Monday Look Back: Hogs' Clarke hits on all cylinders in opener

Don't look now, but I think Rotnei Clarke just sank another 3-pointer.

Let's do the Monday Look Back ...

Isiah Thomas wasn't happy that Tulsa kept its starters in despite a big lead. (AP)

Best game of the weekend: It wasn't the best game of the weekend, or even a notable or competitive one. But any game in which a Hall of Famer gets so flustered that he yells at the opposing coach for not pulling his starters is a game worth mentioning, and that's why I decided to start with Tulsa's 81-49 victory over Florida International. "I've never seen anything like that," said Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik. "It was bizarre." The gist of the story is that FIU's Isiah Thomas thought Wojcik should've pulled his starters Sunday when the Golden Hurricane took a 63-25 lead with about nine minutes left, and he let him know in a direct and public way. As Wojcik later pointed out, Tulsa only had eight scholarship players available. But Thomas didn't care, and he even issued a challenge to Wojcik before exiting the postgame press conference. "By the way, I'd like to invite them back to play us next year," Thomas said. "I hope he accepts." Me too!

Worst game of the weekend: There were more mismatches than I care to mention, but no mismatch got ridiculous as quickly as Purdue's 89-64 win over Northridge. The Boilermakers made seven of their first eight shots Friday and led 28-3 barely five minutes post tipoff, leaving Cal State Northridge coach Bobby Braswell frustrated by the discrepancy between what he saw on film and in person. "We try to watch video tape of people," Braswell said. "They obviously haven't shot it the way they shot it in this game."

Win to brag about: Pat Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders won something called the Duel in the Desert tournament Sunday with a 64-60 victory over Oregon State. The win pushed Texas Tech to 3-0 and gave it a victory over a team picked fifth in the Pac-10. That's a pretty good start for the Red Raiders, and if they don't stumble they could be 7-0 heading into a Dec. 3 game with Washington.

Loss to hide from: If Todd Lickliter doesn't already wish he never left Butler he's got to be approaching that feeling considering the third-year Iowa coach lost Sunday's opener to Texas-San Antonio. The final score was 62-50. It snapped the Hawkeyes' 46-game winning streak in home openers. If things don't turn around in a big way, it could be Lickliter's final home opener in Iowa City.

Player who deserves improper benefits: The star of the weekend was the aforementioned Clarke, a sophomore guard from Arkansas who sank a SEC-record 13 of 17 3-pointers and finished with 51 points in a 130-68 victory over Alcorn State. "I just felt like every time I shot it, it was going in," Clarke said. More times than not, he was correct. "He just could not miss," Arkansas' Jemal Farmer said. "It was crazy." But not as crazy as ...

Kodi Augustus shared his thoughts on his playing time in the season opener. (AP)

Player who should lose his scholarship: Kodi Augustus compounded Mississippi State's season-opening 88-74 loss to Rider by publicly criticizing coach Rick Stansbury in a way that only Allen Iverson could truly appreciate. "I'm in for five minutes, and then I'm out," Augustus said, according to Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger newspaper. "I mean, I can't even get into a rhythm. I got one rebound and played for five minutes in the first half. I'm not that type of player to beg the coach to play me, talk back. I'm not doing it. I didn't do it my first two years, and I don't do it now. He's the coach, but I talked to my dad, he said we got outcoached. I don't know." In fairness, you can sort of understand Iverson popping off given that he was playing behind Mike Conley for the Memphis Grizzlies. That's inexplicable. But Kodi Augustus complaining about playing time after one game, particularly a game in which he missed 5 of 9 field goal attempts, is just silly. And if his Dad really told him that, his Dad isn't helping.

Why I'm smarter than you think: I went the unconventional route this preseason and named Al-Farouq Aminu a CBSSports.com First Team All-American along with John Wall, Willie Warren, Luke Harangody and Cole Aldrich. I wasn't criticized, per se, but I was questioned. Which is why I'd like to highlight that Aminu is averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds (while shooting 64 percent from the field) after leading Wake Forest to a Friday win over Oral Roberts and a Sunday win over East Carolina. In other words, so far, so good. But I'm still afraid I'm going to regret not having Ohio State's Evan Turner on that First Team, somewhere.

Why I'm dumber than I think: I attended Kansas' first practice and watched Xavier Henry noticeably struggle. Afterward, I wrote the following: "Though the 6-foot-6 guard has a chance to be a one-and-done player based on his physical gifts, he's far from a lock for the 2010 NBA Draft despite what you might've heard elsewhere. Honestly, Henry has a ways to go, and I'm not even sure he's one of KU's top five players, at the moment." Naturally, Henry finished with 27 points and five rebounds in his debut Friday, a 101-65 victory over Hofstra in which he very much looked like a lock for the 2010 NBA Draft. The kid is talented, a physical freak. And from this point forward I plan to just stick with my initial thoughts on prospects and resist the urge to form new opinions after observing nothing more than a two-hour practice on a Saturday morning.

Three things you should know before you go

1. The lack of depth, particularly guard depth, on the Duke roster has been well-documented, and it showed up in the box score of Friday's 96-62 victory over UNC-Greensboro. Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer, two of Mike Krzyzewski's more versatile players, played 38 and 37 minutes, or a combined 75 of 80 total possible minutes. "There's no middle reliever," Krzyzewski said. "There's no [Mariano] Rivera coming in at the end, or any setup guys, so they have to play like that."

2. Think about all the great freshmen who have played at Michigan State. Now consider that Derrick Nix set the school's freshman debut record with 14 rebounds in Friday's 97-58 win over Florida Gulf Coast while becoming just the second freshman in MSU history to record a double-double (11 points and 14 rebounds) in his debut. Not bad for a guy who measured 6-foot-8, 330 pounds as a high school senior and was only a borderline top 75 prospect. Nix now weighs 280. He appears capable of helping Tom Izzo offset the loss of Goran Suton.

3. Former NBA coach Eric Musselman has made it known that he wants to break into college coaching, so much so that he rejected an offer last week to coach professionally in Russia. No question, Musselman's name will bounce around when the coaching carousel gets moving in March. But for now he's still living in the Bay Area, attending games and speaking to teams that visit nearby schools like Cal and St. Mary's. Speaking of St. Mary's, Musselman caught the Gaels' 100-68 victory over New Mexico State late Friday. He left impressed with Matt Dellavedova, yet another Australian import who got 19 points and four assists in his college debut. "Loved freshman point guard Matt Dellavedova," Musselman said. "He knows how to deliver the ball."

On tap: On Monday, John Wall makes his college debut when Kentucky meets Miami-Ohio. On Tuesday, it's a rematch of the 2008 national title game when Kansas plays Memphis in St. Louis. On Wednesday, Butler gets its first opportunity to defeat a power-conference school when it visits injury plagued Northwestern. On Thursday, Evan Turner will see if he can rebound against a huge frontline when Ohio State battles North Carolina at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Final thought: Proof that Buzz Peterson no longer coaches in the SEC came Sunday when the former Tennessee coach/current Appalachian State coach ripped officials via Twitter. As Urban Meyer (or Dan Mullen or Bobby Johnson or Lane Kiffin) can tell you, such is strictly forbidden in the SEC because the league's power brokers would rather pretend recruiting violations and mistakes by referees do not exist if the alternative is having coaches speak publicly about them, but that's another column for another day.

Anyway, back to Peterson.

His Mountaineers beat UNC-Wilmington on Friday but lost Saturday to East Tennessee State in a game marred by a controversial late intentional foul called on ASU's Isaac Butts. On Sunday, Peterson Tweeted the following: "Bad call by official with 1 min to play. He called intentional foul on Ike. Sad thing is officials never have to go explain their call to the press."

Somewhere, Mike Slive is shaking his head.