Cincinnati Bearcats sophomore power forward Gary Clark has been named the AAC’s Defensive Player of the Year a day after being placed on the conference’s Second Team.
Clark didn’t lead the American Athletic Conference in defensive rebounds or blocks. Those honors go to UConn’s Daniel Hamilton and Central Florida’s Tacko Fall , respectively.
But it was the intangibles that Clark brought to Cincinnati’s defense that made him such a menace on that half of the floor and won him this award. Lengthy and agile but also tall and strong, he has as much of a knack for racing down guards from behind to swat the ball into the stands a la Justin Jackson as he does giving opposing big men fits in the paint.