Prospect Spotlight: Griff Clark (2018)
Even after a phenomenal junior season with Cedar Rapids Prairie, Griff Clark is still alarmingly unnoticed by college coaches.
The 5-foot-10 2018 averaged 15.7 points on good shooting, and team-bests 4.0 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game.
Clark though, says he’s received no college interest yet, and hopes a summer with the Iowa Mavericks can change that.
“I’m a baseball player too, last summer was really my first time playing AAU in the summer, and I think that’s maybe a reason why I really haven’t been noticed. I was just playing high school ball and I hadn’t played varsity yet. I was still spending a lot of time in the gym developing my game though,” said Clark.
He will play baseball again this summer, but will get in front of college coaches at grassroots tournaments as much as he can.
“I like being a multi-sport athlete, and all my coaches say that it’s awesome. It’s definitely a busy summer with AAU and baseball, but we make it work. And I’m looking forward to improving my game a lot playing this summer.”
On the hardwood, Clark played sparingly last season as a sophomore with the Hawks, and averaged 0.9 points in just seven games.
“I was definitely coming into this season under the radar, and I knew I had it in me to play as well as I did,” said Clark. “And it was nice to get going on a good start, and our seniors really helped me become the player I was this year.”
One of the most marked achievements of his junior season was his astounding free-throw success. Clark connected on 98 of his 107 attempts, good enough for 91.6 percent.
To put that into perspective, Steph Curry is a career 90.3 percent free-throw shooter.
At one point this season, Clark hit 32 straight free-throws, a new school record. He’s hoping to beat that next season.
“I shoot a ton of free-throws every day,” said Clark. “And at the end of my workouts I never leave until I’ve made 25 in a row. And I hope to improve that percentage next season.”
He added: “Another thing I’m working to improve is finishing through contact, that would really help me improve my game.”
He’ll start his spring season with the Iowa Mavericks in just two weeks. There is sure to be some college attention for Clark by summer’s end.
“Hopefully our team does well, and that gets some of our guys looked at,” he said. “And I’m hoping to get more looks during my senior season at Prairie.”