‘A huge part of our success.’ Former UK basketball recruit Skyy Clark perseveres at UCLA
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Tracking NCAA games in Rupp Arena
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More than four years after he committed to play college basketball at Kentucky — and three years after he backed away from that pledge to play for the Wildcats — Skyy Clark is back in Rupp Arena.
And the path he took to get here has been anything but straightforward.
Clark is now a 6-foot-3 junior guard playing for hometown school UCLA, his third college in as many years. He’s an every-game starter for the Bruins, a 7 seed in the 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament. UCLA has to wait until the final game of Thursday’s first-round session at Lexington’s Rupp Arena to hit the floor: The Bruins will face 10 seed Utah State in a game scheduled to begin at 9:25 p.m. as part of the Midwest Regional (Indianapolis).
When Clark takes the court for UCLA in that contest, it will mark the latest signpost along the winding road that’s been his college basketball career.
Clark — who finished as a four-star recruit in the 2022 high school class — actually had three college commitments before he ever played in an NCAA game.
First, Clark committed to DePaul on social media when he was an eighth-grader in 2017. Unsurprisingly, that pledge didn’t stick.
Then, he became an early commitment for Kentucky’s 2022 recruiting class. Clark — who was the first player in the 2022 recruiting group to earn a UK scholarship offer — committed to Kentucky in October 2020 and signed to play for the Wildcats the following fall. Clark’s college commitment to UK came despite serious interest from the likes of Memphis, North Carolina and his eventual home of UCLA.
But, Clark never saw that commitment to the Cats through.
He decommitted from UK in early March 2022, less than two weeks before Kentucky’s 2021-22 season came to a crashing halt with an upset loss to Saint Peter’s in the first round of March Madness.
What’s happened since has taken Clark all over the map, and now back to Rupp Arena.
“It’s been a lot of hard work, definitely confusing at times, definitely hard at times,” Clark said of his college career on Wednesday afternoon. “There were a lot of low moments, a lot of high moments.”
The start of those struggles — and of Clark’s resiliency — came in the summer of 2021, when Clark partially tore his ACL.
Fast forward to spring 2022, and one month after opting to decommit from Kentucky, Clark found himself a new home at Illinois.
But things didn’t go to plan there.
Clark played in only 13 games for Illinois during the 2022-23 season before leaving the program midseason, citing personal reasons. That led to an offseason jump into the NCAA transfer portal, where Clark settled on Louisville as his next destination.
Last season at Louisville, Clark played in 29 of the Cardinals’ 32 games, with per-game averages of 13.2 points and 3.0 assists. Clark actually led Kenny Payne’s final U of L team — which went 8-24 overall — in scoring.
Clark then hit the portal for the second time in as many years, and found his way back home last spring to Los Angeles and to Mick Cronin’s UCLA program.
“I’ve known him since he was in ninth or 10th grade. So I know what type of guy he is,” Cronin said Wednesday. “He never wanted to leave L.A., and I didn’t want him to leave L.A. Things happen. ... I got a text (from Clark). ‘Coach, I want to come. I want to come home.’ I said, ‘Call me when you’re free.’ And that was the end of that.”
Clark’s return to sunny Southern California has been mutually beneficial.
He’s started all 32 of UCLA’s games this season, with per-game averages of 8.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists. Clark is shooting career-bests from the floor (45.2%) and 3-point range (37.7%) this season, while also drastically reducing his turnovers. After averaging 2.1 turnovers per game during his partial season at Illinois and 3.0 turnovers per game last season at Louisville, Clark is down to 1.1 giveaways per game this season at UCLA.
It’s the first time in his college career that Clark boasts a positive assist-to-turnover ratio.
And after slumping to a 16-17 record last season, UCLA is back in March Madness following a 22-10 season in which the Bruins notched nine Quad 1 wins.
“I think this season has been a testament to everything that’s happened,” Clark said. “I love this team to death. I love the coaching staff, I love the players. I love everyone involved, and I’ve just been super happy here, playing freely. I think this thing has been a whole testament to my journey.”
Skyy Clark perseveres through family medical issues to play for UCLA
Clark’s journey to this point has involved some difficult times, and perhaps none more than what he’s endured this season.
Last summer, Clark’s father, a former NFL player, suffered a stroke and a series of resulting health complications — including a coma — that put his life in peril.
(Health issues for Clark’s father had contributed to Clark leaving Illinois midway through that 2022-23 season).
“We talk about everything — we talk about basketball, we talk about life, like, literally anything,” Clark told the Los Angeles Times about conversations he’s had with his father during this season. “He’s really just been telling me to keep working hard, but he’s been telling me how much he’s proud of me, how I’ve handled myself this year.”
On the court, Cronin said he’s been surprised by Clark’s tenacity and toughness on the defensive end. Clark is tied for second on UCLA with an average of 1.3 steals per contest.
But on Wednesday, Cronin also highlighted how much Clark has matured as a person off the court, with his perseverance through his father’s medical issues front of mind.
“He’s been through so much adversity this year with his father’s illness. It’s been a huge challenge for him,” Cronin said. “I’m really proud of him and the person and the young man that he has become.”
“I can’t tell you how hard it’s been for him and his family. ... I was worried that he was going to need to just take the year off,” Cronin admitted. “Obviously, I would have supported him, but we needed him. He’s played through it, and he’s been a huge part of our success.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 7:02 AM.
