Seventeen-year-old basketball phenom Zion Williamson broke the hearts of thousands of Clemson basketball fans this past Saturday night when he elected to attend Duke University next year. Williamson is currently ranked as the number two incoming prospect in the 2018 class and has gotten more attention than any other high school player since LeBron James. Williamson is from Spartanburg, where he attends Spartanburg Day School which is approximately a one hour drive from Clemson. The freshman phenom will join a loaded Blue Devil recruiting class that includes four players ranked in the top ten, of whom three are the top overall prospects in the 2018 class.
In 87 high school games Williamson has totaled 2727 points while averaging 31.3 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 3 blocks per game. In his first four games this season, he has averaged 35.8 points in only 15.8 minutes per game. Earlier this month Williamson was selected to play in the forty-first annual McDonald’s All-American Game alongside future Duke teammates R.J. Barrett, Cameron Reddish and Tre Jones. While the stats and accolades are impressive, Williamson is known mostly for his jaw-dropping slam dunks that one would expect to see in Madison Square Garden instead of the gym at Spartanburg Day School. Williamson’s rise to the spotlight has gotten him attention from more than just the scouts. Williamson has amassed 1.2 million followers on his Instagram account and has caused celebrities like Drake, Quavo, Dez Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal to reach out to him.
In a season that has provided more excitement and promise than any other basketball season in recent memory for Clemson, the future appeared to be even brighter when rumors that Zion Williamson was favoring Clemson surfaced. According to 247 Sports, 85 percent of experts predicted Williamson would attend Clemson in the fall while only four percent of experts predicted he would join Duke. The 6’ 6”, 272 pound power forward was projected to start in place of the graduating Donte Grantham had he decided to join Clemson. If Williamson had joined returning players Marcquise Reed, Shelton Mitchell and Elijah Thomas, Clemson would have likely projected to compete with the best of the best in the ACC next season. Instead, a Duke team that already was likely to enter the preseason rankings as the number one team will only be better with the addition of Williamson. Clemson and the rest of the ACC will have a daunting task ahead of them when it comes to challenging the Blue Devils.
While Williamson’s decision was heartbreaking for the Tigers, there is still hope for Clemson basketball in the future. Clemson basketball is currently ranked No. 18 in the nation and eleven of their fourteen players are projected to return next year. While the loss of starters Gabe DeVoe and Donte Grantham will be difficult, the Tigers have several players ready to step in their place. Grantham will be sidelined for the remainder of the 2017-2018 season after tearing his ACL. While this is devastating news for the Tigers, it will give freshman Aamir Simms more playing time and experience that will prove to be valuable going forward. Clemson also has three talented incoming freshmen committed to play for them next season who should help fill the voids left by Grantham and DeVoe. Shooting guard John Newman, power forward Trey Jemison, and small forward Hunter Tyson, all of whom are three-star talents, will join the team for the 2018-2019 season.
While not all hope has been lost for the Tigers, missing out on Williamson certainly feels like a missed opportunity for a program that finally seems to be trending in the right direction. After years of mediocrity and disappointment, the Tigers are finally competing for the ACC regular-season title this season. Had the Tigers been able to add Williamson, they would have been able to build upon this season’s success and accelerate their rise to the top of
the ACC.
Instead, Clemson will be forced to compete against Zion Williamson and a stacked Duke squad in order to contend for the ACC title next season.
