[LINK] Brian Murphy, Macon Terlegraph, Friday 11/25
When Clinch was 10, he played in a league
for 11- and 12-year-olds. In one game, he scored 31 of his team's 39
points. Bryant still has the story that appeared in the local newspaper. By the time he reached high school, Clinch earned a spot with the
Georgia Hawks, an AAU-team based out of Moultrie. He immediately
impressed the coaches with his willingness to work at his craft. "He would go down there and do these shooting drills over and over
and over again. It's hard to find a flaw in his shooting form," said
Seth Berl, who coached Clinch with the Hawks for four years. It was Berl who engineered a strategy for introducing Clinch to the
cut-throat world of college recruiting. Instead of placing the Hawks,
which also featured Charles Jackson (Illinois) and Rashaad Singleton
(Georgia), in national tournaments before they were ready, Berl held
them out until his star trio was old enough to handle it. "When the kids are young, it doesn't help them to play in national
tournaments. If a player is highly ranked, then they've got to live up
to certain expectations and there's no where to go but down," Berl
said. "Players I've coached that ended up in the top 100 came out of
nowhere. They created extreme excitement their junior and senior year." It's an unusual strategy of the highly competitive AAU circuit and
nationally-known teams, such as the Atlanta Celtics, pursued Clinch.
But he resisted. "I stuck with my hometown team. There are teams that recruit all
over the country for their AAU team. I didn't want to be one of those
guys. I felt I could make something out of a small team," Clinch said. He did. The Hawks became a serious player on the national scene. So
did their star shooting guard. Berl's strategy paid off, and Clinch
created a huge recruiting buzz. Tech swooped in, as did programs from
across the nation, for the player called the 27th-best prospect in
America by TheInsiders.com, a recruiting service.
Clinch listened to his wise mother. "My No. 1 fan," he called her. He chose Tech because it felt right and because his mother would be able to make it to most of his games. He has her name - D. Bryant - written on the Velcro of his game shoes.
"I dedicate everything to my mother," said Clinch, whose parents are divorced. He maintains a close relationship with both.
Clinch, averaging 13.5 points in two games for the Yellow Jackets, would like to dedicate a few more awards to her. Despite getting very little recognition in preseason ACC Rookie of the Year voting, Clinch has his sights set on the award.
"Without question, I definitely want to compete for that. In order to do that, you also have to help the team," Clinch said. "That's a goal I will put out there for myself. I feel I'm just as good as the people they put out there or better."
He'll have to prove that to voters this season. But there's one title - Mr. Cordele - that Clinch is simply taking. He's getting the moniker added to his shoes.
And if someone else has that title?
"I'm taking the title, even if they do. I'm representing it hard," Clinch said.
His game, molded on the Cordele clay with the force of a dibble, speaks just as boldly.
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Posted by: blackwhite | 05/21/2010 at 05:57