Kansas State guard Denis Clemente sets up to shoot from 3-point territory during the second half in an NCAA men's college basketball game against Texas Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009, in Austin, Texas. Clemente's game-high 44 total points helped Kansas State to an 85-81 overtime victory.

Hundreds of good players and dozens of great ones have put up shots in the Erwin Center since Texas opened the facility on Nov. 29, 1977.

Until Kansas State’s Denis Clemente, not one of them had scored as many as 44 points. The 6-foot-1 guard’s name went into the record book Saturday night, when he led the Wildcats to an 85-81 overtime victory over the then-No. 11 Longhorns. It was easily their biggest regular-season win since Michael Beasley sparked an 84-75 triumph over Kansas University a year ago.

It was the most points ever scored in the Erwin Center and tied the Big 12’s single-game record that Beasley set last year. It also made Clemente the Big 12’s player of the week.

Clemente, who had a big hand in a victory last week over Missouri, is helped by being able to alternate at point guard with Jacob Pullen.

“We were able to move Denis off the ball some during the Texas game,” Kansas State coach Frank Martin said during the Big 12 coaches’ conference call with reporters Monday. “That’s an advantage we have. But Denis (has) been playing better and better and better, and had a heck of a game against Texas. Now, he’s obviously not going to score 40 points every night. But it’s up to him to sustain the level of play he’s played with the last two weeks and become consistent.”

It was the most points by a Kansas State guard since 1994. For the week, Clemente was 17 of 31 from the floor and 13 of 13 from the foul line.

“He was terrific,” said Texas coach Rick Barnes. “He had some very tough shots that he made. made some great shots. Overall, some of the shots he made into the lane were very difficult shots that you’ve got to give him credit for.”

lCoaching speculations: Missouri coach Mike Anderson has been mentioned in speculation about the head-coaching position at Alabama. He had little to say about that during Monday’s call.

“Well, you know, I think sometimes your name’s going to be mentioned anyway. It just shows you’re doing a great job with your program,” Anderson said. “I’m head coach at the University of Missouri. I’m excited about our program. This is year three. That’s my focus.”

lKnight reprimanded: The Big 12 Conference publicly reprimanded Texas Tech coach Pat Knight, two days after he was ejected for twice running onto the court to argue about a foul called on Alan Voskuil.

After two technical fouls and his ejection Saturday night, Knight left the floor only to return a few moments later to again yell at the officials in the second half of Texas Tech’s 82-69 loss to Nebraska.

Knight’s actions violated the Big 12’s rules, which prohibit coaches from publicly commenting about officials.

Knight’s penalty would have been more significant if not for “his past exemplary behavior,” acknowledging his mistake and “his commitment to me to conduct his program with sportsmanship,” Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said in a release Monday.

In the conference call, Texas coach Barnes said coaches often are frustrated by bad calls by referees.

“I don’t know what the situation was with Pat,” he said. “But let’s face it: Players have bad games, coaches have bad games, and referees have bad games, a lot more often than people talk about. Because of the sportsmanship code, we’re not supposed to talk about it and they don’t have to answer to anybody. And when you talk about bad games, it can be a bad game both ways, where they just disrupt flow for everybody, where they can just take players out of games.

“Yeah, there does come a point to where you get frustrated and you want to lash out. Yeah, there’s frustration. Absolutely. Sometimes you get frustrated with the demeanor of officials, the way they handle it.”