Ranking KSU’s Denis Clemente; and a Super Bowl prediction

By Staff Feb 1, 2009

Welcome to the show, Denis Clemente. Here’s guessing you’ll be named Big 12 player of the week.

Clemente, Kansas State’s 6-foot-1 guard, put on one of the best performances in conference history when he scored 44 points in the Wildcats’ 85-81 overtime shocker of No. 11 Texas in Austin. The 44 points tied Michael Beasley’s single-game Big 12 scoring record from last year.

K-State, which started Big 12 play 0-4, is now 3-4 with an outside chance of making the NCAA Tournament. It’s a good thing for the conference that the Wildcats are playing better basketball, because the bottom of the Big 12 looks weak with Texas Tech, Iowa State and Colorado.

Brief background on Clemente: The ‘S’ in his first name is silent. His name is pronounced ‘de-NEE.’ His father’s first cousin is Hall of Fame baseball legend Roberto Clemente. At age 15, Clemente was clocked dribbling baseline-to-baseline in 3.6 seconds.

Clemente, now a junior in Manhattan, sat out last season after transferring from Miami (Fla.). He was suspended at Miami at the end of the 2006-2007 season for violating team rules.

The performance against Texas, which had won its last 19 games at home, sorta came out of nowhere. Clemente’s previous high this season was 20 points. He scored more than half of his team’s points on Saturday and drilled all six of his three-point attempts in the second half.

“It felt like there was an ocean in that rim,” Clemente said after the game.

So where does this put Clemente when talking about the conference’s best guards?

My first tier right now would include KU’s Sherron Collins, UT’s A.J. Abrams and BU’s Curtis Jerrells.

My second tier would include OSU’s Byron Eaton and James Anderson, OU’s Willie Warren and Austin Johnson, CU’s Cory Higgins and BU’s LaceDaruis Dunn. If Clemente plays half as well as he did against UT for the rest of the season, I’d have to think he’d rate in the second tier.

Thoughts? Did I miss anyone?

I’ll continue this entry with the second week of the Sorrentino Scale. The number that follows in parenthesis is what place the team was ranked last week.

1 (1). Oklahoma (21-1, 7-0): Going undefeated in conference play unlikely, but possible.
2 (2). Kansas (17-4, 6-0): Should be ranked when Monday’s Top 25 is released.
3 (4). Missouri (18-4, 5-2): I want to start seeing consistency (losses at Nebraska, K-State; victories at Oklahoma St., vs. Baylor), but this could be a dangerous team.
4 (3). Texas (15-5, 4-2): You’re starting to see why D.J. Augustin was the most important part of this reeling Longhorns’ offense.
5 (5). Baylor (15-6, 3-4): Is Monday’s KU game a must-win for Bears team that’s lost three straight?
6 (11). Kansas State (14-7, 3-4): See first several paragraphs of this blog entry for why KSU climbed five spots in one week.
7 (8). Texas A&M (17-5, 3-4): Nice two-game conference winning streak, but that should end Wednesday in Norman, Okla.
8 (7). Nebraska (13-7, 3-4): Scrappy ‘Skers needed this weekend’s road victory at Texas Tech.
9 (6). Oklahoma State (13-7, 2-4): Has lost four of five.
10 (9). Iowa State (12-9, 1-5): Hilton Magic irrelevant at the moment (ISU 1-2 at home in Big 12 play).
11 (12). Colorado (9-11, 1-5): Second half against KU tells me this group could scrap a few more victories together.
12 (10). Texas Tech (11-10, 1-5): Has lost six of seven.