Brennon Clemmons Jr. has seen his promising basketball career knocked off course by a cruel 1-2 punch.
The 6-foot-7 sophomore missed his entire freshman season last winter at Lincoln North Star because of a broken leg in the knee area, an injury suffered during a dunk attempt in a fall league game last October.
So Clemmons set his sights on the AAU season to play in front of NCAA Division I coaches during the live periods in April and July, only to have the COVID-19 pandemic wipe out those opportunities. That left him scrambling to find available facilities the past few months to continue working on his game and get the weightlifting and conditioning sessions necessary to fuel his growth as an athlete.
He was back in his element Monday at North Star High School, the first day that Lincoln Public Schools allowed athletes back in high school gyms for organized basketball workouts after being shut down since mid-March. It was also the first day of the Navigators’ four-day team camp for their high school boys program.
People are also reading…
“To finally get back out here with the guys and just laugh and have fun, but be serious at the same time; it felt pretty good to be on the court,” said Clemmons, who has been in contact with Nebraska and is on the Huskers’ recruiting radar.
The son of former Husker guard Brennon Clemmons had worked his way into a key role on North Star’s varsity squad last summer and fall, getting the opportunity for expanded responsibilities with Super-Stater Donovan Williams out during that time with an ACL injury.
“Brennon was playing at a high level when he got hurt,” North Star coach Tony Quattrocchi said. “He would’ve been a rim protector for us last season, but he also had the ability to go inside or outside offensively, which would’ve made us more versatile and harder to guard.
“He’s definitely one of the top players in the state in the sophomore class and well on his way becoming a Division I player.”
Clemmons used his time sitting on the North Star bench this past season observing Class A basketball and learning what he needs to do to prepare when his time arrives to compete against the likes of Hunter Sallis, Chucky Hepburn, Saint Thomas, Isaac Traudt and Jasen Green this winter.
“I tried to look at it as a positive,” Clemmons said. “I used that time to analyze my game and how it will fit with the guys I would be playing with next year and what I needed to do to get ready to compete against those top guys.”
With school facilities shut down this spring, he headed over to Cross The Line Church in northeast Lincoln to play basketball as many other top high school and college players did during the height of the ongoing pandemic. In addition to workouts with Williams before he headed to Oklahoma State and current teammate Kwat Abdelkarim, Clemmons also got the chance to sharpen his game against as former North Star standout, Josiah Allick, who is a sophomore at Missouri-Kansas City.
Brennon Clemmons Sr., an Indianapolis native, played at NU from 2001-03 after transferring from Olney Central Community College in Illinois. A 6-2 guard, Clemmons started 31 games and averaged almost eight points per game in his two seasons playing for coach Barry Collier.
“I got into the game because of him,” Clemmons Jr. said of his father. “I didn’t realize how big it was for him to play Division I (basketball) until I got older and really started paying attention to how hard it is to get to that level.”
Because of the younger Clemmons’ height, youth basketball coaches always put him in the post. But his father made sure he also learned guard skills, something that’s paying dividends as Clemmons gets older.
“I’ve learned how to move my game out to the perimeter, and I can play both guard and post,” Clemmons said. “I can shoot outside, but if my shot isn’t hitting, I’m going to drive to the hoop or post up. I try to be as versatile as I can.”