Elijah Clarance-Swedish National Team

[Bird Friend]

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.

I think they will be far from the #3 team in the world after this tourney. Considering they're playing for 9th through 12th place, it seems they're bound to drop. Also, color me unimpressed with Lithuania's overall talent, skill, and play. It seemed to me that the only thing they really had more of than Sweden was height.

 

[Hamdonger]

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.

So what's your overall take of JJeff??

 

[Adunk33]

For you early birds, Elijah is playing vs Romania now. Just go to YouTube and search FIBA.

 

[Adunk33]

Another huge dunk for Elijah. He has 14 of his teams 19 first quarter points. Romania is bad.

 

[Adunk33]

He leads his team with 14 at the half. He didn't play much in the second quarter.

 

[Adunk33]

Sweden got the win. Elijah had 27 points, 10 boards, 2 assists and a steal. Also 5 TO.

Full box score:http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u20/2018/game/2107/Sweden-Romania#tab=boxscore

The two biggest improvements he needs to make is ball security and finishing his right hand. Obviously his shot needs work and I would call him an adequate defender, at best. But if he starts to take care of the ball, he'll find himself on the court a lot more often and then if he can finish with his right, his FG% will increase by 15-25%.

 

[Bird Friend]

Another huge dunk for Elijah. He has 14 of his teams 19 first quarter points. Romania is bad.

https://twitter.com/FIBA/status/1020635588138070016

 

[JHBird]

That was a pretty awesome dunk. Hopefully we'll be seeing a bunch more like that at RBA.

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

He looks like he is getting his confidence back. Hopefully Dan and staff will have the film dissected by the time Elijah gets on campus so they can work on his weaknesses. Kid has really bright future.

 

[Adunk33]

Final game now vs Greece. Elijah has 11 of the team's 20. Winner of this game gets the coveted 13th place participation ribbon.

 

[Adunk33]

11 points at halftime. 36-33 Greece. When Elijah exceeds 12 points in this game he clinches the scoring title for the tournament.

 

[Adunk33]

He is unofficially, officially the scoring champ, averaging 20+ ppg.

 

[Adunk33]

Sweden lost. Elijah had 21. Leading scorer in the tournament http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u20/2018/game/2207/Sweden-Greece#tab=boxscore

14th place.

 

[DannyCooksey]

Sweden lost. Elijah had 21. Leading scorer in the tournament http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u20/2018/game/2207/Sweden-Greece#tab=boxscore

14th place.

He looked healthy. He played well. Presumably he gained back some much needed confidence.

Great summer

 

[johnaaa10]

https://twitter.com/redbird_mbb/status/1021039782280028160?s=21

 

[Bird Friend]

Sweden was ice cold. EC and one other player took 30 (15 each) of the team's 64 shots and made 15. The rest of the team was 7-34. Their normal 3-pt specialist was 1-9 from 3. Elijah was7-8 from the line, so that's a good sign.

I didn't see the game, so don't know if Greece just played better D or Sweden just couldn't hit. EC had 5 turnovers and only 1 assist--which is not good--but not sure if that was because of Greece's play or Elijah's.

The pieces of the games I did see--which wasn't much, honestly--indicated that EC just didn't have a complete team behind him. They lacked size to attack the boards, height to guard the paint, and a couple of their guards looked really, really raw.

I really hope EC gets some sort of recognition from the tourney committee for his play beyond being the tourney's leading scorer. But being on the 14th place team, I won't be surprised if he doesn't.

 

[Bird Friend]

Alas, EC did not win recognition . . .

And the FIBA U20 European Championship 2018 MVP is...
Yovel Zoosman – FIBA U20 European Championship MVP!

He was not named to the the "All Star Five"

FIBA U20 European Championship All-Star Five
Mate Kalajzic (CRO)
Kostja Mushidi (GER)
Yovel Zoosman (ISR)
Deni Avdija (ISR)
Filip Stanic (GER)​

 

[Adunk33]

Alas, EC did not win recognition . . .

And the FIBA U20 European Championship 2018 MVP is...
Yovel Zoosman – FIBA U20 European Championship MVP!

He was not named to the the "All Star Five"

FIBA U20 European Championship All-Star Five
Mate Kalajzic (CRO)
Kostja Mushidi (GER)
Yovel Zoosman (ISR)
Deni Avdija (ISR)
Filip Stanic (GER)​

That's ridiculous that he didn't get any accolades. I understand he was on the 14th place team (which actually causes Sweden to be relegated to the B- league), but he averaged the post points in the tournament. Most points since 2 NBA players were in the tournament. Definitely seems some bias was in full effect there.

Regarding his turnovers in all games, I would say generally they were a result of Elijah trying to do too much.

I look forward to him getting to campus and work with Duhon. If I'm the coaches I have Elijah end every practice/workout with at least 20 right handed layups through contact. Then have him shoot the FTs that would be associated with them. If he was making them with his right hand, he would have averaged around 6 more points per game.

I think this was a good experience for him overall. He played some solid teams and as Bird Friend suggested, he didn't have the team behind him. Sweden had no size what so ever to the point I believe EC was their leading rebound. Personally, I appreciate Elijah playing in this tournament because it gave me something basketball related to track the past few weeks.

 

[Bird Friend]

Tourney highlights for EC:

https://twitter.com/artinhojat/status/1021064727252930560?s=21

 

[Bird Friend]

Incidentally, there are a couple nice right-handed finishes in the highlights. Yes, he needs to work on it, but it’s not like he can’t go right.