ESPN NBA draft experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo recap the highly anticipated matchup between the two college bigs and explain why we still lack clarity at top of the draft.
The 2023-24 men's college basketball season ended Monday night in the national title game with a highly anticipated matchup between two possible lottery picks. UConn's, the top two bigs in college, faced off in a game where Edey had the better individual performance but Clingan's Huskies won the contest to secure back-to-back national championships.
Clingan put his stamp on March, shifting the conversation around him as a prospect and making him a lock for the lottery. He looked healthier and more mobile, which took his individual defensive play to a different level and helped reframe how NBA teams discuss his upside. UConn allowed Clingan to play Edey straight up for much of the game, trusting him to tackle college basketball's toughest assignment while his teammates worked to take away Purdue's supporting cast.
As teams ask themselves in the coming weeks whether a player as specific and uncommon as Edey can fit into their plans, his body of work will matter much more in the end. Still, the UConn game served as a reminder that certain elements of the game will constantly test Edey's mobility and ability to dictate flow of play on the interior, rather than react. How he holds up in that regard, particularly on defense, may be the ultimate determinant of his eventual NBA role.
Clingan helped himself as much as any player in the NCAA tournament, playing a crucial role in UConn's national championship run. He is the best defensive prospect in this draft with his impact as a rim protector and the improvement he's shown on the perimeter guarding pick-and-rolls.
He deserves credit for being effective despite all that, but the questions will persist -- and the strongest arguments on his behalf hinge on an assumption that he'll improve. His job in the pre-draft process will be convincing teams of his capacity to do so. It will play in Castle's favor that he'll enter the NBA coming out of a winning framework with a bankable defensive skill set, making him the type of player teams like to gamble on long term.
Karaban has been an underappreciated part of UConn's title teams, functioning as a connective tissue for the Huskies in a versatile forward role and providing on both ends without wasting touches or dribbles. He's often in the right place at the right time, consistently gets the most out of his size and limited tools and can be a potent -- if streaky -- shooter from long range. Traits that should at the very least give him a meaningful opportunity to find a role in the NBA long term.
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