Keydren Clark has some hurdles to overcome

Keydren Clark came within a whisker of doing in college what only Oscar Robertson and the late, great Pistol Pete Maravich have — lead the nation in scoring for three consecutive seasons.

He did it as a sophomore and again as a junior.

This past season, however, the St. Peter's senior point guard from Harlem, N.Y., wound up third behind Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and Duke's J.J. Redick.

Clark, however, holds no grudge over being edged out.

"I'm not mad about it," he said after working out Saturday for the Jazz in advance of the June 28 NBA Draft. "I had my glory days. . . . It was time for someone else to step up."

Morrison did, and in Clark's mind the two are now "in the same boat" — preparing, that is, to play at that next level.

If probable top-five pick and certain millionaire-in-waiting Morrison is on a cruise ship, though, Clark's ride is more like a canoe headed upstream.

Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor likes the fact that the 2006 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference player of the year "was on a team that he was really the go-to guy."

But — standing just 5-foot-10 and coming from a small school to boot — even Clark himself concedes he has big hurdles to overcome if the NBA is to be in his future. He knows he's not first-round material, and — if the Internet's many mock drafts are to be believed — may not get tapped in the second either.

Instead, Clark — whose 26.3 points-per-game average this past season trailed Morrison's 28.4 and Redick's 27.4 — simply has sights set on a getting a shot.

"I'm just trying to get the attention of the (general manager) of one of the 30 teams . . . a GM who is willing to take a chance on a 5-10 guy," he said.

After working out Saturday with three points from major-conference schools — Duke's Sean Dockery, Iowa State's Will Blalock and Wake Forest's Justin Gray — Clark was even more confident that opportunity will come.

"Basketball is basketball, no matter where you're playing," he said. "I might have played at a mid-major, but when you get on the court it's all about showing your skills and feeling comfortable and showing that you belong — and I think I belong with these guys.

"If I'm given the open shot, I'll knock it down on any given night," added Clark, who made more than 100 3-point shots in each of his four seasons at St. Peter's, including 105-of-333 attempts from behind the arc as a senior.