With basketball coaches now allowed on the road for in-homes and in-school evaluations, expect basketball recruiting news to significantly pick up, as it does in this week’s War Room.
Basketball:
* Think Sean Miller is busy this time of year? On Wednesday, Miller took a plane from Tucson to Las Vegas early in the morning, so he could stop by Findlay Prep (Nick Johnson and Cory Joseph) and Bishop Gorman (Shabazz Muhammad), then flew to Los Angeles to stop by the schools of James Johnson and 2012 forward Grant Jerrett, then had an in-home with the Johnson family, before taking a late flight to New York.
* As for Johnson’s visit, it went very well according to James’ father, Ted Johnson.
“They did a great job; we can’t say enough good things about those guys - coach Miller and coach (James) Whitford,” Ted said. “It was the first time my wife got to meet them and that was good. We learned a couple new things about the Arizona program. (Miller) just has that charisma and he’s so passionate.”
The big question mark heading into the in-home was whether or not James would visit Arizona or Oklahoma. On Wednesday he told Miller and Whitford that he would be visiting UA, and then on Thursday he told Jeff Capel that he would visit Oklahoma two weeks before the Arizona trip.
The family had made the decision before the meeting that Arizona would definitely get an official.
“We were leaning that way, we really were,” Ted said. “I said, ‘well James, they’re gonna ask you for a visit, what are you gonna tell them?’ He said that he wanted to go, that he definitely wanted to go to Arizona again as an official.
“As I said before, I thought the unofficial felt like an official, but they said that was their B game and they wanted to bring their A game.”
After those three officials - Arizona will be the last one - Johnson should be able to make a decision. In fact, once he gets home from Tucson, it shouldn’t be much longer until he knows what he’s going to do.
“I would say very quickly, within a week or so,” said Ted. “I can’t see it going any longer than a week.”
* Miller and Book Richardson had an in-home visit with 2010 forward Rod Odom on Thursday night. It was previously reported that Odom would host UA on Sept. 11, but it ended up being on the 10th.
Odom of course is set to visit Arizona next weekend, along with Anthony Brown. The next weekend he’ll take an official visit to Harvard and then he’s scheduled to trip to Boston College.
Arizona is doing a good job with Odom and the official visit will obviously be huge in trying to land him.
* While in New York, Miller will stop by the schools of Sidiki Johnson and Angel Nunez, have an in-home with Doron Lamb’s family and also speak at a coaching clinic on Saturday, Sept. 12.
* On Sunday, Sept. 13, Miller has an in-home visit with Adreian Payne in Ohio and he’ll be in Michigan the following day for an in-home visit with Ray McCallum.
* One player who was scheduled to get an in-home who is no longer on the board is Keala King. The shooting guard committed to Arizona State on Wednesday, which means UA has lost out on offered wings two weeks in a row, between King and Bryce Jones (USC).
We talked a couple weeks ago about ASU offering Gary Franklin and possibly trying to package Franklin and King together. It paid off, as Gary Franklin, Sr. drove Gary Jr. and King to Tempe last month and the ASU staff was able to parlay the visit into a commitment.
For Arizona, offering Franklin is a bit more difficult with another undersized combo guard in Momo Jones on the roster. The Wildcats’ true needs in the class are a point guard and a big man, and players like King and Jones had offers because they were too good to say no to.
While King and Jones would both have been nice additions, in reality, Arizona’s class is a 100% success if it can get a high level point and a good big man prospect. Anything on top of that would be a bonus.
* Speaking of post prospects, UA continues to make progress with Alex Kirk, who sources say will officially visit the Wildcats on Oct. 10.
This weekend, Kirk will take an official visit to New Mexico and it will be interesting if he makes it through the trip without committing. If he doesn’t commit on the trip or shortly after, then you have to believe the Wildcats are right there for him.
Again, at the end of the day, Kirk likely makes the decision between staying home and being featured at New Mexico or going to a program like Arizona which is a little further away but will get him better coaching and the opportunity to win a national title.
* Moving on to younger prospects, the news of Thursday was that 2011 post Kyle Caudill decommitted from ASU. While UA hasn’t recruited Caudill much to date, he’s a player that the Wildcats will likely, at least, continue to monitor moving forward.
Coaches and scouts nationally are split on Caudill, with some really liking him and some not liking him at all. If nothing else, he’s definitely someone to recruit to some degree before reevaluating in the summer.
It should be noted that Caudill goes to Brea (Calif.) Olinda, which is where Kyle Fogg prepped at. He’s close friends and AAU teammates with 2011 point guard Josiah Turner, who decommitted from ASU in July. Arizona has continued to recruit Turner since he broke off his pledge to ASU.
* Another 2011 prospect to remember is Los Angeles Windward shooting guard Wesley Saunders, who the Wildcats have picked things up with as of late.
We caught up with Saunders on Thursday, and he spoke highly of the UA program.
“Arizona has been recruiting me for a while,” Saunders said. “They were my first letter. Recently it’s been picking up. I know they have a great tradition and they have a lot of players that go to the NBA. They are mostly known as a guard school.”
Besides Arizona, Saunders is hearing from Stanford, UCLA, USC, Oregon State and Michigan. He says he has no favorites at this time but plans on visiting UA soon.
* Even though the UA coaches will be in and out of town for the next month, workouts continue on campus. Here are some notes from talking to people around the program about workouts and pickup on Thursday and this week in general:
* After a great week last week, Fogg was a little more inconsistent this week, but had a good showing in pickup on Thursday. His confidence is the biggest difference in his game, but his outside shot looks very improved from a year ago.
* Brendon Lavender continues to do well in workouts and pickup. His shot remains on target and, like Fogg, is playing with a lot of confidence right now. If he can carry that confidence over to games, UA will have another weapon this season.
* Momo Jones had a very good workout on Thursday, which is good because he’s typically been better in pickup than workouts.
* Kevin Parrom was the best freshman in pickup. His three-point shot has already come a long way since he arrived in Tucson. He still has a ways to go, but the progress that he and Kyryl Natyazhko show on a week to week basis is good news for their future.
Football:
There’s really not a lot of team news this week. Rob Gronkowski won’t play against NAU, and the hope is that he can come back in some capacity for Iowa, but that remains to be seen.
With nothing much to report on the team news front, we’ll go right into Jason Scheer’s weekly recruiting report. (JG)
* Arizona will have two official visitors this weekend, both of which are already headed to UA. 6-foot-3, 230-pound Roseville (Calif.) Sierra linebacker Paul Vassallo and 6-foot-5, 325-pound Sugar Land (Texas) Kempner offensive lineman Carter Lees will be in attendance.
* The big news of the week was that 6-foot-4, 247-pound Blinn (Texas) Community College quarterback Cameron Newton took an official visit this past weekend.
"I really like the Arizona coaches," Newton said. "I feel they have a lot of good coaches. Arizona has really good coaches that look out for the players' needs and you really can't say that about everyone else. Talking to players on the team, what everyone says about the coaches is positive."
There is a good chance that Newton is going to wait to make a decision in order to see how the quarterback situations throughout the country play out. He definitely wants to play early and while he is not afraid to compete, Newton obviously wants to pick the best situation for him.
As of now, Newton claims no favorites. However, Mississippi State is considered to be a major contender because of Newton’s connection with coach Dan Muller, who recruited him at Florida.
* Newton came to town with 6-foot-4, 217-pound teammate Dexter Ransom. The four-star wide receiver was recently named as the top junior college player in the country and the Wildcats are trying to make the jump on him.
Ransom has been difficult to reach since his visit, but the word is that it went well. Of course, you rarely hear about visits going bad, but if Newton enjoyed his visit so much, it is difficult to believe Ransom did not as well.
Arizona should be in good shape for Ransom throughout his recruitment, but the new rankings will also bring new schools into the recruitment and it will be interesting to see how he handles the situation.
* 6-foot-2, 212-pound Tempe (Ariz.) Corona del Sol linebacker Kyle Benson seems to be narrowing things down.
Oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona are the four schools that Benson has at the top. If Arizona State offers, the Sun Devils would likely become major competition for Arizona.
"Well, with Arizona, I just love them because it is an in-state school," Benson tells BuffStampede.com. "And I really like their linebackers coach (Tim Kish). I have gotten to know him well the past few years
“I like the defense that they run and I like their jerseys. Basically, I like everything about them. And I have a lot of friends that are going there and a lot that are there now. It would be a good situation for me.”
Benson plans to take his time with his decision, but Arizona will be right in there when he decides on a school.
* As we alluded to last week, 6-foot-1, 215-pound Newbury Park (Calif.) running back Cameron Roberson was not really being recruited by Arizona any more. Notre Dame was the school being pushed by the family and it seemed to only be a matter of time before he decided to go there.
Sources say that Roberson will actually play fullback for the Fighting Irish, which is an interesting development considering that he is a talented player. At this point, once again, expect Arizona to puts its full running back focus on Corona (Calif.) back Jordon James.
The coaching staff is comfortable with the backs on the roster now and realizes that James is likely going to be better than any other running back it may take in the class anyway.
* 6-foot-1, 185-pound Avondale (Ariz.) Westview cornerback Jourdan Grandon continues to try to remain open in his recruitment.
"I am also definitely planning to go up and check out Colorado,” he tells BuffStampede.com. “I was thinking about official visits to Arizona State and Arizona but I am not sure. I might just go to both of those schools unofficially since they are so close."
The Arizona schools, Colorado, and Oregon State are the main schools that Grandon is looking at and at this point, it is difficult to tell if he has a favorite. All schools believe they are in good shape and rightfully so, as Grandon has not indicated that one of those schools has a better chance than the other.
While the belief is that Grandon will likely take his official visits, he has said that he would have no problem committing on a visit if he felt that it was the best thing to do. Thus, it will be interesting to see if Arizona can at least get him on campus for an unofficial before he makes his decision.
* Arizona continues to recruit 6-foot-1, 220-pound Lumberton (Texas) linebacker Anthony Beard.
"I should be talking to Arizona here pretty shortly," he told BuffStampede.com. "Some more colleges have called me but I missed their call. I have been busy and haven't had a chance to call them back yet.”
Beard continues to battle an ankle injury and feels that it is stopping numerous schools from recruiting him. At this point, it looks to be a two school race between Colorado and Arizona, but other schools could get involved.
Beard is expected to take his time with his decision and the UA is likely going to be one of his final schools. It has recruited him for quite a while now and will continue to do so unless something dramatically changes.
* 6-foot-3, 269-pound Anaheim (Calif.) Servite defensive lineman Kirifi Taula continues to see more schools get involved in his recruitment. He seems destined to stay in the Pac-10, although Nebraska is making a strong push.
"I'm thinking of taking a couple of visits during the season, during my bye weeks, to Oregon State and Washington,” he tells HuskersIllustrated.com. “I'm also probably going to go to Nebraska and Arizona. I don't know about my last one (trip)."
Taula has been recruited by Arizona for a long time now and the Wildcats are in good shape. It could be tough to get him out of California, but Arizona is in the same position that the other schools are in. In other words, the UA is making a strong push and an official visit would go a long way towards a decision, although Taula has already taken an unofficial.
* Arizona continues to do well with 6-foot-3, 195-pound Oro Valley (Ariz.) Canyon del Oro athlete Josh Robbins.
Robbins tells Rivals.com, “I've had uncles, my dad and my mom even went to UofA, so just having that whole legacy, it would be kind of cool to keep that tradition. But my options are open right now."
Robbins is going to take his time on deciding on a school, but most would say that the UA is the school to beat right now.
* 6-foot-1, 280-pound Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft defensive tackle Antwaun Woods has been offered by Arizona and numerous other schools.
Arizona has a good chance to get an unofficial visit from him, but it will definitely be difficult to land him. He will be considered to be one of the better defensive linemen in the nation and will be recruited as such.
This post was edited on 10/16 10:31 PM by Josh Gershon
Basketball:
* Think Sean Miller is busy this time of year? On Wednesday, Miller took a plane from Tucson to Las Vegas early in the morning, so he could stop by Findlay Prep (Nick Johnson and Cory Joseph) and Bishop Gorman (Shabazz Muhammad), then flew to Los Angeles to stop by the schools of James Johnson and 2012 forward Grant Jerrett, then had an in-home with the Johnson family, before taking a late flight to New York.
* As for Johnson’s visit, it went very well according to James’ father, Ted Johnson.
“They did a great job; we can’t say enough good things about those guys - coach Miller and coach (James) Whitford,” Ted said. “It was the first time my wife got to meet them and that was good. We learned a couple new things about the Arizona program. (Miller) just has that charisma and he’s so passionate.”
The big question mark heading into the in-home was whether or not James would visit Arizona or Oklahoma. On Wednesday he told Miller and Whitford that he would be visiting UA, and then on Thursday he told Jeff Capel that he would visit Oklahoma two weeks before the Arizona trip.
The family had made the decision before the meeting that Arizona would definitely get an official.
“We were leaning that way, we really were,” Ted said. “I said, ‘well James, they’re gonna ask you for a visit, what are you gonna tell them?’ He said that he wanted to go, that he definitely wanted to go to Arizona again as an official.
“As I said before, I thought the unofficial felt like an official, but they said that was their B game and they wanted to bring their A game.”
After those three officials - Arizona will be the last one - Johnson should be able to make a decision. In fact, once he gets home from Tucson, it shouldn’t be much longer until he knows what he’s going to do.
“I would say very quickly, within a week or so,” said Ted. “I can’t see it going any longer than a week.”
* Miller and Book Richardson had an in-home visit with 2010 forward Rod Odom on Thursday night. It was previously reported that Odom would host UA on Sept. 11, but it ended up being on the 10th.
Odom of course is set to visit Arizona next weekend, along with Anthony Brown. The next weekend he’ll take an official visit to Harvard and then he’s scheduled to trip to Boston College.
Arizona is doing a good job with Odom and the official visit will obviously be huge in trying to land him.
* While in New York, Miller will stop by the schools of Sidiki Johnson and Angel Nunez, have an in-home with Doron Lamb’s family and also speak at a coaching clinic on Saturday, Sept. 12.
* On Sunday, Sept. 13, Miller has an in-home visit with Adreian Payne in Ohio and he’ll be in Michigan the following day for an in-home visit with Ray McCallum.
* One player who was scheduled to get an in-home who is no longer on the board is Keala King. The shooting guard committed to Arizona State on Wednesday, which means UA has lost out on offered wings two weeks in a row, between King and Bryce Jones (USC).
We talked a couple weeks ago about ASU offering Gary Franklin and possibly trying to package Franklin and King together. It paid off, as Gary Franklin, Sr. drove Gary Jr. and King to Tempe last month and the ASU staff was able to parlay the visit into a commitment.
For Arizona, offering Franklin is a bit more difficult with another undersized combo guard in Momo Jones on the roster. The Wildcats’ true needs in the class are a point guard and a big man, and players like King and Jones had offers because they were too good to say no to.
While King and Jones would both have been nice additions, in reality, Arizona’s class is a 100% success if it can get a high level point and a good big man prospect. Anything on top of that would be a bonus.
* Speaking of post prospects, UA continues to make progress with Alex Kirk, who sources say will officially visit the Wildcats on Oct. 10.
This weekend, Kirk will take an official visit to New Mexico and it will be interesting if he makes it through the trip without committing. If he doesn’t commit on the trip or shortly after, then you have to believe the Wildcats are right there for him.
Again, at the end of the day, Kirk likely makes the decision between staying home and being featured at New Mexico or going to a program like Arizona which is a little further away but will get him better coaching and the opportunity to win a national title.
* Moving on to younger prospects, the news of Thursday was that 2011 post Kyle Caudill decommitted from ASU. While UA hasn’t recruited Caudill much to date, he’s a player that the Wildcats will likely, at least, continue to monitor moving forward.
Coaches and scouts nationally are split on Caudill, with some really liking him and some not liking him at all. If nothing else, he’s definitely someone to recruit to some degree before reevaluating in the summer.
It should be noted that Caudill goes to Brea (Calif.) Olinda, which is where Kyle Fogg prepped at. He’s close friends and AAU teammates with 2011 point guard Josiah Turner, who decommitted from ASU in July. Arizona has continued to recruit Turner since he broke off his pledge to ASU.
* Another 2011 prospect to remember is Los Angeles Windward shooting guard Wesley Saunders, who the Wildcats have picked things up with as of late.
We caught up with Saunders on Thursday, and he spoke highly of the UA program.
“Arizona has been recruiting me for a while,” Saunders said. “They were my first letter. Recently it’s been picking up. I know they have a great tradition and they have a lot of players that go to the NBA. They are mostly known as a guard school.”
Besides Arizona, Saunders is hearing from Stanford, UCLA, USC, Oregon State and Michigan. He says he has no favorites at this time but plans on visiting UA soon.
* Even though the UA coaches will be in and out of town for the next month, workouts continue on campus. Here are some notes from talking to people around the program about workouts and pickup on Thursday and this week in general:
* After a great week last week, Fogg was a little more inconsistent this week, but had a good showing in pickup on Thursday. His confidence is the biggest difference in his game, but his outside shot looks very improved from a year ago.
* Brendon Lavender continues to do well in workouts and pickup. His shot remains on target and, like Fogg, is playing with a lot of confidence right now. If he can carry that confidence over to games, UA will have another weapon this season.
* Momo Jones had a very good workout on Thursday, which is good because he’s typically been better in pickup than workouts.
* Kevin Parrom was the best freshman in pickup. His three-point shot has already come a long way since he arrived in Tucson. He still has a ways to go, but the progress that he and Kyryl Natyazhko show on a week to week basis is good news for their future.
Football:
There’s really not a lot of team news this week. Rob Gronkowski won’t play against NAU, and the hope is that he can come back in some capacity for Iowa, but that remains to be seen.
With nothing much to report on the team news front, we’ll go right into Jason Scheer’s weekly recruiting report. (JG)
* Arizona will have two official visitors this weekend, both of which are already headed to UA. 6-foot-3, 230-pound Roseville (Calif.) Sierra linebacker Paul Vassallo and 6-foot-5, 325-pound Sugar Land (Texas) Kempner offensive lineman Carter Lees will be in attendance.
* The big news of the week was that 6-foot-4, 247-pound Blinn (Texas) Community College quarterback Cameron Newton took an official visit this past weekend.
"I really like the Arizona coaches," Newton said. "I feel they have a lot of good coaches. Arizona has really good coaches that look out for the players' needs and you really can't say that about everyone else. Talking to players on the team, what everyone says about the coaches is positive."
There is a good chance that Newton is going to wait to make a decision in order to see how the quarterback situations throughout the country play out. He definitely wants to play early and while he is not afraid to compete, Newton obviously wants to pick the best situation for him.
As of now, Newton claims no favorites. However, Mississippi State is considered to be a major contender because of Newton’s connection with coach Dan Muller, who recruited him at Florida.
* Newton came to town with 6-foot-4, 217-pound teammate Dexter Ransom. The four-star wide receiver was recently named as the top junior college player in the country and the Wildcats are trying to make the jump on him.
Ransom has been difficult to reach since his visit, but the word is that it went well. Of course, you rarely hear about visits going bad, but if Newton enjoyed his visit so much, it is difficult to believe Ransom did not as well.
Arizona should be in good shape for Ransom throughout his recruitment, but the new rankings will also bring new schools into the recruitment and it will be interesting to see how he handles the situation.
* 6-foot-2, 212-pound Tempe (Ariz.) Corona del Sol linebacker Kyle Benson seems to be narrowing things down.
Oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona are the four schools that Benson has at the top. If Arizona State offers, the Sun Devils would likely become major competition for Arizona.
"Well, with Arizona, I just love them because it is an in-state school," Benson tells BuffStampede.com. "And I really like their linebackers coach (Tim Kish). I have gotten to know him well the past few years
“I like the defense that they run and I like their jerseys. Basically, I like everything about them. And I have a lot of friends that are going there and a lot that are there now. It would be a good situation for me.”
Benson plans to take his time with his decision, but Arizona will be right in there when he decides on a school.
* As we alluded to last week, 6-foot-1, 215-pound Newbury Park (Calif.) running back Cameron Roberson was not really being recruited by Arizona any more. Notre Dame was the school being pushed by the family and it seemed to only be a matter of time before he decided to go there.
Sources say that Roberson will actually play fullback for the Fighting Irish, which is an interesting development considering that he is a talented player. At this point, once again, expect Arizona to puts its full running back focus on Corona (Calif.) back Jordon James.
The coaching staff is comfortable with the backs on the roster now and realizes that James is likely going to be better than any other running back it may take in the class anyway.
* 6-foot-1, 185-pound Avondale (Ariz.) Westview cornerback Jourdan Grandon continues to try to remain open in his recruitment.
"I am also definitely planning to go up and check out Colorado,” he tells BuffStampede.com. “I was thinking about official visits to Arizona State and Arizona but I am not sure. I might just go to both of those schools unofficially since they are so close."
The Arizona schools, Colorado, and Oregon State are the main schools that Grandon is looking at and at this point, it is difficult to tell if he has a favorite. All schools believe they are in good shape and rightfully so, as Grandon has not indicated that one of those schools has a better chance than the other.
While the belief is that Grandon will likely take his official visits, he has said that he would have no problem committing on a visit if he felt that it was the best thing to do. Thus, it will be interesting to see if Arizona can at least get him on campus for an unofficial before he makes his decision.
* Arizona continues to recruit 6-foot-1, 220-pound Lumberton (Texas) linebacker Anthony Beard.
"I should be talking to Arizona here pretty shortly," he told BuffStampede.com. "Some more colleges have called me but I missed their call. I have been busy and haven't had a chance to call them back yet.”
Beard continues to battle an ankle injury and feels that it is stopping numerous schools from recruiting him. At this point, it looks to be a two school race between Colorado and Arizona, but other schools could get involved.
Beard is expected to take his time with his decision and the UA is likely going to be one of his final schools. It has recruited him for quite a while now and will continue to do so unless something dramatically changes.
* 6-foot-3, 269-pound Anaheim (Calif.) Servite defensive lineman Kirifi Taula continues to see more schools get involved in his recruitment. He seems destined to stay in the Pac-10, although Nebraska is making a strong push.
"I'm thinking of taking a couple of visits during the season, during my bye weeks, to Oregon State and Washington,” he tells HuskersIllustrated.com. “I'm also probably going to go to Nebraska and Arizona. I don't know about my last one (trip)."
Taula has been recruited by Arizona for a long time now and the Wildcats are in good shape. It could be tough to get him out of California, but Arizona is in the same position that the other schools are in. In other words, the UA is making a strong push and an official visit would go a long way towards a decision, although Taula has already taken an unofficial.
* Arizona continues to do well with 6-foot-3, 195-pound Oro Valley (Ariz.) Canyon del Oro athlete Josh Robbins.
Robbins tells Rivals.com, “I've had uncles, my dad and my mom even went to UofA, so just having that whole legacy, it would be kind of cool to keep that tradition. But my options are open right now."
Robbins is going to take his time on deciding on a school, but most would say that the UA is the school to beat right now.
* 6-foot-1, 280-pound Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft defensive tackle Antwaun Woods has been offered by Arizona and numerous other schools.
Arizona has a good chance to get an unofficial visit from him, but it will definitely be difficult to land him. He will be considered to be one of the better defensive linemen in the nation and will be recruited as such.
This post was edited on 10/16 10:31 PM by Josh Gershon
