Chris Bahn: Clarke Has Record-Setting Night in Arkansas Victory

Arkansas guard Rotnei Clarke was sitting in the Bud Walton Arena training room on Wednesday, icing his aching feet. It's a ritual Clarke developed last year and it usually signaled the end to a long day of practice and shooting for the gym rat.

Clarke usually takes several hundred shots after practice.

So Coach John Pelphrey saw Clarke cooling down and assumed the sophomore shooter had been through his extra shooting for the night. 

"Come to find out, he was back here two hours later to throw up [another] series of shots," Pelphrey said. "That's the type of guy you want to coach. It means something to him and he's willing to work for it."

Clarke's hard work paid off in a big way Friday night against Alcorn State. He set a pair of school records, scoring 51 points with 13 three-pointers in an easy Arkansas victory.

Arkansas won 130-68 in the season opener and the Razorbacks looked impressive in doing it. But all anybody who witnessed the victory could talk about was Clarke, who hit 13 of 17 shots from behind the arc and was 15 of 21 from the field in all.

"I have never seen anything like it," said Razorbacks forward Jamal Farmer, who had a perfectly good 28-point, 12-rebound effort completely overshadowed. "[Rotnei] just couldn't miss. It was crazy."

Clarke hit his first seven shots, all from behind the three-point line. His first miss came with 9:05 left and from there he finished the half 9 of 11 on three-pointers.

It was just like Clarke did while torching opposing defenses at Verdigris (Okla.) High School. Oklahoma's all-time leading scorer, Clarke averaged 40.9 points per game.