I do this often, where I extrapolate a small sample of plays from a single game and get all giddy (or bent out of shape) prematurely. I realize that writing about anything from last night’s Marquette game is foolish. Mercyhurst was really bad and shorthanded, with no size and less shooting.
And yet, here I am, shirking my work responsibilities because I can’t stop thinking about sophomore Josh Clark, who earned his first career KenPom MVP after putting up 18 points and 7 rebounds in just 17 minutes, all career highs.
But it isn’t the efficiency or raw output that has me posting right now. It’s his first bucket of the night, a crafty finish in transition early in the first half.
This probably wasn’t even a top-1000 play from the 100+ games that kicked off the season last night. It won’t make any highlight reels at the end of the year and may never be spoken or thought of again.
But for me, it represents why I’m not simply doing the too short celly to yada yada yada any of the stats Clark put up on opening night. You see, per Synergy, this is the first basket in transition of Josh’s collegiate career. Sure he only had 14 total last season, but even going through the misses, he didn’t have 1 attempt in all of 2026.
So hit play again and instead of focusing on the make (which we’ll get to), notice that the clip starts with Josh contesting a 3 at the arc.
The fact he recognized that his teammates were nowhere near the shooter and used 2 gargantuan steps to get a decent contest up is in and of itself a huge improvement from last year. His spatial awareness (where he was and where he needed to be) was quite poor last year, and unless he was in the paint, provided very little support defensively.
When the shot misses, Josh is almost in the corner, the 2nd deepest MU player on the court.
But once he sees Royce Parham begin to grab possession of the rebound, he immediately leaks out and puts it in 4th gear.
From there, Colin Porter sees he has two unmarked runners and an easy assist if he can just get it over the defender. But the pass has a bit too much loft and goes a bit too deep, forcing Clark to track it down like a wide receiver on a full sprint.
And yet, displaying an agility I don’t think I’ve seen before and a touch I definitely didn’t know he had in his bag, Clark catches and rises in one motion off his left leg. But with his momentum and where the ball was placed, he ends up past the basket, almost out of bounds when he finally releases the ball.
Everything about this play showed me a skill that Josh Clark hadn’t been able to do last season. Awareness, speed, agility, touch. It has nothing to do with the opponent and everything to do with his improvement.
I still don’t see him putting up double digit points any night against high majors, or even topping 15 minutes. But with Sananda Fru living up to his touted reputation, and matched with Clark’s displays in the exhibitions, I feel more comfortable with the center position now than at any point since Oso graduated, to the point where it may be an actual strength, rather than something to be mitigated.
Marquette posted it’s 2nd best offensive rebounding rate since at least 1997 last night, grabbing 60.6% of its own misses, with 11 of them coming from Fru, Parham and Clark.
Now this is very much attributable to the opponent and won’t be replicated, but for a team that I still think will have issues shooting, as witnessed last night, having a front court that can gain those extra possessions becomes even more important.
And one last note, Clark put in 8 baskets list night after amassing 14 all of last season. We already noted he surpassed himself in transition scores, but he’s also matched his output for scores off of pick and rolls (with 2).
Shaka Smart’s quotes to Homer in the postgame note that this improvement has been rather sudden, too. (Thanks to MarquetteHoops for the writeup.)
The eye test is there for at minimum a competent backup big. He’s moving more fluidly. Reading plays better. And anticipating where he will have an advantage. We will wait a month or so before looking under the hood, but I can confidently say Clark has seriously exceeded the expectations I had for him.
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