Rotnei Clarke gets his release, but was there more to it?

So it turns out that Rotnei Clarke has, in fact, received his release from Arkansas.

All it took was a column from Jeff Goodman and a corresponding blog post from Matt Norlander to convince Arkansas that what they were doing was wrong, right? Mike Anderson was evil for making Clarke have to twist in the wind while watching two of his former teammates receive their releases to transfer out of Fayetteville. All that needed to happen was for CBSSports to publish a couple of articles to get the word out and all would be right with the world.

But maybe things weren't as clean cut as we all thought.


Now don't get me wrong, I hate the fact that coaches can wield this kind of control over their players. Allowing a coach to control whether or not a player is allowed to receive his release to transfer from the school is one of the most atrocious rules in college athletics when you consider that a) the player is going to have to sit out a year if they are allowed to transfer by the coach and b) that very same coach is able to leave for a better situation without penalty if he is so inclined. Nothing that Norlander or Goodman wrote I disagree with.

There is no loyalty in college basketball, which is part of the reason I love seeing a player bend the rules to his advantage.

That said, there seems to be more to this situation than the evil Mike Anderson refusing to grant one of his players a release.

You see, this isn't the first time that Rotnei Clarke has threatened to transfer. He did so after his sophomore season as well. It also appears as if Clarke has himself quite an entourage, dubbed "Team Clarke" by one local columnist:

Usually speaking as a "source" not to be named, Team Clarke let us know that Rotnei Clarke was being misused. Certain selfish teammates were not getting him the ball. Pelphrey's offense was void of the picks and screens that would free Clarke up to take maximum advantage of his shooting skills.

Team Clarke informed the media on more than one occasion that poor Rotnei was so frustrated with poor coaching and self centered teammates that he was going to have no choice but to ask for his release.

So Clarke wasn't exactly the easiest player to deal with. He decided to return to Arkansas for his junior year after burning a local reporter that went public with the fact that Rotnei's decision to transfer was final. But after the season, Clarke once again asked for his release, this time going to AD Jeff Long after John Pelphrey was fired. Long forced Clarke to wait until he had a chance to meet with the new head coach, Anderson, and it seemed that things were going fine up until last week, when the CBSSports.com reports were published:

Rotnei wanted out of his scholarship but Mike Anderson was refusing to allow it. This time Team Clarke went public arranging for Rotnei to speak to CBS.com reporter Jeff Goodman. Clarke complained that he was being denied his release even though two teammates were allowed to leave. Goodman also revealed that two of Arkansas incoming freshman had been turned down when they wanted to be released. It wasn’t hard to figure out where that bit of information came from.

To date Anderson has not commented on any of this.

So what set Team Clarke off this time?

I’m told that Rotnei recently got caught in a miscommunication between Anderson and a support staff member. The kid got chewed out for something that wasn't his fault.

That paints a bit of a different picture, doesn't it?

Could it be that Clarke wasn't granted his release at first because the higher-ups at Arkansas had heard this song and dance before? Quite possibly. We've all heard about the boy who cries wolf, and Arkansas may have simply felt that Clarke was just a frustrated player that was paying too much attention to the people around him. Transferring as a junior, even one that averaged 15 ppg, is not necessarily the brightest decision. If Clarke doesn't get his undergraduate degree this summer, he will be forced to sit out a season at a different school before using his final year of eligibility at a different program where minutes aren't guaranteed.

Maybe Long and Anderson thought they were doing what was in the best interest of Clarke. Maybe they were willing to deal with "Team Clarke" until "Team Clarke" went public with their problems.

And maybe Long and Anderson simply did not want to lose their leading scorer, opting to play the role of evil dictator in denying Clarke's transfer request.

Who knows. I don't think anyone can claim with much certainty what, exactly, went on behind the scenes between Clarke and Arkansas. Even with this new bit of information, Long and Anderson come off looking bad.

But keep in mind that things may not necessarily be exactly as they seem.