FAYETTEVILLE — Count Dave Telep among those who think Arkansas came much closer to hitting a home run with the hire of former Creighton Dana Altman than some fans who are characterizing it as double.

Telep, the Scout.com national recruiting director, said Monday that Altman was doing a high-major job recruiting while at a mid-major.

“Arkansas got them a winner, someone with a proven track record and someone who didn’t do like most coaches at mid-major schools and just recruit regionally, but nationally from East to West, including California,” Telep said. “He’s a super hire. He is great at what he does.”

Telep said Razorbacks fans would be wise to think about a Southeastern Conference coach who recruited the same way while at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has been quite successful since being hired at Tennessee.

“If you are looking for somebody to compare him with, think Bruce Pearl,” Telep said. “He did it the same way at a mid-major and has gone on to great success at Tennessee and I think that is exactly what Dana Altman is going to do at Arkansas. One thing about his staff is they have been very efficient and don’t have many misses on prospects.”

One immediate dividend could be Arkansas landing 2007 prospect Allen Stinnett, who signed with Creighton back in November but officially asked for his release on Monday.

Stinnett, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound combo guard from Brewster (N.H.) Academy, who is originally from Las Vegas, chose Creighton over Gonzaga and Iowa State with some interest from Kansas and is ranked as a Top 100 player by at least one publication.

He averaged 27.6 points per game his senior season at Palo Verde.

Also opting out of his pledge was Brewster Academy teammate Andre McFarland, a 6-5, 210-pound small forward who had committed to Iowa and was also an AAU teammate of Stinnett with the Las Vegas Prospects.

“They are not saying they are wanting to head to Arkansas, but surely it is on their mind,” Telep said.

Telep said Altman and his staff have had great success at Creighton — nine straight seasons of more than 20 wins — because of how well they have recruited to the mid-major Missouri Valley school.

“What coach Altman and his staff have really done well with is getting skilled guys, recruiting mult-positional players and recruited to and above the level that they were coaching at,” Telep said. “They identify players early, they get on them and they don’t miss often if at all.”

After assessing his current team and signee Nate Rakestraw, Altman will have the great opportunity of having more than 1,000 prospects in his own arena this weekend for the ‘Real Deal on the Hill.”

He will have up to seven scholarships to work with for the 2008 class, one prospect being Oklahoma guard Rotnei Clarke, who averaged 37.6 points per game this season.

Clarke, on pace to be the state of Oklahoma’s all-time career leading prep scorer and someone who had a career-high 60 points in his next-to-last game this season, was being recruited hard by previous Razorbacks coach Stan Heath and his staff.

“It was disappointing that coach Heath and his staff were let go because I had developed some great relationships with those guys,” Clarke said. “I don't know too much about him (Dana Altman), but I have watched Creighton and they were an awesome team. I loved watching their team play.

“I would love it if their new staff recruits me.”