HOT OFF THE BENCH

SHELDON MCCLELLAN began the season as the de facto go-to guy. A few games
in, McClellan found himself as the guy coming off the bench. Never mind the
Longhorns’ need to find a high-volume scorer to replace J’Covan Brown. And never mind
the fact that McClellan was the most obvious candidate.

Head coach Rick Barnes wasn’t pleased with the sophomore’s effort in practice or on the defensive end of the court. So he relegated ….

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last season’s secondleading scorer to the pine. “Other guys have been playing harder in practice and in the games, so they’re starting,” McClellan said. “I’m used to coming off the bench. It doesn’t matter to me who starts as long as we win.”

The purpose of the move was to send a message to McClellan and to the rest of the team — play hard or lose your starting spot. And Barnes might be on to something. In four games off the bench in the early portion of the season, Mc- Clellan averaged 15 points per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor and 47 percent from behind the 3-point line.

As a starter in the earliest part of the season, the swingman from Houston shot one tick worse (42) from the floor while hitting on a horrific 27 percent of his three-point shots. His performance placed him back on the bench. “We had more guys playing the hardest
they’ve ever played, and that’s how we’ll get better,” Barnes said. Time will tell if the trend holds and if Mc-Clellan will continue to play at a higher level coming off the bench. As the calendar turns to 2013 and the conference slate begins, the effectiveness of Texas’ most talented scorer will be crucial.

In 2011, Jordan Hamilton shot 36 percent in February, including a 15-for-58 stretch in late February of that season. In six games in March, Hamilton shot 38 percent from the 3-point line and only attempted 12 free throws. Wear-and-tear attributed to Hamilton’s struggles — the byproduct of hoisting up well over 500 shots and playing 32 minutes per game.

By the end of the season, his legs were tired and he couldn’t get enough lift on his shots. To better illustrate how coming off the bench keeps McClellan fresh, consider a secondhalf sequence against Mississippi State in the Longhorns’ final game of the Maui Invitational. A minute after subbing in, McClellan drove to the rack for an easy layup. The next minute, he got fouled on a shot attempt. One minute later, he sank a three-pointer. McClellan then hit a long jumper only a few seconds later.

A brief respite on the bench, and McClellan was back in the game, hitting two three-pointers in little over two minutes. “I thought Sheldon really responded [to the benching],” Barnes said after the 69-55 win. To McClellan’s credit, he maintains a positive attitude when the coaches send him to the bench. “I’m just playing my role and trying to help the team win,” he said. Although Barnes intended for the benching to serve as a lesson, it has opened up a variety of options for Texas’ attack on the court.
And come March, as Barnes learned the hard way in 2010, a fresh player is a much more efficient player. McClellan’s good — if not better — playing without the first-teamers, too, and that’s been the most pleasant revelation for Texas through the first month of the season. “We think Sheldon can be a special player,” Barnes said. “He’s a prolific scorer in so many different ways if he wants to be. He can score behind the arc, he can put it on the floor, and he’s good playing without the ball.”

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