"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

Arizona’s freshman class will grow up

STREAK FACT: When the UA’s streak began on March 15, 1985, fittingly, Phil Collins‘ hit “One More Night” was climbing the charts to a No. 1 spot two weeks later.

By Javier Morales

Too many games remain, including an entire Pac-10 season and the subsequent conference tournament, to give up hope.

The Wildcats play four of their next five games at home before traveling to L.A. to open the conference season against USC on New Year’s Eve. By then, UA coach Sean Miller will probably feel like he has coached an entire season. What’s life without challenges?

As we learned last year, the Cats can fight their way back. They went 4-6 in one stretch before putting together a seven-game winning streak. Of course, that was with Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill, who are far removed from Arizona in the NBA. Nic Wise and Jamelle Horne remain with a lot of freshmen and returning players who are still developing.

Essentially, the UA has traded the firepower and scoring of Hill and Budinger for an unpredictable group of freshmen. Being the optimist that I am, I believe by season’s end, the freshman class Miller recruited in a short period of time will make a positive impact. Players like Derrick Williams, Solomon Hill, Lamont “MoMo” Jones and Kevin Parrom come from winning backgrounds and they have too much pride to let this season slip away.

Kyryl Natyazhko worked so hard on his game in his native Ukraine that he moved to the United States to further his career.

Other than these guys being young, they have something else in common: Pride, and a lot of it.

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Arizona 2009-10 schedule

(Full schedule and statistics available at ArizonaWildcats.com)

Optimism vs. Opportunities

Analysis by Javier Morales
OPTIMISM

• The fans, in particular the student section called the “Zona Zoo”, are following the advice and support of UA coach Sean Miller, who went so far as to say after the game, “the fans were almost like another defender out there.” Miller commented about the importance of the McKale fans when he addressed the media after the win: “There has never been an Arizona team that needs McKale to be at the heightened environment more than this team because of the certain challenges. I thought they helped us get off to a very good start.”
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These developments should be interesting to watch

By Javier Morales

Bummer. No TV. No radio. Not even a Web cast of today’s Red-Blue scrimmage at McKale Center. It is, after all, a glorified scrimmage. Even so, the die-hard UA fan looks at the event as a way to finally step into the Sean Miller era.

I say a true taste of Miller Time won’t happen until the second half of the Pac-10 season. By that time, the new coach will have a rotation set, the players will understand their roles, and Miller’s schemes will finally take hold.

So let’s not get too bent out of shape about the Red-Blue game not getting much fanfare. Check back next year, with Miller’s feet firmly on the ground in Tucson, for that. As far as this year’s Red-Blue scrimmage is concerned, these are the five leading questions on my mind (What are yours?):

1. Will Tucson turn out to make the attendance respectable? The World Series does not start until after the scrimmage is over. NFL football? Leave that for a city that actually has a team. The UA is Tucson. I say anything less than 8,000 today will be a disappointment. Tickets are only $6 for adults and $3 for children.
2. How will little-used players last year such as Alex Jacobson, Brendon Lavender, Garland Judkins and D.J. Shumpert step forward to show Miller and the fans they are progressing nicely?
3. Way too early for lineup and rotation discussion — Miller will likely use plenty of different lineups by the time the Pac-10 season starts — but I want to know who appears the most likely for the top eight to nine spots when push comes to shove.
4. How much can talented wing players Solomon Hill and Derrick Williams break down an opponent off the dribble and how will Williams play at the power positions — power forward and center — when needed.
5. More freshmen: How good really is Kyryl Natyazhko, who has drawn praise from Miller this preseason about being perhaps the best freshman of the class so far. Is MoMo Jones ready to spell Nic Wise at point guard from time to time? And is Kevin Parrom prepared to be an inside-outside threat?

I realize it’s too early for these questions to be answered extensively in a Nov. 1 scrimmage game. But at least a couple of favorable responses to these questions today at McKale Center (1 p.m.) means the program is slowly headed back in the right direction.

TucsonCitizen.com: Steve Rivera’s observations from the Red-Blue game.

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By Anthony Gimino

You can listen to the entirety of Arizona coach Sean Miller‘s comments from the main podium at Pac-10 Media Day, but maybe you’re like me and would rather read than listen.

Anyway, I transcribed the whole thing and pulled a large chunk of it here for your reading pleasure … and then I added some of my own comments.

Here we go …

Miller on his team’s inexperience:

“It’s reality here at Arizona. We have five freshmen. In addition, we have four sophomores. We have nine scholarship players who are in their first or second year. I really look at three of the sophomores as being freshmen in that they really had a small role on last year’s team.

“Our most experienced player, Nic Wise … I’m his fourth coach in four years. Jamelle Horne, I’m his third coach in three years. We have a new staff; I’m a new coach, a different personality and way of doing things. That doesn’t bode well in a lot of ways for short-term success.

“The most important thing for our team to establish in our first year here is a way of doing things — how we play defense, how we conduct ourselves. It’s just really baby steps the right way, day by day, with this year’s team.

“I have found we have gotten a lot better in our first 10 days, but as I compare this year’s team, and this fall, to the last two where I came from, we’re clearly a lot further behind on the learning curve for many, many reasons.”

REACTION: For two years, I’ve worried more about the long-term future of the program that the short term. Switch that around this season. I’m not convinced UA is an NCAA Tournament team this season (the Cats have the look of a bubble team to me), but I’m about 99.9 percent convinced Miller has Arizona headed toward a 1990s’ run of success.

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CLASS OF 2009 RELATED LINKS:

• Scout.com Top 100
• Rivals.com Top 150
• ESPNU 100
• Andy Katz: O’Neill to keep USC staff intact (and other matters pertaining to Arizona and the Pac-10)

By Javier Morales
wildaboutazcats@gmail.com

The recruiting for the Class of 2009 in the Pac-10 is practically over, save for maybe a lower-tier prospect or two for USC coach Kevin O’Neill to fill the Trojans’ depleted roster.

Lance Stephenson, thanks for the memories. The hype over Stephenson is unrivaled in Arizona basketball recruiting history. Never has a recruit, who did not even visit the Tucson campus, receive so much notoriety (thanks in part because he is from New York City and the bloggers and media there tend to sensationalize things, but that’s the Big Apple for you).

The focus can now turn to this year’s class, which signifies the impact new coach Sean Miller will have on the Arizona program. As one unit, the Wildcats’ five-man recruiting class could potentially compete in a mid-major next year such as the WAC, Mountain West and West Coast Conference. No doubt, they will give Pac-10 opponents all they can handle in 2009-2010. Matched with the rest of the returning Wildcats, including senior Nic Wise and junior Jamelle Horne, the idea of reaching the 26th straight NCAA tournament is very attainable.

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  Newcomer Kevin Parrom will wear the   number once worn by Khalid Reeves

By Javier Morales
wildaboutazcats@gmail.com

The UA sports information office recently released the Wildcats’ updated roster for 2009-2010 and included jersey numbers.

The Wildcats’ newcomers and their numbers (by the way, the UA has yet to list MoMo Jones because he just committed. He wore No. 33 at Oak Hill Academy, but D.J. Shumpert has that number at UA):

• No. 1: Kyryl Natyazhko
• No. 3: Kevin Parrom
• No. 44: Solomon Hill

Brendon Lavender is changing his number from 14 to 24. He wore 24 in high school.

Natyazhko’s selection of No. 1 is interesting because that is usually allotted to a guard, but then again, Fendi Onobun wore it last year after donning No. 24. Parrom chose No. 3, the same number worn by fellow New York product Khalid Reeves, who is the UA’s single-season scoring leader.

“I actually didn’t know what number he had,” Parrom said recently. “I just wanted No. 3.”

Hill will wear the jersey number previously worn by Richard Jefferson.

My favorite number of all-time: No. 00, worn by Anthony Cook and Gilbert Myles, the flashy guard who played under Fred Snowden.

What’s your favorite jersey number worn at UA (football or basketball?). For football, mine is the unconventional No. 89 of a linebacker, worn by Ricky Hunley, although the best jersey number story at Arizona is the No. 1-2-3 backfield of the UA in the 1970′s.

That included: Bruce Hill (No. 1) at quarterback, and Willie Hamilton (No. 2) and Jim Upchurch (No. 3) at running back, which comprised the UA’s famed 1-2-3 backfield in 1974.

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UPDATE: INCLUDES DIRECT QUOTES FROM SCOUTING EXPERT VAN COLEMAN AND ANALYSIS FROM SCOUT.COM’S DAVE TELEP (ALSO PROJECTED UA ROTATION WITH JONES).

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

Lamont Jones

Just a few months ago, there was little hope for the next Arizona basketball season. Putting together any semblance of a typical UA recruiting class was deemed a lost cause.

Now, UA coach Sean Miller has another touted player to add to his recruiting class, which has four incoming freshmen and might not be done. The best thing about it: Miller and his staff — as advertised, Book Richardson is a heck of a recruiter — didn’t have to compromise on the talent while being in a potentially short-handed situation.

According to GOAZCATS.com and Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star, point guard Lamont “MoMo” Jones committed to Arizona on Wednesday. Jones, who was released from his letter-of-intent after Tim Floyd resigned at USC, visited UA and Florida before making his decision.

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