Class of 2009 Senior Farewells: Shane Clark's Senior Season

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

This is the final installment of the Shane Clark Senior Farewell, as previous entries - Clark's arrival and freshman year, after originally signing a letter of intent to attend Maryland - as well as his sophomore year... and junior year...

I'll be following it up in subsequent posts for fellow seniors Dante Cunningham, Dwayne Anderson, and Frank Tchuisi...

The following information on Clark's senior season was culled from the Villanova.com site - the averages don't include the Final Four loss to North Carolina...

Clark had come off the bench down the stretch of his junior year. As a senior, Clark remained a role player, and was a significant part of the Wildcats' incredible Final Four run. He continued to come off the bench for the first half of the season, with his minutes ranging from a low of 13 to a high of 22. His final game off the bench was the upset of #4 Pittsburgh at the old Spectrum - the final collegiate game there - on January 28. (It was difficult to imagine at the time, that it wouldn't even be the most memorable victory, over Pittsburgh, this season.)

But when the calendar moved to February, Clark returned to the starting lineup for good, and started the remaining 18 games. Although he didn't play as many minutes as the other starters, Clark ended up logging 687 minutes for the season. As a starter, his minutes ranged from a low of 15 to a high of 29. He reached double-digits in scoring, half a dozen times. Highlights of his senior year included:

• 14 points and 10 rebounds - his sixth career double-double - in the win over Syracuse on Feb. 7.
• 16 points and seven rebounds in the win over Marquette on Feb. 10.
• 15 points and eight rebounds in the season-sweeping win at Syracuse on Feb. 22.
• 13 points - in just 18 minutes - in the win @ Notre Dame.
• Six points and six rebounds in the thrilling win over Marquette in the Big East quarterfinals, when Dwayne Anderson's shot rolled in at the buzzer...

But perhaps Clark's best performance of all came in the already-legendary Elite Eight victory over Pitt on March 27 in Boston. Clark nailed three triples early in the first half, and his sharpshooting forced the Panthers to extend their perimeter defense, opening up opportunities for his Wildcats teammates. Clark finished the contest with 11 points on 4/7 shooting, as well as four rebounds.

Looking at his career as a whole - Clark finished in double figures in points 26 times, and in rebounding five times, ending with five double-doubles... In summary, Clark was a key role player and frequent starter for a class that won more games than any other in Villanova's illustrious history...

Of course, check back for the latest posts in the Senior Farewell series, in which I'll be looking back at the Villanova tenures of each of the other three departing Wildcats...

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged, and will always be answered. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Farewell to Villanova Wildcats Senior Shane Clark - His Junior Season of 2007-08 -

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

Continuing my series of Senior Farewells, here's a look at the junior year of senior Shane Clark...

Also, here are the links to Clark's arrival and freshman year, as well as his sophomore year...

Shane Clark's Junior Season - 2007-08

Clark's junior year saw him start for the first half of the season. However, after starting the first 17 games of the campaign, he came off the bench for the remaining 15 contests. Ironically, he ultimately logged fewer minutes as a junior (713), than he did as a sophomore- he averaged 22.5 minutes/game as a junior. He remained a valuable member of the rotation, nonetheless...

Looking at his season statistics, much of it was similar to his sophomore season.

• He averaged 7.4 points/game, up from 7.1 as a sophomore;
• He averaged 4.3 rebounds/game, up from 4.0 as a sophomore;
• His shooting percentage was 43.9%, up from 43.0% as a sophomore;
• He had 21 steals as a junior, down from 27 as a sophomore;
• He blocked 15 shots as a junior, up from 12 as a sophomore.
  

There was significant change in other respects, though. Clark's three-point attempts plunged from 100 to 56, and it was probably related to a drop in his accuracy from 38.0% to 28.6%. But Clark showed an impressive improvement in two other areas.

First, at the foul line, his accuracy jumped all the way to 84.1%, a remarkable total for a forward, and it represented the second straight year of increased accuracy. (He had shot just 58.6% as a freshman, and had boosted it all the way to 72.2% as a sophomore.)

Second, his assist-to-turnover ratio was considerably better. He had 31 assists against 47 turnovers as a sophomore; as a junior, Clark dealt 35 assists against 34 turnovers.

From the Villanova Wildcats media guide, regarding Clark, game-by-game...

"Posted double-doubles in early season wins over Bucknell and George Mason...
Averaged 13.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game through the season's first nine contests... Scored a career-high 25 points in the season opener against Stony Brook."

Although he no longer started by the time the Wildcats reached the Big East and NCAA tournaments, Clark still scored and rebounded consistently off the bench. Against Syracuse in the first round in Madison Square Garden, Clark narrowly missed a double-double, with 11 points and nine rebounds.

According to the media guide, during the NCAA tournament, in the first round victory over fifth-seeded Clemson, Clark finished with two points, two steals, and tied for the team lead in rebounds with half a dozen. In the second round against Siena, he had half a dozen points and two rebounds... and in the Sweet 16 loss to Kansas, he had a great showing, finishing with 10 points and seven rebounds...

Check back for the latest posts in the series, in which I'll be covering the Villanova tenures of each of the four departing Wildcats - Clark, Dante Cunningham, Frank Tchuisi, and Dwayne Anderson...

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged, and will always be answered. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Farewell to Villanova Wildcats Seniors - Shane Clark's Sophomore Season

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

Continuing with my series on the four departing Villanova Wildcats seniors, here is a look back on Shane Clark's sophomore season - 2006-07...

Also, here's the post on Clark's arrival and freshman year of 2005-06...

Shane Clark's Sophomore Season

2007 was somewhat of a rebuilding season after the glories of 2006, which saw the Wildcats capture a top seed in the NCAA tournament, play the first two rounds at the Wachovia Center, and reach the Elite Eight for the first time in 20 years.

With the departure of Allan Ray, Randy Foye, and Jason Fraser - three of the four players in Jay Wright's first vaunted recruiting class - there were far more minutes to go around.

It was also Shane Clark's first full season on the court, as he hadn't been eligible in the first semester of his freshman year. And due to those two factors, Clark played much more often as a sophomore. After appearing in only 25 games as a freshman, all coming off the bench, Clark played in 33 games and started 10 of them.

Clark established himself as an outside threat. He took 100 three-pointers on the season, connecting on 38 of them (making the math easy). He had taken just two three-point shots as a freshman (although since he made one of those two, his three-point shooting percentage actually dropped 12%).

From the foul line, he improved his accuracy substantially. He drained 72.2% of his free throws, up from 58.6% as a freshman. And his overall field goal percentage was boosted slightly, from 40.9% to 43%.

As a result of playing more games and more minutes, his overall numbers in absolute terms increased as well. He logged just 286 minutes as a freshman; he logged 793 minutes as a sophomore, more than doubling his playing time.

Having scored 54 points all of his freshman year, Clark scored 243 points as a sophomore, with his points/game exploding from 2.2 points to 7.4 points. And he doubled his rebounding - 50 rebounds (2.0 per game) as a freshman; 132 (4.0 per game) as a sophomore.

The only areas where he didn't improve substantially, was in assists to turnover ratio - he committed 47 turnovers as a sophomore, against 31 assists; as a freshman, he had seven assists and eight turnovers.

Looking at some key game-by-game highlights of Clark's season, with the help of the Villanova Wildcats media guide (the source of all quotes in this section):

• Set a then-career-high of 10 points in the season opener against Northwood, in only 17 minutes.
• Had a dozen points and half a dozen rebounds against College of Charleston, with all the points coming after intermission, according to the media guide...
  
• Exploded for 17 points in 29 minutes against Xavier.
• Fouled out for the second time in his career against Iowa, while scoring six points and grabbing four rebounds.
• Scored 11 points in 19 minutes against Stony Brook.

Against City Series rival Pennsylvania-

Played an instrumental role in VU's 99-89 win at Penn on Dec. 2... Supplied 16 points and six rebounds in 30 minuts, and helped spark the 'Cats in the second half...

• Recorded the first double-double of his career against Rider, with 10 points and a dozen rebounds in only 21 minutes.
• Scored 14 points against Georgetown in 28 minutes...

Clark had the best game of his career up till that point, against Texas at the Wachovia Center. Making his first-ever appearance in the starting lineup against the Longhorns, he recorded a double-double with 11 points and a dozen rebounds, plus a pair of blocks. He played a significant role in the Wildcats' 76-69 victory. And according to the media guide-

Was also a key defender in helping limit freshman sensation Kevin Durant, to 4-of-15 shooting and 12 points...

Clark started the next three games, and then came off the bench in a victory against Louisville, ironically, given that he-

Led the 'Cats with 12 points on 4-5 shooting from the field, including three three-pointers...

Unsurprisingly, Clark was back in the starting lineup for the next five games. During that stretch, his next memorable game was in the second contest against Georgetown, in Washington:

Sank four crucial free throws in the final 15 seconds to help VU secure a 56-52 win at Georgetown... Finished with 14 points, two rebounds and two steals in the win...

Clark started the next two games, against Marquette and Rutgers, but was struggling with his shot, and he came off the bench for the rest of the season (which turned out to be five games). Against DePaul and Georgetown in the Big East tournament, he logged 44 minutes in the two games. But he took only one shot and did not score, finishing with four rebounds.

In the first round NCAA tournament loss to Kentucky in Chicago, Clark came off the bench once more, finishing with 22 minutes, two points, and four rebounds.

Check back for the latest posts in the series, in which I'll be covering the Villanova tenures of each of the four departing Wildcats - Clark, Dante Cunningham, Frank Tchuisi, and Dwayne Anderson...

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged, and will always be answered. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Farewell to Villanova Wildcats Seniors - Shane Clark's Arrival and Freshman Season

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

As graduation approaches at Villanova University for the Class of 2009, I'll be doing a series of farewells to our four Villanova Wildcat seniors, as we look back on their tenures on the Main Line. I'll start today with the arrival and freshman season of senior Shane Clark...

Shane Clark's Background

Clark played for two seasons at Cardinal Dougherty, in the Olney section of Philadelphia, in 2004, where he was a teammate of another future Wildcat, Kyle Lowry, now in the NBA. (Lowry was the 2004 Pennsylvania Player of the Year, while Clark was there.)

Clark averaged a double-double (15 points/11 rebounds) and also four swats a game, under the longtime Catholic League fixture Mark Heimerdinger. Clark then took a postgraduate year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., to improve his academic standing.

Clark got a late start at Villanova. He was only eligible to play at the end of the first semester of his freshman season (2005-06). Since it's tricky to follow, the easiest way to describe the complicated story of what happened regarding his arrival, is simply to quote DraftExpress....

A storyline worth keeping an eye on is the seemingly endless saga of Philly combo forward Shane Clark. He originally committed to Jay Wright, but then was forced to take a prep year and switched his allegiance to Maryland. When a clearinghouse error made him ineligible at Maryland, he set his sights on the Wildcats again. While he hasn’t made it through the clearinghouse yet, Clark is ready to enroll at Villanova for the spring semester. If he does indeed make it onto the court, he could step right into Sumpter’s role as an athletic, versatile frontcourt presence.

This prognosticator was ready to anoint Villanova as the Big East’s preseason favorite. The way that these guards play is simply too exciting to ignore, and it looked like a few of the big men were ready to step up and hold their own. The possibility of a healthy Jason Fraser was truly exciting. Unfortunately, that all went out the window with the loss of Sumpter. He fit in too well with Wright’s perimeter-oriented attack, and it is highly doubtful that anybody else on the roster will come close to matching his production. Villanova’s season may now rest on the fragile knees of Jason Fraser, or unproven newcomers like Dante Cunningham or Shane Clark. In the end, it’s just hard to be as optimistic about Villanova’s chances as we were just last week.

The question of Clark surviving the clearinghouse sluice was very much up in the air. The situation was so precarious, in fact, that the 2005-06 Villanova Wildcats media guide - which includes his fellow class of 2009ers Dwayne Anderson, Dante Cunningham, Frank Tchuisi, and the eventual transfer Bilal Benn - didn't even have a profile of Clark.

But it all worked out, and Clark was eligible come the end of the first semester. Accordingly, Clark made his Villanova debut against Temple on New Year's Eve, 2005-06 - the first game since the end of the Fall 2005 academic semester.

Clark didn't play all that much, during his first year, for two reasons:

1. He wasn't eligible till New Year's Eve, thus losing time in the rotation;
2. It was Wright's best and most talented Wildcats team. It eventually captured a top NCAA tournament seed, and reached the Elite Eight, the first time that Villanova had done so in two decades. So a late-arriving, unheralded freshman got short shrift, when it came to minutes.

As a result, he logged just 286 minutes all season. However, he played more than that stat would indicate, since by rule, he was only able to participate in 25 games - he averaged 11.4 minutes/contest.

In addition, Clark was a significant role player. Along with Dante Cunningham, Jay Wright would judiciously use Clark for defensive purposes, as there were plenty of scorers on that team. And both freshman defensive specialists helped to create one of the best teams in Villanova's illustrious history. This was particularly true down the stretch and in the 2006 NCAA tournament, as Clark's minutes increased sharply in February and March.

Highlights of Clark's Freshman Season, Game by Game

• In the debut against Temple, he played 10 minutes, scoring two points, grabbing four rebounds, blocking two shots, committing two turnovers, and amazingly, accummulating four fouls.
  
• After seeing just six minutes against Louisville, he set what would be a season-high in points against West Virginia, where he played only 11 minutes, but scored nine points while making all four field goal attempts. One was his first collegiate three-point shot, according to the Villanova media guide.
  
• For the next four games, he played sparingly - 23 total minutes, six total points, five total rebounds.
• He then saw the highest minutes of his young career, logging 19 minutes and pulling down five rebounds against South Florida.
  
• Notre Dame - he had ten minutes and two rebounds.
• He set a new high in minutes with 23, in the second game against Louisville, finishing with three rebounds (and three fouls), and no points. And as the Villanova media guide puts it-

  Brought energy in his 23 minutes, keeping several loose balls alive en route to three rebounds in a 79-73 win over Louisville.

• Marquette - he played just six minutes.
  
• But then, Clark played a key role against St. Joseph's in the Holy War - 18 minutes, six points, five rebounds, and a blocked shot, prior to fouling out for the first time - and Villanova won 71-58.
  
• DePaul - Clark played a dozen minutes, had a pair of rebounds, but did not score.
  

This was the beginning of a downturn in Clark's minutes. Over the next four games - two against Connecticut, Georgetown, and Cincinnati - Clark played only 20 minutes, with four points and two rebounds.

• However, as the Villanova media guide puts it, he made a big contribution against the Bearcats - Clark

  "drew a critical charging foul with 35 seconds left that gave VU possession in a 74-72 win @ Cincinnati on Feb. 23."

Then, for the next seven games, Clark reached double-digits in minutes.

• St. John's - Clark logged 16 minutes, with two points and two boards.
• Syracuse - he had one of his best games of the season, with a then-career-high 21 minutes, plus seven points, three rebounds (and four fouls).
  
• Rutgers - Clark had 14 minutes, one point, two rebounds.
• Pittsburgh - 20 minutes - and coincidentally, one point, two rebounds.

In the NCAA tournament, here were Clark's appearances in Villanova's three victories and Elite Eight loss:

1. #16 Monmouth at the Wachovia Center - 10 minutes, three points, four rebounds, one block and one steal.
   
2. #9 Arizona at the Wachovia Center - 17 minutes, one point, two rebounds, four fouls.
3. #4 Boston College - in one of my favorite Villanova NCAA tournament games, 14 minutes, three points, one rebound.
4. #2 Florida - Clark's minutes dropped, probably because it was a loss. He played only six minutes - his lowest in eight games - but had two points and four rebounds.
   

Check back, as I continue the series of Farewells to the Senior Villanova Wildcats... and also check out the worthwhile Villanova Wildcats blogs on the right sidebar.

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged, and will always be answered. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)