On May 1st the NBA’s Board of Governors voted to postpone the Draft Lottery and Draft Combine in Chicago due to an abundance of caution regarding the coronavirus pandemic. The Board has not announced whether the NBA Draft will take place as scheduled on June 25th or if will be pushed back to a later date, but at least there is a precedent after the NFL held its own virtual draft in April. In addition to all of the seniors who have wrapped up their college careers, the deadline for underclassmen/international players to declare themselves eligible for the draft was in late-April and more than 200 of them (163 college undergrads/42 international players) filed as early-entry candidates. We will spend the upcoming months interviewing as many members of the 2020 draft class as possible. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel commences our coverage by chatting with Georgetown prospect Mac McClung about being a great scorer and what it would mean to him to get drafted.
You gained a lot of notoriety as a high school player due to your dunking ability: how much of an advantage is your athleticism on the court? It is a big advantage. It helped me get my foot in the door but I still need to improve some other parts of my game.
As a senior at Gate City High School you broke Allen Iverson’s Virginia single-season scoring record with 38.4 PPG: what is the secret to being a great scorer? Practice. You can tell when scorers are comfortable on the court and it is mainly due to their work ethic.
In the 2018 state title game you broke JJ Redick’s state title game scoring record with 47 PTS/15-21 FG in a win over Lee High School to clinch the 1st state title in school history: what did it mean to you to win a title, and how were you able to play your best when it mattered the most? It meant everything to me and to be the 1st in our school’s history was very special. I was not focused on the outside noise or my legacy: I just wanted to win the game with my teammates.
In 2017 you decommitted from Rutgers and signed with Georgetown: what made you choose the Hoyas? Coach Patrick Ewing and the opportunity that Georgetown provided me. I liked the campus/people as well as Coach Ewing’s vision/winning attitude.
What makes Ewing such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have learned from him? He is never satisfied and neither am I. If we get back to campus from a big game and I put up 30 PTS he will still show up at practice the next day demanding more out of me as if I had gone scoreless the night before.
You started 29 games as a freshman and made the Big East All-Rookie team after scoring 13.1 PPG: how were you able to make such a smooth transition from high school to college? It was not easy and there were a lot of eyes on me. I was playing off the ball a lot but I worked hard and watched a lot of film to find a comfortable place within our system while competing every day.
In the 2019 NIT you scored 10 PTS in a 3-PT loss to Harvard: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? I do not know where it ranks but it showed that we still had to grow as a team. Even though it was not the NCAA tourney it still mattered: a real competitor competes no matter what the game is.
Your father Marcus played football at Virginia Tech, your sister Anna finished her high school soccer career as the with the most goals in state history, your uncle Seth played pro baseball, and your cousins Correne/Colette Bredin both played pro hockey: who is the best athlete in the family? I do not know: I think it is yet to be determined. It is hard to beat my cousin Correne making the Canadian Olympic team: that is a top-notch thing!
You signed with an agent while testing out the draft process: what is the biggest factor in your decision whether to stay in the draft, and what would it mean to you to get drafted? It would be a dream come true. We are sitting down with teams to hear their feedback/get their advice and then we will go from there. Hopefully I can work out in front of them soon once the pandemic dies down but for now it is all done online.