Latest news with #MAACPlayeroftheYear
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Did the Heat Miss Out on the Next Steph Curry?
Did the Heat Miss Out on the Next Steph Curry? originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The pick is in -- and it came as quite a surprise to fans around the NBA world. On Wednesday night at the 2025 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Washington Wizards swooped in for a decorated, dazzling sharpshooter whose championship grit earned him increasingly feverish comparisons to a different member of the Warriors: Stephen Curry. Advertisement You know, the single greatest shooter of all time. Then, a trade flew in out of nowhere. The Wiz were actually sending this particular hot-handed star to the Utah Jazz. The only problem? All the late momentum had reportedly pointed directly toward the Miami Heat. When the dust had settled, Walter Clayton Jr. of the national champion Florida Gators was the next member of the Utah Jazz. Florida Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. drives on Houston Cougars guard Mylik Wilson in the championship of the 2025 NCAA Tournament Final Four in San Antonio, Texas© Bob Donnan-Imagn Images When it was Miami's turn to select at No. 20, they opted for Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionus. To be totally fair, it was widely considered a surprise to see him still available in the back end of Round 1. Advertisement With every decision comes a handful of opportunity costs, however. Clayton came up in Lake Wales, Florida before ultimately achieving superstar status under coach Todd Golden in Gainesville. Able to play both guard positions, he averaged 18.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.2 assists on 44.8% shooting as a senior playing primarily as a point guard. Erik Spoelstra's Heat, in addition to playing ball just three hours southeast of Clayton's hometown, ranked near the bottom of the NBA with barely 110 points per contest last season. They snuck into the 2024-25 NBA Playoffs with the 10th and final seed in the East, crashing out via sweep against the Cleveland Cavaliers. You'd have thought the man who increasingly drew comparisons to the inhumanly clutch Chef Curry would have been an ideal fit to help out the starring trio of Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Andrew Wiggins in the scoring department. Advertisement It simply was not to be. Walter Clayton Jr. College Stats 2024-25 PPG: 18.3 RPG: 3.7 APG: 4.2 SPG: 1.2 BPG: 0.5 FG %: 44.8 3P %: 38.6 FT %: 87.5 2025 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player 2025 SEC Tournament MVP 2025 First Team All-American 2025 First Team All-SEC 2024 Second Team All-SEC 2023 MAAC Player of the Year 2023 First Team All-MAAC This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 26, 2025, where it first appeared.
USA Today
23-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Walter Clayton Jr. among ESPN's top draft prospects who were unranked in high school
Rankings never mattered to Walter Clayton Jr. The Iona transfer began to focus on basketball after giving up football as a junior in high school, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to limited looks from college coaches during his senior year. Despite being unranked by the industry recruiting leaders, Clayton led Bartow High School to a pair of Class 6A state titles. The only coach to take a chance on him? Rick Pitino at Iona. The head coaching legend developed Clayton into the MAAC Player of the Year and a priority guard in the portal once both left the school in the summer of 2023. Both 247Sports and On3 gave him a four-star grade as a transfer recruit, with the latter recruiting service placing him inside the top 25 for that year's portal class. Clayton narrowed things down to a few options and heavily considered following Pitino to St. John's, but Todd Golden gave him the chance to be a part of the program turnaround in his home state of Florida. From there, the rest is well-documented Florida Gators history. All-American status, an SEC title and a national championship are just a few of the achievements at the top of Clayton's resume after two years with the Orange and Blue. "I don't care that these guys weren't ranked high, they're bad ass players and they're going to the Final Four," Golden said after Clayton helped orchestrate a comeback win in the Elite Eight over Texas Tech. After four years, the unranked kid who just decided he wanted to play basketball instead of football is a potential first-round pick. ESPN recently included Clayton in its list of the top five NBA draft prospects who were unranked coming out of high school. "Clayton's game took another leap down the stretch of the NCAA tournament," wrote national recruiting director Paul Biancardi. "He shot 43% on pull-up 3s and 41% on catch-and-shoot attempts, according to Synergy Sports. Scouts see Jalen Brunson-like qualities in Clayton's game. He's a mature plug-and-play guard with size, clutch instincts and the ability to impact games in a variety of ways. He's also battle-tested after navigating the SEC gauntlet for the Gators en route to a championship." While other previously unranked high schoolers may go ahead of Clayton — Washington State Shooting guard Cedric Coward and Michigan power forward Danny Wolf are both projected mid-first rounders — Biancardi gives the Florida point guard a late first-round grade. "Clayton should benefit from other college prospects opting to return to school and chase NIL deals. His draft range starts in the first round, with Orlando at the 25th pick, and he shouldn't fall past the 76ers at No. 35." It's worth noting that the only other SEC player on this list was Tennessee's Chaz Lanier, who is a projected second-rounder. As far as identifying underrated talent at the mid-major level, Golden and the Gators have one of the top systems in college hoops. Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
Miami Herald
24-03-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Transfer portal roundup: Xavier, Seton Hall lose scorers
Dailyn Swain was one of three Xavier players to enter the transfer portal on Monday. The portal opened for men's college basketball players the same day that coach Sean Miller left Xavier for the job at Texas. Teammates Trey Green and Cam'Ron Fletcher reportedly joined Swain in the portal. Swain, a guard, was the Musketeers' third-leading scorer as a sophomore at 11.0 points per game, a sharp uptick from his 4.6 average the year before. Swain started 33 of the 34 games he played in 2024-25 and also added 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and a team-leading 1.6 steals per contest. Green was limited to nine games before stepping away due to a health issue. He scored 5.0 ppg, while Fletcher averaged 1.3 in 11 appearances. --Seton Hall is losing leading scorer Isaiah Coleman to the portal. Coleman became the No. 1 option for the Pirates in 2024-25 and averaged 15.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game. The Pirates went a dismal 7-25 (2-18 Big East). A former four-star recruit, Coleman has career averages of 10.3 points and 3.9 rebounds in 63 games (32 starts). --Baylor guard Langston Love entered the portal, not long after the Bears lost to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Love played three seasons at Baylor and averaged 8.5 points and 2.6 rebounds in 74 games (14 starts). He had a career-best 11.0 points per game off the bench in 2023-24, and he started 12 of his 20 games as a junior in 2024-25, averaging 8.9 ppg. --Quinnipiac forward Amarri Monroe, the MAAC Player of the Year, is in the portal. Monroe put up 18.1 points, a conference-high 9.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game for the Bobcats this season in 32 games (31 starts). Those were all career highs, along with his 82.6 percent shooting at the foul line and 1.6 assists per game. --Blake Harper, who won MEAC Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors, will transfer from Howard. The guard averaged a whopping 19.5 points per game as a freshman to go with 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 32 games, all starts. --South Dakota State forward Oscar Cluff is in the portal after winning Summit League Newcomer of the Year and being named first-team all-conference. Cluff transferred to South Dakota State after one season at Washington State. With the Jackrabbits, the Australian put up 17.6 points and a league-leading 12.3 rebounds per game, shooting 63.4 percent from the field. --CAA Rookie of the Year Izaiah Pasha will look to transfer out of Delaware. Pasha tallied 11.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game for the Blue Hens this season in 34 games (33 starts). --Field Level Media Field Level Media 2023 - All Rights Reserved
Reuters
24-03-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Transfer portal roundup: Xavier, Seton Hall lose scorers
March 24 - Dailyn Swain was one of three Xavier players to enter the transfer portal on Monday. The portal opened for men's college basketball players the same day that coach Sean Miller left Xavier for the job at Texas. Teammates Trey Green and Cam'Ron Fletcher reportedly joined Swain in the portal. Swain, a guard, was the Musketeers' third-leading scorer as a sophomore at 11.0 points per game, a sharp uptick from his 4.6 average the year before. Swain started 33 of the 34 games he played in 2024-25 and also added 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and a team-leading 1.6 steals per contest. Green was limited to nine games before stepping away due to a health issue. He scored 5.0 ppg, while Fletcher averaged 1.3 in 11 appearances. --Seton Hall is losing leading scorer Isaiah Coleman to the portal. Coleman became the No. 1 option for the Pirates in 2024-25 and averaged 15.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game. The Pirates went a dismal 7-25 (2-18 Big East). A former four-star recruit, Coleman has career averages of 10.3 points and 3.9 rebounds in 63 games (32 starts). --Baylor guard Langston Love entered the portal, not long after the Bears lost to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Love played three seasons at Baylor and averaged 8.5 points and 2.6 rebounds in 74 games (14 starts). He had a career-best 11.0 points per game off the bench in 2023-24, and he started 12 of his 20 games as a junior in 2024-25, averaging 8.9 ppg. --Quinnipiac forward Amarri Monroe, the MAAC Player of the Year, is in the portal. Monroe put up 18.1 points, a conference-high 9.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game for the Bobcats this season in 32 games (31 starts). Those were all career highs, along with his 82.6 percent shooting at the foul line and 1.6 assists per game. --Blake Harper, who won MEAC Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors, will transfer from Howard. The guard averaged a whopping 19.5 points per game as a freshman to go with 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 32 games, all starts. --South Dakota State forward Oscar Cluff is in the portal after winning Summit League Newcomer of the Year and being named first-team all-conference. Cluff transferred to South Dakota State after one season at Washington State. With the Jackrabbits, the Australian put up 17.6 points and a league-leading 12.3 rebounds per game, shooting 63.4 percent from the field. --CAA Rookie of the Year Izaiah Pasha will look to transfer out of Delaware. Pasha tallied 11.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game for the Blue Hens this season in 34 games (33 starts).
