Q&A: Massanutten Military Academy coach on new hoops commit Kanye Clary
Micah Shrewsberry earned the first high school commitment of his tenure at Penn State on Thursday, when Massanutten Military Academy point guard Kanye Clary announced his verbal pledge to play for the Nittany Lions. Clary held offers from Hampton, James Madison, Norfolk State, Old Dominion and Texas A&M.
Clary is a bit undersized at 5-foot-11 but makes up for that in other areas. BWI sat down with his prep coach, Curtis Perry, to learn more about what he brings to the table.
BWI: Just to start generally, what kind of kid is Kanye? What's his attitude like?
Peery: As a kid, he's an unbelievably good young man. He's an honor roll student. He works his tail off in the gym. He wants to get better every day. He does't take days off. He plays through injuries. He just wants to get better and be the best basketball player he can be. He's an extremely talented young man.
BWI: What was his situation at Massanutten? When did he come to you?
Peery: He came to me as a high school junior this past season. He played on our postgrad team, and he led us in scoring, averaged about 21.5 points per game. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but he averaged 21, about five rebounds a game, five assists a game, and about two turnovers a game. I think he was like 38 or 39 percent from three. You know, the best thing I could say about him is that he's a two-way player, he brings it on defense and offense. He wants to be a pass-first point guard. We asked him to score more this year, and he's a very capable scorer at all three levels. He's a very shifty guard that is very hard to stay in front of, can get to a spot and he's got a really consistent jump shot as well.
BWI: How he take on that added scoring responsibility, since you mentioned he wants to be a pass-first guard?
Peery: He'll do whatever is asked of him. If he needs to be a roll player, if he needs to be a leading scorer, if he needs to be a leading assist guy, he's going to do that to his best ability. That's kind of the best thing about him is that you put him in different types of situations and hes just going to succeed. That's just kind of who he is as a basketball player. You can challenge him mentally and physically and he's going to win. That's what he is. He's a winner.
BWI: What would you say are one or two traits that set him apart? What are his strengths?
Peery: One of his biggest strengths for me is that he can guard multiple positions. He's a tough, hard-nosed defender who will pick guys up full-court and can guard multiple positions. For me, there were several plays throughout the year that really stood out in my mind. That's him boxing out a 6-foot-10 kid and putting him into the bleachers, or knocking him underneath the basket. It says a lot about how tough he is as a 6-foot point guard to get in there and bang with the big bodies and still be able to out and guard a point guard full-court. He takes on the role, he says, 'Coach, I want to guard the best player.' He takes on that role, and he thrives at it from a defensive standpoint.
BWI: If there was an area or two where he still needs to progress a little bit, what would that be?
Peery: Being a little bit more consistent on his jump-shooting, on his three, is probably something that he needs to work on. Every day that he's at school, he'd text me in the morning and say, 'Hey coach we need to get up 200 threes, we need to make 200 threes before class starts.' So it's something that he knows he needs to get better at, and it's something that he's actively trying to get better at. That's one of the big things that I see. In terms of offense and defense, I don't know if there's really anything else. He needs to work on everything, as does every kid. Everybody's got to get better at everything. But the one thing that really stands out is just a more consistent three-ball shooter.
BWI: Obviously, he's a bit of a smaller guy. How do you think he manages that on the court?
Peery: He's a really shifty player, really quick north to south and east to west. He's got a really strong frame. He's able to get to a spot and manuever around people and through people if he has to. His floater game, his ability to shoot the mid-range pull-up and step-back allows him to score over a bigger body and allows him to get to his spots. He's not a kid that gets bumped off his spot very often. He's a low, compact guy, but he's kind of built like a running back, and he plays like that. He plays tough, hard-nosed basketball and is not somebody that's going to get bullied or pushed off his spots.
BWI: It sounds like you've got quite the player there. Are you at all surprised that there hasn't been interest from some bigger schools?
Peery: I'm probably a little biased because I'm coaching him, but I think he can play with anybody in the country, at any level. That says a lot about the kid and about who he is as a human being. He's a phenomenal young man, truthfully. He's not one of these kids that gets caught up in the recruiting process. He didn't really care where he wanted to go. He just wanted to go to a place that wanted him, and wanted to go to a place where he could be successful. He's a very unique kid, a smart kid. He's just not caight up into the recruiting hype of, 'I've got to get this offer from this teeam or this team' or whatever. He just wants to go somewhere that wants him and, truthfully, Penn State got a hell of a basketball player.
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