Clifford Bounces Back from Injury
No player helped their recruiting stock more last spring than Mike Clifford. At the beginning of the AAU season he was a player that most people, including us, had never heard of. But after turning in one terrific performance after another, he quickly emerged as a prospect for the division I level.
He was undoubtedly playing the best basketball of his career going into the summer and certainly looked poised to break out in front of division I coaches, but four days before the beginning of the live period the unthinkable happened…he broke his leg and was told he would be sidelined for the next six months.
Clifford would later learn that the injury was unavoidable. He had a cist growing on the bone that simply made it a matter of time before it would snap. Thankfully, extensive testing showed the cist was an isolated circumstance and that he was in perfect physical health beyond his now broken leg.
While most players would have been devastated by the untimely injury, Clifford used it as just another form of motivation. Unable to be on the court, he worked hard in rehab and in the weight room.
Doctors originally told him that he wouldn’t be back for the beginning of the high school season, but Clifford’s dedication allowed him to prove them wrong. Not only was he on the floor with his Bishop Fenwick team for their season opener on December 16th, but he was dominant scoring 32 points and grabbing 15 rebounds against Cardinal Stellman.
“Of course I was disappointed that I didn’t get the opportunity to get looked at this summer,” Clifford told the New England Recruiting Report, “but it was going to happen at one point or another, and my high school team has a chance to compete for a state championship, so I’m glad it happened when it did.”
Bishop Fenwick’s play has indeed looked worthy of their championship aspirations thus far this season as they are off to a 7-1 start to the season behind their star big man who is averaging 26 points and 17 rebounds per contest.
“I’m just about 100%,” he said. “Jumping off that foot is still coming along and I’m a little sore after playing, but that’s all normal.”
His ability to heal fast and put up huge numbers to start the season hasn’t gone unnoticed by college coaches who are once again beginning to show strong interest. Clifford lists Buffalo, Quinnipiac, Central Connecticut, and Towson as the schools he’s hearing from the most.
“I want to go someplace where I can play, where they have a quality program…good tradition and fan support,” he explained.
While Clifford is hoping to find that type of situation this year, he also hasn’t closed the door on a post-graduate year as that would give him a chance for the summer of exposure he missed last year.
“If I end up prepping I’m 99% going to Tilton.”
And regardless of whether it proves to be this year or next, every time Clifford takes the court he seems to be adding further proof to the claim that he is bound for the scholarship level…just ask the people at St. Mary’s…he dropped 25 (points) and 27 (rebounds) on them on Friday night.
Mike Clifford