By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – Bristol Central boys basketball coach Tim Barrette has been there and done that at the scholastic level.
Some of his teams – with players the likes of Joey DeFillippi and Jacob Collins – had some tremendous talent.
And other seasons, the Rams employed studs like Daquan Brooks who played collegiately and beyond.
Those three players were some of the best ever Barrette has been able to teach, mentor, and coach.
Then in the fall of 2018, a 7-footer by the name of Donovan Clingan joined the team and everything changed for Barrette and the Bristol Central program.
But that leads to a critical question that needs an immediate answer:
Has Barrette ever seen anything like Clingan on the scholastic level?
Ever?!?
“I thank god every day because he’s mine” to coach said Barrette. “It’s very hard to even understand how to game-plan against him.”
We’ve already observed opposing defenses attempt to defend Clingan with a plethora of defensive schemes this season.
And truly, nothing seems to work.
Do you triple-team the young man?
We’ve seen that already between Central’s games against Southington and East Catholic.
Two double-digit wins followed for the Rams off those tactics.
Do you speed the game up?
If ‘Big Deli’ is your center at Bristol Central, go for it and run up and down against that talent.
But you can’t do that against Central in 2022 because Clingan can keep up.
Force him outside, perhaps?
Clingan can shoot from downtown and will make those outside attempts count.
Perhaps surrender before the game?
Well, Central won’t let you.
That’s what you face when battling the Rams.
“If you play in the half-court, that means you have to score against us,” said Barrette. “If you slow it down, you’ve then got to set up to play against us in the half-court and that’s not easy with a 7-foot-2 guy in the paint. If you speed it up, sometimes you get easy opportunities but at the same time, [Clingan’s] in such good shape, he’s been running the floor so well, sometimes he thrives in the open floor.”
“We’re just not an easy team to game plan against because of him.”
You cannot win, you cannot break even, and you cannot get out of the game.
British scientist C.P. Snow wasn’t talking about the Laws of Thermodynamics. He was talking about Donovan Clingan.
So, what works against Central?
Nothing yet, leading to thirty-two minutes of misery for both Southington and East Catholic to date this year.
“He’s obviously the ultimate weapon to have,” said Barrette of Clingan. “But I have not seen anyone effect the game as much as him. There’s a difference between being the best player and skilled but also effecting the game. He effects the game from the opening tap to the last play.”
So, who can you compare Clingan to, scholastically, that we’ve seen locally?
Ryan Howse did a great job as a 6-foot-8 center for Central during 1991-1994.
He was a decent outsider shooter and an All-State talent who ended up at the University of Hartford but was the not the force Clingan was.
Marcus Camby perhaps?
Hartford Public went 27-0 over Camby’s senior season – averaging 27 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and eight blocks-per-game.
He was named Gatorade’s Connecticut Player of the year in 1993.
Camby didn’t shoot three-pointers at the scholastic level but played at a time where the five – the center position in basketball – would never dare shoot a 3 (think head coach John Calipari would have tolerated that at UMASS?).
But while Clingan hasn’t taken a ton of threes either, he can hit the long ball (ask Northwest Catholic that question last season) and it’s such a unique facet of his overall game.
Traditional centers play with their backs to the basket, using turnarounds, hooks, dunks, and fallaways against opponents.
Clingan could do all that but he’ll also shoot the competition out of the building with range and accuracy, all while bodying up on opposing forwards and centers.
“His whole body of work, he’s vastly improved,” said Barrette. “And he’s much stronger. So, the little bumps and things like that don’t bother him as much. He’ll play through a lot of contact.”
In the game against East Catholic last Monday, a 74-59 triumph by Central, Clingan started the game with a hook shot, nailed a running one, and then towards the tail end of the first frame, he canned a long jumper to keep his team ahead against the third rated squad in the state.
His numbers in the victory over the Eagles included 29 points, 17 rebounds, and seven blocked shots in another man-sized effort against, once again, one of the top teams in Connecticut.
Bristol Central had the top football player in the state in senior Victor Rosa playing for their program this year.
Ditto for boys basketball team as well.
“There might be players that have come out of Connecticut at some point that might have been more talented or skilled but there’s not been a player out of Connecticut – I can promise you over the last thirty years – that has effected the game more than Donovan Clingan,” said Barrette.
