Illinois Basketball: 3 takeaways from Skyy Clark taking a leave of absence

It’s been a rough past few weeks for Illinois Basketball, ever since they defeated No. 2 Texas in the Jimmy V Classic. They lost three straight games, to Penn State, Missouri, and most recently, a 73-60 setback to Northwestern. At 9-5 overall and 0-3 in league play, this team has no momentum and now has to deal with the Skyy Clark news as well.

The former five-star prospect out of high school was originally a Kentucky commit before switching teams last offseason to join the Fighting Illini. After losing three ball handlers, Clark was set to have a large role in his freshman campaign this season. And that he has, starting 12 games at 25 mpg, averaging 7.0 ppg and 2.1 apg on 41% shooting from the field.

It’s been a season of ups and downs for the player, scoring a combined two points in the past two games and coming off the bench in the loss to Northwestern. In the end, Clark made the decision to step away from the team.

It’s too early to say and I don’t want to speculate but the feeling from outside of the situation is that this is a permanent separation between Clark and Illinois Basketball. And that’s a shame, as there was potential for him to be an All-Big Ten player down the road.

For the Illini, they’ll have to push forward without a starting point guard while still being winless in conference play. There’s a lot to ask about what this means for both the player and the team going forward. Here’s my reaction.