The Green Bay Phoenix received a big boost when Clarence Cummings III made his season debut Wednesday night at Purdue Fort Wayne.

He missed the first six games of the season due to an eligibility issue but was cleared to play following Green Bay’s 64-51 win over St. Thomas last Saturday.

The Phoenix have been playing solid defense so far this season – the team entered the PFW game second in the 11 team Horizon League in defensive efficiency – but have struggled a bit on offense, currently sitting dead last in the league in offensive efficiency and 319^th overall in the country per BartTorvik.com.

Enter Cummings, who is one of only three returning players from a season ago but was the team’s leading scorer at 10.5 points per game and shot 33% from behind the arc on nearly 4 attempts per game.

He is an offensive threat in multiple different ways – he can use his athleticism to get to the basket, he can drive and kick, and he can stretch the defense and keep them honest by proving he’s able to knock down the outside shot.

And with good size at 6’5”, that versatility will likely lead to meaningful minutes again this season.

“CC, what’s great about him is he’s a Swiss army knife for us,” head coach Sundance Wicks told Brian Kuklinski on the Phoenix Sports Network pregame show prior to Wednesday night’s game.

“He can play the two for us because he can be an extra handler, we’re going to need some secondary handling out there.”

“He can play the three so then we can have CC, Rudy, Noah – you can see that lineup out there where you’ve got three guards to match up with….and then you can also put CC at the four and really kind of speed our tempo up a little bit and have him kind of trailing the play and being that secondary guy who touches the ball initially in our offense.”

That three-guard lineup of Ruedinger, Reynolds, and Cummings along with forwards Elijah Jones and Amari Jedkins turned out to be Green Bay’s most productive lineup Wednesday night, finishing +5 in the box score as a lineup in 8 minutes (13 possessions) as a group. Cummings also finished a team-high +5 individually as well.

Having not played any game action yet this season, Wicks was unsure how many minutes Cummings was going to play Wednesday night but he ended up logging 25 minutes in the game, 4^th most of any Green Bay player, and chipped in 12 points and 4 rebounds while knocking down 3 of his 4 three-point attempts.

Having a full roster for the first time this season on Wednesday night – Cummings and Ruedinger along with rotation mainstays Foster Wonders and Will Eames have all missed time this season – was not enough to overcome the red-hot start that Purdue Fort Wayne has had to the season.  But it was an encouraging performance for a program that is taking “baby steps” towards getting back on track after being one of the worst teams in all of Division I last season.

It remains to be seen if Cummings will continue coming off the bench like he did Wednesday night or if Wicks will slot him into the starting lineup.  It’s a good problem to have for a team that so far has a couple of Division I victories but a few more narrow defeats like the one they suffered Wednesday night in Fort Wayne. 

Having everyone available and healthy, especially a versatile player like Cummings who can also bring veteran leadership as a fifth-year player, can only help.

“Whatever the team needs, which I love about CC, he’s ready to rock and roll with it,” Wicks said.

Photo via gbphoenixmbb / IG