Elijah Clarence leaving ISU

[Serbiansniper34]

https://twitter.com/Redbird_MBB/status/1024006713471426562

[tornado]

amazing.....I hope he does well.........
whatever pro team over in Europe that has made him an offer is taking a chance....Sure he looked good playing against a bunch of low level teenage players from Iceland & Romania but his shooting percentages are terrible - he shot under 8.7% last year for ISU from three, and in the 20% range for his Swedish team..
Oh well....he had the potential to be a very good MVC player had he stuck around and developed, but now we'll never know.


but that's happened a couple times in the Valley & other nearby teams before...
..but is it that unexpected? He played all summer and outplayed plenty of guys who are already earning good money on pro teams - so he obviously saw dollar signs (Euro signs) and wondered why he's putting up with college life... He finishes his collegiate career with 56 points and 2-23 on 3-pointers

Gal Mekel left Wichita to go pro...
Lucca Staiger at Iowa State, and didn't John Wilkins only play 3 years before heading to Belgium to play pro...
I know there's a few others I can't recall now...Loyola had a kid a couple years ago who left & went back to Europe to play pro..
They are valuable to the Euro teams who have limits on import players but can freely sign any of their own Euro guys

this has been a remarkably busy summer for roster turnover...
players leaving (N'Diaye, Avery, Clarance, Bile...) and players added....
.......what's going to happen next???

[BUfan17]

Your title scared me for a split second, all I read was "Elijah leaving".

[Da Coach]

Tough break for ISU. He was probably going to get a lot of minutes for them, though maybe he wasn't happy about being a backup for another year..

Here is the report from ISU-

https://goredbirds.com/news/2018/7/30/mens-basketball-elijah-clarance-to-turn-professional.aspx

And from the Bloomington Pantagraph-

https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/isu-guard-clarance-to-turn-pro-following-big-tourney/article_06e0fab5-5c1d-5735-b1d7-c810e1d6c3d0.html

[Bradleyfan1]

Your title scared me for a split second, all I read was "Elijah leaving".

Shhhhh. Don??™t even think it. Let alone type it.

[Serbiansniper34]

Your title scared me for a split second, all I read was "Elijah leaving".

Haha sorry, didn't even think about that. We can never speak of such blasphemy.

[tornado]

ISU's Matt Hein needs to send a thank you note to Elijah Clarance...
because now he gets his scholarship back that he had "given up" so Muller could recruit another kid

[tornado]

One Euro basketball blogger says this about Elijah Clarance...

"Elijah Clarance st??r fortfarande utan klubb. Att l?¤mna college efter bara ett ??r utan att ha n??got konkret erbjudande i Europa p?? bordet ?¤r ingen bra id?©."

https://twitter.com/NickRajacic/status/1027870720523677696

https://twitter.com/NickRajacic/status/1027871212393906176

translation-
"Elijah Clarance is still without a club. Leaving college after just one year
without having any concrete offer in Europe on the table is not a good idea.
People who (know) more basketball than me have told me that the best option
for Clarance is to sign with a club in the highest league in Spain or Italy and get
to play with the B-team in the league underneath. And of course: a good coach
who can teach him to be a pg."

Clarance had told an interviewer..
"Elijah Clarance: "I have some options to play in Spain, but I haven't made a decision yet."
...so who is gonna find a team to play for first...Clarance or Chudier Bile?

[tornado]

Elijah Clarance ends up signing with the Fraport Skyliners but will play mostly with their junior team -
they play in the 3rd tier league (ProB) with a roster made up largely of 16-20 year olds and amateur club players
The contract is a one-year deal with options..

https://www.eurobasket.com/Germany/news/545776/The-Fraport-Skyliners-Juniors-Sign-Top-Swedish-Talent-Elijah-Clarance

He will have the chance to train with the players on the parent club and possibly even play some if he develops.
Salaries in the BBL (top pro league) start at $60-110K but salaries for players signed to the ProB level are substantially less - probably around what G-Leaguers got last year -
but G-League salaries are going up this year - https://www.si.com/nba/2018/04/17/g-...alary-increase

Also- as many US players have found out the hard way- most European contracts - especially ones for the lower tiers, are NOT guaranteed...
and players can be cut at any time - and often are for injuries as Taylor Brown found out or just for attitude issues as POB found out..

Taylor Brown played for the Fraport Skyliners in 2012 but he played for the top pro team that plays in the BBL..

[tornado]

Clarance had a decent game (21 pts) with the Fraport junior team.

[tornado]

I was checking some stats in the Euro leagues....
it's midseason and Elijah Clarance who quit ISU to play pro ball is getting occasional writeups...but here are his stats so far...

He plays mostly with the 3rd tier team in Germany (the Pro B League behind the Pro A and the top league, the BBL)
In 13 games with the Fraport junior squad, they are 11-6 with Clarance 2nd on the team at 12.5 ppg but shooting just 20.8% from 3-pt, while grabbing 3 rpg and turning the ball over 3.2 TO/game
But he did move up and play for the senior Fraport team in 6 games, they are 5-9 but in those 6 games Clarance averages 6.7 ppg & 2.7 rpg but 0.7 assists and 1.3 TO/game, shooting 37%

so hard to tell thus far but maybe he should have stayed in college - but he is earning some money - altho the 3rd tier players often don't make much.


btw - one of the top players in the TOP pro league (two tiers above Clarance) is
Drake's Reed Timmer - averaging 17.1 ppg and hitting 45% on 3 pointers -
salaries for guys in the BBL average $65,000 but guys who are starters and key players make $100K and up

[Bradleyfan1]

Birds would be real tough with him. Definitely rooting for him. Reed is a stud too. He should have stayed. The money would have waited.

[Da Coach]

Reed Timmer played 4 years at Drake and used up his eligibility. So he couldn't have stayed any longer.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...42/reed-timmer

[Bradleyfan1]

My bad. I should have specifically said i was back to EC not Reed. Reed had a great career. Never stopped moving. Soon as he had a good look. Splash.

[tornado]

as short-manned as ISU is this year - having to play 3 different guys (Hein, Chastain & Gassman) who were all walk-ons and who
combine for just 8 ppg with Hein hitting 3-19 from the arc, would have guaranteed Clarance a lot of opportunity..

Think of it - the TOTAL value of a FULL scholarship plus the stipend they all get now - would have been around $50,000 - so had he stayed
in college he'd probably be getting more than he earns now after he pays taxes. But, he made the choice he made....