On Monday morning, the BIG EAST named Seton Hall men’s basketball’s Adam “Budd” Clark to its Weekly Honor Roll, his third time earning the honor this season.
“We have Budd Clark, and you don’t” was a saying among Merrimack coaches and fans the past two seasons, but continues to ring true in the junior guard’s first season at The Hall.
It was Clark who, for the second time this season, led SHU to a bounce-back 2-0 record this past week to keep them in the March Madness hunt after a pair of derailing road losses on the road the week prior put the Pirates’ postseason hopes in jeopardy.
Entering the week of Feb. 1 with “Last Four In” status in CBS Sports’ Bracketology, the Pirates squandered two opportunities on the road to earn a much-needed NCAA Tournament resume boosting win. They first extended their winless streak at Villanova to 32 years on Feb. 4, with their last win in February 1994; then blew a 9-point lead with just 90 seconds left at Creighton just three days later.
Looking to avoid a three-game losing streak this past week, Clark took charge in the Pirates' first contest on Feb. 11: leading SHU to a 87-80 season sweeping-win over the Providence Friars at the Prudential Center, the five-foot-10 guard had his best performance of the season.
Rocking a headband for the first time this season—perhaps channeling a prime Boston Celtics Isaiah Thomas—Clark scored a season-high 31 points, just one point shy of his career high, on 68.8% (11-for-16) shooting from the field, 50% (1-for-2) from three and 80% (8-for-10) from the line. With SHU trailing at halftime (as per usual), Clark scored 21 points in the second half, including the final nine points of the game, to will the Pirates to victory.
Also adding eight assists and a season-high five steals, Clark contributed to 50 of The Hall's 87 total points himself.
“I think he’s understanding the mission, understanding what I’ve been preaching to him about making people follow you,” SHU head coach Shaheen Holloway said about his starting point guard. “He’s not vocal, he’s more follow by his actions, but I’ve been on him to be aggressive and don’t let the game come to you.”
“Be aggressive and have people run with you,” Holloway added. “I think he’s doing a better job of that now, understanding that as he goes, we go.”
Clark’s performance was not just his best this season: it was of elite program and conference proportions.
The Philly native’s 31 points marked the first 30-point or more game by a Pirate since 2022 All-BIG EAST First Team guard Jared Rhoden scored 30 in a 82-66 win at Xavier on Feb. 26, 2022. Other players who have done so prior to Rhoden include 2021 BIG EAST Player of the Year Sandro Mamukelashvilli, who scored 30-plus twice in the first week of December during the 2020-21 season; and 2020 Jerry West National Shooting Guard of the Year Myles Powell, who scored 34 on Feb. 5th, 2020, 32 on Nov. 27th, 2019 and a career-high 37 points on Nov. 14th, 2019. Elite company, indeed.
With 31 points, eight assists and five steals, Clark is also the only BIG EAST player to compile such a statline in regulation since the 1996-97 season. Since 2002-03, there have only been two other players in the conference to have 30 or more points, eight or more assists and five or more steals in a single game: back when both Syracuse and Notre Dame were members of the BIG EAST, the Orange’s Jonny Flynn had 34 points, 11 assists and six steals in a win over UConn in the 2009 BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinal; and the Fighting Irish’s Ben Hansbrough had 30, 10 and five in their last home game of league play during the 2010-11 season.
But Flynn’s final statline came after six periods of overtime (three hours and 46 minutes, to be exact), while Clark (and Hansbrough) needed just regulation.
It’s tough to follow up such an elite performance, though: while Clark was quieter in SHU’s 63-56 win at Butler on Feb. 15, scoring just eight points but still dishing a game-high eight assists and hitting a clutch shot down the stretch, graduate guard AJ Staton-McCray picked up the slack.
With The Hall trailing at halftime (no surprise there), Staton-McCray scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the second half to earn SHU the victory. All but two of those points came during a four and a half minute stretch where the graduate guard outscored the Bulldogs 13-6 himself, single-handedly turning a 7-point deficit into a three-point lead. This included a three-pointer at 7:17 to give SHU a 50-49 lead, then another minutes later to give SHU a 56-53 lead with 4:27 left to play.
Butler managed to make it a two-point game at the 1:36 left before Clark hit his defender with a left-to-right crossover to get into the lane, then rose for a pull-up jumper off glass at the 1:01 mark to give the Pirates a 60-56 lead—just his third make in 10 attempts, but the dagger nonetheless.
Clark then hit a pair of free throws in the final 30 seconds to ice the game, with the Pirates leaving Hinkle Fieldhouse with a 63-56 win.
Entering the contest, the win would have been a much-needed Quad 1 result for The Hall, but Butler dropped in the NET rankings seemingly overnight to make it a Quad 2 win instead—a huge win nonetheless, as Holloway acknowledged after the game.
“This is a big win, we needed this win, and we just got to build from it,” Holloway said during his postgame radio interview with Dave Popkin. “Even when it’s not your night, you can do things to help the team win….I thought Budd did that down the stretch with distributing and getting the ball to AJ when he needed to get the ball to him, and that’s how you win games when things aren’t going great.”
Clark and the Pirates will have a great opportunity to do just that this upcoming week, when they host DePaul on Feb. 18 then Georgetown on Feb. 21 (both 13-12, 5-9 BIG EAST) for a must-win, two-game homestand.
Both of those games are Quad 3 results, and with The Hall yet to suffer a bad loss this season, falling to either the Blue Demons or Hoyas would be the nail in the coffin for SHU’s March Madness hopes.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
