Senior is lone holdover from backcourt trio For most of his career, Jason Clark has been the third and least-heralded piece of Georgetown’s extended backcourt. The trio dominated the ball, scored the bulk of the Hoyas’ points, set the tone on defense and largely defined the personality of a program more traditionally known for its premier big men.
While Clark was part of the locally bred three-headed monster, he was never the most feared or the first to speak. That was left to the other two higher-profile stars, tight-knit friends and former McDonald’s All-Americans Austin Freeman and Chris Wright.
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But that pair has come and gone, leaving behind a roller-coaster legacy of regular-season success and postseason failure, including only one NCAA tournament victory in the last four years. The process admittedly has aged Clark, but it makes the senior uniquely qualified for the rigors of leading the Hoyas in his own way.
– Craig Stouffer
| Local guards |
| While Jason Clark and Markel Starks take over at guard for Georgetown, here’s a quick look at other area backcourts before the college basketball season starts this week: |
| Maryland |
| In coach Mark Turgeon’s first season in College Park, the pressure will be on senior Sean Mosley (8.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg) and sophomore volume shooter Terrell Stoglin (11.4 ppg, 3.3 apg) to play major minutes with Pe’Shon Howard lost for half the season with a broken foot. |
| George Mason |
| It was bad enough when Luke Hancock transferred. It got worse when Andre Cornelius got suspended after charges of credit card fraud and credit card larceny. Lightly experienced sophomore Byron Allen (26 appearances last year) and freshman Corey Edwards are vying for first-year coach Paul Hewitt’s blessing to start. |
| George Washington |
| The Colonials are established and stable in the hands of first-team All-Atlantic 10 senior Tony Taylor (15.0 ppg, 4.6 apg) at the point. Junior Lasan Kromah, back from a lost season with a foot injury, and senior Aaron Ware (5.4 ppg) are both energetic scoring threats. |
| American |
| The Eagles’ hopes start and end with 6-foot-5 senior Troy Brewer (11.5 ppg), the team’s top returning scorer in his second season after transferring from Georgia. Daniel Munoz (3.0 ppg) was a part-time starter as a freshman before Brewer’s arrival. He’ll return to that role as a junior. |
| Howard |
| Redshirt junior Calvin Thompson, back after a season-ending knee injury last year, represents experience, but the Bison are built on the potential of freshmen Brandon Ford (Gwynn Park High) and Prince Okoroh (Eleanor Roosevelt), who hope to change Howard’s losing ways. |
“I kind of feel like the grandfather of the team,” Clark said. “I feel like I’m old. But I’m really not. I feel that I do have to take that leadership role. I do have to be there for everybody else. We have a very young team so if there’s any questions that anybody needs to ask, I want to be the guy that they come to.”
Clark, who averaged 12.0 points and 4.1 rebounds last year, didn’t earn any preseason accolades from the Big East. But he is by far the Hoyas’ most experienced returner, with 66 career and consecutive starts — every game of the past two seasons — more than Hollis Thompson (24 starts), Nate Lubick (13) and Henry Sims (one) combined. The rest of the Georgetown roster, with freshman and sophomore classes that are each five members deep, doesn’t have any.
The hallmark of Clark’s game, of course, isn’t to takeover like Wright or Freeman but to provide hustle, defense, 3-point shooting and a comprehensive understanding of Georgetown’s offense. He can get hot from outside, though, scoring a career-high 26 points at Missouri last year, and his most memorable performance came in the middle of the 2010 Snowpocalypse when he had 24 points on 6 of 7 from 3-point range against Villanova.
But the Arlington native and O’Connell High graduate’s influence on the young Hoyas is more likely to come in practice or when he shuts down an opponent’s best player rather than in the box score.
“Jason goes about his business in workman-like fashion,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. “He gives you an honest effort every day in workouts, every game, and that focus, that giving of himself is something that everyone is seeing.”
That could be Thompson’s way of saying Clark won’t exactly handle the traditional responsibilities of a true point guard this year, with that role inherited by sophomore Markel Starks. Both Clark and Starks expect to play heavy minutes following Vee Sanford’s transfer to Dayton.
“We get along great,” Clark said. “Me and Markel haven’t known each other as long as Chris and Austin knew each other, but the first time I met Kel, it was like an instant click.”
That ability to bond quickly, to put the team before his own achievements, is part of why a successful player like Clark would agree to play essentially in Freeman and Wright’s shadow for three seasons.
“When he committed, I had people come up and tell me Chris and Austin were going to be there,” O’Connell coach Joe Wootten said. “I felt very strongly that Jason would find his way.”
The prevailing sentiment is similar for the Hoyas and Thompson, whose team somewhat resembles what he had in his few first years at Georgetown, when he inherited Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert and brought with him Jonathan Wallace, who’d originally committed to him at Princeton.
That trio eventually went to the 2007 Final Four, and it’s easy to see the glimmer in Thompson’s eyes of a chance to mold another generation that includes Starks, sophomore forward Nate Lubick and freshman forward Otto Porter.
But Clark’s role in that development, and in the opportunity it presents this season, shouldn’t be overlooked.
“If you don’t focus on him, you won’t have a successful season,” said Team Takeover directory Keith Stevens, Clark’s AAU coach. “One thing about Coach Thompson, he’s going to focus on everyone equally to make sure that they all grow.”
