We'll focus on basketball administrative and recruiting updates in this week's War Room.
Basketball:
* The UA basketball team has finally started lifting in its new weight training facility, which was built in the back of Richard Jefferson Gymnasium over the past several months.
I took a tour of the two-story weight room on Thursday, which is considered to be the best basketball facility of its kind in the country, featuring $300,000 in brand new equipment.
On the bottom floor is the cardio room, which features 12 bikes, four treadmills, three StairMasters, two training tables and the offices of strength coach Chris Rounds and trainer Justin Kokoskie.
Upstairs is the weight room, which looks over the two full length basketball courts that are inside the gym. The machines were all picked out by Rounds for his specific workouts, with one side of the room being lower body and the other upper body, so Rounds can stand in the middle of the room and monitor all the players' workouts.
The weight room and RJG construction were all privately funded by Cole and Jeannie Davis, as well as Sean Miller himself.
The initial plan is for video of the weight room to debut to the general public during next Saturday's ESPN telecast of the Arizona/Washington game.
* With the weight room project done, there won't be any facilities upgrades until this spring, when the basketball offices are remodeled and the hallway outside the offices and locker room are renovated.
The basketball program sent out initial design plans of the renovations during its monthly newsletter. All four designs are from NTD Architecture.
Entrance into McKale Center:
Both sides of the coaches' offices:
Outside the UA locker room:
These upgrades are the only planned changes to basketball facilities until the football program moves out of McKale at the conclusion of the North End Zone construction project. At that time, a significant amount of space will open in McKale and the basketball program can have further facility upgrades.
* Arizona is three games away from finalizing its 2011-12 non-conference basketball schedule. The Wildcats have games at Florida, at Gonzaga in Seattle, at New Mexico State, and at home against San Diego State, Bryant and NAU.
The UA will be part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament, which will feature two home games against solid but not elite competition, and then the Wildcats will head to New York on Nov. 18 and 19 to play two of St. John's, Mississippi State and N.C. State. Which two of those three that UA will play has yet to be determined.
Arizona is still finalizing a home and home contract, and then will also have two guarantee games against lesser opponents.
* This weekend, Angelo Chol will take his final official visit, which will be to Washington. He announces his decision on Feb. 17. Arizona remains exactly where it wants to be headed into the Washington visit.
* Nick Johnson and Josiah Turner were both left out of the McDonald's All-American Game when teams were announced on Thursday. They were considered two of the biggest snubs, although Turner was expected to make it before he transferred from Sacramento High School to Quality Education Academy in North Carolina.
* It's been a busy week for the UA basketball staff, which has watched several recruits lately. Last Friday while in the Bay Area for the Stanford and Cal games, Sean Miller and Book Richardson watched Brandon Ashley, while Archie Miller watched 2013 wing Jabari Bird.
This week, James Whitford headed east to check in on Josiah Turner at Quality Education, while also stopping by Bowie (Md.) Princeton Day Academy, home of 2013 guard Chris Thomas.
Book is spending Thursday and Friday in New York, where we'd expect him to visit the schools of a handful of players UA is recruiting to various degrees, such as 2011 Brooklyn Lincoln power forward Kamari Murphy, 2012 Bronx St. Raymond's wing Nkereuwem Okoro and power forward Daniel Dingle, 2012 Christ the King shooting guard Omar Calhoun and point guard Isaiah Lewis.
* Here's updates on where Arizona is currently seeded on a number of NCAA tournament projection websites:
ESPN.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Cleveland State
Bracketography.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Wichita State
RealTimeRPI.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Old Dominion
WarrenNolan.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Oklahoma State
SportingNews.com - #6 Arizona vs. #11 Oklahoma State, Marquette, Utah State or Cleveland State
Jerry Palm - #6 Arizona vs. #11 Richmond
Rivals.com - #7 Arizona vs. #10 Memphis, St. John's, Kansas State or Virginia Tech
SportsIllustrated.com: #7 Arizona vs. #10 Old Dominion
Bracketology 101 - #7 Arizona vs. #10 Boston College
* On Sunday, Arizona will go up against an Arizona State basketball team that has struggled with the injury bug all season. We asked Chris Karpman of ASUDevils.com for an injury update on the team heading into game.
Karpman says guard Ty Abbott has been bothered by his back and missed practice early this week, after missing the last part of the Stanford game due to the injury. Point guard Jamelle McMillan is bothered by his groin, and he's been less than 100 percent all season. Center Jordan Bachynski has a sore ankle. Karpman also said that five players missed all or part of practice on Monday, but that the whole team will be available in the game.
Football:
* There's not much going on in terms of team football news other than Mike Stoops informing Jody Oehlerhttp://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1186552 last Friday that the team plans on redshirting Matt Scott next weekend.
With the light week, we'll go straight into Jason Scheer's weekly recruiting breakdown:
There is likely not going to be a ton of recruiting news for the next week or so due in large part to the fact that coaching staffs around the country are getting their 2012 prospects together.
* Arizona continues to recruit quarterback Matt Davishttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=94383, but the reality of his recruitment is that Arizona is going to need to do a ton of work.
"If I had to name a leader right now, I'd probably say Auburn,” Davis tells RedRaiderSports.com. “I'm not set on them by any means, but they're a team that has stood out to me so far for obvious reasons. I do have a lot of really good options, though."
"Texas Tech has been with me for a while now too, so I don't want to sell them short, but Auburn has stood out the most. I've got a while until the summer, though. Nothing has been decided right now, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing what teams come and go, and how it will all play out. I'm just blessed to have a lot of really good options right now."
Arizona would obviously have to somehow make a large impact on Davis before the summer. The best way to do that would be to convince him to take a visit to campus and go from there.
* Arizona is taking a look at wide receiver Connor Cranehttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=98802, but the status of an offer remains unknown.
Crane is a major deep threat and has preliminary interest from numerous schools because of it.
"I was mainly the deep guy," Crane tells BuffStampede.com. "I am not the quickest guy in the world so the less moves I make in my route, the better. It lets me just run by the defender, so I would do that and J.W. Walsh would throw it on the money.
“In the middle of the season, I did have a couple catches where I ran shorter routes, caught the pass and took it to the house so that felt really good too."
Crane will look at all of his options before making a decision and does not have a timetable, so it will be interesting to see how the Wildcats handle his recruitment.
* Zach Hemmilahttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=110655 is a player that Arizona fans are going to hear plenty about throughout his decision-making process.
Hemmila will likely be highly recruited, but sources say is also probably leaning a bit towards leaving Arizona to play his college football.
USC and Arkansas could be close to offering and Hemmila will likely wait before making a decision.
"I just want to see how the facilities are and how the academics are and I want to see if they have what I want for my future," Hemmila tells Rivals.com.
* Another player to definitely keep an eye on is cornerback Elijah Whitehttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=101105.
"In eighth grade, I moved to Arizona,” he tells HawgSports.com. “I was out there 9th, 10th and half of my 11th," White said. "I went to Hamilton high school out there in Arizona and played there.
“Then my grandma got sick out here in Arkansas, so my parents were like, 'we've got to get ourselves together, come down here and help her out.' Family comes first. It's working out great. I love Arkansas.”
White claims an offer from Arizona and although Arkansas is going to be a major player, UA has been involved with White for a while now.
"Arizona, they've been looking at me ever since my freshman year,” he said. “I go down there and do a 7-on-7 Tournament every summer.
“Me and Coach (Tim) Kish, defensive coordinator, just got building a relationship ever since then. I mean, he's a good coach, and they're an up-and-coming program.
* In a move that surprised nobody, Connor Brewerhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=93534 has decided to go to Texas.
Brewer’s father, Robert, says that he is thankful for his son’s offers, but Texas was simply the best place to be.
"Those are all great programs,” he tells Orangebloods.com. “But then you get that gut feeling that this is the right place for me, this is the place that I want to spend the next four or five years of my life.
“It's good quality people, we really like the integrity and character that coach Brown instills in his players. It was just a great opportunity."
If Brewer did not love Texas so much, Arizona would have likely been a major player, As it is, no school really stood a chance.
* Chicago (Ill.) Hubbard junior defensive end Mikhail Dubosehttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=121471 is a player to keep an eye on.
"Some new schools have been sending me mail and more and more coaches have been stopping in school and making visits,” he tells EdgyTim.com. “Northwestern was in school and my recruiting coach Jerry Brown has been talking quite a bit with my head coach (Elton Harris).
“Arizona made an in school visit not too long ago and so did Coach (Reggie) Mitchell from Kansas. Texas A&M has been starting to send me mail along with Western Michigan, Memphis and a few other smaller schools."
Dubose is unsure of what direction his recruitment will go in, but says that schools want to see him play a bit more before committing to a certain position.
"Schools for now seem sort of split on what position they seem me playing in college,” he said. “Some are looking at me as a defensive end and other want to see me play inside.
“Some of the schools said they will recruit me but that they want to see where I'm at physically in a year from now before they figure out a position for me. I'm totally cool with it either way, I just want to help the team out anyway I can."
Basketball:
* The UA basketball team has finally started lifting in its new weight training facility, which was built in the back of Richard Jefferson Gymnasium over the past several months.
I took a tour of the two-story weight room on Thursday, which is considered to be the best basketball facility of its kind in the country, featuring $300,000 in brand new equipment.
On the bottom floor is the cardio room, which features 12 bikes, four treadmills, three StairMasters, two training tables and the offices of strength coach Chris Rounds and trainer Justin Kokoskie.
Upstairs is the weight room, which looks over the two full length basketball courts that are inside the gym. The machines were all picked out by Rounds for his specific workouts, with one side of the room being lower body and the other upper body, so Rounds can stand in the middle of the room and monitor all the players' workouts.
The weight room and RJG construction were all privately funded by Cole and Jeannie Davis, as well as Sean Miller himself.
The initial plan is for video of the weight room to debut to the general public during next Saturday's ESPN telecast of the Arizona/Washington game.
* With the weight room project done, there won't be any facilities upgrades until this spring, when the basketball offices are remodeled and the hallway outside the offices and locker room are renovated.
The basketball program sent out initial design plans of the renovations during its monthly newsletter. All four designs are from NTD Architecture.
Entrance into McKale Center:
Both sides of the coaches' offices:
Outside the UA locker room:
These upgrades are the only planned changes to basketball facilities until the football program moves out of McKale at the conclusion of the North End Zone construction project. At that time, a significant amount of space will open in McKale and the basketball program can have further facility upgrades.
* Arizona is three games away from finalizing its 2011-12 non-conference basketball schedule. The Wildcats have games at Florida, at Gonzaga in Seattle, at New Mexico State, and at home against San Diego State, Bryant and NAU.
The UA will be part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament, which will feature two home games against solid but not elite competition, and then the Wildcats will head to New York on Nov. 18 and 19 to play two of St. John's, Mississippi State and N.C. State. Which two of those three that UA will play has yet to be determined.
Arizona is still finalizing a home and home contract, and then will also have two guarantee games against lesser opponents.
* This weekend, Angelo Chol will take his final official visit, which will be to Washington. He announces his decision on Feb. 17. Arizona remains exactly where it wants to be headed into the Washington visit.
* Nick Johnson and Josiah Turner were both left out of the McDonald's All-American Game when teams were announced on Thursday. They were considered two of the biggest snubs, although Turner was expected to make it before he transferred from Sacramento High School to Quality Education Academy in North Carolina.
* It's been a busy week for the UA basketball staff, which has watched several recruits lately. Last Friday while in the Bay Area for the Stanford and Cal games, Sean Miller and Book Richardson watched Brandon Ashley, while Archie Miller watched 2013 wing Jabari Bird.
This week, James Whitford headed east to check in on Josiah Turner at Quality Education, while also stopping by Bowie (Md.) Princeton Day Academy, home of 2013 guard Chris Thomas.
Book is spending Thursday and Friday in New York, where we'd expect him to visit the schools of a handful of players UA is recruiting to various degrees, such as 2011 Brooklyn Lincoln power forward Kamari Murphy, 2012 Bronx St. Raymond's wing Nkereuwem Okoro and power forward Daniel Dingle, 2012 Christ the King shooting guard Omar Calhoun and point guard Isaiah Lewis.
* Here's updates on where Arizona is currently seeded on a number of NCAA tournament projection websites:
ESPN.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Cleveland State
Bracketography.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Wichita State
RealTimeRPI.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Old Dominion
WarrenNolan.com - #5 Arizona vs. #12 Oklahoma State
SportingNews.com - #6 Arizona vs. #11 Oklahoma State, Marquette, Utah State or Cleveland State
Jerry Palm - #6 Arizona vs. #11 Richmond
Rivals.com - #7 Arizona vs. #10 Memphis, St. John's, Kansas State or Virginia Tech
SportsIllustrated.com: #7 Arizona vs. #10 Old Dominion
Bracketology 101 - #7 Arizona vs. #10 Boston College
* On Sunday, Arizona will go up against an Arizona State basketball team that has struggled with the injury bug all season. We asked Chris Karpman of ASUDevils.com for an injury update on the team heading into game.
Karpman says guard Ty Abbott has been bothered by his back and missed practice early this week, after missing the last part of the Stanford game due to the injury. Point guard Jamelle McMillan is bothered by his groin, and he's been less than 100 percent all season. Center Jordan Bachynski has a sore ankle. Karpman also said that five players missed all or part of practice on Monday, but that the whole team will be available in the game.
Football:
* There's not much going on in terms of team football news other than Mike Stoops informing Jody Oehlerhttp://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1186552 last Friday that the team plans on redshirting Matt Scott next weekend.
With the light week, we'll go straight into Jason Scheer's weekly recruiting breakdown:
There is likely not going to be a ton of recruiting news for the next week or so due in large part to the fact that coaching staffs around the country are getting their 2012 prospects together.
* Arizona continues to recruit quarterback Matt Davishttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=94383, but the reality of his recruitment is that Arizona is going to need to do a ton of work.
"If I had to name a leader right now, I'd probably say Auburn,” Davis tells RedRaiderSports.com. “I'm not set on them by any means, but they're a team that has stood out to me so far for obvious reasons. I do have a lot of really good options, though."
"Texas Tech has been with me for a while now too, so I don't want to sell them short, but Auburn has stood out the most. I've got a while until the summer, though. Nothing has been decided right now, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing what teams come and go, and how it will all play out. I'm just blessed to have a lot of really good options right now."
Arizona would obviously have to somehow make a large impact on Davis before the summer. The best way to do that would be to convince him to take a visit to campus and go from there.
* Arizona is taking a look at wide receiver Connor Cranehttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=98802, but the status of an offer remains unknown.
Crane is a major deep threat and has preliminary interest from numerous schools because of it.
"I was mainly the deep guy," Crane tells BuffStampede.com. "I am not the quickest guy in the world so the less moves I make in my route, the better. It lets me just run by the defender, so I would do that and J.W. Walsh would throw it on the money.
“In the middle of the season, I did have a couple catches where I ran shorter routes, caught the pass and took it to the house so that felt really good too."
Crane will look at all of his options before making a decision and does not have a timetable, so it will be interesting to see how the Wildcats handle his recruitment.
* Zach Hemmilahttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=110655 is a player that Arizona fans are going to hear plenty about throughout his decision-making process.
Hemmila will likely be highly recruited, but sources say is also probably leaning a bit towards leaving Arizona to play his college football.
USC and Arkansas could be close to offering and Hemmila will likely wait before making a decision.
"I just want to see how the facilities are and how the academics are and I want to see if they have what I want for my future," Hemmila tells Rivals.com.
* Another player to definitely keep an eye on is cornerback Elijah Whitehttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=101105.
"In eighth grade, I moved to Arizona,” he tells HawgSports.com. “I was out there 9th, 10th and half of my 11th," White said. "I went to Hamilton high school out there in Arizona and played there.
“Then my grandma got sick out here in Arkansas, so my parents were like, 'we've got to get ourselves together, come down here and help her out.' Family comes first. It's working out great. I love Arkansas.”
White claims an offer from Arizona and although Arkansas is going to be a major player, UA has been involved with White for a while now.
"Arizona, they've been looking at me ever since my freshman year,” he said. “I go down there and do a 7-on-7 Tournament every summer.
“Me and Coach (Tim) Kish, defensive coordinator, just got building a relationship ever since then. I mean, he's a good coach, and they're an up-and-coming program.
* In a move that surprised nobody, Connor Brewerhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=93534 has decided to go to Texas.
Brewer’s father, Robert, says that he is thankful for his son’s offers, but Texas was simply the best place to be.
"Those are all great programs,” he tells Orangebloods.com. “But then you get that gut feeling that this is the right place for me, this is the place that I want to spend the next four or five years of my life.
“It's good quality people, we really like the integrity and character that coach Brown instills in his players. It was just a great opportunity."
If Brewer did not love Texas so much, Arizona would have likely been a major player, As it is, no school really stood a chance.
* Chicago (Ill.) Hubbard junior defensive end Mikhail Dubosehttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=121471 is a player to keep an eye on.
"Some new schools have been sending me mail and more and more coaches have been stopping in school and making visits,” he tells EdgyTim.com. “Northwestern was in school and my recruiting coach Jerry Brown has been talking quite a bit with my head coach (Elton Harris).
“Arizona made an in school visit not too long ago and so did Coach (Reggie) Mitchell from Kansas. Texas A&M has been starting to send me mail along with Western Michigan, Memphis and a few other smaller schools."
Dubose is unsure of what direction his recruitment will go in, but says that schools want to see him play a bit more before committing to a certain position.
"Schools for now seem sort of split on what position they seem me playing in college,” he said. “Some are looking at me as a defensive end and other want to see me play inside.
“Some of the schools said they will recruit me but that they want to see where I'm at physically in a year from now before they figure out a position for me. I'm totally cool with it either way, I just want to help the team out anyway I can."
