Clark Back in Action a Year Later : College basketball: Two-time San Diego County player of the year will be in uniform tonight for SDSU. After back surgery, a transfer from Arizona and a year of inactivity, he doesn’t have great expectations.

Tony Clark is back, which answers one question, but “How is his back?” is quite another.

It has been a year since Clark injured his back and subsequently left the University of Arizona basketball team. It has been almost two years since Clark dominated the basketball courts of San Diego County, averaging a state-leading 43.7 points per game for Christian High.

After sitting out the mandatory one season under NCAA transfer rules and undergoing back surgery in August to repair a herniated disc, Clark will be in a San Diego State uniform tonight, eligible to play his first game of the season, when the Aztecs take on Florida A&M; (3-4) at 8:30 in the first round of the Texaco Star Classic at the San Diego Sports Arena.

George Washington (4-1) meets South Carolina (4-1) in a 6:30 p.m. game, and the winners play Saturday night at 8:30 for the championship.

Clark’s eligibility became official on Thursday when final semester grades were posted--he passed--and he might be just what the Aztecs (1-5) need to break out of a season-long slump.

Then again, “I haven’t played for a year,” said Clark, who is 6-feet-8. “I don’t know what to expect. I only know I’m excited. But I wouldn’t count on any miracles right away.

“I’m looking, when I first come back, to try and do the little things we’ve been missing. You know, just to get this rebound instead of us missing it, or make this shot instead of us missing it. I’m not looking to come in and score 25 points and have 15 rebounds and take over the game. That’s not going to be my job.

“Right now, my biggest thing is making that shot we can’t afford to miss, grabbing that rebound we can’t afford to not get. So I’m going to try to compensate for those things and try to help out wherever I can.”

SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg was equally--and rightfully--reserved.

“It’s not going to be an easy job to interface him back into the team,” he said. “We think he can play in a number of spots. We think his perimeter shooting will help us.

“It would be a mistake, however, to think that he’s going to be the cavalry coming to the rescue. And that all of a sudden all of our struggles, we can just throw on his shoulders. That he’s just going to bail us out all at once.

“He really hasn’t played competitively for some time. He’s still not 100% physically. We just have to get him in the lineup and get him some playing time. Let him have a chance to develop and for us to gain some personality and gain some chemistry with him in our lineup.”

Sustaining an offensive attack, outside shooting and injuries have hurt the Aztecs dearly this season.

SDSU is averaging 65 points per game, 10 fewer than its opponents, and is shooting 43.4% from the field, including 21.2% from three-point range.

Forward Keith Balzer (third on the team in scoring, averaging 10.7 points per game, and second in rebounding at 5.8 per game) has been bothered by chronic tendinitis in both knees and announced this week that he is redshirting because of those ailments. Sophomore forward Terrence Hamilton (sixth in scoring at 4.0 points per game) has missed three games with a broken toe.

SDSU is hoping Clark can regain a touch that enabled him to lead the Section in scoring during both his junior year at Valhalla and his senior year at Christian. After both years, he was named the county’s player of the year, and he holds Section records for most points in a career (2,549), season (1,337) and game (64).

“If scoring opportunities present themselves,” Clark said, “and we’re having difficulty in that area, and I happen to be on that night, and that’s what we need, then I think it would not be using whatever ability I have in the best manner possible.

“You never know. If I get hot like I have been in the past, (scoring a lot) could happen. Then again, it might never happen again. If you go into a game thinking you’re going to try to score 60, you’re going to be hurting everybody else as well as yourself.”

Clark reiterated that he simply is pleased to be playing again. How much or how little he scores or contributes is not the issue right now.

“I’m prepared to take my time with this thing,” he said. “If things don’t work out, they don’t work out. I’m still young enough to where I don’t have to make a drastic career move yet. Soon. Soon. But not yet. In the meantime, I have a lot of things to prove to myself.”

After Clark injured his back in the fall of 1990, it was months before someone could pinpoint precisely what was wrong. A few more months passed before he had surgery.

In addition to not being able to play basketball, Clark, a No. 1 draft pick by baseball’s Detroit Tigers in June 1990, was forced to miss the entire baseball season as well.

It was tough, he said, especially the inactivity.

“After I heard what was wrong with my back, the towel was here,” Clark said, reaching behind his head and simulating the symbolic throwing in the towel. “But after the surgery, once that I finally understood that I was going to able to do things as close to the way I could way back when, the excitement started to build up and build up.

“After surgery, realizing that things could get back to normal, I did everything in my power to make sure that I’d be ready to play when I became eligible.

“I almost lost, I almost was not able to do what I enjoy doing. When you come real close to doing that, reality hits you. Reality hits you.”

Now he can’t wait to start hitting some jump shots.

“I’m losing sleep already,” he said. “The closer it gets, the more sleep I lose. I think that’s a positive, though. A lot of times when you’re injured for awhile, you tend to lose that competitive edge. And it’s good that I’m not eating as well as I would like. I feel hungry, but I can’t eat anything I’m so excited.

“I have dreams about things happening in games I haven’t even played in yet.”

So does SDSU.