Clemson Tigers Miss Out on Former G-League Guard

In today's ever-shifting college basketball recruiting landscape, where pro pathways increasingly intersect with the NCAA, the Clemson Tigers found themselves on the wrong side of a G League decision.

This past Friday, former G-League guard T.J. Clark chose to commit to the Ole Miss Rebels. Other programs that showed interest in the 22-year-old included Clemson, Auburn, Ohio State, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Colorado, Georgia Tech and Nevada.

Clark is now the fourth former G-League player to make the move to college basketball. He joins Abdullah Ahmed (BYU), former four-star London Johnson (Louisville) and Thierry Darlan (Santa Clara).

NEWS: Former G League player TJ Clark has committed to Ole Miss, he tells @Rivals.

The 22-year-old guard is expected to have two years of eligibility, pending approval from the NCAA. https://t.co/OWXetstrvz pic.twitter.com/E7RMeJY8wL
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) December 13, 2025

Clark began his basketball journey as a three-star recruit out of Newton High School in Covington, Georgia, receiving offers from several low-major Division 1 programs, including Coastal Carolina, Charleston Southern, Florida Gulf Coast, and Jacksonville, among others.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard would end up forgoing his senior season of high school, taking the professional route by signing with OTE (Overtime Elite) ahead of its inaugural season in September of 2021.

Clark remained with OTE until 2023, when he decided to take his talents to the G-League, playing for the Ontario Clippers and Texas Legends. In his 20-game stint, the versatile guard put up 3.4 points in limited action, playing just under 10 minutes a night.

Following the G-League regular season, Clark signed with the Dallas Mavericks Summer League team in 2024. Still, he didn't see the hardwood much, averaging four points and one assist per game on single-digit minutes across three games.

With an unsuccessful Summer League, Clark turned to the Mexican CIBACOPA League, signing with the Rayos de Hermosillo. For the 2024-25 season, he finally found a refreshing place to be himself, playing in 40-of-41 games as a consistent starter. The 188-pound guard averaged 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and just under two steals per game on 47/34/67 shooting splits.

Most recently, Clark was a part of the 2025 3x3 U23 Men's National Team and USA Basketball Men's 3x3 Nations League Team.

Ultimately, Clark's decision emphasizes the rapidly changing composition of college basketball rosters, a shift that Clemson head coach Brad Brownell recently addressed when discussing the increasing number of former G-League players becoming NCAA-eligible.

"I see why they're doing this because I think a lot of the foreign players have played professionally in some way," Brownell explained. "So now they view it as a similar situation."

"The part that I'm really struggling with, though, is that we're just taking away from high school recruiting with all of this. 21-year-old international freshmen, now we're going to have 21-year-old G-League players. It felt different playing with 23-year-olds and 24-year-olds."

"Now we've been the benefit of that with somebody like Chase [Hunter]. It makes it hard to play with 18-year-olds unless they're one-and-dones. So that part bothers me a little bit, I don't love that part of it, but I understand why the NCAA's allowing it."

But in an era where adaptability is everything, Brownell is showing once again that he's willing to evolve right alongside the game.

"You've got to do what you've got to do to be competitive," he stated. "It's something we'll look at certainly."