Football
The Wildcats are very much in the mix for LSU transfer Jordan Allen, who posted 16 tackles in his 13 appearances in 2013.
He lost his starting job, but just getting through the season injury free was noteworthy. Allen suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of his redshirt sophomore season in 2012.
But any past injuries are now completely behind him.
"I'm good to go," Allen said. "Since my ACL (injury) I've been fine."
Allen - who participated in some spring drills before making his decision - is leaving LSU because he couldn't get into the graduate program there, and he was given a release on the condition that he could not transfer to a school within the SEC or to one of the Tigers' nonconference opponents in 2014.
As far as the Pac-12 as a whole is concerned, he sees a "quicker" conference that relies more on tempo.
"It looks like an air-based style of play," Allen said. "It looks like something that would really give me a chance to develop skills in other areas."
The 6-6, 254-pounder said he can bring not only size in height, but an agile option on the edge as a pass rusher. When he looks at the Wildcats, in particular, he sees a team with thick options but lacking in overall size.
While many players say school is a big deal and factor, Allen means it. The sports administration major realized that there wasn't a meaningful class left for him to take at LSU and didn't like the idea of heading into a dead end in his education.
Looking at the football side, he's looking for a program that has a need for him. Arizona watched defensive end Kyle Kelley leave the program prior to spring camp and is thin along the line, in general. Allen, like Kelley, was a four-star prospect coming out of high school.
Allen was in Tucson last week for a visit.
"It's a little bit smaller than LSU, but it still has an LSU feel to it," Allen said. "It was a little bit nicer, just around Tucson, overall."
Allen is still a week-and-a-half away from making a decision, with a visit to Southern Miss still on his schedule. Although Louisiana-Lafayette is among his four schools, the destinations firmly in the mix are Arizona and TCU. The Wildcats appear to be in pretty good shape.
But among the things that does intrigue Allen about the Horned Frogs is the 4-2-5 scheme and his relationship with defensive coordinator and line coach Dick Bumpas.
The "overall efficiency" of the school he chooses will play a factor, as well as the staff that simply comes across the most sincere and makes him comfortable, he said.
"At the end of the day, it's my last shot," Allen said. "I've got to get playing time, coaching, the school end done, all at the same time."
* The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a new roughing the passer penalty that will go into effect immediately.
Unabated hits at or below the knee on a quarterback "in a passing posture," with at least one foot on the ground, will result in a 15-yard penalty.
Exceptions include: when a passer becomes a runner, either inside or outside the tackle box; a defender grabs or wraps the passer in an attempt to make a conventional tackle; or when a defender is not coming in unabated, or is blocked or fouled into the passer.
Surveys among head coaches have indicated support of the new rule.
* Another change head coach Rich Rodriguez has been clamoring for will affect all Division I student-athletes of all sports.
For years, Rodriguez has asked for leniency on the ability to feed his players. He is three days away from seeing that wish become a reality.
The Division I Board of Directors will meet Thursday to discuss an approval from the legislative council that would allow unlimited meals and snacks in an effort to meet nutritional needs. The change would affect both athletes on scholarship and walk-ons, and would be an addition to the meal plan already provided as part of a full-ride scholarship.
Under the current conditions, the option for scholarship athletes was three meals per day or a food stipend.
Changes also voted on include three hours of rest for football players between practices during the preseason. Within that three-hour window, film review and team meetings are allowed.
* Speaking of change, football teams around the country are now allowed in-person coaching contact during the summer, beyond just a strength and conditioning staff.
Under the old rules, such instruction was not allowed until fall camp and anything prior was considered "involuntary, players-only workouts."
Now, eight hours per week under the supervision of an on-field coach will be allowed for players enrolled in summer school or who meet certain academic benchmarks. Two of the hours may be used for film review.
What you may see, as a result, is better understanding of the system once the incoming freshmen reach fall camp in August.
Basketball
* Arizona is not expecting any roster movement now that it knows who is leaving for the NBA draft and staying for another year, but head coach Sean Miller said there is always a chance at an unforeseen "surprise."
"I think we're pretty much locked in here," Miller said. "I think we have a great group."
Among the questions now is what to make of Zach Peters, who transferred in from Kansas after dealing with multiple concussions. As a redshirst freshman, the 6-10 forward appeared in just 11 games.
There were times during the 2013-14 season Miller said Peters was not practicing.
"We treat [Peters] just like every player in our program," Miller said last week. "We had our postseason meeting, clearly defined the expectations moving forward, reviewed what happened. Gave him the opportunity to talk, making sure we're aligned with what they want out of this that we can deliver as a coaching staff and a program, and we move on from there."
* The Wildcats have the chance to be a much more physically imposing team in 2014-15, and that's why I agreed a while back about how losing Nick Johnson won't be the biggest loss.
Miller hasn't decided if he will continue to bring Rondae Hollis-Jefferson off the bench, even if such a move would surprise the average on-looker wondering how such a talent could stay in a reserve role. The fact is Hollis-Jefferson will play 30 minutes, regardless of where he begins the game.
"I don't know who's going to start," Miller said. "Obviously, it's way too early for that. But I think we'll have a number of options. If you look at our team, I think we'll have increased depth and we'll have a lot of individual players that can play."
But if he does start, Miller would not hesitate to play him and Stanley Johnson together. You're looking at the possibility of a 6-7 and up lineup at four of the five positions.
Stanley Johnson sees a team that "will be fine," even without the Pac-12's top freshman and player from a season ago.
"We could fill almost every position up with an All-American player," he told GOAZCATS.com.
"My main thing will be just to bring scoring and defensive intensity, and hopefully some leadership to the team."
Much like Aaron Gordon gravitated toward Nick Johnson, Stanley Johnson sees himself looking to point guard T.J. McConnell and soaking up as much as he can when he arrives in Tucson this summer.
"All he wants to do is win," Stanley Johnson said of his future teammate.
* Now, here is Matt Moreno's latest recruiting breakdown:
As the spring continues to roll on the thick of the recruiting season is now beginning for both the basketball and football programs around the country. While both have been able to do a fair amount of recruiting in the recent weeks things will now bump into overdrive for both sports. Last week marked the first week of the evaluation period for football, which means that college coaches will now be able to do in-person evaluations of recruits for the next month or so while high school programs practice throughout the spring.
On the basketball side the big weekend of the spring is coming up as the lone "live" evaluation period of the season will take place beginning Friday and ending Sunday evening. With that will bring plenty of coaches out on the road to watch recruits from plenty of the upcoming classes.
With things now mostly settled for the 2014 class after the announcements of Aaron Gordon and Nick Johnson the scholarship picture is much more clear. We'll take a look at just exactly how many recruits the Wildcats can add moving forward with the 2015 class now that five members of the 2014 class are signed and all the expected departures have taken place.
As always there is plenty to discuss, so here is this week's recruiting portion of the War Room.
Football recruiting
The evaluation period for football programs began last week and will run until the end of next month. That means college coaches can start the process of getting out and seeing recruits off campus while those recruits work during spring ball with their respective high school teams.
For some recruits that means trying to make an impression in front of coaches in hopes of earning an offer, and for others these next few weeks will give some recruits a better handle on where things stand in their recruitments and which schools have prioritized them in the process.
* One four-star recruit expecting to have the Wildcats in some point soon remains high on Rich Rodriguez's program, and he's hoping to continue to make progress with UA this spring. Four-star quarterback recruit Sheriron Jones has held an offer from Arizona for quite some time now and he still has the Wildcats in consideration.
This spring will be an important when for Jones to figure out which schools have made him a priority, and he feels that will be fairly easy to figure out.
"They evaluate everything that I do," Jones told GOAZCATS.com. "I'm starting to get to know certain schools better and everything like that. A lot of schools are supposed to be coming out pretty soon, and I'm guessing U of A will be coming out pretty soon. And then Ohio State and Maryland are supposed to be coming out along with a few others.
"But so far everything is going fine with me, it's just a blessing to have this opportunity."
Jones continues to build his relationship with the Wildcats as things progress with his recruitment, and it's a school he has continued to keep a close eye on throughout the process. When GOAZCATS.com caught up with Jones in early March he had mentioned Arizona State as a school that was standing out, but now things have evened out much more in his mind.
"With the ASU thing it was because of the coaches," he said. "They were really after me, and U of A was really after me. Now it's just exploding and all the six teams that have offered really want me. It's really dead even right now."
Jones doesn't want to rush into a decision at this point, but he does have an idea of when he'd like to have his college choice made.
"I've been talking with my head coach about it, and I might do it in the second or third game," he said. "I don't want want to do it too early. I know you have a lot of guys who are committed and that's typical for quarterbacks, so they can have an idea of where they're going.
"I want to be sure, so I don't want to commit too early."
Arizona, Akron, Arizona State, Colorado, Indiana, and Nebraska are the six schools that have offered Jones up to this point.
* While there are plenty of ties between Arizona and Rivals250 cornerback DeChaun Holiday, the Wildcats have not necessarily been a program that has come up in his discussions when it comes to his recruitment. The San Marcos (Calif.) Mission Hills has offers from all over the country, including las season's national champs.
However, with a cousin on the team in Devin Holiday you can never really count out UA in this scenario. The 2015 recruit made a visit to Tucson recently for Arizona's spring game and he used that experience as somewhat of an unofficial trip as well.
"I've seen them a couple times now," he told GOAZCATS.com. "But it was nice getting a chance to see the guys out there at the spring game. ... It was kind of like an unofficial and then to go see my cousin, of course. I was able to get the vibe of the coaches and kind of where we stand, and that was a big thing I wanted to find out when I went down there to find out where they could see me playing and what the vibe was with the coaches."
One thing that Holiday has mentioned is that his plan is to play cornerback at the next level despite being a bigger prospect at that position with his 6-foot-2 frame. That was one of the topics he discussed with the UA coaches. However, the Arizona staff sprung another potential use for him while on his trip.
"That was one of the big things I wanted to find out when I went up there," he said. "Where they could see me playing, and kind of what the vibe was with the coaches. ... They talked a little bit about where I would play, and they said if I can they would like to play me both ways.
"Not too sure whether they want to play me at corner or safety, but it just depends on how things pan out."
Playing both ways is something that has come up a little bit in Holiday's recruitment, and it's something that is intriguing to him.
"It's kind of new," he said about a program wanting him to play both ways. "But going into my final season I kind of expected that, because I play receiver at my high school. If going two ways helps out my team I'll do it."
Holiday mentioned that Arizona helped itself with his visit, but there is still plenty of time to go before the four-star prospect makes any decisions about his future.
* While both Jones and Holiday are already well established as recruits, one quarterback prospect is using the spring to show coaching staffs what he has in hopes of picking up his first offers. Shawnee, Okla., prospect John Jacobs is on the smaller side at just around 6-feet tall, but he has a skill set that many schools like.
Arizona's Rod Smith was out in Shawnee late last week to watch the 2015 prospect, and at this point Jacobs has a pretty good feel for the Wildcats and he's hopeful that turns into an offer at some point.
"Well I've been talking to them for a while now," Jacobs told GOAZCATS.com. "Usually they don't really come that far out, but they just set a date and came out. ... I threw pretty good I think. They didn't offer me or anything, but they told me that I should come out to their camp and they were probably going to come out to spring camp again.
"They want to see me again and they want me to get in front of coach Rodriguez, and that's really the plan."
Jacobs picked up an offer from Troy on the day Arizona went out to watch him, but the Wildcats would move to the top of his list with an offer.
"If they offered they would probably be my No. 1," he said. "That's a school I really like, and I really respect Troy for them offering. I know a lot about coach Rodriguez and his system, and they have those great quarterbacks who can run and pass - and that's what I am."
We'll have more in a separate update with Jacobs, but right now he feels things are positive when it comes to the Wildcats.
* Arizona also extended some new offers last week and a couple of the prospects who earned offers are well on their way when it comes to being national recruits. Jacksonville (Fla.) Ed White athlete recruit Javarius Davis picked up an offer from the 'Cats. The three-star prospect holds over 30 offers at this point in the process.
Another recruit to pick up an offer late last week was 2016 tight end Naseir Upshur from Philadelphia (Pa.) Imhotep. The Wildcats are the 6-foot-2 recruit's ninth offer.
Basketball recruiting
With the first big evaluation period of the year coming up Sean Miller's program is preparing to hit the road for tournaments all over the country. Recently the work has been about in-home visits for coaching staffs across the country, but soon that will change to watching prospects play for their respective travel ball teams.
* Now that two UA players have announce their decisions to turn pro, and another in Dusan Ristic has signed his National Letter of Intent, the Wildcats know exactly how the scholarships will be looking as things move forward for 2014-15.
To make some sense of it all we'd thought it would be a good time to once again touch on how everything now stands heading into the season when it comes to the scholarship situation.
So this will take into account what year every player on next year's roster will be when the 2014-15 season rolls around. Once again the Wildcats have their full allotment of 13 scholarships to use in the upcoming season.
Seniors
With Nick Johnson opting for the NBA last week, that leaves just a couple seniors on next seasons roster with point guard T.J. McConnell and big man Matt Korcheck filling those spots. That leaves 11 scholarships left for 2014.
Juniors
The Wildcats 2012 recruiting class remains mostly intact with Brandon Ashley, Gabe York, and Kaleb Tarczewski all returning for another season in Tucson. Both Ashley and Tarczewski flirted some with the potential of turning pro, but ultimately both decided to stay put at Arizona for another season. The number of available scholarships after this group moves down to eight.
Sophomores
Even with the loss of Aaron Gordon the Wildcats return a decent sophomore group led by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. The versatile wing said last week that he wants to be a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft, so he decided it was the right choice to come back for another season. He will be joined by Elliott Pitts and Zach Peters in the sophomore group. That moves the number of scholarships down to five, which happens to fit in perfectly with the next group.
Freshmen
The Wildcats once again had a big group in the 2014 class that was capped off by Ristic's signing last week. Five-star wing Stanley Johnson leads the class that features essentially a prospect for every position with point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, power forward Craig Victor, Johnson at the small forward spot, junior college recruit Kadeem Allen at the off-guard spot, and Ristic at center.
With those five prospects taking up the remaining five spots the Wildcats sit perfectly at the 13 scholarships they are allowed for next season. Now there could always be more players added through transfer, but for now this is where things stand.
The Wildcats are very much in the mix for LSU transfer Jordan Allen, who posted 16 tackles in his 13 appearances in 2013.
He lost his starting job, but just getting through the season injury free was noteworthy. Allen suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of his redshirt sophomore season in 2012.
But any past injuries are now completely behind him.
"I'm good to go," Allen said. "Since my ACL (injury) I've been fine."
Allen - who participated in some spring drills before making his decision - is leaving LSU because he couldn't get into the graduate program there, and he was given a release on the condition that he could not transfer to a school within the SEC or to one of the Tigers' nonconference opponents in 2014.
As far as the Pac-12 as a whole is concerned, he sees a "quicker" conference that relies more on tempo.
"It looks like an air-based style of play," Allen said. "It looks like something that would really give me a chance to develop skills in other areas."
The 6-6, 254-pounder said he can bring not only size in height, but an agile option on the edge as a pass rusher. When he looks at the Wildcats, in particular, he sees a team with thick options but lacking in overall size.
While many players say school is a big deal and factor, Allen means it. The sports administration major realized that there wasn't a meaningful class left for him to take at LSU and didn't like the idea of heading into a dead end in his education.
Looking at the football side, he's looking for a program that has a need for him. Arizona watched defensive end Kyle Kelley leave the program prior to spring camp and is thin along the line, in general. Allen, like Kelley, was a four-star prospect coming out of high school.
Allen was in Tucson last week for a visit.
"It's a little bit smaller than LSU, but it still has an LSU feel to it," Allen said. "It was a little bit nicer, just around Tucson, overall."
Allen is still a week-and-a-half away from making a decision, with a visit to Southern Miss still on his schedule. Although Louisiana-Lafayette is among his four schools, the destinations firmly in the mix are Arizona and TCU. The Wildcats appear to be in pretty good shape.
But among the things that does intrigue Allen about the Horned Frogs is the 4-2-5 scheme and his relationship with defensive coordinator and line coach Dick Bumpas.
The "overall efficiency" of the school he chooses will play a factor, as well as the staff that simply comes across the most sincere and makes him comfortable, he said.
"At the end of the day, it's my last shot," Allen said. "I've got to get playing time, coaching, the school end done, all at the same time."
* The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a new roughing the passer penalty that will go into effect immediately.
Unabated hits at or below the knee on a quarterback "in a passing posture," with at least one foot on the ground, will result in a 15-yard penalty.
Exceptions include: when a passer becomes a runner, either inside or outside the tackle box; a defender grabs or wraps the passer in an attempt to make a conventional tackle; or when a defender is not coming in unabated, or is blocked or fouled into the passer.
Surveys among head coaches have indicated support of the new rule.
* Another change head coach Rich Rodriguez has been clamoring for will affect all Division I student-athletes of all sports.
For years, Rodriguez has asked for leniency on the ability to feed his players. He is three days away from seeing that wish become a reality.
The Division I Board of Directors will meet Thursday to discuss an approval from the legislative council that would allow unlimited meals and snacks in an effort to meet nutritional needs. The change would affect both athletes on scholarship and walk-ons, and would be an addition to the meal plan already provided as part of a full-ride scholarship.
Under the current conditions, the option for scholarship athletes was three meals per day or a food stipend.
Changes also voted on include three hours of rest for football players between practices during the preseason. Within that three-hour window, film review and team meetings are allowed.
* Speaking of change, football teams around the country are now allowed in-person coaching contact during the summer, beyond just a strength and conditioning staff.
Under the old rules, such instruction was not allowed until fall camp and anything prior was considered "involuntary, players-only workouts."
Now, eight hours per week under the supervision of an on-field coach will be allowed for players enrolled in summer school or who meet certain academic benchmarks. Two of the hours may be used for film review.
What you may see, as a result, is better understanding of the system once the incoming freshmen reach fall camp in August.
Basketball
* Arizona is not expecting any roster movement now that it knows who is leaving for the NBA draft and staying for another year, but head coach Sean Miller said there is always a chance at an unforeseen "surprise."
"I think we're pretty much locked in here," Miller said. "I think we have a great group."
Among the questions now is what to make of Zach Peters, who transferred in from Kansas after dealing with multiple concussions. As a redshirst freshman, the 6-10 forward appeared in just 11 games.
There were times during the 2013-14 season Miller said Peters was not practicing.
"We treat [Peters] just like every player in our program," Miller said last week. "We had our postseason meeting, clearly defined the expectations moving forward, reviewed what happened. Gave him the opportunity to talk, making sure we're aligned with what they want out of this that we can deliver as a coaching staff and a program, and we move on from there."
* The Wildcats have the chance to be a much more physically imposing team in 2014-15, and that's why I agreed a while back about how losing Nick Johnson won't be the biggest loss.
Miller hasn't decided if he will continue to bring Rondae Hollis-Jefferson off the bench, even if such a move would surprise the average on-looker wondering how such a talent could stay in a reserve role. The fact is Hollis-Jefferson will play 30 minutes, regardless of where he begins the game.
"I don't know who's going to start," Miller said. "Obviously, it's way too early for that. But I think we'll have a number of options. If you look at our team, I think we'll have increased depth and we'll have a lot of individual players that can play."
But if he does start, Miller would not hesitate to play him and Stanley Johnson together. You're looking at the possibility of a 6-7 and up lineup at four of the five positions.
Stanley Johnson sees a team that "will be fine," even without the Pac-12's top freshman and player from a season ago.
"We could fill almost every position up with an All-American player," he told GOAZCATS.com.
"My main thing will be just to bring scoring and defensive intensity, and hopefully some leadership to the team."
Much like Aaron Gordon gravitated toward Nick Johnson, Stanley Johnson sees himself looking to point guard T.J. McConnell and soaking up as much as he can when he arrives in Tucson this summer.
"All he wants to do is win," Stanley Johnson said of his future teammate.
* Now, here is Matt Moreno's latest recruiting breakdown:
As the spring continues to roll on the thick of the recruiting season is now beginning for both the basketball and football programs around the country. While both have been able to do a fair amount of recruiting in the recent weeks things will now bump into overdrive for both sports. Last week marked the first week of the evaluation period for football, which means that college coaches will now be able to do in-person evaluations of recruits for the next month or so while high school programs practice throughout the spring.
On the basketball side the big weekend of the spring is coming up as the lone "live" evaluation period of the season will take place beginning Friday and ending Sunday evening. With that will bring plenty of coaches out on the road to watch recruits from plenty of the upcoming classes.
With things now mostly settled for the 2014 class after the announcements of Aaron Gordon and Nick Johnson the scholarship picture is much more clear. We'll take a look at just exactly how many recruits the Wildcats can add moving forward with the 2015 class now that five members of the 2014 class are signed and all the expected departures have taken place.
As always there is plenty to discuss, so here is this week's recruiting portion of the War Room.
Football recruiting
The evaluation period for football programs began last week and will run until the end of next month. That means college coaches can start the process of getting out and seeing recruits off campus while those recruits work during spring ball with their respective high school teams.
For some recruits that means trying to make an impression in front of coaches in hopes of earning an offer, and for others these next few weeks will give some recruits a better handle on where things stand in their recruitments and which schools have prioritized them in the process.
* One four-star recruit expecting to have the Wildcats in some point soon remains high on Rich Rodriguez's program, and he's hoping to continue to make progress with UA this spring. Four-star quarterback recruit Sheriron Jones has held an offer from Arizona for quite some time now and he still has the Wildcats in consideration.
This spring will be an important when for Jones to figure out which schools have made him a priority, and he feels that will be fairly easy to figure out.
"They evaluate everything that I do," Jones told GOAZCATS.com. "I'm starting to get to know certain schools better and everything like that. A lot of schools are supposed to be coming out pretty soon, and I'm guessing U of A will be coming out pretty soon. And then Ohio State and Maryland are supposed to be coming out along with a few others.
"But so far everything is going fine with me, it's just a blessing to have this opportunity."
Jones continues to build his relationship with the Wildcats as things progress with his recruitment, and it's a school he has continued to keep a close eye on throughout the process. When GOAZCATS.com caught up with Jones in early March he had mentioned Arizona State as a school that was standing out, but now things have evened out much more in his mind.
"With the ASU thing it was because of the coaches," he said. "They were really after me, and U of A was really after me. Now it's just exploding and all the six teams that have offered really want me. It's really dead even right now."
Jones doesn't want to rush into a decision at this point, but he does have an idea of when he'd like to have his college choice made.
"I've been talking with my head coach about it, and I might do it in the second or third game," he said. "I don't want want to do it too early. I know you have a lot of guys who are committed and that's typical for quarterbacks, so they can have an idea of where they're going.
"I want to be sure, so I don't want to commit too early."
Arizona, Akron, Arizona State, Colorado, Indiana, and Nebraska are the six schools that have offered Jones up to this point.
* While there are plenty of ties between Arizona and Rivals250 cornerback DeChaun Holiday, the Wildcats have not necessarily been a program that has come up in his discussions when it comes to his recruitment. The San Marcos (Calif.) Mission Hills has offers from all over the country, including las season's national champs.
However, with a cousin on the team in Devin Holiday you can never really count out UA in this scenario. The 2015 recruit made a visit to Tucson recently for Arizona's spring game and he used that experience as somewhat of an unofficial trip as well.
"I've seen them a couple times now," he told GOAZCATS.com. "But it was nice getting a chance to see the guys out there at the spring game. ... It was kind of like an unofficial and then to go see my cousin, of course. I was able to get the vibe of the coaches and kind of where we stand, and that was a big thing I wanted to find out when I went down there to find out where they could see me playing and what the vibe was with the coaches."
One thing that Holiday has mentioned is that his plan is to play cornerback at the next level despite being a bigger prospect at that position with his 6-foot-2 frame. That was one of the topics he discussed with the UA coaches. However, the Arizona staff sprung another potential use for him while on his trip.
"That was one of the big things I wanted to find out when I went up there," he said. "Where they could see me playing, and kind of what the vibe was with the coaches. ... They talked a little bit about where I would play, and they said if I can they would like to play me both ways.
"Not too sure whether they want to play me at corner or safety, but it just depends on how things pan out."
Playing both ways is something that has come up a little bit in Holiday's recruitment, and it's something that is intriguing to him.
"It's kind of new," he said about a program wanting him to play both ways. "But going into my final season I kind of expected that, because I play receiver at my high school. If going two ways helps out my team I'll do it."
Holiday mentioned that Arizona helped itself with his visit, but there is still plenty of time to go before the four-star prospect makes any decisions about his future.
* While both Jones and Holiday are already well established as recruits, one quarterback prospect is using the spring to show coaching staffs what he has in hopes of picking up his first offers. Shawnee, Okla., prospect John Jacobs is on the smaller side at just around 6-feet tall, but he has a skill set that many schools like.
Arizona's Rod Smith was out in Shawnee late last week to watch the 2015 prospect, and at this point Jacobs has a pretty good feel for the Wildcats and he's hopeful that turns into an offer at some point.
"Well I've been talking to them for a while now," Jacobs told GOAZCATS.com. "Usually they don't really come that far out, but they just set a date and came out. ... I threw pretty good I think. They didn't offer me or anything, but they told me that I should come out to their camp and they were probably going to come out to spring camp again.
"They want to see me again and they want me to get in front of coach Rodriguez, and that's really the plan."
Jacobs picked up an offer from Troy on the day Arizona went out to watch him, but the Wildcats would move to the top of his list with an offer.
"If they offered they would probably be my No. 1," he said. "That's a school I really like, and I really respect Troy for them offering. I know a lot about coach Rodriguez and his system, and they have those great quarterbacks who can run and pass - and that's what I am."
We'll have more in a separate update with Jacobs, but right now he feels things are positive when it comes to the Wildcats.
* Arizona also extended some new offers last week and a couple of the prospects who earned offers are well on their way when it comes to being national recruits. Jacksonville (Fla.) Ed White athlete recruit Javarius Davis picked up an offer from the 'Cats. The three-star prospect holds over 30 offers at this point in the process.
Another recruit to pick up an offer late last week was 2016 tight end Naseir Upshur from Philadelphia (Pa.) Imhotep. The Wildcats are the 6-foot-2 recruit's ninth offer.
Basketball recruiting
With the first big evaluation period of the year coming up Sean Miller's program is preparing to hit the road for tournaments all over the country. Recently the work has been about in-home visits for coaching staffs across the country, but soon that will change to watching prospects play for their respective travel ball teams.
* Now that two UA players have announce their decisions to turn pro, and another in Dusan Ristic has signed his National Letter of Intent, the Wildcats know exactly how the scholarships will be looking as things move forward for 2014-15.
To make some sense of it all we'd thought it would be a good time to once again touch on how everything now stands heading into the season when it comes to the scholarship situation.
So this will take into account what year every player on next year's roster will be when the 2014-15 season rolls around. Once again the Wildcats have their full allotment of 13 scholarships to use in the upcoming season.
Seniors
With Nick Johnson opting for the NBA last week, that leaves just a couple seniors on next seasons roster with point guard T.J. McConnell and big man Matt Korcheck filling those spots. That leaves 11 scholarships left for 2014.
Juniors
The Wildcats 2012 recruiting class remains mostly intact with Brandon Ashley, Gabe York, and Kaleb Tarczewski all returning for another season in Tucson. Both Ashley and Tarczewski flirted some with the potential of turning pro, but ultimately both decided to stay put at Arizona for another season. The number of available scholarships after this group moves down to eight.
Sophomores
Even with the loss of Aaron Gordon the Wildcats return a decent sophomore group led by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. The versatile wing said last week that he wants to be a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft, so he decided it was the right choice to come back for another season. He will be joined by Elliott Pitts and Zach Peters in the sophomore group. That moves the number of scholarships down to five, which happens to fit in perfectly with the next group.
Freshmen
The Wildcats once again had a big group in the 2014 class that was capped off by Ristic's signing last week. Five-star wing Stanley Johnson leads the class that features essentially a prospect for every position with point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, power forward Craig Victor, Johnson at the small forward spot, junior college recruit Kadeem Allen at the off-guard spot, and Ristic at center.
With those five prospects taking up the remaining five spots the Wildcats sit perfectly at the 13 scholarships they are allowed for next season. Now there could always be more players added through transfer, but for now this is where things stand.
