Top 10 Clarkson Highlights - #7 Derek Hart Sets New Marks for Clarkson Men's Basketball

6/26/2017 2:30:00 AM

The Top 10 Clarkson University Athletic Department Highlights of 2016-17 were carefully selected by the Clarkson Sports Information Staff. Top 10 Clarkson highlights will be posted on Mondays throughout the summer.

To say that Derek Hart's outstanding 2016-17 season for the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team was a surprise wouldn't be fair to the senior forward. Since he arrived on campus in the fall of 2013, Hart put in countless hours in both the gymnasium and in the weight room to transform his game. However, to think that he would go from a player who spent all of nine minutes on the court during his freshman season to a virtually unstoppable scoring force in the Liberty League wasn't exactly a layup either.

Hart was the focal point of the Clarkson offense from the first day of practice and it didn't take long for opponents to figure that out. Though the Knights were loaded with 3-point shooters to spread the floor, Hart was nevertheless double-teamed constantly, sometimes even without the ball. Slow starts still turned into 20-point games and fast starts became a race to 30 or more. The most frightening thing for the opposition was that Hart seemed to get better as the season went on. After being held to a season-low 14 points on just 4-for-7 shooting (and 6-for-7 from the free throw line) against Rensselaer, Hart spent the last three weeks of the season torching the conference with six straight 20-point games, averaging 26.8 per contest and shooting 68.5% from the floor.

All of it added up to one of the best offensive seasons in program history. Hart averaged 22.2 points per contest, the highest figure since the Liberty League rebranded itself in 2004-05, and was even better in conference play with a scoring rate of 24.1 points per game. He led the league in field goal percentage (63.8%) for the second straight season and also averaged close to a double-double by producing 8.2 boards per game. Along the way, he became Clarkson's all-time leader in blocked shots as well. The crowning achievement, however, came in the waning moments of the season finale. In the final minute, Hart converted a layup in the paint and then added a free throw for good measure for his 554th point of the season, breaking the 58-year-old single-season scoring mark for the Golden Knights.

Hart finished the season among the national leaders in field goal percentage (63.8%), field goals made (219) and scoring average (22.2 ppg), all of which ranked in the top 25 in the country. He earned numerous all-star accolades in February and March, but the biggest honor came in mid-March when he was voted into the 2017 Reese's® Division III College All-Star Game. If the rest of the country wasn't aware of Hart's prowess, they soon learned that he belonged with the best in the nation. Hart scored 22 points on 10-for-12 shooting and added in seven rebounds in about 20 minutes, despite most of the game being a 3-point shootout. When given the ball on the interior, Hart showed he was no match for just a single defender and found himself hanging on the rim following dunks with the opposition hopelessly looking on in the background.

All-Stars or not, plenty of players found themselves in similar situations throughout the 2016-17 season.

Top 10 Clarkson Athletic Department Highlights for 2016-17

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