The Gophers men’s basketball team dipped into the junior college ranks to find a replacement for Big Ten Most Valuable Player Bobby Jackson, and it hopes it has one in Kevin Clark, a guard from Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City, Kan.
Basketball Times magazine named Clark, who signed Friday, one of the top shooting guards in the nation. He averaged 23.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last year. Clark, also recruited by Kansas, Iowa State and Kansas State, played at Odessa (Tex.) Junior College his freshman year where he averaged 22.1 points per game.
“He has excellent athletic ability and will give us additional depth and scoring at the guard position,” Gophers coach Clem Haskins said. “You win in the Big Ten with great guards, and we believe that with the players we have coming back and the addition of Clark and Kevin Nathaniel, we will have an outstanding group of guards to work with.”
Clark, who stands 6 feet 2 inches, is a native of Savannah, Ga. He graduated from Richmond Hill Academy High School in Richmond Hill, Va.
The state named him the Class A Player of the Year during his sophomore and junior years of high school, but he missed his senior year because of fatigue and dehydration problems.
He experienced the same problems at Odessa. Doctors performed a heart catheterization and found two blockages leading to his heart, which have been repaired.
Highly touted Minneapolis North guard Khalid El-Amin has reportedly scratched Minnesota off his list of schools, saying he wants to leave the Twin Cities.
The Gophers have two more scholarships available for next season. Haskins and his staff might decide to hold on to one of those until next year.
— Todd Zolecki