Mac McClung going to Texas Tech Basketball is a huge move that could put them as a national contender. But there are risks involved as well.
When Georgetown lead guard Mac McClung decided to enter the transfer portal over a week ago, there were seven teams in the running to land him. There was Wake Forest, Memphis, USC, Auburn, BYU, and Arkansas all involved but in the end, it was Texas Tech Basketball who got his commitment.
It’s a huge potential boost for the Red Raiders, who just saw junior guard Davide Moretti opt to forego his final year in college to play overseas. The Italian guard averaged 13 ppg this past season and shot 40% from three-point range in three years. His departure left open a hole in the starting lineup but possibly, McClung can fill in for him next season.
The former Hoya averaged 15.7 ppg this past season, including a career-high 33-point effort and multiple performances of over 20 points. The former three-star prospect proved to be a high-level scorer and athlete and carried the team this year when healthy after multiple rotation players left the program midway.
Currently, McClung would have to sit out the upcoming season per NCAA rules after the body elected to keep the traditional transfer rules. It’s likely to change in 2021 but for McClung and other 2020 offseason transfers, their eligibility will depend on individual waiver requests. For this player, he may have a case after everything that has happened with the Georgetown program in the past few months.
Red Raider fans are absolutely ecstatic about this high-profile transfer pickup and they should. But as good as McClung can make them, he also could be problematic for Texas Tech Basketball. Here are some pros and cons about this transaction.
What could go wrong with Mac McClung with Texas Tech Basketball?
With everything going on with Covid-19 and the colleges dealing with financial insecurity, the NCAA probably has more things to deal with in the coming months. And with a record number of waiver requests in the final year to do so (assuming transfer rules do change in January), I have a feeling that there will be a number of waivers given out, including to McClung. So this piece going forward will be under the assumption that he will play in 2020-21.
During the NBA Draft process with McClung, it was reported that his best chance to make the top hoops league is from the point guard position. He mostly played off-ball at Georgetown and at 6’2 is just too small to play as a shooting guard in the NBA. He does have great athleticism but the shooting and low passing numbers don’t translate as well. So while teams were recruiting McClung as a transfer, a desire was clear that he wanted to be on the ball more and be essentially the de-facto point guard to improve his draft stock.
Since head coach Chris Beard arrived in Lubbock, the Red Raiders distribution of the ball has been unique. Rather than one individual averaging over five assists a game, this team usually does it by committee. Just last season, Chris Clarke, technically a forward, led them with 4.6 apg. Texas Tech Basketball thrives through the play of the wings, including Jarrett Culver, Zhaire Smith and Jahmi’us Ramsey. Next season likely will be the same, between Nimari Burnett, Kyler Edwards and possibly No. 1 recruit Jonathan Kuminga if he picks the Red Raiders.
Compared to the roster at Georgetown, McClung is going to have a ton of weapons surrounding him. It’ll certainly help him if he changes his game to become a much better passer and facilitator but if he remains a shoot-first guard, there could be chemistry concerns if he tries too much.
There’s a real possibility that he only averages 12-14 ppg, with an uptick in assists. Is that good enough for him or will he try to have a similar season as Baylor’s Jared Butler and Kansas’ Devon Dotson just had in the Big 12? There have been rumors that the guard wants to be around for only one season before going to the draft so his personal agenda could get in the way of the team’s.
Something also to watch will be how McClung improves defensively. At best, he was below-average overall with the Hoyas. And excuse can be made that he needed to focus more on scoring to keep the team in the game but the effort just wasn’t up to par. That’s not going to work with Texas Tech, who has been one of the best defensive units in all of college basketball. And while the Red Raider’s point guards haven’t been the best passers, they have been elite on defense. McClung will have to improve on that end or risk Coach Beard playing him not as much.
Mac McClung could bring Texas Tech Basketball to another Final Four
During the offseason, all transfers get hyped up to unrealistic levels. There’s an expectation that players such as McClung, LJ Figueroa, Matt Haarms and others will average 20 ppg and be all-conference stars. Out of the hundreds of yearly transfers, only a few have what you would call a “massive” level of impact, with most having solid roles, while many others falling short and being “busts”. McClung’s scoring ability alone will prevent that label but there’s a difference between putting up numbers on a bad team, versus playing in a controlled system where he might not get more than eight shots in a single game.
That being said, McClung is the best guard Texas Tech could’ve gotten this late in the offseason to replace Moretti. Assuming he gets the waiver, that’s instant offense for the team to benefit from. He also is the type of player who can create his own shot, something most of the guards on the roster can’t do at a great level right now. The Raiders did have their fair share of scoring droughts last season and can always use someone who can get a bucket on his own.
And while I do have my current concerns about how the Hoya guard will fit in Texas Tech’s system, I do have to give a big benefit of the doubt to Coach Beard and how he utilizes transfers and maximizes their talents. Both Clarke and TJ Holyfield had good seasons, while Matt Mooney, Tariq Owens and Brandone Francis had big roles on the 2019 national runner-up squad. Mooney, who averaged over 18 ppg at South Dakota before transferring, put up just 11.5 ppg in his final year.
But to the hope of someone like McClung, he still made the NBA and played a few games for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Winning on a top-10 team with lower statistics is better than putting up big numbers on a team that can’t even make the NIT, which can boost McClung’s stock automatically without feeling that he needs to “overdo” it.
In the Big 12, the early predictions are another battle between Kansas and Baylor fighting it out for another title. But if McClung works out, Texas Tech will have something to say about that. They’ll have good balance and great overall depth, thanks to a top-10 incoming recruiting class, along with VCU grad transfer Marcus Santos-Silva joining this offseason. Who knows, maybe the Red Raiders have another deep March run in them.
What else to consider with Mac McClung joining Texas Tech Basketball?
There are plenty of immediate reactions of McClung joining the team, whether for one or two seasons. But there are also implications of this move that’ll impact things going forward, potentially good and bad as well.
Making more offseason noise
When college programs are in the news in the offseason, it’s either good or bad. Usually, it involves losing or gaining a high-profile transfer or high school recruit, or some kind of trouble with the NCAA. For Texas Tech, this is the second year in a row they’ve been in the picture for the top available player in the offseason, also involved with five-star guard prospect RJ Hampton. He ended up overseas but it was still a recruiting boost for the program, still new to the battles for five-star and top transfer players. Getting McClung could help boost their efforts to land Kuminga down the road as well.
Biggest loser of McClung’s arrival
The hope for Texas Tech Basketball is that the former Georgetown guard can simply slide in for Moretti on the perimeter. But there’s a major difference between the two when it comes to usage so there’s a good chance that the other guards will have the ball less in their hands. The one player who’ll have to really adjust his game is rising junior Kyler Edwards, who averaged 11.4 ppg and 3.1 apg last season.
Between McClung’s arrival, another five-star recruit coming in with Burnett and Texas Tech having a true frontcourt to use between Santos-Silva and UNLV transfer Joel Ntambwe, it could be Edwards who numbers suffer overall. That doesn’t even include the chance of Kuminga joining the team. The good news is that he’s an all-around talent, capable of doing just about everything. That skill set will keep Edwards on the court no matter what but his potential impact could be dampened a bit.
What about the other transfer?
While both McClung and Santos-Silva got a ton of fanfare, Texas Tech got a transfer earlier in the offseason in Jamarius Burton, who averaged 10.3 ppg and 3.4 apg as a sophomore for Wichita State. The two-year starter for the Shockers was part of a major exodus once the season was over and he picked the Red Raiders as a point guard of the future. With McClung coming in, there’s little chance Burton will try for a waiver and will be sitting out the 2020-21 season.
As long as the current reported plan stays in place (McClung stays around for just one season while Burton sits), there shouldn’t be any roster issues. But what happens if he doesn’t get the waiver and has to sit? Would Burton be okay knowing that a starting spot would be far from certain in 2021-22? I have no inside info on this but transfers have the right to change their mind once others join the team later in the offseason. A recent example is Ehab Amin, a high-profile grad transfer who picked Nevada in 2018 before going to Oregon instead after the Wolf Pack added other players to the roster.
Considering that Texas Tech Basketball is currently over the scholarship limit, someone will have to leave the team or become a walk-on. That’s a whole other subject in the transfer debate when you consider how coaches treat rosters but in this case, you can’t argue that Coach Beard had the Red Raiders in a great position to compete next season. We’ll see how this move plays out for both the player and the team and whether or not it was a success.
