Syracuse Remains Heavily Involved with Donovan Clingan
Class of 2022 center prospect Donovan Clingan is one of, if not the, best bigs in his recruiting class. He has more than a dozen offers from schools across the country. His first offer came from Syracuse, and the Orange remain heavily involved with his recruitment according to multiple sources.
Clingan is a 7-1, 255 pound center with an elite offensive skill set, natural shot blocking skills and is just scratching the surface of his potential.
"His skill set for the bigs in his class, and I'm bias, has always been to me the best," Team Spartans Director and head coach Joe Chatman said in December. "I don't think there's many seven footers who can shoot it like him, pass it like him and are as unselfish as he is. He needed to work on his core so he can be a little more explosive with his first step and then getting off the ground.
"Teams naturally play him a little more physical than they do everybody else because he's so physically dominating with an amazing skill set. He needed to improve upon his strength and he's done that."
Clingan has not been tipping his hand regarding any favorites, schools standing out, or leaders at this point in his recruitment. However, a source indicated that Syracuse is in the running for one of the front runner schools. Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State and others are also involved.
Syracuse is in touch on a regular basis, with Adrian Autry, Jim Boeheim and Gerry McNamara all in communication. Clingan said back in December that his relationship with the Orange staff is strong.
"When they call, we talk basketball of course and what I've been working on," Clingan said. "What I've been doing and stuff. We talk about everything, we talk about life. Me and G-Mac talk about video games. We talk about 2K and Call of Duty a lot."
It also does not hurt Syracuse's standing that the director and head coach of Clingan's AAU team thinks highly of the Orange coaches.
"I love those guys," Chatman said previously. "Donovan knows how I feel about them. It's an amazing staff, obviously a Hall of Fame coach who has over a thousand wins. He doesn't need a checklist of why and how. He's seen it and done it all. For me, it's a great place."