ALBANY, N.Y. — Like plenty of boys, Donovan Clingan competed in lots of actions whereas rising up in Bristol, Conn.: baseball, basketball, fishing and soccer.
However when his mom, Stacey Porrini Clingan, died of breast most cancers in March 2018 at age 42, Donovan, then 14, determined to channel his ache, ardour and prodigious body into basketball in her honor. A 6-foot-4 middle, Porrini Clingan had starred at Bristol Central Excessive Faculty earlier than attending the College of Maine, the place she helped the Black Bears make three straight N.C.A.A. tournaments starting in 1995.
“I actually didn’t take basketball critically when she was right here, I simply performed it for enjoyable,” Donovan Clingan, now a 7-foot-2, 265-pound, 19-year-old freshman middle at UConn, mentioned within the locker room after the Huskies beat St. Mary’s on Sunday to advance to Thursday’s West regional semifinal towards Arkansas in Las Vegas.
“When she handed, I wished a motive to make her proud and I wished to achieve success in a roundabout way,” he mentioned. “So basketball it was.”
Porrini Clingan by no means acquired to see her son play basketball at her alma mater. However final season, he averaged 30.3 factors, 18.4 rebounds and 6.2 blocks per recreation for an undefeated state championship group whereas serving to to place Bristol Central again on the map. He was a two-time Connecticut participant of the yr.
He now performs an important and dynamic function off the bench for the Huskies (27-8), who’re searching for their fifth nationwide championship since 1999 and their first below their fifth-year coach, Dan Hurley. Clingan is averaging 7.1 factors, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per recreation whereas overpowering opponents with rim-rattling dunks on offense and altering and blocking pictures on protection. In Connecticut’s first-round win over Iona, Clingan had 12 factors, 9 rebounds and a pair of blocks in simply 13 minutes. Within the win over St. Mary’s, he had 4 factors, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and a pair of assists in 12 minutes.
“I simply adore it,” he mentioned after the St. Mary’s recreation.
P.J. Carlesimo, the previous N.B.A. coach and present tv analyst, mentioned Clingan can be an N.B.A. draft choose every time he determined to show skilled, probably after his sophomore season.
“He modifies the sport each time he comes into the sport,” mentioned Carlesimo, including that he anticipated Clingan to be “an influence professional.”
Porrini Clingan’s loss of life left Clingan and his youthful sister, Olivia, 17, and not using a mom, and their father, Invoice, a single dad or mum. Invoice Clingan, a 6-6 bear of a person with an infectious smile, shouldered the duty of elevating two kids and balancing his son’s rising basketball profession along with his personal hectic work schedule as an operations supervisor at an electrical firm.
Invoice Clingan mentioned he and his son needed to steadiness summer time A.A.U. basketball with recruiting journeys, college and work, in addition to caring for Olivia, who didn’t journey with them.
“He’s a mother and a dad for each of these youngsters, and does a terrific job with it,” mentioned Tom Moore, a UConn assistant coach, who started recruiting Donovan Clingan when he was a freshman in highschool.
‘A Unicorn’
When Donovan was born, he weighed 12 kilos and measured 25 inches from head to toe.
“He was principally a toddler,” his father mentioned.
Invoice Clingan mentioned he and his spouse famous that their son would develop in suits and begins, getting pudgy simply earlier than a progress spurt.
“He would achieve some weight after which, impulsively, he would go up three inches,” he mentioned.
Donovan Clingan was 6-8 by his freshman yr of highschool, and as he grew taller and taller, his top prompted the same old ribbing from his classmates.
“How tall are you? How’s the climate up there?” they’d ask.
When his recruitment started to warmth up in the summertime of 2021, his father took trip days so he might take his son on official visits to Michigan, Ohio State, Syracuse and, finally, UConn. Moore started recruiting Clingan throughout his freshman season, and Hurley quickly adopted.
The coaches had by no means seen anybody “that massive who ran that nicely, handed that nicely and with capturing contact and fingers,” Moore mentioned. “I bear in mind Dan saying he was like a unicorn.”
The Subsequent Massive Leap
Along with his son now an integral a part of UConn’s run, Invoice Clingan, 53, has requested further trip time. He took a practice for the primary time in his life to go to New York for the Massive East match at Madison Sq. Backyard.
“I’ve at all times watched it on TV and now to be completely invested in it along with your son and your entire household, it’s unimaginable,” he mentioned.
Clingan figures to have a fair greater function at UConn subsequent season if the group’s junior massive man, Adama Sanogo — who has racked up a mixed 52 factors and 21 rebounds in his final two video games — turns professional. Clingan hopes to showcase his abilities extra subsequent yr to N.B.A. scouts by stepping out and capturing from distance, the way in which professional 7-footers do.
As for a call on when his son may flip professional, Invoice Clingan mentioned a very powerful issue was his maturity.
“I get nervous about that a lot consideration and cash for an 18-, 19-year-old,” he mentioned. “And as a father, I’ve acquired to set him up for fulfillment as a result of I need to make it possible for he’s mature sufficient to deal with not solely the cash, however simply the strain and every little thing that he’s going to be below.”
Invoice Clingan says he plans to maneuver to be along with his son when he does flip professional, and that he hopes it’s someplace heat.
By then, Donovan will be capable of give again to his father for all he has achieved for him.
“I can’t think about how exhausting it’s for him,” he mentioned of his father, “however he’s dealt with it very nicely.
“And at some point,” he added, “hopefully, I’ll be capable of pay him again with one thing good.”