Top 2013 Basketball Recruit Donte Clark Not Admitted To Virginia Tech

The Virginia Tech basketball program was dealt some bad news today, when it was announced by Roanoke Times reporter Mark Berman that Donte Clark, the gem of the 2013 recruiting class according to the four major recruiting sites, would not be enrolling at Virginia Tech for the summer or fall semesters, or at any future date per the report.

Clark has apparently been denied admission by the university, as he "did not meet Virginia Tech admission standards, according to a source, for academic reasons regarding his GPA and SAT," according to the report.

It is not known at this moment if Clark will be eligible to enroll elsewhere, as he is still going through the newly renamed NCAA Eligibility Center (previously known as the NCAA Clearinghouse) to try to determine if he can be eligible for another team.

Clark was the most highly-rated Tech commitment of the 2013 class by the four major recruiting services. He was rated as a three-star by all four services, but was rated as a four-star by some at the time of his commitment. Rivals ranked him the No. 27 shooting guard and No. 116 player nationally. 247Sports ranked him the No. 45 shooting guard and the No. 173 player in the nation. Clark failed to make the 2013 ESPN 100, which ranks the top-100 players in the nation by their service, but was ranked the No. 23 small forward in the class and the No. 5 player in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Scout did not rank him, but had him as the Hokies' only three-star player in the class by their service.

Clark had a long offer list that included Auburn, Charlotte, Chattanooga, East Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Georgia, High Point, Jacksonville, Memphis, Mercer, Miami (FL), Mississippi, Missouri, Murray St., Oklahoma St., Providence, Radford and Tennessee (according to Rivals, 247 and ESPN who dispute each other on some offers).

The Hokies were counting on Clark coming in and being a big part of replacing Erick Green. The staff, before acquiring two other guards in the class, had even tabbed Clark to play a good deal of point guard for them.

Clark's failure to be admitted means the Hokies are now down to five players in the class, leaving them with 12 total scholarship players in 2013. That is still an improvement over last year's numbers, but given the Hokies problems with injuries in the last few seasons, cuts down the margin of error by one. It also means that now, neither of the Hokies' other freshmen guards will be able to redshirt, something that probably should've happened with German Malik Mueller, as he is most likely not ready for college basketball yet.

We'll keep you updated about where Clark intends to go both on the site and on Twitter. For all your Virginia Tech basketball needs, you've come to the right place: Gobbler Country.