Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self, who is in need of a monster recruiting class in 2008, on Thursday made a scholarship offer to Rotnei Clarke, a 5-foot-11 junior guard from Verdigris High School in Claremore, Okla.

The 170-pound Clarke, who averaged 37.6 points and 9.3 rebounds a game last season – and exploded for an all-time record 60 points against Vian in the state tournament – received a scholarship offer from Southern Cal on Wednesday.

He’s also considering Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona State, Tulsa, Marquette and others.

“It’s true. It happened today. It’s a privilege to have an offer from Kansas. It’s a dream school,” Clarke told Rivals.com.

Clarke has scored 2,534 points in three seasons. He’s in reach of Oklahoma state career scoring leader Ty Harman of Maud, who posted 3,619 points from 1985 to ’89.

“I’m not going to let it go to my head. I want to set a good example for younger kids. I look at this as a blessing from God,” Clarke told the Tulsa World after being named the paper’s All-Metro player of the year. He said his goal is to finish the spring and summer AAU season with Team Texas and make a college choice some time after that.

Clarke, who is ranked 107th nationally, is an AAU teammate and good friend of No. 13-rated Willie Warren, a 6-4, 195-pound junior guard from North Crowley High in suburban Fort Worth, Texas.

Warren told Rivals.com he has a top three of KU, Kentucky and Texas, but is wide open after this week re-opening his recruiting. The sweet shooting guard, who averaged 23 points a game his junior season, also has Texas A&M, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Wisconsin, Indiana, Arizona and UCLA on his list.

“I just got off the phone with coach Gillispie (Billy, Kentucky), and he’s making it even tougher on my decision,” Warren told Rivals.com. “We’ve opened back up, so we don’t really have a list, but it’s hard to turn down Kentucky, Kansas and Texas right now. I am not sure when I will decide.”

KU will have at least five scholarships to give in the Class of 2008 after losing five seniors to graduation.

¢ Movin’ on up: KU coach Self in the last nine years has had seven former assistants become Div. I head coaches. They are: Billy Gillispie, Kentucky by way of UTEP and Texas A&M; Norm Roberts, St. John’s; John Phillips, Tulsa (now assistant AD); Barry Hinson, Missouri State; Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts; Rob Judson, formerly at Northern Illinois; and Tim Jankovich (Illinois State).

Gillispie, who recently left A&M for Kentucky, gets emotional when talking about Self.

“I’m the first to say I’ve been lucky and blessed. Totally, totally, totally lucky,” Gillispie told the Daily Oklahoman on Monday. “But this all happened because I got with coach (Self). The whole deal with everything is timing. We won a bunch of games together (at Tulsa and Illinois) and were able to have some opportunities. One thing led to another, but it all goes back to coach.”

The 47-year-old Gillispie, who is three years older than Self, still refers to him as “coach.”

“Yeah, that ‘coach’ stuff has got to stop,” Self said. “And make sure everybody knows he’s older than I am.”

¢ Curry ponders draft: Oklahoma State junior guard JamesOn Curry, who averaged 17.3 points a game last season, is considering putting his name in the NBA Draft.

“JamesOn and I haven’t discussed this option, but this week we’re going to sit down and visit about the possibility,” OSU coach Sean Sutton told the Oklahoman. “I’m going to talk to some people and see where his stock is so we can give him a very realistic view of where he might be.”

¢ Boyle not headed to WSU: Northern Colorado coach and former KU player Tad Boyle says he will not leave the Greeley, Colo., school for Wichita State. A former assistant under Mark Turgeon at WSU, Boyle’s first Northern Colorado team went 4-24.

Boyle’s squad dropped six games by two points or less.

“I want to build a program where we are eventually playing with fourth-year juniors and fifth-year seniors,” Boyle told the Greeley Tribune. “I want to get a red-shirt program going, and I want to fill that pipeline and with young kids – who are good kids – that want to get better. Success is just a matter of time.”

Former KU Williams Fund director Jay Hinrichs is athletic director at Northern Colorado.