Tucson to Tennessee??

Hope you get the hint by now... do I have your attention yet? I'm trying to use UA's finest here.

OK, now lets move on. Its getting a bit weird and incredibly random, but for some reason there seems to be this one way funnel or pipeline... or even a vacuum in the State of Tennessee sucking more and more out of Tucson, specifically the basketball program. Now a vacuum cleaner is actually fitting, because their primary use is to suck up or get rid of garbage or crap(adolescent boys- carefully re-read the proper use of a vacuum cleaner), and that is exactly what Tennessee has been doing for Tucson, for the most part. Of course, this is a very recent development, so lets have a quick look at the recent history of the crap chute:

1. JP Prince- I was never really a fan of this guy to begin with, but nonetheless, he started the recent trend. Prince, the younger cousin of Detroit Piston SF Tayshaun Prince, came to the U of A as a highly touted combo guard from the class of '05 and never quite lived up to the hype. Now, this is not completely his fault, sure he had motivation issues sometimes and never quite played with the competitiveness Lute wanted from him, but the poor kid also became very ill during his stay at U of A. His illness, coupled with what he viewed as a lack of playing time was enough to get him to announce his transfer at the end of the fall 2006 semester. Seeing that he was from Memphis and wanted to be close to his family, it was obvious he would return to Tennessee to complete the rest of his eligibility, and sure enough he soon decided to join Bruce Pearl's program, where he became a solid player off the bench. I guess being a 5-star guard with freakish length and getting garbage minutes behind a 3-star freshmen back-up PG that's pushing 5'7" just wasn't cutting it for him, but maybe that was his own fault. After all, he was pretty much a non-factor at Arizona, so I go over it pretty fast.
2. Josh Pastner- He is the only one on this list that i deem exempt from the poop chute analogy, and since I'm writing this blog, I can do that... but I will still provide reasons. As I had mentioned in my post summarizing the coaching rollercoaster, Pastner is a young coach with a lot of promise that realized that with the direction in which Lute was taking the program after the '07-'08 season, he would essentially be stuck at the bottom of the coaches' bench. It was a difficult decision for him, I mean he was recruiting for U of A even after he had accepted Memphis' offer, but even Lute pretty much told him that he would be dumb not to take the opportunity handed to him by Calipari in Memphis. Thus, the most diligent and enthusiastic worker on the staff, and a man the Tucson community had grown to admire and respect, boarded a plane destined for none other than our reservoir, Tennessee. Don't quote me on this, but I don't think that's the last Zona will see of Pastner.
   
3. Emmanuel Negedu- Turn the crapuum back on. Negedu was a four-star PF recruited for the '08 class that asked out of his Letter Of Intent pretty much immediately after Pastner decided to go to join Calipari's staff. OK, OK, I know, this guy felt like the Arizona program was not what he thought it was when he committed to it, essentially citing all the coaching changes as his main reason- primarily the fact that Pastner had left for another program- among others. Also, he says that when he came for his second visit to campus they put him in a room and essentially left him there to fend for himself. P-L-E-A-S-E. I mean, I understand the fact that all the coaching changes were kind of a turn off and all, but for one thing, it was kind of sketchy to me that us Wildcat fans had to hear from news sources that other schools were contacting him... and he had already signed his LOI. Naturally this sends up red flags. Also, you do not commit to a program because of the assistant coach, and I really don't know whether I should or shouldn't believe that a program trying to attract and keep a critical piece of its recruiting class would just neglect that person when they come to visit. Either way, Negedu got sucked into the crapuum, joining out other friend from this list, JP Prince, at Tennessee.
4. Kevin O'Neill- As much as you have to appreciate what he did to keep the program together given Lute's sudden leave of absence, I was honestly holding my breath until he was gone. Although I was not by any means a fan of the way Lute treated him upon his return, I was as much a fan of his coaching methods and the way he treats his staff, and just could not bear the thought of this guy being promised the reins to the program after Lute retires. Therefore, in order to avoid any possibility of him trying to hold the school legally responsible for the promise after AD Livengood revoked the promise, it was necessary for him to find another coaching job elsewhere. Thankfully, after a pretty quiet stint in a fundraising role for the AD he was able to get a coaching job with lepers of the NBA, the Memphis Grizzlies. Yes, that would therefore land him not only in Tennessee, but also in the same city as his former assistant from the previous season, Josh Pastner. Wonder if maybe they'll grab lunch or something sometime. No? Didn't think so.