Javan White says he's found a home in Clemson

White hopes to make an immediate impact at Clemson (Photo by Nelson Chennault, USAT)

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Mon May 07 12:52:43 GMT-04:00 2018

With two years of eligibility remaining, Javan White is the typical basketball transfer, so as he was looking for his next home he wanted to make sure he found a place he’d be happy for the rest of his college career.

The Oral Roberts graduate forward picked Clemson over LSU with his announcement Saturday evening, adding an important piece to the Tigers’ 2019 squad after the departures of Mark Donnal and David Skara.

White told TigerNet that the relationship with Clemson head coach Brad Brownell and assistant coach Antonio Reynolds-Dean was the deciding factor.

"Once I took a visit, I really saw the school and kind of got a feel for the players,” White told TigerNet Sunday afternoon. “I really just felt like that was home for me and I felt like Coach Brownell and Coach Dean were developing that relationship piece that I was looking for, especially for two years. A lot of grad transfers only have one year. For me, I'm going to be there for two years so I really wanted to make sure I found the right staff and the right teammates that had a winning opportunity going on and a good group of guys."

The need for a big man to complement center Elijah Thomas was also a big selling point.

"I'm super excited. The opportunity to play in the ACC with a good group of guys is a huge opportunity for me to develop my game and grow as a player,” White said. “Coach Brownell and his staff did a great job of recruiting me and giving me a lot of insight into their program and the development. I think the opportunity is huge. They showed me who they had coming back and there was an immediate need. They are already going to be a good team this year. They were just telling me that if I could join the team I'd be able to help them out even more and make a bigger push in the tournament hopefully next year."

The 6-10, 230-pound forward averaged 10.2 points and nine rebounds per game last season and he said he feels like he can come in right away and help Thomas in the frontcourt.

"Absolutely. Eli is a huge threat inside,” he said. “He can do a lot of things. I feel like if I'm able to compliment what he does and we just build off of each other I think it could be a real dangerous situation."

Protecting the rim is needed in the ACC and White said that’s definitely one of his strengths.

"My biggest strengths are I'm a good rebounder, I can block shots really well, I rim run, I work well of the pick and rolls,” he said. “I shot a few threes last year at a decent clip. A big thing this off season for me will be a lot of set threes, work on the pick and pop and try and spread the floor a little bit within the offense. And I'll try to boost my free throw percentage as well this year."