Unleashing The College Hops: The Mac McClung Story
Mac McClung played college basketball at two schools before turning pro. He started at Georgetown University in 2016 and played there for three seasons before transferring to Texas Tech for his final year of eligibility. That's the straightforward answer to where he went to college, but the actual story is more interesting than just naming two programs. McClung arrived at Georgetown as a highly touted recruit out of La Lumiere School in Indiana. He wasn't the biggest guy on the roster, standing at about 6'2", but he immediately became known for one thing above all else: his leaping ability. The "College Hops" label stuck because he did things in games that looked like highlight reel dunks, not because Georgetown was running some kind of specialized dunk program. It was just McClung being McClung. During his Georgetown tenure from 2016 to 2019, he averaged around 13 points per game and gained national attention for a series of tomahawk dunks against high-major opponents. I remember watching one of those sequences against Kentucky and thinking that if he stayed healthy and kept developing his handle, he'd be NHL-level exciting, even if the NBA projection was always a question mark because of his frame. What people didn't fully appreciate at the time was how much his scoring efficiency improved in his final season. He was getting to the line more often and finishing through contact better than his earlier years suggested.
He left Georgetown with some unfinished business academically and transferred to Texas Tech for the 2019-2020 season. The move made sense on paper because Jim Morrisey's system at Texas Tech was uptempo and suited his acceleration. McClung flourished there, averaging 18.4 points per game while helping the Red Raiders make an elite tournament run. That single season did more for his draft stock than three years at Georgetown ever could, mostly because it proved he could create off the dribble against defensive-minded competition rather than relying on transition opportunities. One detail most people miss is that McClung never actually declared for the NBA draft after his Georgetown years. He came back, finished his degree requirements at Texas Tech, and then entered the draft process in 2021 as a senior. That decision mattered more than people realized at the time because it gave him an extra year to bulk up and work on his jump shot. The risk, of course, was that he might lose momentum. But it worked out, and he was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round of the 2021 NBA draft. The path from College Hops sensation to NBA role player to G-League star to champion is not linear, and McClung's journey reflects that. He won an NBA championship with the Lakers in 2020 as an undrafted free agent who signed a two-way contract, then won the 2023 NBA Slam Dunk Contest while playing for Orlando. That second dunk contest victory, his third overall, cemented his reputation as one of the most dynamic leapers in the game, regardless of where he went to school.
If you're researching this topic for content purposes, the key takeaway is that McClung's college career is split between Georgetown and Texas Tech, and the College Hops nickname originated during his Georgetown days. His trajectory from D1 dunker to NBA champion to free agent journeyman is about as standard a case study as you'll find for undersized guards who rely on vertical explosiveness rather than size or consistent shooting touch.
Get the Full Details
