"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

Romar: Recruitment of committed players common practice

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AAU coach confirms Vargas’ trip to Arizona rescheduled for May 14-15

Jason Terry appears to be a mainstay in Dallas

• Bruce Pascoe of The Arizona Daily Star reports that UA’s director of basketball operations Jamall Walker may return to the coaching staff at Ohio.
• In case you missed it: No hedging here: Recruiting definitely more of a spectacle these days.
• Terrence Jones’ coach believes the player made his announcement prematurely and reports that Jones called John Calipari, not the other way around.
• Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said the practice of luring away recruits who have verbally committed is a common practice.
• A Kentucky fan site takes a playful look at the reported Jones-Calipari conversation after Jones announced he was headed to Washington
• Despite a lackluster performance in the playoffs, former UA guard Jason Terry will likely stick with Dallas for the last two years of his contract
• Richard Jefferson returns home to play in the playoffs with San Antonio. By the way, the Western Conference playoffs has a decided Arizona flavor: Jefferson, Channing Frye with Phoenix, Steve Kerr, the GM of Phoenix, and Luke Walton with the Lakers. Could former teammates and best friends Jefferson and Walton face each other in the Western Conference finals?
• Mike Bibby struggled against Orlando’s Jameer Nelson in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

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Ex-UA forward plays three straight seasons without injury

Former UA player Andre Iguodala had his better games this season against LeBron James

By Javier Morales

EDITOR NOTE: Just a quick note before I get into Arizona’s NBA contingent. I communicated with Miami-Dade Junior College power forward Eloy Vargas tonight and he indicated to me that he does not talk about his recruiting process. Vargas is one of two likely remaining Class of 2010 recruiting targets for Arizona (Manhattan, N.Y., Rice power forward Kadeem Jack is the other). Vargas was respectful when he communicated to me and I was understanding because of the amount of schools interested in signing him. More to come on this.

One of the more interesting developments of the recently-completed NBA regular season is that former UA forward Andre Iguodala completed his third consecutive season without missing game — a 246-game stretch.

He was the only one among the 10 former UA players in the league to play all 82 regular season games. San Antonio’s Richard Jefferson and Phoenix’s Channing Frye each missed only one game and Atlanta veteran Mike Bibby was out for only two games this season.

Some other newsworthy items and links concerning the ex-Cats in the NBA:

• Iguodala did not back down to Cleveland’s LeBron James this season. He averaged 22.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in three games against James and the Cavs this year. His only higher total was 24.5 points averaged in two games against Oklahoma City.
• Despite playing six games less and averaging 10 minutes less a game than Frye, former UA guard Jerryd Bayless almost doubled Frye’s free-throw total. Bayless, in his second season with the Blazers, shot 242 free throws, making 201. Frye attempted only 121 and made 98. That shows Bayless was much more aggressive to the basket and Frye relied more on his newfound perimeter stoke.
• That’s not to say that Frye did not mix it up on occasion. He posted a career high in rebounds with 427, averaging 5.3 a game.
• Iguodala comments on the firing of his coach at the end of the season
• Jason Terry and the Mavericks will face Jefferson and the Spurs in the first round of the NBA playoffs
• The Spurs’ general manager is more of a supporter for Jefferson than the San Antonio fans
• Arizona Daily Star reporter Bruce Pascoe offers an informative update on Chase Budinger
• Thanks partly to Frye, the Suns are closing in on the franchise record for three-point accuracy

FORMER UA PLAYERS IN THE NBA (Thru 4/14/2010)

* -- Rookie season. Bold -- Career highs

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FORMER UA PLAYERS IN THE NBA (Thru 4/14/2010)

* -- Rookie season. Bold -- Career highs

By Javier Morales

Thirteen years after leading Arizona to its first NCAA title, NBA veteran guards Mike Bibby and Jason Terry are still enjoying success on the court. Their respective teams — Atlanta and Dallas — are currently the No. 3 team in each conference with one week remaining.

Former UA guard Mustafa Shakur will not be in the NBA playoffs with Oklahoma City (which has signed him for the remainder of the season) but he is an important player for Tulsa in the NBA’s D-League playoffs.

Other former Wildcats assured to be in the NBA postseason include the ailing Luke Walton (out most of the season with a back injury) of the Los Angeles Lakers, Channing Frye with the Suns, Richard Jefferson of the Spurs and Jerryd Bayless of the Blazers.

Rookies Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill will be at home watching the playoffs despite Houston’s 39-38 record.

Also not in the postseason are the two best scorers Arizona has produced who are currently in the NBA — Gilbert Arenas of the Wizards and Andre Iguodala of the Sixers.

Arenas was sentenced last month to 30 days in a halfway house for bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. He avoided extended jail time. However, the three-time NBA All-Star will first serve two days of his sentence at the Montgomery County (Md.) Pre-Release Center, which means he will be behind bars at that time.

Don’t expect Arenas to be Tweeting while in the halfway house. According to a Washington Post report, residents can have visitors, and they are given access to a computer room to hunt for jobs. But Internet surfing, Facebooking and Tweeting are forbidden.

Also according to the Post, residents cannot have cellphones, laptops, video games or portable DVD players in their rooms. They can bring their own TV, no bigger than 13 inches, but they can’t have cable.

Read about career milestones reached by some ex-UA players on the jump

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Look Ahead and Back: Cats vs. Cardinal

Compiled by Javier Morales

Arizona 2009-10 schedule
(Full schedule and statistics available at ArizonaWildcats.com)

Sean Elliott led the top-ranked Cats with 22 points in their upset loss at Stanford in 1988, the UA’s lone defeat in the Pac-10 that season

Feb. 3, 1979: Arizona 63, Stanford 62 – Arizona guard Russell Brown hit a 10-foot jumper as time expired to give the Cats the win in the first Pac-10 meeting of the teams at Palo Alto. The Wildcats also won for the first time in Maples Pavilion after four losses dating back to 1954. Brown scored Arizona’s last five points in the last 59 seconds and sparked the Wildcats’ comeback from an 11-point deficit earlier in the second half. Brown and Joe Nehls led Arizona with 15 points. Kimberly Belton led the Cardinal with 25.

Feb. 4, 1988: Stanford 82, Arizona 74 – Todd Lichti scored 23 points and Howard Wright 22 as Stanford scored the final 10 points of the game to upset No. 1-ranked Arizona, ending the Wildcats’ eight-game winning streak. Stanford, which trailed by 9 points in the first half, took control of the backboards in the final five minutes to shut out Arizona. Sean Elliott led the Wildcats with 22 points, but could not score after making a short jumper that put Arizona ahead for the last time at 74-72. Lichti then hit a 15-foot bank shot to start Stanford’s 10-0 streak, and ended it with two free throws. Arizona lost at Stanford five consecutive times including this game: 58-55 in 1985, 62-56 in 1986 and 75-73 in 1987 and 83-78 in 1989. It was Arizona’s only defeat in the Pac-10. The next time the Wildcats lost was two months later in their first Final Four appearance against Oklahoma.

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Cats successful against zone in Tempe but not last week

One example of a fan’s T-shirt creation in regards to Kevin Parrom‘s “No Easy Buckets” hard foul against ASU’s Ty Abbott last month in Tempe

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

Why did Arizona do so poorly against Oregon State’s 1-3-1 zone last week when it had done so well against ASU’s matchup zone a few weeks earlier? Let UA coach Sean Miller analyze it. “When we had transition opportunities, we made good plays and took good, quick shots,” he said of the 77-58 victory in Tempe. “When we didn’t have transition opportunities, we showed patience, we moved the ball, and tried to break their defense down, which is much easier said than done. They have a very good defense. But on that day, if you say, ‘Why did we win?’ we had that balance of transition opportunities with a lot of patience and movement.” … The Wildcats didn’t have that patience on offense against Oregon State and lost focus on defense. Miller, without naming names, was talking about sophomore guard Kyle Fogg as one of those whose effort was lacking on defense. Fogg knows it. “I mean, I just let my bad offense get to me on defense and I got unfocused,” he said. “I just had a bad game that night.” Fogg has been a willing defender during his time with the Wildcats, so perhaps it will be just a one-game blip. …

Kevin Parrom’s hard foul against ASU’s Ty Abbott last month has gotten a lot of play from the media then and now, so much so don’t expect fireworks to happen again tomorrow. The Pac-10 officiating crew will call the game closely, which could favor Arizona inasmuch as the game is in Tucson and the Cats can go eight to nine deep in case foul problems arise. A group of UA students have made T-shirts saying, “No Easy Buckets” in response to a Twitter message left by Parrom after the UA beat ASU 77-58 in Tempe. Parrom in part wrote “No Easy Buckets” in response to Abbott’s animated response to the play. If the restraint of Miller’s players this year is any indication, the UA should go without a technical foul. The UA players do not have a technical foul this season after getting three last year. ASU has three this season, including one by Abbott (who has two in his career). Remember J.P. Prince, who transferred from Arizona to Tennessee after his freshman season in 2005-06? He has two technical fouls as a senior with the Vols this season. …

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Telecast begins at 6 p.m. on Fox Sports Arizona

We received word this afternoon from Fox Sports Arizona director of communications and marketing Brett Hansen that FSA will be highlighting former UA center Channing Frye in its Suns: Planet Orange Primetime show tonight.

We have included YouTube previews of the show, which is hosted by FSA announcer Todd Walsh, who was a student manager with Arizona during the early years of Lute Olson’s tenure.

The Suns play Atlanta and former UA guard Mike Bibby at 7 p.m. in Phoenix.

NOTE: Hansen was the UA media relations director for men’s basketball when Bibby and the Wildcats won the NCAA title in 1997

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UA standouts from last season together again with Rockets

RELATED LINK: Don’t write of Jordan Hill yet (Dime magazine)

By Javier Morales

How’s this for irony?

Two of Arizona’s Three Amigos — Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill — from a year ago are reunited in Houston, hometown of the other amigo: UA senior guard Nic Wise.

Hours before the NBA trade deadline Thursday, the Knicks shipped Hill, Kevin Martin and Jared Jeffries to the Rockets in exchange for Tracy McGrady as part of a three-team trade that included Sacramento.

The Kings are sending Sergio Rodriguez to the Knicks. Meanwhile, the Rockets are shipping Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to Sacramento, which also receives the Knicks’ Larry Hughes.

There are many cases in which former Cats have played together in the NBA, most recently last year when Channing Frye and Jerryd Bayless were together in Portland. The reunion of Budinger and Hill is one of a few of its kind involving players who also played together at Arizona.

That list includes:

• Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler with the Bulls from 1994-98.
• Brian Williams, later known as Bison Dele was a teammate of Kerr of Buechler with the Bulls in 1996-97. Williams and Buechler were teammates with the Cats in 1989-90.
• Sean Elliott and Kerr with the Spurs from 1998-2001.
• Mike Bibby and Michael Dickerson with the Vancouver Grizzlies from 1999-2001.

Hill, the No. 8 selection in last year’s draft, becomes the third ex-Wildcat to be selected among the first 10 picks of his respective class by the Knicks only to be released or dealt in three seasons or less. Larry Demic was the ninth pick overall in the 1979 draft but his injury-riddled career ended in 1982 after only 206 games with the Knicks. Frye was traded by New York to Portland two years after the Knicks picked him eighth overall in 2005.

Demic, Hill and Frye were all power forward/centers at Arizona.

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