Yahoo News Mac McClung transfers from Georgetown to Texas Tech: Will NCAA let him play next season?
Mac McClung answered one big question on Wednesday.
The former Georgetown guard announced that he is transferring to Texas Tech, ending speculation after listing seven potential destinations that also included USC, Wake Forest and Auburn.
But one question remains unanswered. Will he be allowed to play next season? McClung, a rising junior, is expected to request a transfer waiver to allow him immediate eligibility for 2020-21. But there’s no telling if the NCAA will grant it or enforce its draconian transfer penalty and force him to sit out for a season.
Another win for Texas Tech
Either way, it’s a big get for Texas Tech and a sign of the shifting dynamic in college basketball in recent years that has Chris Beard’s Red Raiders program as a more attractive destination than Georgetown.
McClung didn’t go into detail about why he left Georgetown. But the athletic 6-foot-2 scoring guard made it clear he wasn’t happy there in a statement to ESPN earlier in May.
“It was a number of different events that made me feel I had no choice but to transfer from Georgetown,” McClung said. “I really wanted to stay, but things throughout my career made me realize that I couldn’t.
“I’m looking for a place I can call home. A place I can be a part of a family and help them succeed.”
McClung has NBA hopes
If success is indeed a priority, Lubbock is clearly the more attractive choice. In three seasons under Beard, Texas Tech has a pair of top-two finishes in the Big 12, an Elite Eight appearance and a trip to the 2019 national championship game, where it lost a heartbreaker to Virginia.
McClung led Georgetown with 15.7 points per game last season and will now have the chance demonstrate his value for a winner.
Georgetown’s struggles
Meanwhile, Georgetown has fallen far from its prestigious heights, having failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament every season since 2015. In three seasons with Hoya icon Patrick Ewing as head coach, Georgetown is just three games over .500. This is surely not the Hoya program McClung envisioned when he joined Georgetown as an internet dunking sensation in 2019.
Now, McClung will join a program that gives him a real chance to find a March spotlight as he pursues his NBA dreams. It’s a spotlight Jarrett Culver rode to NBA lottery riches in 2019.
Whether that’s next season or in 2021 is to be determined.
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