To supplement the team overview published earlier, I'm going to sporadically post player previews until the season starts, we'll see how far this gets.
Trevor Booker is the single irreplaceable piece of the 2009 Clemson basketball team. If Booker goes down for any substantial amount of time, the season is over. (That's why the fractured foot in the offseason was so disconcerting.) On a team full of unproven talent and solid contributors, Booker stands as a legitimate ACC player-of-the-year threat.
It hasn't always been that way. Booker started out his freshman year as a guy showing flashes of talent early in the season only to be shown up as slow and ill-conditioned during ACC competition. Still, the promise of a talented four-year starter with upside was more than enough to excite a still-depressed Clemson base. His sophomore season saw incremental improvement in just about every aspect of his game, and he started holding his own a majority of the time in ACC play. But he still struggled finishing plays around the rim and always seemed to disappear into a fog of foul trouble when the big games rolled around. But in his junior season we saw the jump from team star to league star. His offensive game took a leap, showing fluidity in the post with the occasional rim-rattling finish. He raised his free throw percentage to 70.7%. (Has Clemson had a big man put up those numbers like that from the line in the last 30 years?) He added the three-point shot to his arsenal, nailing 9-22 for the season. But if that wasn't enough, he also burnished his already stellar defensive reputation by learning how to stay out of foul trouble while putting up similar block and steal numbers. And even if K.C. Rivers was the team captain in name, Booker was the rock that held the coaches line on defense during the turbulence of 2009.
Not to say Booker is a perfect player. He still got lost against good defensive height last season: FSU, GT, and WF were foils for Booker time and time again. But let's also remember that no player on the team was more victimized by the roster flaws that doomed Clemson last season. When the perimeter players couldn't see into the post, Booker couldn't get the ball. Since he was the only legitimate inside offensive threat and the only guy posting up inside for Clemson, he was the focal point of every ACC defense. Jennings should give Booker some relief, and maybe Grant or Potter add another dimension to their games. And then there's Devin.
Clemson fans love Booker, but why? I would posit that this player, while undeniably born with a fair share of talent, hasn't stood by content to be a good player on an average team. He has worked and worked at development each year, helping raise the level of the entire team. Let's see the improvement one last offseason of training brings. Let's see what one more offseason has done for Booker's place in the long-broken and nearly forgotten chain of Clemson big man greats.
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