Rotnei Clarke draws more interest from Marquette

Tom Crean is pounding the pavement in pursuit of more high-ceiling talent for his Marquette Golden Eagles. Crean was recently in the gym to watch high-scoring PG Rotnei Clarke do his thing down in Oklahoma.

Of course Stan Heath, Doc Sadler, Scott Sutton,the coaches at Tulsa and many others have been to see the prolific Clarke play lately.

A junior, Clarke was once again the leading scorer in the state of Oklahoma -- he poured in 35ppg this season for Verdigris High. Clarke has already scored more than 2,000 points in his high school career, and has a shot to break the state's all-time scoring record. The kid can score. Per the Tulsa World, in a recent shooting exhibition the youngster made 94 of 100 three-point attempts. Jinkees.

In an email exchange, long-time Oklahoma sports writer Bill Haisten said that Clarke is "maybe the best Oklahoma high school guard I've seen since Mark Price." High praise.

In an article by Haisten from today's Tulsa World, Marquette is noted as one of Clarke's most 'persistent recruiters' along with Tulsa, Washington State and Arizona State. Based on this other article, it sounds like Arkansas is in good with Clarke.

Interest in the talented Oklahoman continues to expand -- he's now hearing from Duke, Florida, North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky. It is notable that Clarke plays AAU summer ball for Team Texas, a Nike-sponsored squad. MU is a Nike Elite athletic program.

While Crean clearly maintains a tremendous interest in the 6'0 Clarke, he's also aggressively recruiting 6'0" Jordan Theodore from Paterson (NJ) Catholic as well. Over the weekend, Theodore's Paterson Catholic squad lost a tough game to DePaul, 72-68. Theodore went off for 31points, six assists and five boards before fouling out late.

You'd have to think that TC wants one top point guard for the 2008 incoming freshman class. Few coaches in the country value and develop backcourt talent like Tom Crean (see Henry, Wade, Diener, James, McNeal, Matthews) - - a good sign when MU is in the running for players of this caliber.