By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said the Razorbacks had a lot to accomplish on the recruiting trail after his team’s season-ending loss to Georgia on Thursday night.
But will Pelphrey’s recruiting skills also be put to the test with his second-leading scorer?
A local television station, KNWA, cited unnamed sources as saying guard Rotnei Clarke is “strongly considering” a transfer from Arkansas on Saturday afternoon. Clarke could not be reached for comment regarding the report, but Clarke’s father, Conley Clarke, said his son hadn’t decided to transfer.
“I haven’t talked to him about that,” Conley Clarke said. “He left and went to Hot Springs for the weekend. He’s supposed to talk to Coach Pelphrey the first of the week.”
Pelphrey, who also was in Hot Springs for the high school state basketball championships, did not return a phone message seeking comment Saturday. But his meeting with Clarke isn’t necessarily to discuss a transfer to another school. Every player is scheduled to meet with Pelphrey as part of the season-ending process.
“We haven’t put that out there,” Conley Clarke said about the transfer talk. “Rotnei hasn’t put that out there. But you know how it goes. There’s a million rumors going around right now.
“I haven’t talked to Rotnei about it.”
Clarke’s sophomore season got off to an incredible start when he scored a school-record 51 points in the opener against Alcorn State, leading a team with only six scholarship players available because of injuries and suspensions. He knocked down a school-record 13 3-pointers in the game and finished the year with 100, which ranked second to Scotty Thurman (102) on the school’s charts.
But it wasn’t an easy year for Clarke, who was tabbed the country’s top shooter in the preseason by FoxSports.com. He had trouble with knee tendinitis for much of the year and was a focal point for opposing defenses because of his ability to knock down long-range buckets all season.
Clarke struggled offensively late in the season, averaging 10.8 points in the final five games. He went 0-for-4 from the field — all 3-pointers — and scored four points against Georgia on Thursday.
Despite the late struggles, Clarke finished the season leading the Southeastern Conference in 3-point field goal percentage (42.7 percent). He finished second on the team in scoring, too, averaging 15.1 points a game.
“He has set a bar that’s so high that when he does miss it kind of takes us all by surprise,” Pelphrey said before the SEC Tournament. “But I think he’s had a great year. He’s had to play a lot of minutes and he draws a lot of attention from the opponent. They don’t want him shooting.”
Clarke is one of just two players remaining from Pelphrey’s six-man 2008-09 recruiting class. The other, point guard Courtney Fortson, led the Razorbacks in scoring 18 points in 2009-10 after being suspended for the first 14 games.
Conley Clarke said his son is expected to return to Northwest Arkansas on Sunday night. When asked if he thought his son would be back with the Razorbacks next year, Clarke said he didn’t know.
“I’d hate to say something and then the next day it would be different,” Clarke said. “That’s not our decision. That’s his. So we’re staying out of it and just let him decide what he wants to do.”
