Elijah Clarance-Swedish National Team

[Adunk33]

Sweden drops a close one, 90-85. Elijah tried to will his team but fell short on a few HEAVY contact lay-ups. Finished with a game-high 25 points, team-high 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 steals. He shot 57% from the field and 3/4 from FT.

Tomorrow is a rest day. I believe their next game is Saturday at 6:30 a.m. against the loser of Montenegro and Romania.

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Finally watched one...that was pretty entertaining.

 

[Hamdonger]

Elijah needs to get better with his right hand.

YupYupYup. This was glaring to me last year.

In saying that, glad to see this experience for him and he's putting up good numbers. If anything, a confidence builder and maybe the game will slow down for him in the middle of his frenetic pace.

 

[Bird Friend]

:text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1: :text-+1:
I watched the Serbia replay and could not agree more. The kid has a lot of potential but he still is so raw especially when finishing. I saw some airball shots via driving to the basket and did not notice him being double teamed at anytime other than the usual help defense stepping up when he drove to the basket. His passing did not impress although his team was overmatched big time so that may have made it difficult. I would be surprised if he logs any significant meaningful minutes this year. If he does then some other new ISU players may be overhyped as well. A lot of athletic potential and seems to have a good attitude but he really needs to continue to improve his overall basketball finesse in order to be an impact player at ISU, IMO.

So if EC logs lots of minutes, it means another player is overhyped? Couldn't possibly mean EC better than you claim, could it?

I hope ISU did not graduate you as your reading compression skills seem to be very poor. Look up the definition of “may” and then go read that post again.

Your 'may' was a piece of loose drift thrown from a strong negative current. It was meaningless. In my opinion you placed it there just so you could claim, "I didn't say that." Bovine scat, is what I call it.

I hope your day may be good.

 

[Bird Friend]

EC led the team in points, boards, assists, and steals (and to be fair, turnovers). That's pretty good.

Couple tweets from a European scout. And I agree with his comment about EC needing to control his own motor. Needs to be a little more patient, not rush so much. Also needs to fully embrace the defensive side of the game.
https://twitter.com/Eurospects/status/1018475627471613952
https://twitter.com/Eurospects/status/1018862474177712128

 

[DoubleDeuce]

I'm no talent scout, but he seems to see and navigate everything between himself and the basket with ease, struggles a bit with the periphery. So stinking athletic!

 

[Adunk33]

https://twitter.com/basketse/status/1020253555758981120

 

[DannyCooksey]

Talent is clear with this one. He has more than enough to be a really, really good college player. As for the motor..........I agree..........he needs to slow down a bit but i'd rather be forced to tell a kid to slow down a bit as opposed to telling him to start playing hard and hustling more.

defensively..........with his athletic ability and strength he should be a very good defensive player with more knowledge and more experience.

if he stays healthy i think he has a breakout season this year.

 

[Hamdonger]

Talent is clear with this one. He has more than enough to be a really, really good college player. As for the motor..........I agree..........he needs to slow down a bit but i'd rather be forced to tell a kid to slow down a bit as opposed to telling him to start playing hard and hustling more.

defensively..........with his athletic ability and strength he should be a very good defensive player with more knowledge and more experience.

if he stays healthy i think he has a breakout season this year.

I don't believe he needs to slow down. I think his mind and decision-making simply needs to catch up with his physical pace...where at the same pace he plays - the game, mentally, slows down for him. Prepare yourselves to be both "wow'd" and frustrated by Elijah this year as we watch him grow.

Tell ya this. We're gonna have some competitive practices this year. Good thing is our 6-10 guys could probably go .500 in The Valley this year. Flip side is...The Valley is very competitive this year, folks. If all of our guys don't play to capability and for each other...we could end up .500 in conf play.

Very excited to see our guys in person!

 

[Adunk33]

Many have compared Elijah to a similar type of player of Russ Westbrook and OKC. I completely agree. I am a huge Kevin Durant fan and hated when he played with Russ. Russ had the athleticism to do anything he wanted but would often not play within himself or he would drive to the lane being heavily guarded and chuck up a prayer. I see a lot of this in Elijah. Once he starts finishing at a higher rate, and with his right hand, we will see the rest of his game develop. He'll take some lumps along the way but is headed in the right direction. He was much better in this tournament yesterday than he was during game one. I see positive progression from game to game.

 

[Redbird28]

Many have compared Elijah to a similar type of player of Russ Westbrook and OKC. I completely agree. I am a huge Kevin Durant fan and hated when he played with Russ. Russ had the athleticism to do anything he wanted but would often not play within himself or he would drive to the lane being heavily guarded and chuck up a prayer. I see a lot of this in Elijah. Once he starts finishing at a higher rate, and with his right hand, we will see the rest of his game develop. He'll take some lumps along the way but is headed in the right direction. He was much better in this tournament yesterday than he was during game one. I see positive progression from game to game.

Sometimes positive progression can be seen when the defense isn't as solid as what a player runs up against in the previous game. Do you feel like that might be the case here?

 

[Hamdonger]

Many have compared Elijah to a similar type of player of Russ Westbrook and OKC. I completely agree. I am a huge Kevin Durant fan and hated when he played with Russ. Russ had the athleticism to do anything he wanted but would often not play within himself or he would drive to the lane being heavily guarded and chuck up a prayer. I see a lot of this in Elijah. Once he starts finishing at a higher rate, and with his right hand, we will see the rest of his game develop. He'll take some lumps along the way but is headed in the right direction. He was much better in this tournament yesterday than he was during game one. I see positive progression from game to game.

That's the thing this year. We have scorers on the team already. Elijah clearly has an aggressive court mentality, a scorer's attitude. My question is...can he and will he be a playmaker? Especially this year?

His ability to beat a man off the dribble and also get in the lane is very impressive. Very impressive. Question though. Does he have the eyes and mentality to see the rest of the court in that breakdown? If so, he'll play a bunch this year. If not, he'll frustrate his teammates...and Dan.

Remember, he's coming in this year having to prove himself. Even with these numbers, he's probably below Hein coming into the season. Now, I believe that'll change rather quickly but he's gotta earn trust. We don't need him to be SwedeSuperman...we need him to help the team BE BETTER.

If he can be a playmaker this year, we will be very tough to beat.

Problem is...I don't think he's a (getting teammates involved) playmaker.

Yet.

 

[Adunk33]

Many have compared Elijah to a similar type of player of Russ Westbrook and OKC. I completely agree. I am a huge Kevin Durant fan and hated when he played with Russ. Russ had the athleticism to do anything he wanted but would often not play within himself or he would drive to the lane being heavily guarded and chuck up a prayer. I see a lot of this in Elijah. Once he starts finishing at a higher rate, and with his right hand, we will see the rest of his game develop. He'll take some lumps along the way but is headed in the right direction. He was much better in this tournament yesterday than he was during game one. I see positive progression from game to game.

Sometimes positive progression can be seen when the defense isn't as solid as what a player runs up against in the previous game. Do you feel like that might be the case here?

Good question. No, I don't think so. Here is what he has done:

7/14 vs Italy: 17 p, 7rb, 5 assists, 2 steals
7/15 vs Iceland: 22p, 6rb, 5 assists, 1 steal,
7/16 vs No. 4 Serbia: 27p, 4rb, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 blk
7/18 vs Israel- 18p, 8rb, 1 assist, 1 steal
7/19 vs No. 3 Lithuania- 25p, 5 rb, 5 steals, 3 assists

So in most cases you can see progression in his scoring. The lone situation where his score dropped was against Israel who clearly had set the goal to deny him even touching the ball. He was able to get 18 through the best defense he has seen. Lithuania, and Serbia played pretty good defense too. When I say progression, I am not solely referring to his stats, I also feel since game 1 he has shown more confidence, composure, and leadership qualities. Yesterday, for example they had the No.3 team in the world on the ropes and his teammate didn't foul late in the game. Elijah got on him about it. Not really in an overly demonstrative way, but he let him know. It will be interesting to see how he transitions back to ISU. ISU and the competition they play will be less physical and more fouls will be called . In addition, he will also go from being "THE" guy to "A" guy. He will come off the bench and provide valuable minutes for us, and battle Boyd for the starting PG spot next year. In this tournament he has also shown the ability to play off the ball. When Sweden's other D1 (Ebrima Dibba, 2018 to Coastal Carolina), guy is in the game, Elijah typically plays off the ball, but is still able to score.

 

[isuquinndog]

If he has the scorer mentality (not saying that he can't be a good playmaker, I think he can be) but would HCDM play him more off the ball?

 

[Reggie Redbird]

The number one addition for this year's team could be Chris Duhon. I have a feeling he is going to step into Yak's D-coord. role for this team and also work closely with our developing our guards. I think it's great Elijah is getting this playing experience over the summer, but I look forward to Duhon getting him in the gym and working with Key, Copeland, and Milik on running the point.

 

[Hamdonger]

If he has the scorer mentality (not saying that he can't be a good playmaker, I think he can be) but would HCDM play him more off the ball?

That's a good question. Very excited to see how this group meshes together.

 

[Hamdonger]

The number one addition for this year's team could be Chris Duhon. I have a feeling he is going to step into Yak's D-coord. role for this team and also work closely with our developing our guards. I think it's great Elijah is getting this playing experience over the summer, but I look forward to Duhon getting him in the gym and working with Key, Copeland, and Milik on running the point.

You might be right.

Can Copeland, Key, Yarbs, Clarence, Hein (don't forget Jefferson, 23ppg he's bound to see some time don't ya think?) protect the basketball? If our turnovers from the guard/guard hybrid position are low...we're gonna have ourselves a memorable year.

I LOVE the competition on this team.

 

[Redbird222]

I actually felt that he showed some signs last year of being a good passer. Yes he had a high turnover ration given minutes played but the passing ability is there. His lack of an outside shot and positioning on defense was in my mind the greatest opportunities for improvement.

 

[Redbird28]

The number one addition for this year's team could be Chris Duhon. I have a feeling he is going to step into Yak's D-coord. role for this team and also work closely with our developing our guards. I think it's great Elijah is getting this playing experience over the summer, but I look forward to Duhon getting him in the gym and working with Key, Copeland, and Milik on running the point.

You might be right.

Can Copeland, Key, Yarbs, Clarence, Hein (don't forget Jefferson, 23ppg he's bound to see some time don't ya think?) protect the basketball? If our turnovers from the guard/guard hybrid position are low...we're gonna have ourselves a memorable year.

I LOVE the competition on this team.

Jefferson will also CREATE a lot of turnovers. I have seen him play a lot of basketball in person and he has a great knack for anticipating and getting into passing lanes. So long as he isn't careless about it I think people will be very surprised at this particular aspect of his game.

 

[Bird Friend]

If he has the scorer mentality (not saying that he can't be a good playmaker, I think he can be) but would HCDM play him more off the ball?

Isn't the rumor that MY will play the point? To me that effectively means KE and EC will play off the ball more than the point.