I wonder if Collins plans to redshirt him? He was last off the bench against Lewis and didn't play last night. Plenty of Guards ahead of him, could use the extra year if he sticks around in Evanston.
Clayton
- Thread starter NJCat
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I was going to start a thread on this, but you beat me by four minutes.
I don't know about redshirting. Possible he's in the doghouse, possible he's just not as good as the guys NU has, but it's weird he didn't even play at all, even when Gus came in and the team was up 50. If a healthy Clayton doesn't play even when the bench gets empty in a blowout, I'm not sure he will play.
I don't know about redshirting. Possible he's in the doghouse, possible he's just not as good as the guys NU has, but it's weird he didn't even play at all, even when Gus came in and the team was up 50. If a healthy Clayton doesn't play even when the bench gets empty in a blowout, I'm not sure he will play.
If you're going with the "Get old and stay old" philosophy of development, then it makes sense to red-shirt everyone you can. And if he leaves, then he leaves. The 2023 recruiting class looks like a washout, but if Clayton or Barkley both redshirt (Barkley already has) and can provide something in their fourth and fifth years, then at least we will have salvaged something. They seem to be good "culture" guys.
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I would highly doubt that Clayton will be with the 'Cats next year. I've seen enough of him to conclude that he's not a Big Ten player.
I think you're right. Clayton and Collins may even already talked about this. I bet Clayton will be a "break glass in case of emergency" player (like Blake Smith last year) but otherwise, Collins won't play him so Clayton could retain three years of eligibility at his next destination.
Parker Strauss. Barkley didn't play at all last year either and took the shirt. Clayton probably would have too if they hadn't had the Ty injury.
Strauss transferred to UC Riverside. They lost to Oregon by 15 last night, played ten players, and Strauss did not see the floor.
I assume you mean 2023? 2024 is going to be good.
Parker Strauss did not play for UC-Riverside against Oregon. 10 guys saw the court for his team. Not sure if he is injured.
As a reformed critic of the reformed Chris Collins, that 2023 class is not his. It belongs to Gragg.
Its an outlier for Collins and it was Gragg's fault.
(But the old Collins still owns those minutes when Barnhizer was watching Casey Simmons play.)
Barkley seems like he should be able to contribute. He is not afraid.
Clayton? The +/- stats were flashing red very early last season.
Those numbers really haven't been wrong yet.
Collins confused me a few weeks ago by saying some positive things about Clayton and the progress he'd made in the offseason.
He made it sound like Clayton was the #3 guard - or at least that was my fear.
Yesterday Clayton looked disinterested sitting on the bench (I was directly across) and either he's in the doghouse or Collins was just being nice to a guy he's given up on.
My understanding is that Clayton was supposed to red shirt last year, but got called up in the wake of the injuries. It seems reasonable that Collins may want him to red shirt this year instead, and we'll see how Clayton feels about that.
Given the 2025 class, and the 2024 freshmen, it's tough to imagine Clayton having any interest in sticking around. The only way that Clayton is going to see much, if any, playing time, is if we have a couple of injuries, and there is really no future in sitting and waiting for injuries. He's much better off if he moves on and gets out of the Big Ten. I suspect that the decision has already been made by Clayton and Collins based on the opening game. Did Clayton have other offers out of high school? Too lazy to look it up.
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