TIM BARRETTE- HEAD COACH BRISTOL CENTRAL HS

The guys chat with the former high school coach of Donovan Clingan as he prepares for life as an NBA rookie

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
My question, coach, is howproud of you are you that first Donovan
decided to stay at Bristol Central.I'm sure he had offers to go other
places and then did such a greatjob at Yukon. You know, it's
obviously been a very surreal couple ofdays around here, but super proud.

(00:20):
Such a dominant player in the Connecticutbasketball high school probably the most dominant Kananeanicut
basketball high school player in history.And not only did he choose to stay,
you know, he really when hewent up to Yukon, he chose
to stay and safer you know collegebasketball as well, and you know,
look at the acculetes he's earned throughthe last four years he jurned high school

(00:44):
in college and then to be draftedin the first round on wednes To night
with such an honor coach. Whenwhenever we see seven foot two, no
matter who it is walking this earth, we automatically think, man, I
gotta be really good at basketball.But there's a lot of seven foot that
where the moniker tall and that's all. When did you know, like Donvan's
different from just being a tall guythat we're putting on the basketball court.

(01:07):
This guy's an actual athlete and actualbasketball player. You know, I've been
asking a lot lately, really goinginto sophomore year when all the college recruits
came basically calling these summer of hisfreshman summer into the sophomore year, he
had intangibles I had not seen outof many basketball players, whether they were
a six foot guard or a sixfoot eight forward. He had the intangibles

(01:30):
between his passing, his vision,and he always was in the right spot.
He also had a work ethic likenone other. And you know,
I've been talking about that for dayswith people. He's worked to get to
where he's at, and you know, he's a testamon. I always say
he's seven too. He was agood basketball player, didn't matter if he
was six foot four or seven foottwo. We had a skiel base that

(01:52):
most players don't have nowadays. Andyou combine that with the work ethic,
and you know, seven to twocertainly did it hurt, But Tew,
you become a first round drastick.Talking to Tim Barrett, Bristol Central basketball
coach, about Don von Klingen,when did you first learn that his mother
had passed early in his life?And you know, there's a certain like
quietness about him, yet he's oneof the fiercest competitors I've ever watched.

(02:16):
So I'm an educator in the Bristolschool system as well, so I knew
his mom had been battling answer fora while. She had beat it once
and it came back. So whenhe was starting to come around in middle
school of the basketball game, sayingbehind the bench, you know, we
started to form a little bit ofa bond. And then you know,
we obviously heard of her passing whenhe was in eighth grade, and you

(02:38):
know, after her passing, hereally just took to basketball, like where
am I going to put all myenergy? I have all this anger built
up, I have all this energyand I don't know what to do with
it, And he chose basketball.And what a story he's been able to
write for the last six years.And now you see where he is today.
Talk about him being a teammate.When we've had the pleasure to being

(03:00):
around Donovan. We never see thisguy without a smile just being with him,
with Yu Kon and you know,we have four other guys or three
other guys this year that were drafted, three other guys last year that he
was teammates with his freshman year thatwere drafted. So he's around superstars,
but he always has a smile onhis face and it seems like he is
the best teammate. And that's thestory I tell people. He was a

(03:23):
kid who you know, on ain a high school system, you have
a three thirty freshman game, afive thirty JV game, and a seven
o'clock varsity and he'd be at thegym at two forty five and he would
sit with my freshman coach because he'sa one man coach, and he would
sit next to him on the bench, hold the whiteboard, draw up plays,
give him suggestions. And then ina JV game, he'd be sitting

(03:44):
at the end of the bench beforewe went up to the classroom to get
ready for a varsity game. Andevery shot that is made, he's got
his hands up, he's cheered histeammates on, he's waving his towel.
So all those things you saw lastyear and especially his freshman year when he
was on the bench a lot morebehind a dama is real. That's who
he is. He's all about team. I'll give you, guys another example.

(04:08):
He comes back, we do aChristmas lunch Christmas Eve. I always
treat my players for lunch. Wehave pizza together at noon on Christmas Eve
to make sure we eat together asa family. And he's come back both
years, his freshman and sophomore yearat Yukon and came back to our pizza
dinner or pizza lunch in the daybefore Christmas. Because he's all about our

(04:30):
program. And you know that speakstested. I can't even tell you what
that means to me and what itmeans to the kids in the program.
Still that he comes around to havelunch with us on Christmas Eve. Tim
talk about being seven foot two.That can't be easy for this kid either.
I mean he's still a kid,he's twenty years old. How has
he dealt with that? And youknow, I remember the first time I
saw him was at a football gameat Wrinchler and he had like twenty,

(04:54):
like probably five foot five girls followinghim and he looks like the pike paper.
What's it like for him day today to walk around whether he's in
high school or now in college andalways kind of sticking out. He handled
it better than most of us could. I can tell you that. But
with that being said, you know, we even talked about it as he

(05:15):
was starting to get recruited in thiswhole process when he was at Yukon and
he'd go to an NBA game orthrough his agency or you know, just
trying to go see a game.He just can't do that. You can't
just walk to your seat. Youstand out. Everyone wants pictures, everyone
wants an autograph, and it's hardto just be a kid. But he

(05:35):
always that smile you talk about.He always seems pleasant and he really gets
through it. So it's not easybecause he can't just walk through the airport,
you know, even all these flightshe's been taking to these NBA teams
for workouts, you know, he'sgot to come home through an airport somewhere
and it's just not been easy.But he always puts a smile on,

(05:56):
signs some autographs, takes a picture, never complains, and just goes of
the process. He's kind of beenreally humble about the whole thing and just
said, hey, if somebody wantssomething from me, I'm willing to give
it. He's obviously made the rightchoices, winning two national championships and being
drafted seventh overall after two seasons inthe NCAA. But the choices were so

(06:17):
much. I mean, the choiceof where he's going to play high school
basketball was a big deal. Youalready talking about the recruiting situation, like
how many coaches are coming through.Do you know some of the secrets saw
so like why he stayed at BristolCentral, didn't go to img Mount Verdi
Oak Hill, and why he stayedwith Connecticut. Is there something other than

(06:38):
yourself, Coach Hurley, that Donovanactually holds dear to his heart, or
why he wanted to stay and makethose two programs very successful. You know,
obviously we knew he was going tobe very successful at a young age,
you know, sophomore year with allthe colleges that were recruiting him.
He's a throwback player. He's anold school type player. His loyalty,

(06:59):
he kept his circle really small,and he always wanted people around that didn't
want anything from him. His circlejust loved him for who he is.
We didn't want anything around him,and he really was loyal to us,
myself, Coach Hurley, and allthe staff he worked with. But you
know, all I can tell youis the staff that worked with him was

(07:21):
willing to give him everything we couldwithout asking for anything in return because of
the player and the person we weregetting. And because of that, our
circle stayed really close and small,and I think he was comfortable. And
you know, his passing with hismother, how far did he want to
really go from his dad, hissister, his grandma, And he was

(07:43):
really close with them. So itwas a lot easier for him to drive
us three quarters of a mile downthe hill to Bristol Central to work out
at five in the morning than itwas to be shipped off to IMG And
truthfully, when he was drafted byPortland, he's going across the country.
This is kind of the reason whyhe chose to stay close to home all
those years, thinking that he mayend up moving when he got the opportunity

(08:05):
in the NBA. Talk about himand running up and down the floor,
running the floor. I know becauseI coached high school in baseball that you
can't treat them the way I wastreated fifty years ago in high school and
run people to death and things likethat. Talk about you know, how
you got him to the point whereat yukon the last two years he's steadily

(08:26):
gotten better And then playing against ZachEdie Man. He ran that dude off
the floor. You know, he'sreally changed his diet as he was going
into collegiate years, he really kindof changed his diet. I wouldn't say
it was the best in high school. He didn't make the message best meal
choices before games, et cetera.But with that being said, we did
a lot of background work. Justlike you said, I couldn't work him

(08:48):
out in the weight room or calisithicallylike he would work out your average athlete.
So I had some friends of theprogram, i'll call it that were
that were hooked up with Somes,and I spent some time with strength and
conditioning coach of the LA Clippers goinginto a sophomore year, and he was
able to kind of design a programfor me that he used with his big

(09:11):
men in the NBA, And thatkind of helped us a little bit with
what we needed to do, becauseit's not like you said, it's you're
not squat and I'm the squat rackswith a guy at seven to two where
you got to protect his knees.I think Connecticut CIAC has some underrated talent
in the sport of basketball. Andyou know, for Donovan to state in
this state. I know, youguys had some monster games with windsor you

(09:35):
know the state tournament run with nocakewalk. Just speak on the competition that
he played in high school where alot of people when he signed with Yukon
were asking me all the time couldhe hang in the Big East, and
just with the caliber play in Connecticut. They kept citing and his body frame
if he was going to hold up, But talk about how high school in
Connecticut somewhat prepared him for that.You know, I'm gonna you know.

(09:58):
I think I feel, like yousaid right there, they're very underrated in
terms of the talent here in Connecticut. Whether we're all Division IE players,
there's a lot of good players thathave come out of Connecticut and had Division
two career, Division three standout careers. But one thing I want to point
out, and I give a lotof credit to with my coaching fraternity,
I think the coaching in Connecticut isbar none across the country. I've seen

(10:22):
a lot of high school games nowacross the country, and the preparation that
Kanankee coaches do behind the scenes deservea lot more credit than they get.
And you know, Donovan, Ithink sometimes when you're seven to two,
you know, you talk about theguys he played against. It may be
harder to play against four guys thatare six three that are pounded at you

(10:43):
than it is to play against oneseven footer. He often talks about that.
Please, coach, tell me theygot a big guy, because it's
easier sometimes for me, you know, than bringing it down to the three
little nets that are you know,pounding at his legs the entire game.
Tim tell me about a game inparticular, or a couple of games that
that you know, he just totallydominated. But you're like, man seven

(11:07):
foot two, because I was justwatching a seven foot six I think Chinese
woman and they just throw her theball inside and she just lays it in.
Yeah, and it's ridiculous. Justdescribe like a game where you're like,
this is just this is stupid becausehe's so good. It's you know,
his junior year, we were playingin the CCC tournament. We were
on the road at Northwest Catholic.I can still tell you John Arabello,

(11:28):
you know, six hundred career winsand the first two possessions of the game.
You know, obviously had prepared forDonovan to be down low. They
had planned on front and back ofthem and double team and and he came
down the court and hit two trailthrees to start the game, and it
was six to nothing, and Johnjust looked over and smiled at me,
like what are you gonna do?And you know, we had a scrimmage

(11:52):
game versus Hall and coach Brian Moriarty, and he's literally first possession of the
scrimmage. It was his first game, and literally he was a junior.
And he drilled a three and thenhit a pull up two possessions of the
row, and Brian was like,wow, you weren't joking. I can't
wait to see him at Yukon,hoping he would go there and lo and
behold. Actually he made that decisionlater the year. But you know,

(12:13):
one game in particular, he hadfifty and thirty two versus Winsor. It
was our junior year. They werenumber three in the state. We were
number one, excuse me, asenior year, and you know he had
fifty and thirty one or thirty two, and I took him out with three
or four minutes ago. So Steveeven finished the game, and before I
had gotten in my driveway by.He thirty. The next that night he

(12:35):
was texting me and he was like, coach, are we still on for
five fifteen workouts? You know?And he never That's one thing I'd say.
He never sat out in Laurels.He's not sitting on He's not going
to be saying, hey, I'mthe seventh draft pick in the NBA.
I can you know just coast nowhe's ready to get to work. I
can tell you that, all right. I think he just answered this question.

(12:56):
But this is the one we've gottenfor the last couple of years now.
We have seen it. The onesthat when we go to practice,
we have seen this. When wego to the pregame scrimmage, we have
seen this. We see this inwarm ups. He can shoot. He
can shoot. Tell everybody he canshoot. He can shoot a lot better
than people think. I can tellyou that, you know, even in

(13:18):
workouts. I've been impressed by youknow, he every time he comes home,
whether he was down in Miami forthree four weeks training with his Excel
Sports group, he came home.And when I say he comes home,
like he gets home, guys atmidnight on a Thursday. Because he got
twenty four hours off and he's saying, coach, are we going in tomorrow
for five thirty? And he's atBristol Central High School still working out at

(13:39):
five thirty the next day because hedoesn't want to take a day off.
But last time he was up,I mean in a high school, Jimmy.
He shoots the ball from the logoat midcourt like you and I would
shoot a free throw. And youknow he's gonna there's gonna be ups and
downs. I think this first year, but most teams saw in this is

(14:00):
up at stores or when he workedout individually. He shoots the ball much
better from twenty six twenty seven feetthan most three, three or four men
in the NBA. Right now,I want to tell you that, and
I think, you know, givehim two years, that will be a
consistent shot that you'll see him knockeddown at the highest level. Tim,
thank you so much for your time. Great job with this kid. He's
an amazing young man and he's goingto definitely be a star in the NBA.

(14:24):
So we appreciate your time. Oh, I appreciate you guys having me
on. And you know, I'mjust happy to you know, speak on
his behalf because he like you justsaid, he's a better kid than he
is anything else. Absolutely, absolutely, thank you Tim. All Right,
have a good day.