Shortly after Mac McClung announced his commitment to Texas Tech, Aaron Dickens and Chris Level talked with Stadium basketball insider Jeff Goodman on Tech basketball and what it holds.
For Tech fans that didn’t watch a lot of Big East basketball the last couple of seasons, what can they expect from new Red Raider Mac McClung?
“The unexpected. The unexpected, I would say, is the best thing to describe Mac McClung. He’s a human highlight film, and obviously his social media following’s been huge. The dunks, he just doesn’t look the part, somebody that’s going to have that type of athleticism. You hate to say it, but the ‘white man can’t jump’ moniker does not reign supreme with Mac McClung. I mean, he can get up, he’s exciting, he can make plays off the bounce, and that’s the one thing that really attracted Chris Beard to Mac McClung because they don’t really look like the perfect marriage, in a way, because McClung is a little (well, not a little bit), but he’s wild. He’s wild, and Beard, he wants a guy who plays well in his system. Obviously, Beard’s meticulous in his preparation, but what Beard realizes is he needs guys that can make plays off the bounce. He didn’t have it this past year. The other really interesting thing facet of all this is Beard trying to get Mac McClung to defend. We all know how Beard: if you don’t guard, you generally don’t get out on the court. McClung is not a big-time defender. Can he be a mediocre or an average defender under Beard? That’s going to be the key.”
In any way, does Mac McClung remind you at all, from a basketball standpoint, of Donte Divincenzo from Villanova? I know Tech played them a couple years ago. Any similarity there at all?
“I don’t see it, other than he’s white. I don’t see it. Not much, I mean, I guess they’re both athletic, but Divincenzo was much more under control than Mac McClung. Again, there’s some days where I watch Mac McClung at Georgetown and I’m like, ‘Aw man.’ Like, he’s unbelievable right now, and then, there’s other days where he shot him completely out of the game, and that’s going to be the challenge for Beard is to try to figure this thing out with a team that’s got some talented, talented freshmen coming in. McClung wants to be a guy with the ball in his hands, but he’s got a couple of guys I think that can play with the ball in their hands. Listen, winning sure is everything for the most part, as long as they win, which my thing is ‘In Beard I Trust.’ He’ll figure out a way to get it done. He’ll figure out a way to get the most out of Mac McClung, and ultimately, listen, the biggest sale pitch he had here were the two guys, Tariq Owens and Matt Mooney, transfers that he put into the NBA, came in at Texas Tech, not a single NBA had them anywhere near the NBA radar.”
Jeff, why did McClung leave Georgetown?
“I’ve heard several variations of the story. I don’t know the truth, so I can’t really speculate, yet, until I know 100 percent the truth, but obviously there were some things that happened in that program that people are saying he wanted more touches, he wanted the ball in his hands a little bit more. That may be the case. I don’t think he’s going to have it in his hands that much more at Texas Tech. I think there were some other things that happened with that Georgetown program. It will be interesting to see whether or not he gets that waiver to be able to play this year, how many kids get waivers to be able to play this year. Obviously, his isn’t going to be a coronavirus wavier, well unless he says listen, I was in a major city, like D.C. I felt like I wanted to get out and get to a place that really was as safe as humanly possible. I don’t know the numbers in Lubbock. My guess is it’s not really high, certainly compared to D.C. or where I am in Boston. So maybe he could utilize that. We have no idea right now, but I think some sort of issue that occurred while he was at Georgetown involving him are probably going to be his best bet trying to get a waiver to play right away.”
I want to ask you about another transfer that Beard landed, Marcos Santos-Silva out of Virginia Commonwealth. He’s a walking double-double, and they almost added the Haarms kid out of Purdue and ended up with Santos-Silva like four, five days later to kind of fill in for T.J. Holyfield. Take the listeners that haven’t really seen him play and kind of what he would add to this system and this program.
“Yeah, he’s just a hard-playing big guy who’s not a big-time athlete, unlike McClung. So, you have one athletic guard and kind of more of a skilled, tough, undersized big, which fits Beard. Like it doesn’t fit as much, to me, he struggles against length a little bit, or he has in the past, but he’s a Beard-type player in terms of how he plays and the toughness, and the way he’ll defend and the way he’ll rebound. So, I think, again, he’ll do a lot of dirty work that will compliment some of the other guys as well. Some of the other guards, whether it’s (Nimari Burnett), (Micah Peavy), and now McClung.”
Jeff, how do you see Jamarius Burton fitting in to the program when he does get to play?
“Oh, love him. Love him, guys. I’m a huge Jamarius Burton fan. Another tough, hard-nose guard who’s probably going to sit out the year now, unlike he got the waiver maybe and McClung doesn’t, but ultimately, I think Burton’s going to sit out the year, and he’s a guy who I think, it’ll be perfect timing now too, because I guess McClung is going to want to play a year if he gets cleared this year and try to go to the NBA or pro after this year, put his name in the NBA Draft this year and would withdraw, and you know, Burnett and Peavy are either one-and-done’s, I don’t know. I don’t know their games quite well enough. I haven’t seen them enough on the circuit, but I know they both come highly regarded.”
We thinking top 15, top 10 for Beard’s roster as it stands right now heading into next season?
“Listen, I had them at 10 before this. To me, (McClung) is not cleared. Until he gets cleared, it’s the same thing like Olivier Sarr to Kentucky, and I still have Kentucky right now at 24, and Kentucky fans are killing me. And I’m saying, ‘Well, until the day comes when Olivier Sarr is cleared by the NCAA, then I’ll move them up, but I’m not moving Texas Tech. I had them at 10 this morning. I’ll keep them at 10 until McClung is cleared, and then to be honest, McClung to me, he is just a little bit of an X-factor guy. Again, I think he’s going to win you some games, but I think he might potentially lose you a couple too because of how wild he can play, and that’s going to be the biggest challenge for Beard to try to figure out, ‘okay, how do I ring him back in when he’s (zero) for his first seven, or am I going to give him the freedom to keep jacking? That’s what he likes to do. As I’ve said, when I do the preseason top 25 or 50, I go through it first, and I do it basely solely on roster and players and talent and all that, experience or whatever. And then I move up and down based on coaches, specific coaches who I don’t trust, I’ll move down five, six spots. You know, you go the Hall-of-Famers, the Bill Selfs, the K’s, and then obviously five spots… This is true: there is no coach that I move up more spots than Chris Beard. Like they don’t have a top-ten roster right now. There’s no way in hell. They probably have a top-20ish roster, but I moved them up probably ten spots because of Chris Beard and what he’s able to do. Now, I am a little worried, guys. Losing Brian Burg is going to be a significant hit, and we haven’t talked about that. It’s going to be a significant hit because that was a guy who did everything for that program and was so underrated. I’m really happy for him that he got the head job, but man, it’s going to be very, very, very difficult to replace him.”
For Tech fans that didn’t watch a lot of Big East basketball the last couple of seasons, what can they expect from new Red Raider Mac McClung?
“The unexpected. The unexpected, I would say, is the best thing to describe Mac McClung. He’s a human highlight film, and obviously his social media following’s been huge. The dunks, he just doesn’t look the part, somebody that’s going to have that type of athleticism. You hate to say it, but the ‘white man can’t jump’ moniker does not reign supreme with Mac McClung. I mean, he can get up, he’s exciting, he can make plays off the bounce, and that’s the one thing that really attracted Chris Beard to Mac McClung because they don’t really look like the perfect marriage, in a way, because McClung is a little (well, not a little bit), but he’s wild. He’s wild, and Beard, he wants a guy who plays well in his system. Obviously, Beard’s meticulous in his preparation, but what Beard realizes is he needs guys that can make plays off the bounce. He didn’t have it this past year. The other really interesting thing facet of all this is Beard trying to get Mac McClung to defend. We all know how Beard: if you don’t guard, you generally don’t get out on the court. McClung is not a big-time defender. Can he be a mediocre or an average defender under Beard? That’s going to be the key.”
In any way, does Mac McClung remind you at all, from a basketball standpoint, of Donte Divincenzo from Villanova? I know Tech played them a couple years ago. Any similarity there at all?
“I don’t see it, other than he’s white. I don’t see it. Not much, I mean, I guess they’re both athletic, but Divincenzo was much more under control than Mac McClung. Again, there’s some days where I watch Mac McClung at Georgetown and I’m like, ‘Aw man.’ Like, he’s unbelievable right now, and then, there’s other days where he shot him completely out of the game, and that’s going to be the challenge for Beard is to try to figure this thing out with a team that’s got some talented, talented freshmen coming in. McClung wants to be a guy with the ball in his hands, but he’s got a couple of guys I think that can play with the ball in their hands. Listen, winning sure is everything for the most part, as long as they win, which my thing is ‘In Beard I Trust.’ He’ll figure out a way to get it done. He’ll figure out a way to get the most out of Mac McClung, and ultimately, listen, the biggest sale pitch he had here were the two guys, Tariq Owens and Matt Mooney, transfers that he put into the NBA, came in at Texas Tech, not a single NBA had them anywhere near the NBA radar.”
Jeff, why did McClung leave Georgetown?
“I’ve heard several variations of the story. I don’t know the truth, so I can’t really speculate, yet, until I know 100 percent the truth, but obviously there were some things that happened in that program that people are saying he wanted more touches, he wanted the ball in his hands a little bit more. That may be the case. I don’t think he’s going to have it in his hands that much more at Texas Tech. I think there were some other things that happened with that Georgetown program. It will be interesting to see whether or not he gets that waiver to be able to play this year, how many kids get waivers to be able to play this year. Obviously, his isn’t going to be a coronavirus wavier, well unless he says listen, I was in a major city, like D.C. I felt like I wanted to get out and get to a place that really was as safe as humanly possible. I don’t know the numbers in Lubbock. My guess is it’s not really high, certainly compared to D.C. or where I am in Boston. So maybe he could utilize that. We have no idea right now, but I think some sort of issue that occurred while he was at Georgetown involving him are probably going to be his best bet trying to get a waiver to play right away.”
I want to ask you about another transfer that Beard landed, Marcos Santos-Silva out of Virginia Commonwealth. He’s a walking double-double, and they almost added the Haarms kid out of Purdue and ended up with Santos-Silva like four, five days later to kind of fill in for T.J. Holyfield. Take the listeners that haven’t really seen him play and kind of what he would add to this system and this program.
“Yeah, he’s just a hard-playing big guy who’s not a big-time athlete, unlike McClung. So, you have one athletic guard and kind of more of a skilled, tough, undersized big, which fits Beard. Like it doesn’t fit as much, to me, he struggles against length a little bit, or he has in the past, but he’s a Beard-type player in terms of how he plays and the toughness, and the way he’ll defend and the way he’ll rebound. So, I think, again, he’ll do a lot of dirty work that will compliment some of the other guys as well. Some of the other guards, whether it’s (Nimari Burnett), (Micah Peavy), and now McClung.”
Jeff, how do you see Jamarius Burton fitting in to the program when he does get to play?
“Oh, love him. Love him, guys. I’m a huge Jamarius Burton fan. Another tough, hard-nose guard who’s probably going to sit out the year now, unlike he got the waiver maybe and McClung doesn’t, but ultimately, I think Burton’s going to sit out the year, and he’s a guy who I think, it’ll be perfect timing now too, because I guess McClung is going to want to play a year if he gets cleared this year and try to go to the NBA or pro after this year, put his name in the NBA Draft this year and would withdraw, and you know, Burnett and Peavy are either one-and-done’s, I don’t know. I don’t know their games quite well enough. I haven’t seen them enough on the circuit, but I know they both come highly regarded.”
We thinking top 15, top 10 for Beard’s roster as it stands right now heading into next season?
“Listen, I had them at 10 before this. To me, (McClung) is not cleared. Until he gets cleared, it’s the same thing like Olivier Sarr to Kentucky, and I still have Kentucky right now at 24, and Kentucky fans are killing me. And I’m saying, ‘Well, until the day comes when Olivier Sarr is cleared by the NCAA, then I’ll move them up, but I’m not moving Texas Tech. I had them at 10 this morning. I’ll keep them at 10 until McClung is cleared, and then to be honest, McClung to me, he is just a little bit of an X-factor guy. Again, I think he’s going to win you some games, but I think he might potentially lose you a couple too because of how wild he can play, and that’s going to be the biggest challenge for Beard to try to figure out, ‘okay, how do I ring him back in when he’s (zero) for his first seven, or am I going to give him the freedom to keep jacking? That’s what he likes to do. As I’ve said, when I do the preseason top 25 or 50, I go through it first, and I do it basely solely on roster and players and talent and all that, experience or whatever. And then I move up and down based on coaches, specific coaches who I don’t trust, I’ll move down five, six spots. You know, you go the Hall-of-Famers, the Bill Selfs, the K’s, and then obviously five spots… This is true: there is no coach that I move up more spots than Chris Beard. Like they don’t have a top-ten roster right now. There’s no way in hell. They probably have a top-20ish roster, but I moved them up probably ten spots because of Chris Beard and what he’s able to do. Now, I am a little worried, guys. Losing Brian Burg is going to be a significant hit, and we haven’t talked about that. It’s going to be a significant hit because that was a guy who did everything for that program and was so underrated. I’m really happy for him that he got the head job, but man, it’s going to be very, very, very difficult to replace him.”
