Harty: Anthony Clemmons being rewarded for staying the course
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Over-shadowed by a heavy ball and Iowa’s first Big Ten loss of the season was the performance of senior guard Anthony Clemmons against Maryland on Thursday.
The Lansing, Mich., native was arguably the best guard on the court, which speaks volumes, considering the star status of Maryland point guard Melo Trimble.
From his activity on defense to his timely shooting to his sure ball handling, the 6-foot-1 Clemmons was a force against the Terrapins, scoring 11 points and committing zero turnovers. He also made two of Iowa’s five 3-point baskets despite using what some of the Iowa players said after the game was a heavy ball.
“He was locked in,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of Clemmons, who will make his 46th career start on Sunday against Northwestern at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “He accepted the challenge of guarding Trimble when it was his turn.”
Clemmons has been a stabilizing force for much of the season, one of four senior starters who have led No. 2 Iowa’s climb to elite status.
His 8.7 per-game scoring average is nearly double what he averaged last season. And with 10 conference games still remaining, he only needs three steals to match his career high of 24 in a season.
“He’s playing like a senior who wants to have a great senior year, no question,” McCaffery said.
Clemmons is a shining example of what happens when you stay the course, don’t make excuses and trust the people who care for you and have your best interest.
He very easily could’ve bolted from Iowa after a frustrating sophomore season in which he was buried on the bench. Clemmons only scored 78 points as a sophomore. He also didn’t start a game as a sophomore after starting 13 games as a freshman.
So he had clearly regressed from his freshman season to his sophomore season.
Clemmons flirted with the idea of transferring after his sophomore season, but his family encouraged him to finish what he had started at Iowa. His father, Anthony Askew, warned Clemmons that if he quit something once, it would be easier to quit the next time he faced adversity.
His father also used tough love on Clemmons by telling him that fellow guards Devyn Marble and Mike Gesell had played better than him during the 2013-14 season.
"It really took my dad to tell me," Clemmons said to the Iowa City Press-Citizen in May 2014. "He just flat out told me, ‘Mike’s playing better than you. Dev is being Dev.’ And they were the two people at my position. My dad was one of my biggest critics, but he always kept it real with me."
Clemmons also couldn’t bring himself to quit on McCaffery. Clemmons likely was headed to a mid-major program until McCaffery offered him a scholarship.
"Even if I wanted to (transfer), my pride just wouldn’t let me tell (coach) McCaffery I want to leave," Clemmons said to the Press-Citizen. "Because I know he recruited me for a reason. I know what I’m capable of doing and I didn’t show it (this past season)."
Clemmons has been a work in progress at Iowa, sometimes a slow work in progress. He played well as a freshman, but was average at best as a sophomore and junior. Clemmons mostly was used as Gesell’s backup at point guard until this season.
He and Gesell now are almost interchangeable on the court, in addition to be close friends off it.
"He’s so good at being able to flip him from the point or the off-guard position," McCaffery said.
It’s easy to quit or to make excuses during tough times when the answer to your problems might be staring right back at you in the mirror.
Clemmons looked in the mirror after his sophomore season and didn’t like what he saw. With encouragement from his family, he vowed to change and now look at him.