Welcome to the Lion’s Den, where we retreat to discuss thought-provoking questions, and provide some occasional food for thought.
Five days removed from a second round tournament loss to Texas, Micah Shrewsberry announced that he was leaving Penn State basketball to return to his roots, as he became the 18th head men’s basketball coach at the University of Notre Dame.
Nearly everyone else involved with the team followed suit in a mass exodus.
After the dust settled, only three scholarship players remained on the team, one of which was Kanye Clary.
Clary, a 5’11”, shifty left-hander from Virginia Beach, had averaged 3.7 points per game in his initial campaign, while becoming a more vital piece of the team as the season progressed.
One might have predicted Clary’s star would shine a little brighter once he re-affirmed his commitment to Penn State and expressed his excitement to play under Rhoades and the new staff.
But hardly anyone saw this coming.
At 16.7 points per game, Clary was not only the Lions leading scorer on the year, but that mark was good enough to place him 7th in the BIG10 conference, by far the best scoring mark of any true sophomore.
And then, the second half at home against Minnesota happened.
The Lions, extending what was some carryover home momentum from a win against Wisconsin the week prior, raced out to a 16 point lead early in the 2nd half. Things only spiraled downhill from there as the Gophers outscored the blue and white by a 52-27 margin the rest of the way.
Oh, and Clary got hurt.
A brief two-game absence coincided with the team’s first two BIG10 road wins of the season, but everyone was still looking forward to the return of the dynamic Clary– expecting him to provide a late-season spark to this Penn State squad with newfound postseason aspirations.
Except that never materialized.
As he was eased back into game action, Kanye never quite looked like himself. The bounce he displayed earlier in the season wasn’t fully back, the finishes at the rim lacked their magic, and most noticeably, the joy was gone.
Clary did not travel with the team on their road trip to Lincoln this past weekend, and then at a press conference Monday morning, Rhoades confirmed the writing on the wall: Kanye Clary was no longer a member of the Penn State basketball team.
No matter how you slice it, it’s never a good thing to have your leading scorer removed from the team mid-season. Especially one that was 7th in the BIG10 in scoring as a true sophomore. Penn State basketball just doesn’t get a chance to have a player like that very often.
At the same time, there are other things worth noticing.
Penn State was 2-1 without Clary on the floor, all three road games in BIG10 play. In the two wins, their only two conference road wins this year, the offense clicked, Penn State posted a rare positive rebounding margin, and their opponents combined to go 6-for-36 from three. Ace Baldwin was also unlocked.
Starting two players under 6’1″, with similar skillsets, was always going to be a challenging puzzle for Mike Rhoades to figure out, but even to the untrained eye, there seemed to be some immediate benefit to not having Ace Baldwin and Kanye Clary on the floor together.
Now, solving that puzzle will no longer be a required challenge of the job for Rhoades, who claimed responsibility for the dismissal. Rhoades consistently preaches that he is committed to Penn State long-term and is trying to build a culture and a program that lasts. It appears as if Clary is no longer a part of that vision.
So, the world turns. And, in the ever-evolving landscape of college basketball, it is these types of decisions, the ones where the answer to the question: “what’s in it for me?” is no longer good enough for the player, and so he’s gone, are becoming more and more frequent.
But as is true in life, when the masses zig, a window of opportunity usually presents itself for a well-timed zag.
Maybe, just maybe, in a sport whose beauty is often found in team results that far exceed (or fall short of) the sum of each individual part, one team will eventually reap what has seemingly become de-prioritized for so many others in the rush to maximize every individual dollar made. That is, winning, of course.