Olney forward headed to Weber State
The coaching staff at Olney Central College (IL) was looking at ten new faces on the first day of practice. That meant the Knights were going to lean even more heavily on their only experienced returner. Clint Burris has not disappointed.
Burris is averaging 13.4 points and 7.6 rebounds through the first nine games for Olney. He got recruiting out of the way early, signing with Weber State during the early period.
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“He's struggled with his shot a little bit, but he's a long threat,” said Olney assistant coach Mike Burris, Clint's older brother. “He's a wide body, he's going to be a good player once he gets out of junior college where it's not quite so athletic. He's not the most athletic of players.”
Joining Burris in leading the Knights has been 6-foot-1 guard Marcus McCants. McCants is averaging 13.7 points to lead the team and has chipped in 3.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
“He's a big time shooter, he's shooting about 38 percent from three, averaging about 15 a game,” Burris said. He comes from a good family. His dad is a coach in Ohio, and he's Ed McCants' younger brother.”
The older McCants plays at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and that was the plan for Marcus as well. He was at UWM last season, but had some academic problems. The plan is to have him spend two seasons playing for Olney.
“Right now, I don't think a lot of people know he's down here,” Burris said. “The plan is for him to go back to Milwaukee, but with the success coach (Bruce) Pearl is having, who knows if he will still be there then?”
A third player is emerging for Olney as well. 6-foot-11 Croatian center Ivan Kovacevic has really come on in the last few games for the Knights.
“The last four games, he's had four consecutive double-doubles. He's up to about nine points and eight rebounds a game now,” Burris said. “He's getting a lot of low-major and mid-major attention.”
“He's not your typical European player,” Burris said. “He's physical, he can go iniside and bang. He's not real skilled going outside and shooting jump shots.”
The Knights are just 2-and-7 on the season, but just got their starting point guard back from injury. They lost to Vincennes (IN) by 12 points last night and Burris says the team is starting to play much better.