How Kentucky recruit Skyy Clark returned from major knee injury in less than six months
Six months ago, the sight of Kentucky recruit Skyy Clark standing on a basketball court in January — and playing in an actual game — would have been unthinkable.
But there he was Jan. 6 in La Porte, Ind., making his senior season debut in a matchup featuring two of the best high school teams in the country.
That return to the court came less than six months after undergoing surgery for a major knee injury that, at one time, was expected to sideline him for the entire season.
Clark — a 6-foot-3 point guard from Los Angeles — suffered a torn ACL last summer. The injury wiped out the bulk of his final AAU season — after the COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from playing grassroots basketball the year before — and he had surgery in late July to repair the knee. At the time of his injury, it was suspected that there was also damage to his meniscus. During surgery, doctors found the meniscus to be in good order, but Clark had a completely torn ACL that would need substantial rehabilitation before he could return to basketball.
That rehab process obviously went splendidly.
“Everything is going as planned, and he’s feeling great,” Kenny Clark, the player’s father, told the Herald-Leader this week. “He’s just excited to be back, man. He put in a lot of work and busted his tail and made an awesome, awesome recovery that’s kind of unheard of. But it speaks of the work and determination and dedication that he put into his body and his recovery. And just the awesome team that we had around — as far as doctors and physical therapists and trainers and everybody — that helped him get back.”
Clark’s father said the future Wildcat did 6-8 hours of rehab work per day at the beginning of the process. There was physical therapy, icing and a considerable amount of time spent in a hyperbaric chamber. Kenny Clark estimated that his son spent 60-90 minutes every day with that specific treatment, which he thinks played a major role in the quick recovery.
Following some initial swelling immediately after surgery, Clark didn’t deal with any such issues once the rehab began, and that allowed him to more quickly jump to the next step in the process. He was supposed to be on crutches for about a month after surgery, but his doctor OK’d him to ditch those after just two weeks. He was supposed to be in a knee brace for six weeks. That was gone after just three.
Once he was able to put weight on his knee, he returned to the gym, carried a chair out to the court, and started putting up hundreds of shots per day from a sitting position. Then he started shooting without jumping. Then he started doing squats in the weight room, a full six weeks earlier than the doctors had originally said he’d be able to. And so on.
Three months after surgery, the 6-3 guard was dunking a basketball.
And then came last week, when he played three games in three days against some of the nation’s top competition just a little more than five months removed from major surgery.
“To come back and do what he did last week — and show he was healthy — was nothing short of amazing,” his dad said. “I was in the stands tearing up, because I know everything he went through. It’s been a long road, but it’s been short. Because less than six months is crazy.
“But I wouldn’t put him out there if I wasn’t there with him every day, and if I didn’t know he was healthy.”
Clark struggled in some areas, excelled in others during his first few days back for Montverde (Fla.) Academy, the defending national champions of high school basketball.
He made just four of 17 shot attempts — going 2-for-9 from three-point range — and scored 13 points in 63 minutes across the three games at an invitational with some of the country’s best teams. Shooting struggles after such a long layoff are to be expected, and they shouldn’t be cause for any concern since Clark has proven himself to be one of the best perimeter scorers in the 2022 recruiting class over the past couple of years.
Where Clark did excel was with his playmaking ability — 18 assists to seven turnovers, with some creative floor-spacing moves and passes — and his attention and attitude defensively.
“He said his timing and rhythm wasn’t there. His shooting — nobody should have expected him to come out and average 25 points a game,” Clark’s father said. “But he set his team up. He led. And the passes he was making were pretty darn sweet. And, defensively, he was all over the place. And that’s what I wanted to see.
“I’m not worried about his offense. Everybody knows he can score the ball. But his defense was pretty, pretty amazing — to be coming off of that kind of injury. He was putting his body on the line, taking charges, guarding the top players on the other team and holding them below their average. That’s all I was looking for. I know, from here on out, the sky’s the limit. He’s going to be able to do whatever he needs to do.”
Looking ahead to Kentucky
The primary reason Clark came back so early was simply because he was ready to play and wanted to help his team. He felt normal physically, and his doctors, trainers and coaches found no reason to keep him sidelined. With Montverde once again near the top of the national rankings, Clark will have a chance to help lead the star-studded roster to another championship postseason.
The future Wildcat also wanted to get back in game shape before he gets to Lexington.
“You don’t want to be working the rust off on campus,” his dad said.
He’ll have plenty of great opportunities coming up.
Clark’s comeback game was against Sunrise Christian (Kan.), now the No. 1 overall team in the country. Late Thursday night, Montverde was scheduled to face Camden (N.J), the No. 2 team in the ESPN rankings and a squad — led by major UK recruiting target DJ Wagner — that is currently on a 44-game winning streak.
This weekend will bring a trip to the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass., an event the has become the best annual showcase in the sport. Montverde, which is ranked No. 4 nationally, plays No. 12 DeMatha (Md.) on Saturday afternoon and No. 6 IMG Academy (Fla.) at 3 p.m. Monday in a game that will be shown live on ESPNU.
If UK Coach John Calipari can get away from Lexington to take in some Hoophall games, he will. Kentucky is actively recruiting several players who will be featured at the event, and Calipari will surely want to get a look at Clark in person after not getting a chance to see him play over the summer.
Clark was the first recruit in the country to land a UK scholarship offer during the COVID-19 shutdown that prevented coaches from seeing players in person, and he became the Wildcats’ first commitment from the 2022 class way back in October 2020, while the recruiting travel restrictions were still in place.
He suffered his knee injury before UK coaches could watch him on the court this past summer, but Kentucky assistant coach Chin Coleman visited him in Florida just a few weeks ago, and Clark’s father said Calipari, Orlando Antigua and Jai Lucas had all been by in recent months.
“We just appreciate them believing in him and sticking to it,” Kenny Clark said. “When you have an injury like that, you just never know. But they never wavered, and that’s just a true testament to what kind of a person Coach Cal — and the coaching staff — what kind of people they are.
“They don’t turn their back when adversity strikes. They actually came harder at him, to let him know, ‘You’re our guy. You’re one of our guys. We’re here with you.’ It meant the world.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
