by Flavio Vanetti
For the second time in a row, the NCAA title ended up in the hands of UConn, who dominated the final against Purdue. Donovan Clingan, a 20-year-old center of Italian origins, is also celebrating: here’s how he could play for the Italian national team
There is also a small piece of Italy in the University of Connecticut’s feat, capable of confirming the NCAA basketball title won in 2023 in the Final Four in Glendale: Donovan Clingan, 20 years old, the starting center of the Huskies, in fact has a grandmother , Deborah Porrini, of clear Italian origins. And even his mother Stacey, a former star at the University of Maine, who unfortunately passed away at the age of 42, had ancestry linked to our country. The young talent is in the national team’s sights, but as we will see before eventually having him in the national team there are many steps to complete and it is not certain that they will be successful. Furthermore, Donovan should be selected in the NBA Draft on June 26th: not an absolute obstacle, but at least a horizon that could distract him from other purposes.
Before talking about him, however, let’s recap the coup scored in Arizona: Purdue’s Boilermakers were defeated 75-60, UConn is the first university to achieve a back to back since Florida (2006 and 2007) . His name is similar to that of Duke, champion in 1991 and 1992, and to John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty in the 60s and 70s. The coach, Dan Hurley, sees his reputation as a winner consolidated and now needs to be added to the list of the gurus: in the last two seasons he has led the Huskies to 12 consecutive successes in the university tournament, all with clear differences (of at least 13 points). Statistics lovers remember that the Huskies, with their sixth title in history, won the 6 games of the tournament with an overall gap of 140 points, higher than the historical record of 129 held since 1996 by Kentucky.
The UConn-Purdue challenge was also based on the duel between the respective centers, Clingan on one side and the Canadian Zach Edey on the Purdue front. Having said that the best player of the final was named Tristen Newton (20 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists), Edey took his spotlight with a sensational performance of 37 points, therefore more than the 23 scored by all his other teammates. But Clingan, 11 points for him, did his part abundantly, confirming the trust that Hurley has given him this year, promoting him to the starting line-up and finding confirmation in his performance (in the year, 13 points and 7 rebounds on average per game, 64% shooting). So here’s the point: how much could Italy be interested? A lot, because a big boy of 2.18, solid, talented and with educated hands, cannot fail to be important in a basketball that is rediscovering the big men. But given that we don’t have a sports passport recognized in other countries, we need to start the classic bureaucratic process foreseen in these cases (with related obstacles). Therefore it is necessary to go back to the last relative born in Italy and from there reconstruct the family tree and the history of the family, in order to obtain the royal passport.
A technicality is enough to invalidate everything, the first key step will therefore be the verification of the documentation. It will then be necessary to focus on the boy’s desire to wear the Italy shirt, in order to avoid a repeat of the Banchero case. Riccardo Fois, assistant coach at Arizona University but also on the staff of coach Gianmarco Pozzecco, is carrying out the duties of Foreign Minister in the USA on behalf of the FIP. There would have already been a first contact with Clingan, but only the beginning of a long process with a far from predictable outcome. Donovan, as mentioned, is then expected to enter the NBA, according to ESPN with a very high call, perhaps even the third of the first round: it is difficult for Italy to be a priority for him, or for him not to want to put the USA in his future, as Banchero ultimately did. But if there’s only a small chance of enlisting him, it’s worth pursuing.
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April 9, 2024 (modified April 9, 2024 | 12:57)
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