UCLA's Skyy Clark is ready to sink his teeth into March Madness with new crown after dental surgery
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Skyy Clark's smile got a glow-up — one shining white front tooth a day after the UCLA guard truly got his teeth punched in during a scrap for a loose ball. Clark can sink his teeth — all of them — into playing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, when the seventh-seeded Bruins meet No. 2 seed UConn.
“It feels normal right now,” Clark said Saturday as he grinned for cameras. “I don’t have any complaints. ” Clark lost the tooth late in the Bruins' first-round win on Friday night when he dived for a loose ball and took an elbow to the face from a UCF defender.
The tooth went flying and members of the UCLA staff scurried around to try and find it. UCLA walk-on Jack Seidler retrieved the tooth. After fighting tooth and nail for the ball, Clark had little time to celebrate the victory.
He needed overnight dental surgery to fit him for an emergency temporary crown. “He had to take the nerve out, take the root out, shave my tooth down to a nub,” Clark said. Clark, who played at Illinois and Louisville and spent the last two seasons with the Bruins, said he would wear a mouth guard against the Huskies.
“Still go out there and play hard,” Clark said. As for the old tooth? “I just threw that piece away,” Clark said.