Clancy Hitting it Big with Nationally Ranked Triton Hoops
Ex-Buffalo Grove Star Led Trojans to NJCAA Final Four in First Year as Head Coach
John Clancy isn’t much different from many of the basketball players he coaches at Triton College.
They all figured they would be at a big-time, big-name program right now instead of a junior college. And Clancy is trying to help them - and possibly even himself - end up somewhere bigger.
Right now the 2003 Buffalo Grove graduate and Daily Herald All-Area player is focused on making sure his players are better equipped to take the next step from River Grove to a higher level.
“When I was at SIU (assistant coach at Southern Illinois), I felt I was on the fast track to be at Duke or Illinois right now,” Clancy said. “Everyone was always chasing the next job. For me I’m really happy right now with where I’m at with this program.
“One of the biggest lessons I learned at SIU is if you do that, you don’t get to enjoy the ride and the journey with each team. I want these guys to enjoy their experience and the staff to enjoy it and the people to enjoy the product on the floor. There’s something to be said for enjoying the moment and where you are at right now.”
To say basketball is enjoyable right now for Clancy is an understatement. He’s coming off a debut season as Triton’s head coach that resulted in a trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Final Four. He’s got three players this year who are committed to four-year Division I programs, six more with D-I offers and another who could end up in that category for the No. 7-ranked team in the nation starting its season next week.
Four games are supposed to be broadcast on ESPN through a partnership it has with the NJCAA. Other teams don’t want any part of the Trojans so he’s scrambling to find an opener after he said five teams have canceled.
“It’s pretty cool with the success we’ve had,” Clancy said. ”Now, how can you handle success? Nothing is given to us this year.”
Especially for someone who laughed about the long and winding road from winning only 9 games as a head coach in two seasons at Wheeling from 2010-12. Clancy was also an assistant at Elk Grove, St. Viator and Niles North before going to SIU.
The Salukis were 76-54 with two 20-win seasons in four winning seasons under colorful head coach Barry Hinson. But after a 17-15 season, Hinson was fired and Clancy was looking for a job. He came back home for a year as an assistant at Triton and went back to southern Illinois and JUCO power John A. Logan. Clancy said there were a couple of D-I assistant possibilities at Kent State and Florida Gulf Coast when he got a call from Triton head coach Steve Christiansen.
Make that former head coach as Christiansen, who led Triton to a D-II national title in 2018, was headed to Northern Illinois for a job as an assistant. Clancy got the job and had to put a team together. Fortunately he had some help with returning assistant coach Brian Burns.
“He’s probably the best recruiter I’ve been around at any level of college basketball,” Clancy said of the Libertyville High graduate who is in his fifth year at Triton. “He works and he’s got a product to sell.
“We have a track record of sending so many kids to four-year schools. At the end of the day that’s what these kids want out of this experience.”
Six of them from last year’s team went to Division I schools. First-team NJCAA All-America and Region IV Player of the Year Patrick Suemnick is playing for the legendary Bob Huggins at West Virginia. These are, to use Clancy’s phrase, “dudes being dudes” who are playing at a high level.
“When you see the top teams in the country play - holy cow,” Clancy said. “(Iowa powerhouse) Indian Hills sent 10 to D-I, Logan sent 8 guys and we sent 6 guys. It’s a higher quality of basketball than it probably gets credit for.”
But Clancy doesn’t want any of them sticking around too long.
“The goal is if you’re able to qualify academically, we have a responsibility to get them out as fast as possible,” Clancy said. “That’s something we take pride in and it helps us in recruiting if we get guys to West Virginia, Southern Mississippi (Cobie Montgomery) and Pacific (Cam Denson). It makes it challenging but it also makes it fun to see a guy go from Triton’s YouTube channel to playing on ESPN.”
So Triton is restocked and ready after going 30-6 with a surprise run to the national semifinals where it lost by 4 points to eventual champion Northwest Florida State. Six-9 Keyondre Young, who played last year at Valparaiso, has committed to DePaul and Ethan Pickett, a 6-4 guard, has committed to UIC. Returning starting guard Brandon Muntu will be going to Western Michigan.
“We want to win games and a national title but our goal is to get guys to the next level,” Clancy said.
Bringing in Zac Boster and Stanley Boateng as assistants figures to help make all of that possible. Boster, who played at Huntley, has become renowned in the Chicago area for his skill development work with players in the NBA like Max Strus and Max Christie to Loyola legend and European pro Cam Krutwig to Belmont-bound star Drew Scharnowski of Burlington Central.
Clancy also gets to pick the basketball minds of coaches like Huggins, UIC’s Luke Yaklich, DePaul’s Tony Stubblefield and Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams. And he’s gained a lot along the way from guys like Niles North’s Glenn Olson and former Logan head coach Kyle Smithpeters, who is now a first-year assistant at Missouri.
“The passion and enthusiasm are the same but I’ve matured in managing personalities and knowing when to push people at the right time,” Clancy said. “At Wheeling I wanted it faster than it was probably possible. Now I’m 37, but I’m still not the coach I want to be.
“I’m still trying to learn and grow from others. The game is still the same and a lot of things we run are the same things we ran at Wheeling. Luckily at the college level you get to recruit the players you want to coach.”
Triton returns to Hutchinson, Kansas, the site of the NJCAA national tourney, for two tough games next weekend. The plan is to be back there again in March.
“As you build a brand it may lead to opportunities for me down the line,” Clancy said. “I had some opportunities to go to Division I schools after our success last year, but it’s nice to be a head coach and be back home. I felt I owed it to this program to see if we can win a national title this year and then we’ll see what happens.”
Best of luck to Coach Clancy