clock. A guard of Clark’s talents would thrive at a very high level in this system and put up gaudy numbers as soon as he stepped foot on campus. In fact, entering an offense of this nature would allow his play to be so free-flowing that literally all of his skills would be on full display.
Clark would be a considerable upgrade over the current guards on the Tigers roster. No one was able to put together all offensive pieces together simultaneously in a way that could be done with the 6’2 guard at the helm. Alex Lomax led the team in assists, with 4.2 per game, but only managed 6.7 points per night. Also, only one guard on the roster was able to surpass the 10-point per game mark.
It should be noted that when Memphis had a focal point to their offense, a la James Wiseman, the backcourt produced at a more consistent and efficient rate. They were visibly more comfortable on the court and could take shots in rhythm. The presence of Clark leading the offense would again unify the backcourt into consistent production based on how effectively he could draw the defense in and propel the Tigers chances of a huge season.