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Clara Silva 'adjusting a lot to the speed' of college basketball

Screenshot 2023-11-10 at 1.25.30 PMby:Phoenix Stevens11/22/24

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Photo of Clara Silva by Tyler Ruth | UK Athletics

In the last two games, Clara Silva has tallied just 13 total minutes of action on the floor after getting 23 minutes in each of the first three games of the season. Against Purdue Fort Wayne, she was in for just five minutes.

However, one of the main reasons for that was because the Mastodons had a gameplan that would attack Silva directly.

“Clara Silva is going to be good. She really is,”Kenny Brooks said following the 79-67 win. “I think she’s adjusting a lot to the speed when you play against a team like this, and obviously, their gameplan is to just try to drive, drive, drive. Clara is going to be really good when she learns that it’s not even the physicality part of it. People talk about the physicality — it’s not.”

Rather than the physicality, it’s more about Silva “thinking” while she’s on the court rather than just playing.

“She’s been — and she won’t tell me, but this is my thought on it,” Brooks began to explain. “She’s been tall all of her life, and she’s always had to make sure she didn’t run people over. So, she’s very cautious when she’s doing everything because when you’re that big against anybody else, you touch them, they fall down. People will call a foul on you. She’s got to learn to just go, just absolutely go.”

He added, “I told her the first two fouls are on me. Just go crash into somebody. But she’s got to learn that, and once she gets to that point, then she’ll be able to get to her skill set. Then, we’re going to play two teams next week that I think that she’ll be able to match up well against, and as we start getting into playing against power five teams consistently, she’ll be able to get a rhythm then.”

As Brooks alluded to, Silva could get some run in the Music City Classic against Arizona State and Illinois.

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2025-03-18