There's so much that's happened over the past week in basketball as well as so many ongoing situations that it's difficult to figure out where to start. There's a lot to cover but hopefully we hit everything.
Basketball:
* With the commitment of Jesse Perry, Arizona now has four players left with scholarship offers in the 2010 class: Ray McCallum, Doron Lamb, Josh Selby and Kadeem Jack.
It's been a busy week of rumors concerning all four players, so we will discuss the latest with all of them.
Ray McCallum: After months of a relatively quiet recruitment, the Ray McCallum rumor mill finally heated back up this week, with him being at the McDonald's All-American game.
As is well known by now, McCallum is down to Arizona, UCLA, Florida and Detroit. This week there were rumors that Florida is making a push for him, that UCLA was going to land him and that he was down to UA and Detroit.
Bouncing these rumors off sources close to the recruitment resulted in nothing but a confirmation of what we've been saying for months - you won't find a legitimate source close to this recruitment who feels that McCallum is anything but a heavy lean to play for his dad at Detroit.
He's not saying that publicly, and maybe it's not even what he truly wants to do, it's tough to tell. But there is a lot of pressure on him to play for Detroit and if he is able to turn his dad down to play elsewhere, it would be a surprise to most involved.
"It was great to see them get 20 wins," said McCallum of Detroit. "It shows how the program is turning around. I am just real happy for my dad."
It's important to remember when following this rumor mill that McCallum isn't saying anything publicly and that the majority of this recruitment is being played out behind closed doors, so it's probably best not to get overly emotional about any rumor that comes out about him.
Nothing has changed in terms of all good sources believing that he's going to Detroit as of today. Maybe that changes, but that's where everything stands as of now.
Doron Lamb: Lamb caused a big stir among Arizona fans this week when he left out UA when discussing his list of schools. Since then, he's clarified that Arizona is still in the picture and nothing has changed in terms of his April 17 announcement at the Jordan Brand Game.
"I've known (assistant coach Book Richardson) for a long time," Lamb told Rivals.com this week. "He's a good coach, and I know coach Sean Miller is a great coach. He coached at Xavier, and they went far every time. He never had any McDonald's All Americans, so if I go there I think I could help the team win and make the NCAA Tournament."
Regardless of what Lamb said, the feeling behind the recruitment is now that UA is playing from behind and considering that he's two and a half weeks away from announcing a decision, that's not exactly the place you want to be in.
West Virginia, Kansas and maybe Kentucky appear to have better odds to land Lamb than Arizona does.
Josh Selby: Also announcing at the Jordan Brand game is Selby, who most still say is going to Kansas, with the possible surprise of re-committing to Tennessee still out there.
He told Rivals.com that he wasn't sure what was better between going to a program that is already winning like Kansas or one that is rebuilding like Arizona.
"Only thing about helping rebuild a team, is if you go there and the team doesn't rebuild, it looks bad on you," Selby said.
While Arizona was once very involved in this recruitment, it's been a while since there's been much positive momentum in UA's favor, so there's no reason to believe that he'll be a Wildcat barring an unexpected change in the next two and a half weeks.
Kadeem Jack: Things aren't as gloomy in this recruitment, although Jack told GOAZCATS.com on Thursday that he doesn't have any favorites.
"I think everybody is on the same level," he said.
That may or may not be true, as most still feel that Arizona is in the best shape, but that could change when he goes on visits. Jack is narrowing down his list of schools and working on visit dates.
"I'm down to UConn, Arizona, Arkansas and Miami," Jack said. "I just got rid of UCLA and Florida so it's between those four.
"Most likely I'm going on three visits. I'm going to Miami on the 9th, so I'll make that visit and then I'm not sure but I think I'm supposed to take visits to Arkansas and UConn. I could make a decision before that but I don't know because I'm supposed to make it on April 28th."
Jack seemed unsure of the April 28 decision date, so we asked him if he could decide sooner.
"It's possible," he said. "If I speak to my mother and mentor and think it's the best thing for me. If we talk it over and it seems like the best thing to do, then I could make a decision before that. It's a possibility because it's late in my recruiting and I'm kind of tired of going through it. It was fun at first but now it's becoming a little too much."
The fact that Arizona hasn't landed Jack yet probably has some fans concerned, but he says that he needs to do his due diligence before making a decision.
"They need just one more piece and they think I'm that piece," Jack said. "It makes me feel great to think that the team wants me to come in right away and play.
"I've seen everything I need to see with Arizona. I just need to go on visits and see the other colleges. I need to make my decision off that because the other coaches are also speaking about things that interest me."
* In our conversation with Jack, he also said that on Thursday he spoke to assistant Book Richardson, and that the UA coach was telling him how he would fit in with the newly committed Perry.
The reason that's noteworthy is because Book has been mentioned as a target of St. John's as an assistant under new head coach Steve Lavin.
St. John's going after Book would be a relatively easy decision, however, two sources close to the UA program felt like he wouldn't take the job, if offered.
We'll continue to monitor this situation, but right now that's the latest word from Arizona's side.
* Moving back to recruiting, Arizona had been evaluating 2010 post Reggie Murphy, a teammate of Jordin Mayes at Westchester, for the last few months. While Murphy is a possibility, it doesn't seem likely right now that UA pulls the trigger on him.
In fact, in general Arizona's 2010 recruiting is at a standstill in terms of high school and junior college prospects outside of the four everyone knows about. However, the UA staff is keeping an eye on possible transfers and more recruits could pop up due to coaching changes.
* Mayes and Westchester won the CIF D-I state championship on Saturday in Bakersfield. UA assistant James Whitford was in attendance for the game. Mayes joins 2010 signee Daniel Bejarano as committed Wildcats who are ending their careers with back-to-back state championships.
* There's so much going on right now that it's easy to lose track of the fact that Arizona is days removed from an important 2010 commitment in Perry.
"It's the perfect school for me," Perry said. "The coaching staff is great, I met the players and I really got to know a lot of the players. MoMo (Jones), all the freshmen, all the guys, Nic Wise, all the coaches, everyone is really cool.
"I've been talking to the coaches throughout the recruiting process and Tucson is just a beautiful place to be in. I enjoy everything."
Perry said that he wants to come in, be a leader and make an impact right away next season.
"I see myself as a leader and we're just looking to win," he said. "I'm going to come in as a leader and just try to win. I'm going to motivate everyone and I'm just really excited to win...
"That's the biggest thing to me. I needed somewhere that I could be an impact player in a big program, like Arizona. It couldn't have been a better fit."
Watching Perry on tapehttp://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1068444, it's clear that he has the versatility necessary to make an instant impact next season as a face up four.
* One of Arizona's two unofficial visitors last weekend was 2011 wing Angel Nunez, and the trip was considered a big success. Nunez wasn't very revealing of where his recruiting process stood when we talked to him, but his mentor, Eric Martinez, made it very clear that Arizona is the team to beat.
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"Angel is trying to sort things out," said Martinez. "We spoke for a little bit and I'm not going to comment on that particularly right now, but we spoke about some things about Arizona. He was pleased with things and some of the questions he had, all the answers were given to him. We were really pleased with the visit.
"He didn't want to go home. He wanted to stay. That goes to show how interested he is in the school. Hopefully soon we'll have something. The visit was beautiful; it was an amazing visit. Me and him spoke and it's his decision when he'll release the information on what school he has chosen. Arizona is definitely in the mix."
Martinez said that Arizona is "by far, by far" the favorite and our sources have essentially reiterated the same thing. UA will enter the spring and summer as the definite favorite to ultimately land Nunez.
The good news is that, with no public commitment from Nunez, Arizona still has some flexibility, and that's very important because of the Wildcats' scholarship crunch.
Most feel that Nunez is a very good prospect, someone that UA might not be able to turn down, but the 2011 recruiting class is still pretty unknown, and who the top players in the country truly are will be revealed in the coming months.
Arizona already has a commitment from Sidiki Johnson in 2011 and the clear cut top target is Nick Johnson. Depending on what happens in 2010, UA might not have more than three scholarships to work with, so the coaches have to very careful in allotting them out before they can really evaluate the class and know exactly where they stand scholarship wise.
At this juncture there is a good chance that Nunez is part of UA's 2011 class, but there is a ton of recruiting to be done over the coming months, so it's too early to write anything down in stone.
* Part of the scholarship situation will be determined by transfers, and there was one this week in D.J. Shumpert. With Shumpert's departure and Perry's commitment, here's an update of the scholarship breakdown for the next two seasons:
2010-11:
Seniors (1): Jamelle Horne
Juniors (4): Kyle Fogg, Brendon Lavender, Alex Jacobson, Jesse Perry
Sophomores (5): MoMo Jones, Kyryl Natyazhko, Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill, Derrick Williams
Freshmen (2): Daniel Bejarano, Jordin Mayes
That's 12 out of a possible 13.
2011-12:
Seniors (4): Kyle Fogg, Brendon Lavender, Alex Jacobson, Jesse Perry
Juniors (5): MoMo Jones, Kyryl Natyazhko, Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill, Derrick Williams
Sophomores (2): Daniel Bejarano, Jordin Mayes
Freshmen (1): Sidiki Johnson
That's 12 out of a possible 12, due to the one scholarship lost for this season.
My guess is that Arizona's roster turnover isn't completed, and that we will be updating the scholarship breakdown again at some point in the coming days or weeks.
* It will be a quiet weekend in the UA basketball office as almost the entire staff will be in Indianapolis for the Final Four. Sean Miller, Whitford, Richardson, Director of Basketball Operations Jamall Walker, Administrative Assistant Ryan Reynolds and Graduate Assistant Luke Murray will all be there.
Only Archie Miller is staying in Tucson, where he'll do team workouts and hold down fort for the weekend.
* In case you didn't read our Q&A with UA Strength and Conditioning Coach Chris Roundshttp://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1069127, here are the preseason, current and ideal and weights for the entire team:
Kyle Fogg: 185 / 180 / Mid 190's
Solomon Hill: 230 / 230 / Low 220's
Jamelle Horne: 215 / 216 / About 229
Alex Jacobson: 245 / 240 / 240
MoMo Jones: 200 / About 195 / 200 or under
Brendon Lavender: 205 / 215 / About 218
Kyryl Natyazhko: 255 / 261 / 265
Kevin Parrom: 205 / 205 / 215
Derrick Williams: 235 / 245 / 250
Rounds said that he didn't think Arizona was strong enough physically to play high level defense this season.
"I think our team definitely was not strong enough to compete, especially with the type of system that Sean runs," Rounds said. "Their legs and hip strength were really not where they needed to be.
"It's really difficult for these guys to be able to play defense for an entire game, staying in the stance without breaking down. You could see at the end of the games, guys would just blow by all of our perimeter defenders. That should change for next year."
* Something interesting to watch will be the UCLA assistant coach situation, as Donnie Daniels left the Bruins for Gonzaga, and there could be more changes on the staff coming.
One of the candidates to be on UCLA's new staff is ex-Wildcat player and coach Miles Simon. That would create an interesting dynamic in West Coast recruiting, for a couple reasons.
Simon would be recruiting against his former school in Arizona, but maybe more interesting would be the fact that Simon would be competing with USC head coach Kevin O'Neill for recruits.
Considering Arizona's tumultuous 2007-08 season with O'Neill and Simon on the same staff, to the say the least it would be interesting to see the two compete against each other as bitter rivals.
* A couple weeks ago we wrote that ex-Wildcat guard Chris Rodgers started the 2009-10 season with EclipseJet-MyGuide Amsterdam, but left in January 2010. Rodgers has found a new team, as he recently signed with Kanizsa KK DKG East, a member of Hungary's B Division.
Rodgers has played for at least nine professional teams since leaving Arizona in 2006.
Football:
* It's been a pretty uneventful spring practice so far. The positions are mostly set on offense - with the exception of quarterback, apparently - and defense has been an open competition at almost every position.
Following next week's spring game, we'll try to do position by position breakdowns on what happened during the spring and where everything is at heading into the summer.
* Two redshirt freshmen making impacts are and running back Daniel Jenkins Eric Bender-Ramsay.
Both have made big strides over the past few months and told us they're happy about the progress they're making.
“It’s incomparable,” Jenkins said. “Three or four months ago I was just a freshman and we ran scout team all last year so I didn’t really run the plays so I was lost. Now I am finding myself a little bit more and have a way better grasp of things.”
Bender-Ramsay has been practicing with the second string offensive line at offensive tackle but could get playing time at guard as well.
He was the Offensive Scout Team MVP last season, which was good motivation heading into the spring.
"It was good, it shows that I worked hard; it felt real good getting it," Bender-Ramsay said. "I'm not happy until I'm under the lights though."
* Arizona landed its third 2011 commitment this week in 6-foot-4, 250-pound Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Chaffey Community College defensive end Joseph Carterhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=110584.
It's been a somewhat unusual commitment, as Carter has yet to speak publicly, although sources close to the recruitment have confirmed that he did indeed pledge to the UA program.
Last season, Carter had 22 tackles to go with 8 tackles for loss, a sack and a pass breakup.
Hopefully we'll catch up with him about his commitment soon. (JG)
Jason Scheer's weekly recruiting update:
* One player to watch out for in 2012 is 6-foot-1, 180-pound Katy (Texas) quarterback Brooks Haackhttp://rivals.yahoo.com/arizona/football/recruiting/player-Brooks-Haack-105787.
Obviously it is a bit early to know where Haack is favoring or if he even has favorites at all. However, Arizona is definitely keeping an eye on him and it will be interesting to see if his sister being on the UA softball team has any effect on his recruitment.
* It seems that Arizona has had preliminary discussions with 6-foot-3, 230-pound Laveen (Ariz.) Fairfax defensive end Reggie Gilberthttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=108443.
Gilbert attends a school that just finished its first year of varsity football, but his ability has already gotten him some attention.
"I went to a camp at Ohio State last summer," Gilbert tells ASUDevils.com. "I talked to coach (Jim) Tressel. They wanted me to come to their office and get my information but I had to go because we had to catch a plane to Arizona. They told my coaches they want to see game film from my first couple games this season.
"I've also talked to a couple coaches at Arizona but that's been pretty much it as far as who I've actually talked to."
At this point, Gilbert is a player to keep an eye on and you have to assume that he will be invited to camp this summer in an attempt to evaluate if he deserves an offer from the Wildcats.
* Arizona is giving out plenty of new offers, one of which is Arlington (Texas) Martin safety Devonta Sparkshttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=109652.
Sparks is the type of player that is about to get a lot of offers in a hurry, so it will be interesting to see if Arizona gets lost in the shuffle or it can do enough to make sure that it somehow gets ahead of other schools.
The good thing for the Wildcats is that Sparks wants to take his time, so the Wildcats will have plenty of opportunity to make an impression on Sparks, figuring he stays true to his word.
* Arizona has also offered Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei quarterback Max Wittekhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=84144, but so have a lot of legitimate schools throughout the country.
“I don't have any leaders,” he tells HuskersIllustrated.com. “I kind of want to wait to see a few more places first. I have spring break April 1-11, and I hope to get to three or four more colleges. I'm not sure yet where I'll be going. I have to talk to my dad about it. I'll try to go East for that since it will pretty much be my last chance to go out there."
Wittek has offers from many top schools in the west, so it is going to be difficult for the UA to get him. However, the longer it goes and other schools make offers to quarterbacks, the better chance the Wildcats have.
* 6-foot-2, 265-pound Spring (Texas) Klein Oak defensive tackle Jon Lewishttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=108651 has Arizona in his top three due in large part to what a friend has told him.
"I think Arizona, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would be my top three for now," Lewis said.
“One of my friends got accepted into Arizona and she said it's really a beautiful campus and that it's a great place to be. She got accepted there and she's from Arizona and said it's a great place to be at."
Lewis has been on record as having changing favorites, but as long as he mentions Arizona, the Wildcats are going to be legitimately involved in his recruitment until the end.
* A quarterback to keep an eye on is 6-foot-4, 211-pound Petaluma (Calif.) Casa Grande signal caller Nick Sherryhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=102265, as Arizona has started discussions with him.
"I'm pretty excited, first D1 offer came in," Sherry tells Rivals.com. "It's exciting for me. It's kind of what you've been waiting for in recruiting.
"You have to go through the struggles of calling coaches every day, making visits, no one really telling you anything. Now that they've offered it's a relief. You're kind of reaping the benefits now."
The contact between Sherry and the UA is very preliminary and you have to assume he will be invited to camp this summer in order to advance his recruitment.
* There will be plenty of visitors for next week’s spring game and 6-foot-3, 180-pound Palmdale (Calif.) receiver David Richardshttp://rivals.yahoo.com/arizona/football/recruiting/player-David-Richards-105495 will be one of them.
"I like that they're a passing school and that they're showing me a lot of interest and telling me how much they want me to go there," Richards tells Rivals.com. "The location is good and I like the weather out there.
"It's real important (to attend the spring game) so I can know what I'm looking for and so I can know what their program is like."
Richards currently has Arizona as his favorite, but plans on taking his time. With that being said, it would not be a surprise to see the UA go strong at an attempt at a commitment from Richards.
Basketball:
* With the commitment of Jesse Perry, Arizona now has four players left with scholarship offers in the 2010 class: Ray McCallum, Doron Lamb, Josh Selby and Kadeem Jack.
It's been a busy week of rumors concerning all four players, so we will discuss the latest with all of them.
Ray McCallum: After months of a relatively quiet recruitment, the Ray McCallum rumor mill finally heated back up this week, with him being at the McDonald's All-American game.
As is well known by now, McCallum is down to Arizona, UCLA, Florida and Detroit. This week there were rumors that Florida is making a push for him, that UCLA was going to land him and that he was down to UA and Detroit.
Bouncing these rumors off sources close to the recruitment resulted in nothing but a confirmation of what we've been saying for months - you won't find a legitimate source close to this recruitment who feels that McCallum is anything but a heavy lean to play for his dad at Detroit.
He's not saying that publicly, and maybe it's not even what he truly wants to do, it's tough to tell. But there is a lot of pressure on him to play for Detroit and if he is able to turn his dad down to play elsewhere, it would be a surprise to most involved.
"It was great to see them get 20 wins," said McCallum of Detroit. "It shows how the program is turning around. I am just real happy for my dad."
It's important to remember when following this rumor mill that McCallum isn't saying anything publicly and that the majority of this recruitment is being played out behind closed doors, so it's probably best not to get overly emotional about any rumor that comes out about him.
Nothing has changed in terms of all good sources believing that he's going to Detroit as of today. Maybe that changes, but that's where everything stands as of now.
Doron Lamb: Lamb caused a big stir among Arizona fans this week when he left out UA when discussing his list of schools. Since then, he's clarified that Arizona is still in the picture and nothing has changed in terms of his April 17 announcement at the Jordan Brand Game.
"I've known (assistant coach Book Richardson) for a long time," Lamb told Rivals.com this week. "He's a good coach, and I know coach Sean Miller is a great coach. He coached at Xavier, and they went far every time. He never had any McDonald's All Americans, so if I go there I think I could help the team win and make the NCAA Tournament."
Regardless of what Lamb said, the feeling behind the recruitment is now that UA is playing from behind and considering that he's two and a half weeks away from announcing a decision, that's not exactly the place you want to be in.
West Virginia, Kansas and maybe Kentucky appear to have better odds to land Lamb than Arizona does.
Josh Selby: Also announcing at the Jordan Brand game is Selby, who most still say is going to Kansas, with the possible surprise of re-committing to Tennessee still out there.
He told Rivals.com that he wasn't sure what was better between going to a program that is already winning like Kansas or one that is rebuilding like Arizona.
"Only thing about helping rebuild a team, is if you go there and the team doesn't rebuild, it looks bad on you," Selby said.
While Arizona was once very involved in this recruitment, it's been a while since there's been much positive momentum in UA's favor, so there's no reason to believe that he'll be a Wildcat barring an unexpected change in the next two and a half weeks.
Kadeem Jack: Things aren't as gloomy in this recruitment, although Jack told GOAZCATS.com on Thursday that he doesn't have any favorites.
"I think everybody is on the same level," he said.
That may or may not be true, as most still feel that Arizona is in the best shape, but that could change when he goes on visits. Jack is narrowing down his list of schools and working on visit dates.
"I'm down to UConn, Arizona, Arkansas and Miami," Jack said. "I just got rid of UCLA and Florida so it's between those four.
"Most likely I'm going on three visits. I'm going to Miami on the 9th, so I'll make that visit and then I'm not sure but I think I'm supposed to take visits to Arkansas and UConn. I could make a decision before that but I don't know because I'm supposed to make it on April 28th."
Jack seemed unsure of the April 28 decision date, so we asked him if he could decide sooner.
"It's possible," he said. "If I speak to my mother and mentor and think it's the best thing for me. If we talk it over and it seems like the best thing to do, then I could make a decision before that. It's a possibility because it's late in my recruiting and I'm kind of tired of going through it. It was fun at first but now it's becoming a little too much."
The fact that Arizona hasn't landed Jack yet probably has some fans concerned, but he says that he needs to do his due diligence before making a decision.
"They need just one more piece and they think I'm that piece," Jack said. "It makes me feel great to think that the team wants me to come in right away and play.
"I've seen everything I need to see with Arizona. I just need to go on visits and see the other colleges. I need to make my decision off that because the other coaches are also speaking about things that interest me."
* In our conversation with Jack, he also said that on Thursday he spoke to assistant Book Richardson, and that the UA coach was telling him how he would fit in with the newly committed Perry.
The reason that's noteworthy is because Book has been mentioned as a target of St. John's as an assistant under new head coach Steve Lavin.
St. John's going after Book would be a relatively easy decision, however, two sources close to the UA program felt like he wouldn't take the job, if offered.
We'll continue to monitor this situation, but right now that's the latest word from Arizona's side.
* Moving back to recruiting, Arizona had been evaluating 2010 post Reggie Murphy, a teammate of Jordin Mayes at Westchester, for the last few months. While Murphy is a possibility, it doesn't seem likely right now that UA pulls the trigger on him.
In fact, in general Arizona's 2010 recruiting is at a standstill in terms of high school and junior college prospects outside of the four everyone knows about. However, the UA staff is keeping an eye on possible transfers and more recruits could pop up due to coaching changes.
* Mayes and Westchester won the CIF D-I state championship on Saturday in Bakersfield. UA assistant James Whitford was in attendance for the game. Mayes joins 2010 signee Daniel Bejarano as committed Wildcats who are ending their careers with back-to-back state championships.
* There's so much going on right now that it's easy to lose track of the fact that Arizona is days removed from an important 2010 commitment in Perry.
"It's the perfect school for me," Perry said. "The coaching staff is great, I met the players and I really got to know a lot of the players. MoMo (Jones), all the freshmen, all the guys, Nic Wise, all the coaches, everyone is really cool.
"I've been talking to the coaches throughout the recruiting process and Tucson is just a beautiful place to be in. I enjoy everything."
Perry said that he wants to come in, be a leader and make an impact right away next season.
"I see myself as a leader and we're just looking to win," he said. "I'm going to come in as a leader and just try to win. I'm going to motivate everyone and I'm just really excited to win...
"That's the biggest thing to me. I needed somewhere that I could be an impact player in a big program, like Arizona. It couldn't have been a better fit."
Watching Perry on tapehttp://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1068444, it's clear that he has the versatility necessary to make an instant impact next season as a face up four.
* One of Arizona's two unofficial visitors last weekend was 2011 wing Angel Nunez, and the trip was considered a big success. Nunez wasn't very revealing of where his recruiting process stood when we talked to him, but his mentor, Eric Martinez, made it very clear that Arizona is the team to beat.
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"Angel is trying to sort things out," said Martinez. "We spoke for a little bit and I'm not going to comment on that particularly right now, but we spoke about some things about Arizona. He was pleased with things and some of the questions he had, all the answers were given to him. We were really pleased with the visit.
"He didn't want to go home. He wanted to stay. That goes to show how interested he is in the school. Hopefully soon we'll have something. The visit was beautiful; it was an amazing visit. Me and him spoke and it's his decision when he'll release the information on what school he has chosen. Arizona is definitely in the mix."
Martinez said that Arizona is "by far, by far" the favorite and our sources have essentially reiterated the same thing. UA will enter the spring and summer as the definite favorite to ultimately land Nunez.
The good news is that, with no public commitment from Nunez, Arizona still has some flexibility, and that's very important because of the Wildcats' scholarship crunch.
Most feel that Nunez is a very good prospect, someone that UA might not be able to turn down, but the 2011 recruiting class is still pretty unknown, and who the top players in the country truly are will be revealed in the coming months.
Arizona already has a commitment from Sidiki Johnson in 2011 and the clear cut top target is Nick Johnson. Depending on what happens in 2010, UA might not have more than three scholarships to work with, so the coaches have to very careful in allotting them out before they can really evaluate the class and know exactly where they stand scholarship wise.
At this juncture there is a good chance that Nunez is part of UA's 2011 class, but there is a ton of recruiting to be done over the coming months, so it's too early to write anything down in stone.
* Part of the scholarship situation will be determined by transfers, and there was one this week in D.J. Shumpert. With Shumpert's departure and Perry's commitment, here's an update of the scholarship breakdown for the next two seasons:
2010-11:
Seniors (1): Jamelle Horne
Juniors (4): Kyle Fogg, Brendon Lavender, Alex Jacobson, Jesse Perry
Sophomores (5): MoMo Jones, Kyryl Natyazhko, Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill, Derrick Williams
Freshmen (2): Daniel Bejarano, Jordin Mayes
That's 12 out of a possible 13.
2011-12:
Seniors (4): Kyle Fogg, Brendon Lavender, Alex Jacobson, Jesse Perry
Juniors (5): MoMo Jones, Kyryl Natyazhko, Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill, Derrick Williams
Sophomores (2): Daniel Bejarano, Jordin Mayes
Freshmen (1): Sidiki Johnson
That's 12 out of a possible 12, due to the one scholarship lost for this season.
My guess is that Arizona's roster turnover isn't completed, and that we will be updating the scholarship breakdown again at some point in the coming days or weeks.
* It will be a quiet weekend in the UA basketball office as almost the entire staff will be in Indianapolis for the Final Four. Sean Miller, Whitford, Richardson, Director of Basketball Operations Jamall Walker, Administrative Assistant Ryan Reynolds and Graduate Assistant Luke Murray will all be there.
Only Archie Miller is staying in Tucson, where he'll do team workouts and hold down fort for the weekend.
* In case you didn't read our Q&A with UA Strength and Conditioning Coach Chris Roundshttp://arizona.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1069127, here are the preseason, current and ideal and weights for the entire team:
Kyle Fogg: 185 / 180 / Mid 190's
Solomon Hill: 230 / 230 / Low 220's
Jamelle Horne: 215 / 216 / About 229
Alex Jacobson: 245 / 240 / 240
MoMo Jones: 200 / About 195 / 200 or under
Brendon Lavender: 205 / 215 / About 218
Kyryl Natyazhko: 255 / 261 / 265
Kevin Parrom: 205 / 205 / 215
Derrick Williams: 235 / 245 / 250
Rounds said that he didn't think Arizona was strong enough physically to play high level defense this season.
"I think our team definitely was not strong enough to compete, especially with the type of system that Sean runs," Rounds said. "Their legs and hip strength were really not where they needed to be.
"It's really difficult for these guys to be able to play defense for an entire game, staying in the stance without breaking down. You could see at the end of the games, guys would just blow by all of our perimeter defenders. That should change for next year."
* Something interesting to watch will be the UCLA assistant coach situation, as Donnie Daniels left the Bruins for Gonzaga, and there could be more changes on the staff coming.
One of the candidates to be on UCLA's new staff is ex-Wildcat player and coach Miles Simon. That would create an interesting dynamic in West Coast recruiting, for a couple reasons.
Simon would be recruiting against his former school in Arizona, but maybe more interesting would be the fact that Simon would be competing with USC head coach Kevin O'Neill for recruits.
Considering Arizona's tumultuous 2007-08 season with O'Neill and Simon on the same staff, to the say the least it would be interesting to see the two compete against each other as bitter rivals.
* A couple weeks ago we wrote that ex-Wildcat guard Chris Rodgers started the 2009-10 season with EclipseJet-MyGuide Amsterdam, but left in January 2010. Rodgers has found a new team, as he recently signed with Kanizsa KK DKG East, a member of Hungary's B Division.
Rodgers has played for at least nine professional teams since leaving Arizona in 2006.
Football:
* It's been a pretty uneventful spring practice so far. The positions are mostly set on offense - with the exception of quarterback, apparently - and defense has been an open competition at almost every position.
Following next week's spring game, we'll try to do position by position breakdowns on what happened during the spring and where everything is at heading into the summer.
* Two redshirt freshmen making impacts are and running back Daniel Jenkins Eric Bender-Ramsay.
Both have made big strides over the past few months and told us they're happy about the progress they're making.
“It’s incomparable,” Jenkins said. “Three or four months ago I was just a freshman and we ran scout team all last year so I didn’t really run the plays so I was lost. Now I am finding myself a little bit more and have a way better grasp of things.”
Bender-Ramsay has been practicing with the second string offensive line at offensive tackle but could get playing time at guard as well.
He was the Offensive Scout Team MVP last season, which was good motivation heading into the spring.
"It was good, it shows that I worked hard; it felt real good getting it," Bender-Ramsay said. "I'm not happy until I'm under the lights though."
* Arizona landed its third 2011 commitment this week in 6-foot-4, 250-pound Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Chaffey Community College defensive end Joseph Carterhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=110584.
It's been a somewhat unusual commitment, as Carter has yet to speak publicly, although sources close to the recruitment have confirmed that he did indeed pledge to the UA program.
Last season, Carter had 22 tackles to go with 8 tackles for loss, a sack and a pass breakup.
Hopefully we'll catch up with him about his commitment soon. (JG)
Jason Scheer's weekly recruiting update:
* One player to watch out for in 2012 is 6-foot-1, 180-pound Katy (Texas) quarterback Brooks Haackhttp://rivals.yahoo.com/arizona/football/recruiting/player-Brooks-Haack-105787.
Obviously it is a bit early to know where Haack is favoring or if he even has favorites at all. However, Arizona is definitely keeping an eye on him and it will be interesting to see if his sister being on the UA softball team has any effect on his recruitment.
* It seems that Arizona has had preliminary discussions with 6-foot-3, 230-pound Laveen (Ariz.) Fairfax defensive end Reggie Gilberthttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=108443.
Gilbert attends a school that just finished its first year of varsity football, but his ability has already gotten him some attention.
"I went to a camp at Ohio State last summer," Gilbert tells ASUDevils.com. "I talked to coach (Jim) Tressel. They wanted me to come to their office and get my information but I had to go because we had to catch a plane to Arizona. They told my coaches they want to see game film from my first couple games this season.
"I've also talked to a couple coaches at Arizona but that's been pretty much it as far as who I've actually talked to."
At this point, Gilbert is a player to keep an eye on and you have to assume that he will be invited to camp this summer in an attempt to evaluate if he deserves an offer from the Wildcats.
* Arizona is giving out plenty of new offers, one of which is Arlington (Texas) Martin safety Devonta Sparkshttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=109652.
Sparks is the type of player that is about to get a lot of offers in a hurry, so it will be interesting to see if Arizona gets lost in the shuffle or it can do enough to make sure that it somehow gets ahead of other schools.
The good thing for the Wildcats is that Sparks wants to take his time, so the Wildcats will have plenty of opportunity to make an impression on Sparks, figuring he stays true to his word.
* Arizona has also offered Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei quarterback Max Wittekhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=84144, but so have a lot of legitimate schools throughout the country.
“I don't have any leaders,” he tells HuskersIllustrated.com. “I kind of want to wait to see a few more places first. I have spring break April 1-11, and I hope to get to three or four more colleges. I'm not sure yet where I'll be going. I have to talk to my dad about it. I'll try to go East for that since it will pretty much be my last chance to go out there."
Wittek has offers from many top schools in the west, so it is going to be difficult for the UA to get him. However, the longer it goes and other schools make offers to quarterbacks, the better chance the Wildcats have.
* 6-foot-2, 265-pound Spring (Texas) Klein Oak defensive tackle Jon Lewishttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=108651 has Arizona in his top three due in large part to what a friend has told him.
"I think Arizona, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would be my top three for now," Lewis said.
“One of my friends got accepted into Arizona and she said it's really a beautiful campus and that it's a great place to be. She got accepted there and she's from Arizona and said it's a great place to be at."
Lewis has been on record as having changing favorites, but as long as he mentions Arizona, the Wildcats are going to be legitimately involved in his recruitment until the end.
* A quarterback to keep an eye on is 6-foot-4, 211-pound Petaluma (Calif.) Casa Grande signal caller Nick Sherryhttp://arizona.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=102265, as Arizona has started discussions with him.
"I'm pretty excited, first D1 offer came in," Sherry tells Rivals.com. "It's exciting for me. It's kind of what you've been waiting for in recruiting.
"You have to go through the struggles of calling coaches every day, making visits, no one really telling you anything. Now that they've offered it's a relief. You're kind of reaping the benefits now."
The contact between Sherry and the UA is very preliminary and you have to assume he will be invited to camp this summer in order to advance his recruitment.
* There will be plenty of visitors for next week’s spring game and 6-foot-3, 180-pound Palmdale (Calif.) receiver David Richardshttp://rivals.yahoo.com/arizona/football/recruiting/player-David-Richards-105495 will be one of them.
"I like that they're a passing school and that they're showing me a lot of interest and telling me how much they want me to go there," Richards tells Rivals.com. "The location is good and I like the weather out there.
"It's real important (to attend the spring game) so I can know what I'm looking for and so I can know what their program is like."
Richards currently has Arizona as his favorite, but plans on taking his time. With that being said, it would not be a surprise to see the UA go strong at an attempt at a commitment from Richards.
