Sooners lose Keith Clark

[Jay C. Upchurch]

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma men’s basketball head coach Jeff Capel announced today that sophomore forward Keith Clark has rendered himself academically ineligible under NCAA rules.

Clark, the Sooners’ eighth-leading scorer this season at 5.4 points per game, will not be enrolled at OU for the spring semester.

"It’s a big loss for us," said Capel. "Keith was playing very well. He’s one of our most talented players and he’s a good kid and a great teammate. We’re going to miss him. But my concerns about how this situation affects our team are far outweighed by my concerns about how it affects him personally."

Clark averaged 3.8 points in 11 games as a freshman last year before sustaining a season-ending knee injury.

The 12-3 Sooners will go for their sixth straight win when they open Big 12 Conference play on Saturday at 5 p.m. CST by hosting Kansas State.

OU SID Report

[Frozen Sooner]

Heading to Rose State I assume?

*sigh*

Two steps forward, one step back.

[tulsaoilerfan]

This sucks big time; best of luck to Keith and hope he can return next year.

[BudsBoy]

Well that will effect the bad graduation rate for Oklahoma and may bring on loss of scolly's. If I remember right we were marginal at best with all the transfers the last few years, and I don't think any of the guys from last year ever have graduated.

[SoonerObsession]

Dang! What grade point do you have to stay eligible?

[SOONER STEAKER]

Dang! What grade point do you have to stay eligible?


Bryant Reeves left OUS wih a 1.6 GPA. My understanding is this: pass 12 hrs credit towards your degree each semester and your eligible.

[william_brasky]

Dangit, he was just starting to come around for us.

[boomersooner28]

Ahhh geez.

[Ardmore_Sooner]

I'm pretty sure its just 6 hours.

[MrJimBeam]

Bryant Reeves left OUS wih a 1.6 GPA.
That probably got him on the honor roll up there.

[crawfish]

Disappointing.

[OUSKINS]

2 thoughts:

1. Disappointed for the kid. Makes it unlikely that he will ever play big time D1 ball again. Could have been a really effective player by the time he was an upperclassman. For his sake, I hope he gets things together and makes the most of his youth and his talent.

2. When a door shuts for one person.....it opens for another. IMO, the person who can walk through that door is Cade Davis. I realize from a size standpoint that he and Clark aren't very similar, but I think their roles on the team are similar. Let's face it, as big as he was, Clark was basically playing the 2 or the 3 when he was in the game-- exactly what Davis plays.

Cade is the best pure shooter on this basketball team. Whether or not he can get open, create offense, play defense, etc... all remains to be seen. But he has one undeniable major strength-- a fantastic pure shooter.

I also think this means more minutes for Taylor, but the one guy who will "benefit" the most from Clark's departure is Davis. I'll be interested to see how he handles it.

[Newbomb Turk]

This sucks big time; best of luck to Keith and hope he can return next year.

I think he's done at OU.

[OKC-SLC]

With all the resources available to major college athletes these days, I find it hard to believe a player can't stay eligible unless he is putting forward less than minimal effort in class. Maybe I'm wrong.

I sure hope he gets his stuff together and rallies from this.

[OUmillenium]

Good luck to Keith, we'll probably never see him playing for OU again.

Jackie Jones, Angelo Hamilton, J.R. Raymond, Keith Clark,...

[SleestakSooner]

We'll miss his presence on the court and his occassional 3-ball but this shouldn't hurt the team too much. Good luck out there Keith, looks like you might need some.

[stoopified]

We'll miss his presence on the court and his occassional 3-ball but this shouldn't hurt the team too much. Good luck out there Keith, looks like you might need some.Good luck Moose.

[OKmanUbet]

I saw the kid play a lot in high school and wasn't impressed....so I never had to many nice things to say about him. Then the kid looks like he was putting his talent to use and really making improvements...he gave us great depth in the front court and I began to say "this Keith Clark kid has really come around"....and now this!

....Oh well I guess college isn't for everyone...Good luck in the NAIA Keith!

[Ash]

With all the resources available to major college athletes these days, I find it hard to believe a player can't stay eligible unless he is putting forward less than minimal effort in class. Maybe I'm wrong.

I sure hope he gets his stuff together and rallies from this.

Both the wife and I have had numerous student athletes in our classes over the years. Bottomline: those that wanted to, succeeded - those that didn't care, usually didn't succeed.

It's pretty simple in most cases.

[Vegas Sooner]

it really sucks when you can't pass Intro to Sociology, Introduction to Dance, Introduction to Music of Native Americans, etc etc.
I also saw a Harry Potter course one year.

[LilSooner]

I ****ing hate this board some times. Some of you people need to get a life. So you saw Moose play a couple of high school games. Big F'in deal. I don't care if you aren't impressed with him. Bottom line you don't know the kid, you don't know what is going on. So, until he, his mom or Coach Capel decided to let you mouth breathers know what happened, how 'bout you keeping your moronic hypothesis about why he isn't coming back next year to yourself.

K' thanks

[SleestakSooner]

I don't know why this suddenly reminded me of Gundy's "I'm a man" speech, but it did. ;)

Anyhow, Lil is right, just because you are personally disappointed by the team's loss, doesn't give you the right to cast slights on his character or his intelligence.

[Ash]

I don't know why this suddenly reminded me of Gundy's "I'm a man" speech, but it did. ;)

Anyhow, Lil is right, just because you are personally disappointed by the team's loss, doesn't give you the right to cast slights on his character or his intelligence.

Only two posts out of 22 were of that nature. The majority were wishing Keith well. Mine was simply an observation I've made from personal experience.

Oh well.

Hope Keith gets it together. I was enjoying watching him develop as a player this year. He had some great games. Looked pretty good having come off a knee injury.

[Soonerus]

Clark was jinxed, torn acl now academics...he is a good player...