BREAKING: Mac McClung commits to Texas Tech

Former Georgetown guard Mac McClung has decided on Texas Tech for his transfer destination. After the conclusion of his sophomore season, McClung announced he would enter the NBA Draft and test the waters. During the process, Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing announced that McClung would return to Georgetown for his junior season, an announcement that left McClung “blindside[d]”. This was just one of the many apparent riffs that led to the end of McClung’s relationship with Ewing. When McClung hit the transfer portal, it was clear how sought after he was. After he named Texas Tech in his Top-7 finalist, McClung received an insane amount of attention on Twitter from Red Raiders such as Patrick Mahomes, Jarrett Culver, Marcus Santos-Silva, Kyler Edwards (who offered his number), Tariq Owens, Nimari Burnett, Matt Mooney, and even Josh Abbott.

If McClung’s name sounds familiar, you may remember him from when he took the nation by storm in high school. He was regarded as one of the most exciting prospects ever, captivating hoops fans with his smooth handle and highlight reel dunks. He played with a LOT of confidence, a mentality that drove him to break multiple Virginia high school records. McClung’s senior season BallisLife mixtape has nearly 3 million views on Youtube.

McClung has started all but one of his 50 college basketball games thus far. He showed definite signs of improvement last season, increasing his points, steals, and assists averages from his freshman season. He is very effective at attacking the rim. Often the primary ball-handler, McClung uses a crossover or his quick first step to get to the basket. Although his dunks are what made him viral, he has a nice layup package that allows him to finish over bigs in the paint. He shoots the ball a lot, but it does him some consequence; McClung is only shooting 32% from deep and 39% from the floor.

First reaction is that it seems due to shot selection, but if it’s an issue with mechanics then his 80% shooting from the line keeps me optimistic. McClung is good at intercepting passes, averaging 1.4 steals last season, but Mark Adams will be spending a lot of time working with McClung on the defensive end. His defensive numbers are not great - only 0.5 of his 1.9 win shares came from the defensive side of the ball. Although his OBPM was impressive at 4.6, his DBPM was in the negatives. Surrounded by the two best defensive minds in college basketball, there’s an opportunity for McClung to become a reliable piece on the defensive side of the ball (possibly for the first time in his career).

The question now: when will McClung play?

As you can see, McClung intends to play one more year of college ball, specifically at the PG position, and then head to the NBA. My concern with that is if he can even get that waiver to play next season. There have been rumors surrounding the possibility of Mac taking a massive summer course-load and becoming a grad transfer, but that is still wildly uncertain or and remains to be seen as even possible. We are also very aware that when the NCAA is put in a position to give a college hooper a waiver outside of their existing circumstances they rarely do so. The development of McClung’s waiver status will be an important story to watch. Hopefully we’re not headed into another Joel Ntambwe type situation.