Even though he is only a rising junior, Skyy Clark is used to offers and recruiting attention. The 6-foot-1 guard is a legitimate five-star talent, and is ranked No. 17 in the Class of 2022.
His recruitment also has a national feel. Clark played his first two high seasons in California, but recently moved to Brentwood, Tennessee, which is ten miles south of Nashville.
Despite the logistics, he turned heads on Monday in the Twin Cities, and on the message board at Inside Gopher Nation when he posted the following tweet.
Minnesota is indeed Clark's hometown school. He was born in Minneapolis, His mother is from here, as well as her entire side of the family. So that offer on the very first day that Richard Pitino could directly contact the rising junior is much more natural than it may seem to some.
Minnesota joins a heavy list of schools that have offered such as Arizona, Arizona State, DePaul, Florida State, Fresno State, Georgetown, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio State, Memphis, Michigan, Oregon, San Diego, Tennessee, Tennessee State, Texas Tech, UCLA, and Vanderbilt.
He is also getting heavy interest from the likes of Duke, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Michigan State, and Stanford just to name a few.
Skyy's father is Kenny Clark. If that is a familiar name it should be. He played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2001-2005. It was during that time that Skyy was born. Kenny spoke with The Gopher Report about that, his roots here, the Gopher offer, and how events in Minneapolis have inspired Skyy to seek change nine-hundred miles to the south.
Q: We talked Saturday and said it was the calm before the storm. Is it as crazy as you thought?
Clark: “Yeah, it’s been crazier than I thought. We may have talked to forty or fifty schools so far just since yesterday. I can’t even remember them all.”
Q: Did the phone start blowing up at midnight Sunday night?
Clark: “Yes it did. I think Florida State was the midnight. They texted or called. Tennessee State. There have been so many.”
Q: What was the pattern? Did you get a couple of calls at midnight then start back up and six or seven, or was it steady throughout the night?
Clark: “No, it started back up in the morning.”
Q: Has it been as busy today (Tuesday) as it was yesterday?
Clark: “No, it wasn’t as busy as it was Monday, but it was still pretty busy today.”
Q: When Skyy put the tweet out about the Minnesota offer, he said it was from his hometown school. I’ve been asked about that. You played for the Vikings, so I assume he was born while you were living there?
Clark: “He was born there in 2003, and we didn’t leave until 2007. His mom is from there. All of his family: his grandma, his grandad, cousins, aunts, her entire side of the family is from there.”
Q: So I guess it’s more important to him than just being there when you played. It sounds like he has roots in the ground there.
Clark: “Yeah, he’s a Minnesota baby.”
Q: Did he know a whole lot about the school and program before the offer? Has he kept up with it in that manner?
Clark: “Not as much as the other schools, but he’s trying to get in tune with them now that they’ve offered him."
Q: Has the contact from the Minnesota coaching staff been ongoing or has this been something new?
Clark: “They have been in contact for him. Coach Kyle Lindsted.”
Q: Did the offer come up in the midst of the conversation?
Clark: “it came up with Coach (Richard) Pitino. He actually called me after Lindsted called Skyy. So about ten o’clock last night Coach Pitino called me and offered him a scholarship. It was a special moment because that’s where he is from. Anytime you can get an offer from his hometown school, I mean he is from Minneapolis.”
Q: How did Coach Pitino work it into the conversation?
Clark: “There were some questions. He just wanted to make sure that he had a legitimate shot because he is a five-star kid, and I guess they haven’t had much luck with five-star kids. He just wanted to get a good feel for everything and once he actually found out that Skyy was from Minneapolis is made him more comfortable.”
Q: I know you have moved around. You and your wife are also from different parts of the United States. You were in California and you’re living in Tennessee now.
Clark: “I’m from Florida. She’s from Minnesota. I played with the Vikings from 2001 until I retired in 2005. My last season was in 2004, but I retired in 2005. We stayed in Minnesota for another two years. In 2007 we moved to Atlanta and shared until 2012. April of 2012 we moved to Los Angeles, and now we’re here.”
Q: With the happenings in the country the past few days. Skyy attended the big protest march on the Saturday. Things kind of got out of hand, and he and Darius and some others came back the next day and helped clean up. Then he organized the prayer service at Otter Creek Church last Wednesday night. It looks like he is already getting entrenched in the community.
Clark: “Oh yeah. We got here and he hit the ground running. He wanted to inject some positivity and try to inject change into society in the best way that he knows was to protest peacefully and clean up damage that others had did, and then organize a Heal Our Nation prayer night. We were only expecting thirty or forty people, and seven hundred people showed up.”
Q: The NCAA had a press release today (Tuesday) that they are proposing a recruiting schedule of live events in August and September. How do you feel about that?
Clark: “I haven’t seen that, but that’s amazing. He would definitely look forward to that. He’s like a caged dog. He’s just ready to get out and go at somebody.”
We watched Clark Saturday afternoon at Otter Creek Church in Brentwood against the likes of Darius Garland, Robert Covington, Ian Clark, Jaylen Barford, and several other highly skilled and powerful grown men. Here was our assessment from the scrimmages which are featured in the video below.
" Clark's size is obvious right away. He was playing against grown men and he looked physically like he belonged. I think he's every bit of 6-foot-1, 200 pounds. He's thick in the trunk as well as up in the shoulders in traps. This leads to some obvious questions. Will he grow? His father says the doctor reports that his growth plates haven't closed yet, and he could still grow another three inches. It is natural though to have doubts. He's muscular and strong looking for a sixteen year old. He also has facial and body hair. I've seen teenagers with that look before who matured early and capped out their growth around that age.
Here is why it is important. If he stays the size he is then he is a point guard. He would need to pick up those extra two to three inches to be a two guard. That leads to the next question or questions that were being asked around the gym. Is he a point guard, shooting guard, or a combo?
He has plenty of size to be a college point guard right now. In fact, he would be a strong point guard right now. There were lots of ball-screens set for him in a pickup game environment. He comes off with his head up, and he had a good connection on the roll with Alex Poythress. He uses a good change of speed if the defender isn't up in him, and if he is he leans on his man with his shoulder and hip to run him into the screen. He doesn't have to blow by his man. He is strong enough that if he gets shoulder to shoulder he is going to beat him and get to the rim.
His ball-handling is a strength that led to a number of different type of finishes with both hands. But he likes to get to the left more. Sometimes he would get to his left, get cut off and go right so he could get back to his left.
I liked what he brings defensively. Because of his strong lower body, he can sit down in a stance and move his feet without raising up. He has good heel to toe action without crossing his feet or playing high. He also plays the same way offensively which allows him to explode on his drive.
In a nutshell, every player he played against was either in college or a pro at some level. An EYBL Director who was there to watch him told me he would score 35 points per game on that circuit. Clark has the look of a big timer."
His recruitment also has a national feel. Clark played his first two high seasons in California, but recently moved to Brentwood, Tennessee, which is ten miles south of Nashville.
Despite the logistics, he turned heads on Monday in the Twin Cities, and on the message board at Inside Gopher Nation when he posted the following tweet.
Minnesota is indeed Clark's hometown school. He was born in Minneapolis, His mother is from here, as well as her entire side of the family. So that offer on the very first day that Richard Pitino could directly contact the rising junior is much more natural than it may seem to some.
Minnesota joins a heavy list of schools that have offered such as Arizona, Arizona State, DePaul, Florida State, Fresno State, Georgetown, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio State, Memphis, Michigan, Oregon, San Diego, Tennessee, Tennessee State, Texas Tech, UCLA, and Vanderbilt.
He is also getting heavy interest from the likes of Duke, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Michigan State, and Stanford just to name a few.
Skyy's father is Kenny Clark. If that is a familiar name it should be. He played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2001-2005. It was during that time that Skyy was born. Kenny spoke with The Gopher Report about that, his roots here, the Gopher offer, and how events in Minneapolis have inspired Skyy to seek change nine-hundred miles to the south.
Q: We talked Saturday and said it was the calm before the storm. Is it as crazy as you thought?
Clark: “Yeah, it’s been crazier than I thought. We may have talked to forty or fifty schools so far just since yesterday. I can’t even remember them all.”
Q: Did the phone start blowing up at midnight Sunday night?
Clark: “Yes it did. I think Florida State was the midnight. They texted or called. Tennessee State. There have been so many.”
Q: What was the pattern? Did you get a couple of calls at midnight then start back up and six or seven, or was it steady throughout the night?
Clark: “No, it started back up in the morning.”
Q: Has it been as busy today (Tuesday) as it was yesterday?
Clark: “No, it wasn’t as busy as it was Monday, but it was still pretty busy today.”
Q: When Skyy put the tweet out about the Minnesota offer, he said it was from his hometown school. I’ve been asked about that. You played for the Vikings, so I assume he was born while you were living there?
Clark: “He was born there in 2003, and we didn’t leave until 2007. His mom is from there. All of his family: his grandma, his grandad, cousins, aunts, her entire side of the family is from there.”
Q: So I guess it’s more important to him than just being there when you played. It sounds like he has roots in the ground there.
Clark: “Yeah, he’s a Minnesota baby.”
Q: Did he know a whole lot about the school and program before the offer? Has he kept up with it in that manner?
Clark: “Not as much as the other schools, but he’s trying to get in tune with them now that they’ve offered him."
Q: Has the contact from the Minnesota coaching staff been ongoing or has this been something new?
Clark: “They have been in contact for him. Coach Kyle Lindsted.”
Q: Did the offer come up in the midst of the conversation?
Clark: “it came up with Coach (Richard) Pitino. He actually called me after Lindsted called Skyy. So about ten o’clock last night Coach Pitino called me and offered him a scholarship. It was a special moment because that’s where he is from. Anytime you can get an offer from his hometown school, I mean he is from Minneapolis.”
Q: How did Coach Pitino work it into the conversation?
Clark: “There were some questions. He just wanted to make sure that he had a legitimate shot because he is a five-star kid, and I guess they haven’t had much luck with five-star kids. He just wanted to get a good feel for everything and once he actually found out that Skyy was from Minneapolis is made him more comfortable.”
Q: I know you have moved around. You and your wife are also from different parts of the United States. You were in California and you’re living in Tennessee now.
Clark: “I’m from Florida. She’s from Minnesota. I played with the Vikings from 2001 until I retired in 2005. My last season was in 2004, but I retired in 2005. We stayed in Minnesota for another two years. In 2007 we moved to Atlanta and shared until 2012. April of 2012 we moved to Los Angeles, and now we’re here.”
Q: With the happenings in the country the past few days. Skyy attended the big protest march on the Saturday. Things kind of got out of hand, and he and Darius and some others came back the next day and helped clean up. Then he organized the prayer service at Otter Creek Church last Wednesday night. It looks like he is already getting entrenched in the community.
Clark: “Oh yeah. We got here and he hit the ground running. He wanted to inject some positivity and try to inject change into society in the best way that he knows was to protest peacefully and clean up damage that others had did, and then organize a Heal Our Nation prayer night. We were only expecting thirty or forty people, and seven hundred people showed up.”
Q: The NCAA had a press release today (Tuesday) that they are proposing a recruiting schedule of live events in August and September. How do you feel about that?
Clark: “I haven’t seen that, but that’s amazing. He would definitely look forward to that. He’s like a caged dog. He’s just ready to get out and go at somebody.”
We watched Clark Saturday afternoon at Otter Creek Church in Brentwood against the likes of Darius Garland, Robert Covington, Ian Clark, Jaylen Barford, and several other highly skilled and powerful grown men. Here was our assessment from the scrimmages which are featured in the video below.
" Clark's size is obvious right away. He was playing against grown men and he looked physically like he belonged. I think he's every bit of 6-foot-1, 200 pounds. He's thick in the trunk as well as up in the shoulders in traps. This leads to some obvious questions. Will he grow? His father says the doctor reports that his growth plates haven't closed yet, and he could still grow another three inches. It is natural though to have doubts. He's muscular and strong looking for a sixteen year old. He also has facial and body hair. I've seen teenagers with that look before who matured early and capped out their growth around that age.
Here is why it is important. If he stays the size he is then he is a point guard. He would need to pick up those extra two to three inches to be a two guard. That leads to the next question or questions that were being asked around the gym. Is he a point guard, shooting guard, or a combo?
He has plenty of size to be a college point guard right now. In fact, he would be a strong point guard right now. There were lots of ball-screens set for him in a pickup game environment. He comes off with his head up, and he had a good connection on the roll with Alex Poythress. He uses a good change of speed if the defender isn't up in him, and if he is he leans on his man with his shoulder and hip to run him into the screen. He doesn't have to blow by his man. He is strong enough that if he gets shoulder to shoulder he is going to beat him and get to the rim.
His ball-handling is a strength that led to a number of different type of finishes with both hands. But he likes to get to the left more. Sometimes he would get to his left, get cut off and go right so he could get back to his left.
I liked what he brings defensively. Because of his strong lower body, he can sit down in a stance and move his feet without raising up. He has good heel to toe action without crossing his feet or playing high. He also plays the same way offensively which allows him to explode on his drive.
In a nutshell, every player he played against was either in college or a pro at some level. An EYBL Director who was there to watch him told me he would score 35 points per game on that circuit. Clark has the look of a big timer."
