Lewisburg, Pa. ? Bucknell head coach Pat Flannery wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort during a practice last season.
In fact, he was downright angry.
Flannery was yelling at the Bison when freshman forward John Clark tapped him on the shoulder.
“He asked (Flannery) if he had to get so worked up, if he could just calm down a little,” junior co-captain Charles Lee recalled with a wide smile.
“We all had a look like, ‘I can’t believe he just said that.’
“But, that’s John.”
Indeed, Clark is the team cutup, the character, the one with the standup shtick.
Now a sophomore, Clark said he got it all from his parents – a talkative father and a “hilarious” mother.
It has taken all of that personality to help him endure what has become a season of disappointment.
What started as a promising one for the starter at the 4-spot has turned into a postseason of cheerleading.
As Bucknell prepares for Friday’s NCAA subregional game with Kansas, Clark does little more than the Bison assistants during practice.
He is all but, as coaches say, “shut down” for the season.
An unusual foot injury is the culprit.
Off-season surgery could repair it, but the price would be steep: His basketball career.
Clark didn’t play in the last two Patriot League tournament games against American and Holy Cross. It was the first games he’s missed in his 60-game career.
After averaging about 20 minutes per game in the first half of this season, the 6-foot-7 Oklahoma resident played a combined 22 minutes in the five games leading up to the two league games in which he was strictly a spectator.
For a few moments during Sunday’s NCAA Selection Show, Clark’s foot seemed fine.
He jumped from his Forum seat in the Langone Center when it was announced that Bucknell was playing in Oklahoma City.
Seconds later, he was on the cell phone with his family, who rarely get to see him play.
They certainly would see him now, with all of his immediate relatives within short driving distance of the Ford Center.
Then just before being interviewed for this story, Clark got more bad news.
His father, Bill, formerly a minister now working with charity organizations, is being sent to Africa later this week as part of a relief mission.
So Bill Clark won’t be part of the family gathering at the Ford Center.
Through it all, however, Clark has maintained his sense of humor and kept his teammates and coaches off-balance during the biggest week of their college basketball life.
“He has a great spirit,” Flannery said. “He’s a real fun-loving guy. “But I can’t say that I’ve figured him out.”
The 11th-year Bucknell coach said Clark’s personality conjures up memories of a former Bucknell player, Tom Welch (1993-97), who like Clark, was as intelligent as he is funny.
“Tom was a real intellectual,” Flannery said. “He is one of my favorites, but it took me three years to figure him out.”
Nothing is safe when Clark is around.
As Bucknell was coming out of the lockerroom at Pittsburgh’s Petersen Center, Clark ran the wrong way, then asked, “Who are we playing again?”
When talking about life in Oklahoma, Clark told his teammates to be ready for a rough plane landing Wednesday night because of the dirt roads and runways.
“It was amazing how little they knew about Oklahoma,” the Tulsa native said.
As much as he enjoys keeping the mood light, Clark admits to missing his family, especially his two younger sisters and one younger brother.
“That’s the toughest part,” he said. “My parents were extremely supportive with my decision to come here. They said that as soon as I have to fly, it doesn’t matter where. It’s just a plane ride away.
“We drove here for my freshman year. That was a tough good-bye.”
Clark aspires to be a writer when he’s done with his standup routine in Lewisburg. He writes a weekly political column for The Bucknellian, the campus newspaper.
His teammates and coaches are seriously impressed with his views and the clarity in which he conveys them.
“I have one of them pasted up on my (office) door,” Flannery said. “He is really gifted.”
Clark’s basketball gifts – rebounding and passing – are deeply missed this season.
Senior Chris Niesz and sophomore Donald Brown have gotten extended minutes off the bench and freshman Darren Mastropaolo has been thrust into the starting lineup in Clark’s absence.
Surprisingly, what may be missed most is Clark’s intensity, something assumed to be absent from such a character.
“I really wish he was healthy because he’s such a competitor,” Flannery said.
Bucknell players and coaches instead will have to survive on a series of pranks and funny faces.
But that seems to suit this group of easy-going guys just fine.
“He,” said sophomore Chris McNaughton, one of the team’s more serious personalities, “makes everybody laugh.”
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