Arizona will host an official visitor for the second straight weekend so we'll start this week's War Room getting right into that...
Basketball:
* This weekend Arizona will host its second official visitor in Alex Kirk, who hasn't officially narrowed down a school list but, again, it sounds like UA and New Mexico are the two main schools involved.
What's becoming interesting is New Mexico's recruiting situation, as the Lobos brought in Kirk for an official visit two weeks ago and this weekend have three official visitors, including two big men in JUCO center Beas Hamga and Findlay Prep power forward Godwin Okonji.
New Mexico is believed to only have two scholarships remaining, although it's hard to believe the Lobos would turn down Kirk regardless. It is a situation to look at moving forward though, especially if Hamga and/or Okonji commit to New Mexico this weekend.
Arizona has two big spots available in the frontcourt, and Kirk, Rod Odom and Adreian Payne are the three main candidates for them.
* As for Odom, he told us that UA leads after the visit, and while he seemed to at least be considering cancelling his visits and committing, it now looks like he'll go ahead and visit Harvard this weekend, and then Boston College the weekend after. West Virginia is the other school in the picture.
While it's a good thing that UA made such a good impression on Odom last weekend, the more time passes from an official, the more that wears off, especially when he's going on other visits.
* As for Payne, as we said last week, he'll officially visit on Oct. 10, so with all three big men recruits officially visiting, you have to think Arizona will be able to land at least one.
* Sean Miller, Archie Miller and Book Richardson were all in Terrence Jones' home on Thursday evening. It's believed the visit went well, and Jones should be narrowing his list down soon.
* Miller continues to give himself hectic travelling schedules. On Thursday evening, he was in Jones' house, and then took a plane from Portland to New York. At 9:30am New York time (6:30am Tucson/Portland time), he'll be at St. Benedict's Prep for the Garden State Coaches Clinic, where he'll be speaking for an hour about man defense. Miller is following Jamie Dixon, and speaking after him will be Jeff Van Gundy.
After the clinic, Miller will take a flight from New York to Tucson for Kirk's official visit. On Saturday he'll be back in the gym for the Wildcats' fourth team practice. They also practiced on Tuesday of this week.
* Speaking of St. Benedict's Prep, expect to hear that name much more often, as GothamHoops.com reported on Thursday that 2011 UA commit Sidiki Johnson has transferred there for the final two years of his high school career.
* The recruitment for Gary Franklin is starting to heat up, as the latest word is Arizona is battling with ASU, Cal and Baylor to land him. Franklin is supposed to take visits - he told us he's looking at Oct. 9 as a date to trip to Tucson - but it also wouldn't be a surprise if he just ended his recruitment at any time since he's been going through the process for so long.
Cal has been on Franklin the hardest for the longest, ASU has his good friend Keala King committed and Arizona was Franklin's favorite school for well over a year, so it will be interesting what direction he goes in.
* UA assistant James Whitford was in the schools of Ray McCallum, Trey Zeigler and Payne this week.
* On Monday, Sean and Archie met with Cory Joseph. Arizona continues to be in the hunt for him, but he's going to be a tough player to land.
* Moving on to team stuff, the UA players continue to go through workouts, practices and play pickup. Word from Thursday's pickup was that Kyryl Natyazhko, Derrick Williams and Kevin Parrom were three of the better players on the floor.
Natyazhko's improvement over the past couple of months has been significant. He's in much better shape and getting much better skill-wise. First viewing him during pickup games you wondered if he was going to be ready to start, but now it looks like he is in very good position to do so.
There is still going to be a learning curve with him, but expect him to get much better as the season progresses.
* With Kyryl's improvement and assuming he is the starting center, that gives the Wildcats four players who it would be surprising if they did not start - Nic Wise, Kyle Fogg, Jamelle Horne and Natyazhko.
While Momo Jones has shown his scoring ability, the fact that he's going to be backing up Wise at point guard means that it's probably better that he comes off the bench as either the backup point or instant offense at shooting guard.
It would also allow the Wildcats to have a taller starting lineup of maybe Wise, Fogg, Horne, Derrick Williams and Natyazhko, or maybe you put Horne at the four and start Solomon Hill at the three if he keeps improving.
Regardless, the fact that there seems to be a belief that Natyazhko is making enough strides to play good minutes right away gives the Wildcats much more flexibility with their lineup.
* As we said last week, Arizona coaches have two hours a week to work with players in a team setting. The first three practices have been mostly built around installing the Wildcats' defense (make sure you read Xavier Rivals writer Brian Snow's description of the defense herehttp://arizona.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=961&tid=126173869&mid=126173869&sid=974&style=2 if you haven't already).
I would imagine that a good percentage of the practices will be based around the defense until Oct. 17, when official practices begin.
Football:
* One of the biggest pieces of news of the week team wise was the fact that senior free safety Brandon Tatum left the team due to personal reasons, moving Adam Hall to second string, and effectively forcing the coaches to pull him from his redshirt year.
He'll travel Corvallis and play on at least special teams Saturday, possibly playing some safety behind Cam Nelson.
* Rob Gronkowski had his back surgery on Thursday and everything is believed to have gone well. Still no word on a timetable for him being able to return to the practice field, however.
* Someone asked me recently about the status of sophomore defensive tackle Jowyn Ward, who hasn't played yet this season. I caught up with him after practice on Wednesday to clarify his situation.
He said that he was going to redshirt, but now might not be.
"Not this year," Ward said. "I haven't played yet, and I was thinking about (redshirting), but since we have so many d-linemen that went down, I'm going to fill one of those spots. If I had to redshirt I wouldn't mind it, but if I had to play I wouldn't mind either... I think I'm going to be playing."
Ward said that he's currently practicing with the second string and he'll be travelling to Oregon State.
There's not much else to report on the team front - I don't know what else to say about the quarterback situation that hasn't been discussed at length already - so we'll move on to Jason Scheer's weekly recruiting roundup: (JG)
* After taking an official visit to Washington, 6-foot-3, 220-pound Redlands (Calif.) East Valley defensive end Andrew Hudson favors the Huskies. However, he will be visiting Arizona in addition to a handful of others.
"I'm going to Arizona for their game against Stanford and then Washington to see them play Oregon,” he told UDubSports.com. “I talked with a few of the coordinators at Arizona and I really get along with their coaches. But I have never been to their campus and look forward to seeing it."
Arizona was one of the first schools to heavily recruit Hudson and he is the type of player to consistently update his recruitment. The Wildcats have a decent chance of landing him figuring that Hudson actually does make it to campus, but Washington remains the school to beat.
* Keep an eye on 6-foot-3, 220-pound Venice (Calif.) athlete Jonathan McNeal. He is starting to get attention from larger schools and it seems to be only a matter of time before on of those schools offer.
Venice head coach Angelo Gasca tells Rivals.com, "Jonathan mostly plays linebacker on defense," Gasca said. "We use him on defense a lot like we did, Jonas Mouton who now starts at linebacker for Michigan. He's a lot like Mouton.
"On offense we have lined him up at wide receiver, tight end and running back. And on our wild cat offense, he's our quarterback.”
It remains to be seen if McNeal will get an offer, but obviously the UA is going to take a hard look at him as the season progresses.
* 6-foot-3, 238-pound Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure 2011 linebacker Cody Kurz will be one of the better backers in the west for his class and Arizona has already taken notice.
"I can't make any visits until next year because I'm a junior, but I have received a lot of letters,” Kurz tells Rivals.com. “Colorado, Ohio State, Oregon, Nebraska, Georgia, Cal, UCLA, LSU, Notre Dame, Washington, UofA (Arizona), UConn and Northwestern. I like Notre Dame and Arizona. Georgia looks really nice as well, but so does Washington."
Arizona has a very good relationship with St. Bonaventure and with the UA’s success in recruiting linebackers, it would be somewhat of a surprise if it was not a legitimate option for Kurz once he begins to truly go through the recruiting process.
* Not much has changed with 6-foot-2, 182-pound Corona (Calif.) Eleanor Roosevelt wide receiver Tyler Slavin in that he still likes Arizona.
"Right now Arizona is recruiting me the hardest," he tells UDubSports.com "I really like Arizona's coaches and I can't wait to talk with them all in person on my visit."
It seems to be a three school race between Arizona, Washington, and Nebraska, as Slavin has not really stated he has a favorite among the three. A decision will not come for at least two months, as his visit to Washington is on Nov. 7 and he has stated numerous times he expects to take his time with the recruitment.
* 6-foot-1, 188-pound Chicago DeLaSalle receiver Darryl Bland has started the season off strong and is getting recruiting attention because of it.
"It seems like several schools want to see my senior tape, so I'm in the process of getting my tape out there,” he tells EdgyTim.com. “I've been getting calls so far from Miami of Ohio, Arizona, Western Michigan, Toledo, Bowling Green and a few smaller level schools. All of those schools want me to send out tape and they all want me to visit them this fall."
Bland likely has some time before Arizona would consider making an offer, but it should have a good chance to land Bland should it do so.
* Arizona is still trying to make a big push for 6-foot-3, 200-pound Denton (Texas) Ryan wide receiver Bud Sasser. Sasser does not mention Arizona much, but the Wildcats are definitely recruiting him hard and trying to get involved more.
"I don't want to got a team that's running the ball all the time, and I would like it to be a nice homey place, for me want to stay there for four years or however long," Sasser told HuskersIllustrated. "And if I'm good with the coaches. I guess that's pretty much it."
Sasser plans on taking his time to make a decision, thus Arizona will continue to attempt to make an impact in his recruitment.
* 6-foot-3, 225-pound Corona (Calif.) defensive end Chidera Uzo-Diribe has made the decision to give his verbal to Colorado.
However, his recruitment is definitely not over, as he still has plans to visit two more schools that he would like to see offers from.
"I really like UCLA,” he told BuffStampede.com. “They have a nice campus and a great coaching staff," Uzo-Diribe said. "And with Arizona, I have good chemistry with their linebackers coach, Tim Kish, so it will be fun."
Obviously Uzo-Diribe still needs an offer from Arizona, but should one come, the Wildcats would be in good shape.
* 6-foot-3, 269-pound Anaheim (Calif.) Servite defensive tackle Kirifi Taula has been offered by UCLA, which changes his recruitment up a bit.
The Bruins are definitely going to be difficult to beat, but Arizona is considered to be among Taula’s top schools with Oregon State, Washington, and UCLA. The good news is that Taula is going to take all his visits, so Arizona will have an opportunity to convince him that he is capable of moving away from home to play football.
* 6-foot-3, 235-pound Torrance (Calif.) El Camino linebacker J’Courtney Williams will be visiting Arizona for the UCLA game.
Williams has yet to receive an offer, but Arizona has been recruiting him consistently and it has turned into the Wildcats being among his favorites. One of the biggest reasons Williams does not have any offers is due to his transfer credits and once that clears up, you can expect the offers to come in.
* It won’t be easy landing 6-foot-2, 185-pound Denton (Texas) Guyer 2011 signal caller J.W. Walsh, but Arizona seems to be right in there.
"Definitely Texas. OU, OSU and then Arizona, since they're the first ones to offer they have my interest," Walsh told Orangebloods.com about his favorites. "It's early so right now, got those three definitely that I like. There are other ones - Notre Dame, Texas A&M - they're all good school right now."
If Texas was to offer, there is an assumption that it would be one of this favorites and it will likely be difficult to get Walsh out of Texas. Still, the Wildcats have him thinking about them and seem to be doing a good job in his recruitment.
This post was edited on 9/25 8:24 AM by Jason_Scheer
Basketball:
* This weekend Arizona will host its second official visitor in Alex Kirk, who hasn't officially narrowed down a school list but, again, it sounds like UA and New Mexico are the two main schools involved.
What's becoming interesting is New Mexico's recruiting situation, as the Lobos brought in Kirk for an official visit two weeks ago and this weekend have three official visitors, including two big men in JUCO center Beas Hamga and Findlay Prep power forward Godwin Okonji.
New Mexico is believed to only have two scholarships remaining, although it's hard to believe the Lobos would turn down Kirk regardless. It is a situation to look at moving forward though, especially if Hamga and/or Okonji commit to New Mexico this weekend.
Arizona has two big spots available in the frontcourt, and Kirk, Rod Odom and Adreian Payne are the three main candidates for them.
* As for Odom, he told us that UA leads after the visit, and while he seemed to at least be considering cancelling his visits and committing, it now looks like he'll go ahead and visit Harvard this weekend, and then Boston College the weekend after. West Virginia is the other school in the picture.
While it's a good thing that UA made such a good impression on Odom last weekend, the more time passes from an official, the more that wears off, especially when he's going on other visits.
* As for Payne, as we said last week, he'll officially visit on Oct. 10, so with all three big men recruits officially visiting, you have to think Arizona will be able to land at least one.
* Sean Miller, Archie Miller and Book Richardson were all in Terrence Jones' home on Thursday evening. It's believed the visit went well, and Jones should be narrowing his list down soon.
* Miller continues to give himself hectic travelling schedules. On Thursday evening, he was in Jones' house, and then took a plane from Portland to New York. At 9:30am New York time (6:30am Tucson/Portland time), he'll be at St. Benedict's Prep for the Garden State Coaches Clinic, where he'll be speaking for an hour about man defense. Miller is following Jamie Dixon, and speaking after him will be Jeff Van Gundy.
After the clinic, Miller will take a flight from New York to Tucson for Kirk's official visit. On Saturday he'll be back in the gym for the Wildcats' fourth team practice. They also practiced on Tuesday of this week.
* Speaking of St. Benedict's Prep, expect to hear that name much more often, as GothamHoops.com reported on Thursday that 2011 UA commit Sidiki Johnson has transferred there for the final two years of his high school career.
* The recruitment for Gary Franklin is starting to heat up, as the latest word is Arizona is battling with ASU, Cal and Baylor to land him. Franklin is supposed to take visits - he told us he's looking at Oct. 9 as a date to trip to Tucson - but it also wouldn't be a surprise if he just ended his recruitment at any time since he's been going through the process for so long.
Cal has been on Franklin the hardest for the longest, ASU has his good friend Keala King committed and Arizona was Franklin's favorite school for well over a year, so it will be interesting what direction he goes in.
* UA assistant James Whitford was in the schools of Ray McCallum, Trey Zeigler and Payne this week.
* On Monday, Sean and Archie met with Cory Joseph. Arizona continues to be in the hunt for him, but he's going to be a tough player to land.
* Moving on to team stuff, the UA players continue to go through workouts, practices and play pickup. Word from Thursday's pickup was that Kyryl Natyazhko, Derrick Williams and Kevin Parrom were three of the better players on the floor.
Natyazhko's improvement over the past couple of months has been significant. He's in much better shape and getting much better skill-wise. First viewing him during pickup games you wondered if he was going to be ready to start, but now it looks like he is in very good position to do so.
There is still going to be a learning curve with him, but expect him to get much better as the season progresses.
* With Kyryl's improvement and assuming he is the starting center, that gives the Wildcats four players who it would be surprising if they did not start - Nic Wise, Kyle Fogg, Jamelle Horne and Natyazhko.
While Momo Jones has shown his scoring ability, the fact that he's going to be backing up Wise at point guard means that it's probably better that he comes off the bench as either the backup point or instant offense at shooting guard.
It would also allow the Wildcats to have a taller starting lineup of maybe Wise, Fogg, Horne, Derrick Williams and Natyazhko, or maybe you put Horne at the four and start Solomon Hill at the three if he keeps improving.
Regardless, the fact that there seems to be a belief that Natyazhko is making enough strides to play good minutes right away gives the Wildcats much more flexibility with their lineup.
* As we said last week, Arizona coaches have two hours a week to work with players in a team setting. The first three practices have been mostly built around installing the Wildcats' defense (make sure you read Xavier Rivals writer Brian Snow's description of the defense herehttp://arizona.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=961&tid=126173869&mid=126173869&sid=974&style=2 if you haven't already).
I would imagine that a good percentage of the practices will be based around the defense until Oct. 17, when official practices begin.
Football:
* One of the biggest pieces of news of the week team wise was the fact that senior free safety Brandon Tatum left the team due to personal reasons, moving Adam Hall to second string, and effectively forcing the coaches to pull him from his redshirt year.
He'll travel Corvallis and play on at least special teams Saturday, possibly playing some safety behind Cam Nelson.
* Rob Gronkowski had his back surgery on Thursday and everything is believed to have gone well. Still no word on a timetable for him being able to return to the practice field, however.
* Someone asked me recently about the status of sophomore defensive tackle Jowyn Ward, who hasn't played yet this season. I caught up with him after practice on Wednesday to clarify his situation.
He said that he was going to redshirt, but now might not be.
"Not this year," Ward said. "I haven't played yet, and I was thinking about (redshirting), but since we have so many d-linemen that went down, I'm going to fill one of those spots. If I had to redshirt I wouldn't mind it, but if I had to play I wouldn't mind either... I think I'm going to be playing."
Ward said that he's currently practicing with the second string and he'll be travelling to Oregon State.
There's not much else to report on the team front - I don't know what else to say about the quarterback situation that hasn't been discussed at length already - so we'll move on to Jason Scheer's weekly recruiting roundup: (JG)
* After taking an official visit to Washington, 6-foot-3, 220-pound Redlands (Calif.) East Valley defensive end Andrew Hudson favors the Huskies. However, he will be visiting Arizona in addition to a handful of others.
"I'm going to Arizona for their game against Stanford and then Washington to see them play Oregon,” he told UDubSports.com. “I talked with a few of the coordinators at Arizona and I really get along with their coaches. But I have never been to their campus and look forward to seeing it."
Arizona was one of the first schools to heavily recruit Hudson and he is the type of player to consistently update his recruitment. The Wildcats have a decent chance of landing him figuring that Hudson actually does make it to campus, but Washington remains the school to beat.
* Keep an eye on 6-foot-3, 220-pound Venice (Calif.) athlete Jonathan McNeal. He is starting to get attention from larger schools and it seems to be only a matter of time before on of those schools offer.
Venice head coach Angelo Gasca tells Rivals.com, "Jonathan mostly plays linebacker on defense," Gasca said. "We use him on defense a lot like we did, Jonas Mouton who now starts at linebacker for Michigan. He's a lot like Mouton.
"On offense we have lined him up at wide receiver, tight end and running back. And on our wild cat offense, he's our quarterback.”
It remains to be seen if McNeal will get an offer, but obviously the UA is going to take a hard look at him as the season progresses.
* 6-foot-3, 238-pound Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure 2011 linebacker Cody Kurz will be one of the better backers in the west for his class and Arizona has already taken notice.
"I can't make any visits until next year because I'm a junior, but I have received a lot of letters,” Kurz tells Rivals.com. “Colorado, Ohio State, Oregon, Nebraska, Georgia, Cal, UCLA, LSU, Notre Dame, Washington, UofA (Arizona), UConn and Northwestern. I like Notre Dame and Arizona. Georgia looks really nice as well, but so does Washington."
Arizona has a very good relationship with St. Bonaventure and with the UA’s success in recruiting linebackers, it would be somewhat of a surprise if it was not a legitimate option for Kurz once he begins to truly go through the recruiting process.
* Not much has changed with 6-foot-2, 182-pound Corona (Calif.) Eleanor Roosevelt wide receiver Tyler Slavin in that he still likes Arizona.
"Right now Arizona is recruiting me the hardest," he tells UDubSports.com "I really like Arizona's coaches and I can't wait to talk with them all in person on my visit."
It seems to be a three school race between Arizona, Washington, and Nebraska, as Slavin has not really stated he has a favorite among the three. A decision will not come for at least two months, as his visit to Washington is on Nov. 7 and he has stated numerous times he expects to take his time with the recruitment.
* 6-foot-1, 188-pound Chicago DeLaSalle receiver Darryl Bland has started the season off strong and is getting recruiting attention because of it.
"It seems like several schools want to see my senior tape, so I'm in the process of getting my tape out there,” he tells EdgyTim.com. “I've been getting calls so far from Miami of Ohio, Arizona, Western Michigan, Toledo, Bowling Green and a few smaller level schools. All of those schools want me to send out tape and they all want me to visit them this fall."
Bland likely has some time before Arizona would consider making an offer, but it should have a good chance to land Bland should it do so.
* Arizona is still trying to make a big push for 6-foot-3, 200-pound Denton (Texas) Ryan wide receiver Bud Sasser. Sasser does not mention Arizona much, but the Wildcats are definitely recruiting him hard and trying to get involved more.
"I don't want to got a team that's running the ball all the time, and I would like it to be a nice homey place, for me want to stay there for four years or however long," Sasser told HuskersIllustrated. "And if I'm good with the coaches. I guess that's pretty much it."
Sasser plans on taking his time to make a decision, thus Arizona will continue to attempt to make an impact in his recruitment.
* 6-foot-3, 225-pound Corona (Calif.) defensive end Chidera Uzo-Diribe has made the decision to give his verbal to Colorado.
However, his recruitment is definitely not over, as he still has plans to visit two more schools that he would like to see offers from.
"I really like UCLA,” he told BuffStampede.com. “They have a nice campus and a great coaching staff," Uzo-Diribe said. "And with Arizona, I have good chemistry with their linebackers coach, Tim Kish, so it will be fun."
Obviously Uzo-Diribe still needs an offer from Arizona, but should one come, the Wildcats would be in good shape.
* 6-foot-3, 269-pound Anaheim (Calif.) Servite defensive tackle Kirifi Taula has been offered by UCLA, which changes his recruitment up a bit.
The Bruins are definitely going to be difficult to beat, but Arizona is considered to be among Taula’s top schools with Oregon State, Washington, and UCLA. The good news is that Taula is going to take all his visits, so Arizona will have an opportunity to convince him that he is capable of moving away from home to play football.
* 6-foot-3, 235-pound Torrance (Calif.) El Camino linebacker J’Courtney Williams will be visiting Arizona for the UCLA game.
Williams has yet to receive an offer, but Arizona has been recruiting him consistently and it has turned into the Wildcats being among his favorites. One of the biggest reasons Williams does not have any offers is due to his transfer credits and once that clears up, you can expect the offers to come in.
* It won’t be easy landing 6-foot-2, 185-pound Denton (Texas) Guyer 2011 signal caller J.W. Walsh, but Arizona seems to be right in there.
"Definitely Texas. OU, OSU and then Arizona, since they're the first ones to offer they have my interest," Walsh told Orangebloods.com about his favorites. "It's early so right now, got those three definitely that I like. There are other ones - Notre Dame, Texas A&M - they're all good school right now."
If Texas was to offer, there is an assumption that it would be one of this favorites and it will likely be difficult to get Walsh out of Texas. Still, the Wildcats have him thinking about them and seem to be doing a good job in his recruitment.
This post was edited on 9/25 8:24 AM by Jason_Scheer
