For five years as a Triton, senior guard Clint Allard has
truly defined everything that the up-and-coming UCSD men’s basketball program
is about. After redshirting his first year on campus, Allard would have the
opportunity to improve himself both physically, as he conditioned and learned
to eat right, as well as mentally while watching from then-head coach Greg
Lanthier’s bench.
“Sitting back and watching the other teams, I got to see
without being in there what the competition was like,” said Allard of his first
year at UCSD.
The only Triton to have witnessed the transition from former
coach Lanthier to Bill Carr in 2004 to the current coach Chris Carlson
following last season, Allard has not only endured, but thrived, with the
changes. For Allard, each coach was able to teach him something different and
help him improve his game.
“Coach Lanthier had a really offensive-oriented game style.
The good part for me was I got to put up a lot of shots everyday [in practice].
I became a much better shooter than I was the first year I got here. When coach
Carr came in, he brought a seriousness to this program. You’re not going to win
unless you play defense, and he believed we could play defense. He preached
defense and he preached toughness. That mindset got us to where we could
compete with the top teams in the league and every night we had a shot to win.
coach Carlson came in and with the experience we had with hard-nosed defense,
he came in and gave the players an edge, gave us confidence. He still taught us
some things, but he opened it up and let the players play, and I think that was
a big reason for our success this year.”
Carlson felt that Clint’s decision to return for one final
season, despite having walked last June and being eligible to graduate, was
emblematic of the player and person Allard has proved to be in his time to
Diego
“It meant a lot to me, personally, that he would want to
come back this year,” Carlson said. “I was the third head coach he’s played for
in his time here, which I don’t think is easy to do. It showed me a lot about
his character and what he meant to his teammates.”
A Bay Area native who went to as many Golden State Warriors
and Stanford Cardinal games as possible while growing up in
Jose
Athletic Union basketball. The AAU program, both prevalent and competitive in
California
and play basketball at
school where he might have been able to post better on-court stats against
lesser opponents.
“Playing against better competition is only going to make
you better, especially when you’re fighting for a spot everyday,” Allard said.
As one of Carr’s few returning players, Allard would join
his teammates in a “sink-or-swim” situation that year, in which the new coach
was able to mold the players and all of those getting playing time were, for
the most part, inexperienced at the collegiate level. Senior guard Andrew
Hatch, the California Collegiate Athletic Association Freshman of the Year in
2004-05, remembers Allard during a practice in their first season together.
“My freshmen year was tough on both of us, but one day in
practice coach Carr was directing us in a series of passing and shooting
drills. In this drill there were two cutters and two passers, so it is up to
the passers [Allard and former Triton Mike Bakal] to pass to the correct
person. I believe Mike passed the ball to the wrong person — so two balls
headed full steam at [former Triton] Parker Berling. After being hit with both
balls Parker preceded to kick the ball as hard as he could out of anger — the
ball looped off his foot and clocked Clint’s head, lifting him off his feet and
onto the ground,” Hatch said. “After a moment of silence [assistant] coach
[Eric] Olen began to laugh and everyone else followed. Clint jumped up and
laughed it off, a little upset, but that is the type of guy Clint is: he knows
when to joke around and knows when to be serious and I respect him for that.”
Allard also remembers that first year under Carr, calling
the first conditioning period his “most physically excruciating” moment, but
also necessary to prepare the team for the battles ahead. As a starter for all
but 10 games in his Triton career, it has been Allard who has often led the
Tritons into those battles. Despite being incredibly effective and consistent
during all four of his seasons, including a career-best 11.7 points per game
average last year, it would not be until his final season that Allard received
All-CCAA recognition, finishing the year averaging 9.8 points, a career-best
3.9 rebounds, and a team- and career-best 4.6 assists per game that also ranks
third in the CCAA.
“It was nice that the other coaches in the league felt I was
deserving of All-CCAA recognition,” Allard said. “Especially as a senior, it
meant a lot. This league is full of absolutely great players and every year
people get left off meant that the other coaches in this league felt like I
brought something to this team, and that’s what I wanted to do.”
Also an All-CCAA Tournament selection following UCSD’s stirring
CCAA Championship run, Allard has been a part of, and catalyst for, many of
UCSD’s biggest moments during his career. Included in the list of firsts is not
only memorable victories against Cal State Bakersfield and Sonoma State, but
also the Tritons’ first-ever Division-II postseason victory, first-ever CCAA
title, first-ever NCAA Division-II Tournament berth, and first-ever win over a
Division-I program. The victory against UC Riverside was the culmination of a
long-term goal and, as the first game of the 2007-08 season, a strong predictor
of the successful season to follow.
“Our game at UC Riverside was very telling for me, because
he made a couple of big shots that game, played with great heart and desire,”
Carlson said. “Talking to him prior to that game, I know how much it meant to
him to beat a Division-I team. To do that in our first game this year, I think
was kind of big.”
As an all-around player who has had many incredible games
and moments, it is his leadership skills for which Allard hopes to best be
remembered for, and it is that guidance that both coaches and teammates are
quick to point out.
“Clint has basically been a mentor for me throughout my UCSD
basketball career, encouraging me and making me a better player,” junior guard
Alan Husted said. “Playing the same position as him, I learned and improved a
lot just by going at each other every day in practice. Personally, I tried to
soak up as many of his idiosyncrasies on the court that I could, as they were
obviously effective throughout his career.”
Whether he knows it or not, Allard is known among his
teammates as a leader and a teacher.
“Clint is a great leader and an outgoing guy who knows when
to be lighthearted, but also has the ability to be very serious at the times
that he needs to be,” Hatch said. “On the court he understands his role, he
knows that he is the leader and ultimately it is up to him to settle the team
down and direct everybody on the court.”
While hoping to continue to work in basketball and pass on
some of his own knowledge, Allard’s reflections on his own career and time at
UCSD are more attuned to people rather than games. While obviously thankful for
his time in RIMAC Arena and on the various other courts he has played, Allard
is more grateful for the people who have surrounded him throughout his career,
including his mother, Dawn, who has traveled to watch him play everywhere from
Bakersfield to Alaska, his brother Clark, who has often traveled from Cal Poly
and was present during the Senior Night ceremony, and Olen, the only coach to
actually see each of Clint’s collegiate games.
“I’ll miss the players and their families and all the people
I’ve met,” Allard said. “I’ll miss the people I won’t see every day anymore. As
far as athletics, I’ll just miss just knowing that there’s six months of the
year where you’re going to spend a couple hours pretty much everyday with these
guys, and you look forward to it. We never had the most talent or the most
athletic guys or the tallest guys, but just knowing that hard work,
camaraderie, and playing together — all that stuff matters. Teamwork is very
underrated, but it brought us a long way. We were overmatched some nights, but
we always played hard and we always gave ourselves a chance to win.”
In his five years at UCSD, Allard has been the soul of the
program, finishing his career as the school’s Divison-II leader in points, rebounds,
assists, steals, starts, free throws made and attempted and games and minutes
played. Along with fellow departing seniors Hatch and three-time All-CCAA
honoree Henry Patterson, Allard has laid an incredible foundation that future
Triton teams will now look to build upon.
