Anthony Clemmons has silenced some of the Big Ten’s best guards.
By Kyle Mann | k[email protected]
There is a popular belief going around this year’s college basketball season that states there is no “great team” to be anointed the favorite to win the NCAA Tournament. While that may be true, there is only one team that sits in top 15 of both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Iowa’s offense has been remarkable in the 2015-16 season, coming in as the sixth-most efficient team in the country. Almost as impressive, however, has been the 11th-best defense.
Plenty is said about Jarrod Uthoff and his lanky arms with his Big Ten-leading 2.9 blocks per game, and we all know about the 7-foot Adam Woodbury has been hogging rebounds in recent weeks. What doesn’t get as much attention is that Anthony Clemmons has routinely put the clamps down on some of the conference’s most lethal guards.
Clemmons began the year not necessarily as a forgotten man but as the point guard who wasn’t quite the real point guard. Still, the two-point system has worked splendidly on the offensive end, and Clemmons has made a significant impact as a defender. All season long, he has played a large role in quieting very prolific scorers. Wichita State’s NBA-hopeful Ron Baker was held to only 7 points in an 84-61 victory, and similar results have abounded in Big Ten play.
Clemmons held Michigan State’s Bryn Forbes (14.3 points per game) to 3 and 2 points in a pair of huge victories, Maryland’s Melo Trimble (14.8) to only 11, and Illinois’ Kendrick Nunn (16.7) to a season-low 6.
Mike Gesell, after sparring with Clemmons for four years, knows better than anybody how tough Clemmons can be.
“I think he’s, if not the best, one of the best on-ball defenders in the Big Ten, no doubt about it,” Gesell said. “He’s a guy that’s really an anchor for our defense; if there’s ever a guy we need to really shut down, we put him on [the guy] and tell him to go to work.”
Gesell plays the role of your typical floor-leading point guard, and Peter Jok has developed into a defensive playmaker in his own right. Clemmons, however, is the lockdown defender leading one of the top perimeter defenses in the league.
Iowa holds opponents to 29 percent from beyond the arc, second in the Big Ten, and while Clemmons can take a lot of credit for that, head coach Fran McCaffery doesn’t want to leave anybody out.
“[Clemmons] has been terrific,” McCaffery said. “But I think Mike gets underestimated in terms of his ability to defend the point of attack. Mike and Anthony, they’re able to do that. Pete has taken his game to a whole other level at the defensive end … so the starting five is very good.”
As offensively oriented as the Hawkeyes appear, defense is stressed to a high degree in the Carver-Hawkeye walls, and the players share McCaffery’s appreciation for defense. Perhaps none more, however, than Clemmons.
Since the day the Michigan-native stepped on campus, he had a chip on his shoulder. Perhaps he felt the sting of being spurned by the in-state Spartans and Wolverines, but regardless, he plays and defends like a player with something to prove.
“I’ve always been confident at the highest level,” Clemmons said. “I know I’m able to guard just about anybody that I’m put up against, so I’m pretty confident at all times. Because that’s what I do. I prided myself since I stepped on campus.”
Clemmons will have another tough assignment on Thursday with Indiana’s Yogi Ferrell, but Clemmons won’t shy away. He’s just another Hawkeye playing his role and playing it well.
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