Donovan Clingan is not used to losing. In his two years at the University of Connecticut, the Huskies won 68 games and lost only 11 times. Two of those wins, famously, were in national championship games, making UConn just the third school in the last 50 years to pull off a repeat. Clingan was right in the middle of that, going from a vital bench player as a freshman to the team’s starting center in his sophomore year.
With two rings in his possession, it’s understandable that Clingan would look to the next level. After UConn knocked off Purdue in this year’s title game, he declared for the NBA Draft, where the consensus is that he’ll be a top pick, and maybe even go in the top five. Standing 7’2” with a 7’6” wingspan, the 20-year-old is the type of player teams hope can be an anchor in the post for the foreseeable future.
Clingan spent a chunk of the spring in Miami, where he geared up for the big day with training that he hopes will make him an all-around threat, not just a towering presence under the basket. Before meeting with NBA teams that put him through the traditional pre-draft wringer—“You do a lot of meetings, you do dinners, you workout,” he said. “I’m guessing they’re trying to pick up on everything you do and what kind of person you are in every type of atmosphere”—Clingan chopped it up with GQ about everything from adapting to the three-point-happy NBA to the watch he’ll wear on draft night.
Donovan Clingan: I feel like I could go anywhere from one to ten. It’s so hard—I feel certain ways about myself and where I should go, but I have to prove to everyone what I can do.
I feel like I’m the same person. I’ll never change who I’ve been. I’ve got a great personality, always cared for everyone, always been outgoing. That’s something special about me. I’m never going to change that. I’m the same kid with the same dream, and I’m just trying to make everyone proud by making it to the NBA and having a successful career. There’s a lot more attention, but I’ll never change.
Yeah, it was, “Treat this year like something. We are trying to do something special.” For the guys that weren’t there [for the first championship in 2023] or didn’t get to experience what that team experienced, we wanted to be able to do it for them. We wanted to insert ourselves into history.
I mean…pretty quick. You realize how hard it was to do it once, so to do it again was absolutely unreal.
Yeah, it didn’t feel real at all. You look at the NBA and try to figure out how many players in the league right now are back-to-back NCAA champions—the only one I can think of is Al Horford. That’s when you realize you’ve done something special that very, very few people can say they’ve done. That’s the surreal feeling.
It was pretty dope. UConn has had a lot of history. A lot of special things have been done at UConn. The girls have done it, but on the men’s side, it was something that hadn’t been done. Being able to go out and do that was historic. Our fans are great. They’re very supportive at every game and every event. We tried to do it for them, and for UConn.
I’m pretty close with Ray! I talk to him here and there. Charlie Villanueva, Rudy Gay, Rip Hamilton, there’s a bunch of guys.
I feel like everyone, including myself, showed that we can win. We work at an extremely high level. We’re very coachable. If you can play for Coach [Dan] Hurley and someone who pushes you as hard as he does, you can play for anyone. He’s a special coach. Steph [Castle], Cam [Spencer] and Tristen [Newton] are three champions and three guys who are going to give everything they’ve got every single day. They’re willing to learn, they’re so smart on the court, and like I said, they’re champions. We’re excited to go in and make an impact.
No.
Realizing that anything can happen any given night. Every team is going to give you their best shot. Throughout the tournament, every team is trying to make it to that next round. I feel like I was able to tell the guys in the locker room—especially the guys that weren’t there last year—that we can’t take a single game or a single team lightly. We gotta give everything we got. Every opponent is trying to take us down, because we’re trying to do something really special.
You look at the Illinois game [in the Elite Eight]. At halftime, we went into the locker room and told each other to play our game and stick to the defense we’d been playing. We just needed to make more shots. That 30-0 run was something special.
Oh my god. Probably the Illinois game. I don’t know! I really don’t think about that. Winning was the only thing that really mattered to me, you know what I mean? But, maybe against Marquette in the Big East Tournament.
It was not a focus. I kind of only thought about the NBA after we won the [second] national title. It was all about the moment, and we can take care of that in the future. I thought about my future on April 9, the day after.
My freshman year, I felt like I showed I could compete against high-level talent. I was playing against Adama [Sanogo] every day [at practice]. I saw myself growing and knew I had a chance.
They’re trying to get a feel for who you are as a person, how you’re going to help a locker room, how you’re going to help the organization compete for championships—in every aspect of your game. [You’re] doing everything you can to show why they should invest in you. Throughout the college process, it’s you deciding what school you want to go to and why they should be recruiting you. But in this case, you’re trying to recruit them.
Being able to show I can step out behind the line and knock down the three ball. I feel like I’ve always had a good touch for the three ball. I’ve always been able to shoot the ball, it’s just not something UConn needed me to do to win championships. UConn had me doing certain things on offense that I was willing to do, and I was happy with my role. I wasn’t mad that I wasn’t shooting threes! I have two rings. There’s not too much to be mad about, you know what I mean?
[Also] passing the ball at a high level—I feel like I have a good feel for the game. I can see things happening and feel where the ball should go. Setting screens at a high level to get my teammates open. I’ve shown that I can win at a high level and play in the most chaotic atmospheres on the biggest stages, so I’ve shown I’m a winner. I’m trying to expand my game in all different aspects.
On offense, you’re looking at so many guys and trying to pick up little things. For me, [Nikola] Jokic’s footwork is something I really like to watch. All of the skilled big men that play at a high level, I’m trying to learn from them. On defense, I try to watch Rudy Gobert and how he defends the rim.
I watch probably 90% of the games. I watch every game, sometimes I just don’t watch the whole thing.
I took like three or four days off. I knew I was coming to Miami for workouts, so I’d be able to enjoy myself here. But I just enjoyed time with my family and some celebration stuff after the national title, but I was in the gym within three or four days.
No. I’ll speak for myself. I’m going to work as hard as I can to be as great as I possibly can and show everyone that I’m worth it.
Yeah I got a GMT Master, the Pepsi. I’m still working on the suit right now.