SLOW!

Its been a little while since my last post, sorry, I was out of town for a while. Well, on the basketball front, there haven't been many developments outside of the fact that I'm kind of over Greg Smith because apparently it seems like he might have been an academic burden on the team anyway. Also, on the recruiting front, Memphis has recently reported a violation, stating that FedEx President, and Memphis athletics backer Dave Bronczek has been in contact with UA recruit Abdul Gaddy's mother. Now, whether he contacted his mother, a FedEx employee, to attract Gaddy to Memphis is still unknown, but if that is indeed the case it could mean bad news for Memphis. More on this matter in the near future.

As far as football goes, it was originally predicted that Zona would finish 7th in the Pac-10. Of course, while this may be frustrating, its no longer much of a surprise to any U of A football fan. However, Stoops decided to change things up this off-season, and so far, his new methods seem to be working. It had been decided that camp this season would begin every morning at 6:15 AM... yes, you read that correctly. I'm not gonna lie, I can't remember the last time I woke up that early, and God knows i can barely function if I am up at that time. But you gotta give it to Stoops, apparently the idea has worked well so far, and has actually turned a few heads Arizona's way. I mean, other than the impressive debuts of heralded freshman QB Matt Scott, along with CB Robert Golden, many have begun to consider whether maybe UA may have been under-ranked initially. Camp has been so impressive that ESPN even put us to finish 5th in the conference. Yes, we all know 5th out of 10 is not all that impressive, but that means in 3 weeks we jumped 2 spots, one ahead of Oregon State (who seems to beat us every season). Sure, there's a lot of work to do, but you know what they say... progress is progress, and let's face it, anything seems to be progress for Arizona football these days.

BOOO Greg Smith!

One day after Wildcat fans began celebrating what seemed to be a great incoming class for 2009, the bubble was officially burst. Greg Smith, the No. 5 Center in the '09 class according to Rivals, has officially withdrawn his verbal commitment to Arizona and decided to play closer to home at Fresno State... yes, Fresno State. Good choice kid, I mean you know, since Fresno State is the powerhouse of the WAC and the WAC would be the ideal stop for any person wanting to possibly pursue a professional career, right? After all, FSU is ranked 148th on ESPN's Prestige Rankings, good for 6th best (out of a possible 9 teams) in their conference. Oh wait, the ideal stop would have been a conference like the PAC-10 and a school like Arizona, which ESPN ranks as the 5th best program in its Prestige Rankings (good for 1st in the Pac-10). The really weird thing about this one is that the kid's guardian, uncle Kelly Smith, actually wants him to go further away from home for school because he thinks Fresno is a negative environment for his nephew. So, it seems that Greg is really just staying close to home to spite his uncle, since according to the Arizona Daily Wildcat, there seems to be a little family feud going on. I mean, at least we should be grateful he didn't jump ship for another Pac-10 team, or even any team that might be a minor threat for that matter, just sucks to see that it doesn't seem possible for Arizona basketball to get good news without bad news these days. Well, good luck Mr. Smith, hopefully you'll grow up and figure out that the college one chooses to attend should be seen as more than just a tool for a frustrated teen to prove a point to his strict uncle.

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.
   

Recruiting Update!!

According to GoAZCats.com, U of A just picked up another commitment for its '09 basketball recruiting class. That makes a total so far of three commitments for the '09 class. The player's name is Solomon Hill, a 6'6" four-star SF out of Fairfax HS in Los Angeles, and he's the 27th best player and 3rd best SF in the class of '09 according to Rivals. This will be a great fit, and is another huge boost to what seems to be the makings of a good class. He will join Mike Moser, another four-star SF/PF out of Portland's Grant HS, and Greg Smith, a PF/C out of Fresno's Edison HS. More detailed information on all these recruits will be provided soon, so check back!

NOTE: See "Greg Smith Update" above for new developments on this story.

An Attempt at "Summarizing" the Coaching Rollercoaster

No, this blog has nothing to do with super-hot former UA swimmer Amanda Beard, but I had to get your attention somehow, and admit it, it worked.

Now lets get to the real point of this post... Zona's coaching carousel. Let's face it, Arizona Basketball was widely seen as a disaster this last season, and to some it still is, mainly due to the whole Lute leaving/O'Neill stepping in, getting the promise to the keys to the program after Lute retires thing. To call the actual season a disaster is a bit overly-dramatic, seeing how we managed to uphold the longest active streak of tournament appearances in the nation (24) despite the lack of the Silver Fox, a bench so shallow it made the Clippers look stacked, and mid-season injuries. It was really the off-season that was a disaster. Lute Olson promptly announced he was going to return to take the helm for the 08-09 season, soon thereafter declaring a small war on the media and announcing to everyone's surprise (yes, even AD Jim Livengood) that he no longer wanted Kevin O'Neill anywhere on the basketball staff, thus getting O'Neill banished to a fundraising role. This may have been great news for many die-hard 'Zona basketball fans because of the promise given to O'Neill that he would succeed Olson, but this didn't help U of A's national image, and even hurt its standing with some recruits, but we'll talk more about that later. Then in July, O'Neill finally received the coaching offer he had been waiting for (which was really any coaching offer) and quickly jetted to join Marc Iavaroni's Memphis Grizzlies coaching staff. So, One coach down, two to go.

Not too long after the O'Neill incident, it was announced that Lute was going to hire Russ Pennell, a former coach at ASU and most recently a coach on the AAU circuit. Soon thereafter Miles Simon, MOP of the 1997 Championship, found out that his contract was not to be renewed, or in other words, he was being fired. Disappointed and confused, he naturally decided to talk to his boss, the very man who coached him and offered him a job on the bench, only to find out that Lute apparently had no idea what he was talking about, saying it was completely Livengood's doing. Now whether one believes Lute had something to do with it or not, it once again did not reflect well on the program's reputation, and Simon also did not take it well stating he felt unsatisfied with the way the situation was handled. And then there was one.

Reports then begun to circulate that Lute was going to bring in an old friend of his; Denver Nuggets Assistant Mike Dunlap, who had also worked as a head coach in Australia for a number of years and a successful coach at Metro State in Denver. Not gonna lie, i was really impressed, it was one of the few productive things Lute had done since returning to his post, I mean the guy has experience on both the college and NBA level, as well as great international recruiting connections. Don't get too excited, let the bubble-bursting proceed.

This next coaching change was as hard for me as it was for anyone die-hard Arizona basketball fan. Many remember Josh Pastner as the energetic walk-on/cheerleader on the National Championship winning team, much like our David Bagga, only that Pastner went on to work for the athletic department, and soon thereafter got a coaching job on Lute's staff. He quickly made a name for himself as one of the most tireless recruiters in college basketball, creating a Houston to Tucson recruiting pipeline, and was widely seen as one of the top up-and-coming assistants in the nation. On top of it all, he was dedicated to the Arizona program and the Tucson community, and he was one of the few Lute prodigies that really showed future promise. During the off season, he was almost immediately offered a spot on John Calipari's staff at Memphis. Although he was the only coach from the previous season's staff that had been offered a spot on the upcoming staff, it was easy to see that Lute was revamping, and with the addition of the new coaches, it had become obvious that he would be bumped to the bottom of the bench. This, coupled with the opportunity to work with what is currently one of the best college basketball programs in the nation was too much to pass up. Pastner, however, thought about it long and hard (even though I'm pretty sure everyone knew he was gonna book it, after all, why wouldn't he?), and even though he decided to go to Memphis, he took advantage of every last minute as a Wildcat, welcoming recruits and making his presence known, sporting an Arizona shirt around the 2008 Tucson Cactus Classic.



Well, by the end of the weekend, he was gone, and talks of his replacement had already begun, soon ending with the selection of Reggie Geary. That selection was a "meh" selection to me... in other words, although he had coached under Lute before, and in the D-League, he feels like just another end of the bench coach to me.

Sure, that brings us to 0-3 for the '07-'08 coaching staff, but I think we're in pretty capable hands with the three new guys. I'm really more curious to see how the new, "revamped" Lute will fare this season.

Note: We'll cover the impacts these moves had on recruiting, and the apparent new Tucson-Tennessee pipeline in upcoming posts.

A Little Bit of This, and Some of That

This being the first entry of this blog, I'm going to have to start with some boring introductor stuff. I should probably go on record to say that for the most part, this blog will be very basketball and football heavy, with a little bit of baseball and softball (and on a special occasion, other sports) being thrown in the mix. Outside of myself, OnlyHalfPepper, there will be a few other regular and some occasional guest writers on this blog, but there will be more on the next few weeks. Well, now that we've got that crap out of the way, let's get started on the good stuff.