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TClarke

LukaszObrzut87

Sophomore
May 7, 2019
1,109
1,701
113
I got thinking about how bad this team needs him right now. I know some are gonna come in right now and say it’s gonna kill the chemistry whatever. It could definitely do so but he could handle the ball and get minutes.
I don’t know for sure, injury or nba and if anyone has more info, I’d love to know. But if he can come back, nows the time to practice with the team at least. I liked his game a lot.
 
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Not gonna happen. Hasn’t played in 2 months. I liked his game a lot more than Boston and thought he would be the scorer this team needed in March early on. His 22 point effort against GA tech was a sampling of his potential. I’d love to see him come back next year but not happening and I don’t buy for a second that a sprained ankle has kept him out this long. His injury at any other D1 program he misses 3 weeks at most, probably 2.
 
Not gonna happen. Hasn’t played in 2 months. I liked his game a lot more than Boston and thought he would be the scorer this team needed in March early on. His 22 point effort against GA tech was a sampling of his potential. I’d love to see him come back next year but not happening and I don’t buy for a second that a sprained ankle has kept him out this long. His injury at any other D1 program he misses 3 weeks at most, probably 2.

So you really think it is a sprained ankle and not a stress fracture? I’m glad you have access to his medical records!
 
So you really think it is a sprained ankle and not a stress fracture? I’m glad you have access to his medical records!

if it’s a stress fracture and it took our medical staff over 6 weeks to verify that then they are the worst medical staff on the planet. He played the Louisville game following his injury which was supposedly a sprained ankle and was told he was only about 80% due to injury in that game. That was now over two months ago. Assuming for a second that our medical staff is the worst on the planet, recovery time for a stress fracture is 6-8 weeks and this makes week 10 since his injury.
 
Yeah, you can't put him in any games at this point and it's not about chemistry, it's about his rust and he isn't anywhere near being in game shape.
With that ankle injury, he can't do any conditioning, which puts the nail in the coffin.

I would love it if he came back though. Who knows, he may have to.
 
I'm not seeing Clarke in the first round in any mock drafts, nothing a couple phone calls from Cal can't fix, but still, this kid should be a lottery pick.
I can't believe UT has 2 lottery picks, they sure didn't look like lottery picks on Saturday.

2021 NBA mock draft 2.0: Early first-round projections for all 30 teams | RSN
 
Vanderbilt, Whitney, Clarke. The shine is definitely off of some of these recruits. Seems like if they get an injury or start slow they literally just opt out for the draft. After a while it’s gotta make Cal question things I would think. He passed up a couple recruits in favor of Clarke last year because he “really wanted to play here”.
 
Vanderbilt, Whitney, Clarke. The shine is definitely off of some of these recruits. Seems like if they get an injury or start slow they literally just opt out for the draft. After a while it’s gotta make Cal question things I would think. He passed up a couple recruits in favor of Clarke last year because he “really wanted to play here”.
I know a lot of these kids choose to leave even if they aren't going first round, but going to the GL is such a bad option.

Vanderbilt never had the offensive game to be a legit first rounder, so I can see why he did what he did, but Clarke has lottery pick talent, size, length and athletesism. If I'm him, I go back to UK. I realize that means he has to go to class, but the stage he would be playing on at UK is bigger than the GL stage.

This could be an interesting decision. If Clarke decides to come back, next years team could be great. I won't get my hopes up, but I can at least wish for it to happen.
 
I know a lot of these kids choose to leave even if they aren't going first round, but going to the GL is such a bad option.

Vanderbilt never had the offensive game to be a legit first rounder, so I can see why he did what he did, but Clarke has lottery pick talent, size, length and athletesism. If I'm him, I go back to UK. I realize that means he has to go to class, but the stage he would be playing on at UK is bigger than the GL stage.

This could be an interesting decision. If Clarke decides to come back, next years team could be great. I won't get my hopes up, but I can at least wish for it to happen.

I think there’s 0% chance of him coming back, and I think thats a damn shame. I agree completely he would benefit himself greatly.
 
I think there’s 0% chance of him coming back, and I think thats a damn shame. I agree completely he would benefit himself greatly.
I just don't know if that's the best option for him. I know the second nba deal is what they're playing for, but if you go lottery, you're set for life out of the gate.
If we can't even get Clarke to stay after he missed half the season and he isn't on any mock drafts, that's pretty awful.
 
I realize that means he has to go to class, but the stage he would be playing on at UK is bigger than the GL stage.

I realize this is a popular mantra on here, but I haven't seen any evidence that it makes a difference in their endorsement deals or NBA careers. The G league seems to be a clearly better option for those that don't want to go to school. They get to develop their game full time against grown men being coached by guys connected with NBA teams.
 
I realize this is a popular mantra on here, but I haven't seen any evidence that it makes a difference in their endorsement deals or NBA careers. The G league seems to be a clearly better option for those that don't want to go to school. They get to develop their game full time against grown men being coached by guys connected with NBA teams.
I don't disagree, but the GL gets no coverage And you're playing against much better competition that could keep you from reaching the NBA.
There are arguements for and against. It just comes down to the kid and what he feels is best. Me, I wouldn't want anything to do with the GL, but I'm not close enough to it to have all the facts.
 
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I just don't know if that's the best option for him. I know the second nba deal is what they're playing for, but if you go lottery, you're set for life out of the gate.
If we can't even get Clarke to stay after he missed half the season and he isn't on any mock drafts, that's pretty awful.

I mean wouldn’t it have benefited Dakari Johnson, Wenyen Gabriel, Whitney, Hagans, Montgomery, etc etc etc to come back? It just seems like some guys want to go no matter what - especially higher ranking recruits. I thought the article posted a while back about the “senior stigma” was pretty eye opening, even quade greens quotes in it (about basically not even listening to Cal about advice).

I personally would be thrilled with:
Mintz
Askew
Allen
Toppin
Ware

coming back. Feel that’s a great nucleus to build on. Just not holding my breath on any of our higher ranked recruits coming back.
 
if it’s a stress fracture and it took our medical staff over 6 weeks to verify that then they are the worst medical staff on the planet. He played the Louisville game following his injury which was supposedly a sprained ankle and was told he was only about 80% due to injury in that game. That was now over two months ago. Assuming for a second that our medical staff is the worst on the planet, recovery time for a stress fracture is 6-8 weeks and this makes week 10 since his injury.
I think he had a stress fracture; they don't always show up on the first MRI.
 
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I think he's hurt, but Cal errs on the side of caution with the 5 stars IMO (see Vanderbilt). If he was a senior (like maybe Dominique Hawkins) he'd be out there playing anyway IMO.
 
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Cal has to figure out how to recruit against the g league.
He also has to sell the EJ's of the world that finishing your career at UK is more beneficial that just blindly diving into the world of professional basketball.
When Cal and Coach K can't get guys to finish one season and can't retain kids who aren't even on the NBA's radar, then you know college basketball is dying.
 
When Clarke 1st got hurt they said it was a sprained ankle . You don't believe that since he has been out this long that they have not taken more than one MRI to see what is going on. I think he has opt out and you will not see him in a UK uniform again.
 
I mean wouldn’t it have benefited Dakari Johnson, Wenyen Gabriel, Whitney, Hagans, Montgomery, etc etc etc to come back? It just seems like some guys want to go no matter what - especially higher ranking recruits. I thought the article posted a while back about the “senior stigma” was pretty eye opening, even quade greens quotes in it (about basically not even listening to Cal about advice).

I personally would be thrilled with:
Mintz
Askew
Allen
Toppin
Ware

coming back. Feel that’s a great nucleus to build on. Just not holding my breath on any of our higher ranked recruits coming back.
I agree with what your saying and I have said those things many times. The list of players that left too early and never made the NBA, is large and it's a shame for all involved. It seems to me like it's not the best environment. 90% of the kids that went first round out of KY, were going first round, no matter where they went to school. There are exceptions (SGA, Richards and WCS), but Cal could make that happen more often if he went with program guys instead of these 2nd tier 5* kids. I think the kids would benefit and so would UK.

I'm going to hold out hope that Clarke comes back. His case is different than any others. He's a lottery pick that couldn't play half the season and is now, at best, a 2nd round pick.

If he did come back, UK would be nasty good next year. But I say that every year.
 
Wait.... You really think he could handle the ball?!?! Have you ever watched the office? Did you see how Stanley dribbles a ball? Yeah....That's about how TClarke dribbles.

lol. Stanley is the best office pick because he’s the athletic funny black guy! First round pick.
 
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if it’s a stress fracture and it took our medical staff over 6 weeks to verify that then they are the worst medical staff on the planet. He played the Louisville game following his injury which was supposedly a sprained ankle and was told he was only about 80% due to injury in that game. That was now over two months ago. Assuming for a second that our medical staff is the worst on the planet, recovery time for a stress fracture is 6-8 weeks and this makes week 10 since his injury.
He looked way worse than 80% with a sprained ankle in that Louisville game. He could barely move and should have never played that game. Stress fracture seems most plausible to me
 
Clarke was a poor man's Archie Goodwin (suspect ball-handling, horrible shot selection, out of control) ... and I say poor man's because Archie left it all on the court w/ his heart and effort, but there's no reason to think Clarke wouldn't have gotten better by this point in the season. Even Boston has improved in his shot selection and trying to be a teammate.

That said, sadly, he's gone. 100% protecting his ability to perform workouts for teams in the draft.
 
Just food for thought: I broke my ankle in 4 places on Saturday, my foot is entirely disconnected from my leg, just floating there, held together by a cast. After surgery the doc says I should able to put weight on it after 6 weeks, fully recovered by 8 since I’m “relatively young (39) and in good health (15 pounds overweight).”

Now I don’t know his injury and I am NOT an athlete. But wow, that thing has lingered for a long long time.
 
How in the world is Clarke still thought of as a lottery pick? What little he played this year he was NOT good except in flashes here and there. I know the NBA is about potential and developing players, but taking him with a lottery selection when many teams want an instant difference maker with that high of a pick makes very little sense to me. At best, I'd say he's 2+ years away from even contributing at the NBA level. He's got a ton of holes in his game and there are great athletes on every NBA team so he's not going to out-athlete many at that level. Some GM is going to have hit his knees and pray that Clarke really is an NBA talent because there's no evidence of that in his college 'career'.

And, two years from now, if some poster comes on board here and touts how Clarke went for 22 against the Wolves and says, 'Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat', I'm gonna throw up. He hardly had to have his uniform washed more than a couple of times while here. In my book, he's as much a Wildcat as Enes Kanter.
 
Doubt it happens but would love to have him back next year. I wouldn't want him back this year however. He can’t play PG. Would be rusty out of game condition. Team is playing much better now. No need to disrupt rotation.
Every team I follow Reds, Bengals and UK fans always say this medical staff is the worst ever.
Maybe it is just not that easy to pin down exact injuries everytime even for seasoned medical staffs.
 
Though several 'signs' point to Cal making promises to recruits and their families, he really only has to make one - "I will do whatever I can to ensure you reach your dreams...your ultimate goal."

This covers all aspects without actually going into specifics. Wink, wink, nod, nod.

To include:
- playing time
- style of play
- factoring in future priorities with borderline, playable injuries
 
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