Player Preview: Jason Clark

This is the thirteenth and final preview of the members of the 2011-12 Georgetown Hoyas. You also can read about Henry Sims, Hollis Thompson, Nate Lubick, Markel Starks, Aaron Bowen, Otto Porter, Jabril Trawick, Greg Whittington, Mikael Hopkins, Tyler Adams, Moses Ayegba, and John Caprio.

While his teammates face questions about whether they have developed the jumper, the post move, or the defensive tenacity to take on a larger role on this year’s Georgetown team, few of the questions about senior guard Jason Clark concern his talent. He is a two-year starter with a good shooting stroke (albeit one that faded as last season wore on) and a decent rebounder and defender. He also sometimes has been a wallflower, seemingly getting lost in a three-guard shuffle that included Chris Wright and Austin Freeman. Hoya fans are not concerned about his ability, but his consistency and leadership, qualities expected of a senior, three-year starter.

After a freshman year in which he provided some glimpses of his ability amid an otherwise disastrous season, Clark moved into the starting line-up in his second year. In a five that also included Wright, Freeman, and Greg Monroe, Clark settled well into a complementary role, scoring in doubles figures in fifteen games, in particular searing the nets for a then-career-high 24 points in a snowbound 103-90 victory over Villanova. His three-point percentage jumped, and with it went his scoring, from 5.2 points in his first year to 10.5 the year after. While not an exceptional rebounder, Clark cleaned up misses better than his back-court mates.  With Monroe departing for the NBA, Clark figured to take another step forward in his junior year.

And he did, sort of. Last season, Clark’s scoring (10.5 to 12.0), rebounding (3.9 to 4.1) and shooting percentage (47.5 to 48.3) all went up, the former two made more impressive by the fact that his playing time actually decreased by three minutes per game. He had a break-out game in a high-profile early season contest against Mizzou, netting a career-high 26 while ripping off several jumpers in overtime. And he turned in consistently good, if not great, defensive performances, which set him apart from his fellow starting guards. But Clark’s three-point shooting tailed off, dropping below 35 percent, a decrease from the previous season’s 42 percent; he was particularly errant in conference play, when he made just 30 percent from beyond the arc. There were rumors of a finger injury, though the absence of his classmate Monroe, whose post scoring and adept passing created wide-open perimeter looks, seems just as likely a cause of Clark’s struggles.

Clark sometimes seemed more of a bellwether than a stopgap, playing well when the Hoyas were rolling, but not stepping up when the rest of the team was down. When Wright broke a bone in his hand, Clark averaged in the single digits in a trio of regular season-ending losses, seeming to struggle with Wright’s absence rather than rising to the occasion. While he turned in an inspired performance in the Big East Tournament, notching 23 points against UConn with Wright still sidelined, he regressed in the season-ending loss to VCU.

This season, Hoya fans know they can count on Clark to put up decent numbers. Plus or minus a degree, it’s reasonable to assume that Clark will average between 13 and 15 points and around 4 rebounds per game, with an assist or two and a steal for good measure. That production would be the natural outgrowth both of the past two seasons and of Clark’s summer, which included several predictably good Kenner League performances and the trip to China, where he averaged a team-high 15  points in barely 20 minutes per game. While in China, Clark also led the Hoyas in usage rate, hinting that he may, as the player most comfortable in Georgetown’s offense, play more of a commanding role on the court. His classy and measured response to the international incident also showed his off-court leadership.

The uncertainty about Clark’s senior season and, by extension, the next Hoya campaign, is not whether he’ll fill the box score, but whether he’ll fill the role of mentor, leader, and captain. He is the subject of pre-season profiles, and by almost any measurement is the lone proven veteran on this year’s team. He’s started more games than his teammates combined, and is the sole reliable senior on a team with just three upperclassmen. With that attention and experience come expectations. Unlike in previous seasons, it won’t be enough for Clark to heat up in some games while fading into the background in others: when he’s not feeling it, he’ll need to exhort his teammates to play better. While Jason Clark-as-leader isn’t the guard we’ve come to know over the past seasons, it’s the role he’s inherited, and must fill on this year’s team.