"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

NYC forward says he will take more visits

RELATED LINKS:

• Kadeem Jack sounds interested in teaming up with UA freshman Derrick Williams
• Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com reports on Jack’s visit to Arizona and includes analysis by a New York City youth basketball expert who claims Jack might be the best prospect in the city
• Click on the video on the upper right-hand corner at Zagsblog.com to view Zagoria’s interview with Jack and Rice teammate Shane Southwell, who will play for Kansas State next season.

By Javier Morales

While talking to Kadeem Jack and his mentor Damian Leslie this month, one of the more interesting aspects of the Manhattan (N.Y.) Rice High School forward’s development is his education of the game.

Leslie, who discovered Jack on a New York City playground four years ago, often supplies Jack with videos and books of the game’s legends to allow for the youngster to appreciate the history of the game he plays. It’s arguable that Jack, although extremely young in his basketball development, knows more about the game’s luminaries than others who have grown up playing basketball.

One of the Hall of Famers Leslie has introduced to Jack through reading material is former UCLA center Lew Alcindor, who also prepped in New York City. Alcindor later became known as the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Evidently, Jack’s education of Abdul-Jabbar has allowed him to learn that UCLA has 11 national championships, 10 achieved under legendary coach John Wooden.

When I interviewed Jack this morning before he boarded a plane back to New York City, the first school he mentioned as a possibility other than Arizona is UCLA. He went on to list Providence, Miami and Florida. Other Big East schools are also involved such as UConn, St. John’s and Seton Hall.

In an interview earlier in the month, Jack told me how much he respected North Carolina’s tradition and went so far as to say: “I hope they recruit me.” Jack is responding, as he should, to the education of the game as presented by Leslie.

(more…)

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Once projected to be a Sun Devil, he’s not fond of ASU

By Javier Morales

UA’s lone Class of 2010 recruit to date, Daniel Bejarano of Phoenix North, knows what’s in store from ASU fans this week as Arizona prepares for Saturday’s game at Tempe.

“I know I’ll be hearing a bunch of nonsense, but I’m ready for it,” Bejarano said Monday night. “I’m actually going to try to make it. This game is pretty big to me. It’s very big to our team (Arizona) and I think we will come out on top.”

Bejarano, a shooting guard who should enhance Arizona’s three-point production as early as next year, said he does not hate ASU, but he carries hard feelings after the way the Sun Devils’ coaching staff pulled a scholarship offer from him during his recruitment.

ASU coach Herb Sendek and his staff reportedly did not like how Bejarano questioned their style of coaching on offense. They wanted to pull the scholarship before Bejarano had a chance to reject them after officially visiting Arizona that week.

Please read the rest of this blog at TucsonCitizen.com

An add to this: Bejarano was recruited first by ASU before Texas entered the picture. He committed to Texas because of the open-court style of play coached by Rick Barnes. After de-committing from the Longhorns because they continued to recruit players at his position, Bejarano opened the recruitment to ASU and Arizona.

Shortly thereafter, Sendek, who coaches more of a half-court motion offense, pulled the scholarship offer.

In terms of Bejarano’s season, he is averaging 19.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game for North, which is 14-3 heading into tonight’s game with Gilbert. His individual priority this season is to work on his ball-handling skills with the left hand and generate offense on the weak side.

“Things are going great with that,” Bejarano said. “I will continue to work on it but I like how I’ve been able to go to my left more. It’s made me a better player. I am just ready to go the UA and try to help this team.”

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Loe has strong ties to Colorado and St. Louis

Arizona hopes to make a late impression on New Zealand center prospect Rob Loe, who has already been recruited extensively by Colorado and St. Louis

By Javier Morales

It appears the UA’s most difficult challenge in landing New Zealand center Rob Loe is Colorado and its world-traveling coach Jeff Bzdelik and St. Louis because of his friendship with a couple of Australian players on its roster.

Colorado’s roster also has two players from Australia, a neighboring country of New Zealand, in sophomore point guard Nate Tomlinson and freshman center Shane Harris-Tunks. Bzdelik has reportedly recruited Loe, a 6-11 post player who was part of New Zealand’s 2009 FIBA U19 World Championships team, for the last two to three years.

UA assistant coach Book Richardson started the process for the Wildcats only a couple of weeks ago when he saw Loe play in New Zealand. Loe is visiting the UA unofficially as he is spending much of his time in Tucson with his parents and his brother, who attends Arizona. Loe attended Arizona’s game Wednesday night against Louisiana Tech with his brother.

You can read the rest of this entry at my TucsonCitizen.com blog: Wild About Az Cats

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UA recruit vows to be more aggressive in next game

By Javier Morales

UA assistant coach James Whitford was able to break free from the Wildcats’ late practice Monday to make it in time to watch his shooting guard recruit Daniel Bejarano start the 2009-10 season with Phoenix North High School.

Whitford was part of a near-capacity crowd at Grand Canyon University’s Antelope Gym in Phoenix. The game between North, the reigning Class 5A Division II champion, and Phoenix St. Mary’s was also televised throughout the state of Arizona on Cox Cable 7.

Bejarano, who ran mostly the point guard position and did not score in the first quarter, got others involved as North built a 17-1 lead and never trailed en route to a 71-63 victory.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT: TUCSONCITIZEN.COM’S WILD ABOUT AZ CATS PAGE

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By Javier Morales

Ray McCallum

After watching Ray McCallum play this summer in an AAU summer tournament in Las Vegas I am not surprised that he is calculating each of his recruiting stops and avoiding any rushed decisions.

He plays similarly under control with a sense of determination to get things right. One play in particular I recall: McCallum setting the offense on top of the key, barking out orders and waving off a teammate. He looked primed to get his own shot off. He penetrated to the side of the lane and instinctively looked for teammate Trey Ziegler on the opposite side for a spot-up three-pointer.

Unselfish and instinctive: two quality traits of a point guard and McCallum showed that on many occasions while leading Team Detroit to the Reebok tournament title.

McCallum, a 6-1, 170-pound, point guard at Detroit Country Day School, told me a couple of weeks ago shortly after visiting UCLA that he could pull the trigger on a decision at any time — “You never know. If I go somewhere and I really like it, that could be good enough for me to make up my mind right there,” he said — but I sensed McCallum would take all of his visits before deciding which school to play for in 2010-11.

He confirmed that with me tonight, less than 24 hours after returning to Detroit from his official visit to Arizona.

Read the rest of this entry — including an analysis of the point guard situation of all the schools recruiting McCallum — at TucsonCitizen.com in the Wild About Az Cats section

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Trend of state’s best players becoming Cats continues

By Javier Morales

Not many watch more talent at the high school level than scout Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com, and he believes UA coach Sean Miller just got one of the gems of the Class of 2010 class.

Phoenix North shooting guard Daniel Bejarano, who just backed out of his commitment to Texas last week, text messaged me tonight to announce he has committed to Arizona. Bejarano was considered a 5-star recruit by Rivals.com earlier this year, before the tragic death of his father and minor injuries forced him to miss some action this summer.

With Bejarano’s path now set, expect that status to potentially increase to 5 stars again this season with the Mustangs, who are the defending Class 4A state champs.

“Bejarano is a versatile combo guard who can run the break and is an excellent passer in transition,” said Coleman, noting the prospect’s versatility. “He can knock down three on the perimeter and create dribble-drive penetration with either hand.

“His size allows him to play the 1 (point guard), 2 (shooting guard) or 3 (small forward) spots in a multiple guard offense. He has a high basketball I.Q. and should see plenty of playing time as a freshman for the Cats.”

Bejarano continues the trend of Phoenix’s top high school talent making the trip to Tucson to further their careers and education. The previous players, recruited by former UA coach Lute Olson include Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye and Jerryd Bayless. All of them became NBA lottery picks.

“I would look at it as another challenge, and I love challenges,” Bejarano said last week in reference to joining these former legendary UA players from Phoenix. “It helps to know that these great players came from where I am from and went on to win there.”

Bejarano is still in the midst of an official visit of the UA campus with his mother, mentor and coach Ray Arvizu Jr., and other friends and family. I will have a follow up interview with him after his visit concludes Friday.

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Fans should respect his decision whether it’s ASU or UA

Recruiting Update:

• Don’t discount the James Harden factor with Bejarano’s recruitment
• New developments concerning two potential UA recruits

By Javier Morales

Normally, when an athlete is deciding between the UA and ASU, fans from each school fling mud at each other and make claims if that player decides to go to the other school.

We learned of that already in Sean Miller’s first recruiting class, of which potential ASU recruits Kyryl Natyazhko and Derrick Williams decided to play with the Wildcats. Less than a day after Natyazhko committed to the UA, fans in Tempe were claiming that he does not have a qualifying SAT score that transferred over from the Ukraine.

That claim was false. Natyazhko was academically eligible from the start with the qualifying entrance exam scores.

Suddenly, Miller and ASU coach Herb Sendek are battling for another recruit as Phoenix North shooting guard Daniel Bejarano announced Thursday that he has de-committed from Texas and will likely decide between ASU and UA.

(more…)

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