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tommy
05-09-2014, 01:15 AM
It's the off-season, so what the heck. I continue to be impressed with Sean Miller's recruiting at Arizona. He's been on a roll for several years now, and he's already loading up for 2015 as well. He bagged the best guard in the west a few months ago in Tyler Dorsey, a consensus top 10 player in that class. Then earlier this week he got a commitment from a kid who many consider to be the second best guard in the west, Justin Simon. Both Dorsey and Simon are about 6'5" and versatile. Then tonight, BC transfer Ryan Anderson committed to Arizona too. He averaged 14 and 7 for that terrible BC team last year, and after he sits his transfer year, he'll bring skill and experience to Miller's front court in 2015-16.

Arizona has to be considered the leader for coveted Las Vegas big man Stephen Zimmerman, especially since he changed AAU teams recently and is now running with the Oakland Soldiers, which has been a virtual feeder program for Arizona. And the Wildcats are also going to be on Ivan Rabb's short list when he cuts it down, which is going to be soon. Rabb is a 6'9' PF out of Oakland who is currently the #1 rated player on ESPN's Top 60 and also with the Soldiers. I will be very, very surprised if Arizona doesn't land at least one of those two kids.

And they're in the mix for a number of other top players in the class, too. I know Duke has the #1 class for 2014, and that is fabulous, and we've been recruiting at a very high level for a long time and undoubtedly will continue to do so, but I'm starting to think that Miller is going to be threatening Calipari's dominance on the trail pretty soon here, if he's not already there. So many of the top players now have Arizona on their short lists, and Miller is landing a lot of them. He beat Calipari for Stanley Johnson, one of the jewels of the 2014 class, and I think he's going to beat him for Zimmerman too. Of course he hasn't turned it into a national championship yet, but if he keeps bringing in the raw material like this, it's only a matter of time.

superdave
05-09-2014, 11:08 AM
Looking backward, Sean Miller has been on a roll as well -

Class of 2013 -Aaron Gordon #4 RSCI, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson #18.
Class of 2012 - Kaleb Tarczewski #7, Grant Jarrett #11, Brandon Ashley #15,
Class of 2011 - Josiah Turner #14, Nick Johnson #22.

Is he going to be consistent like Calipari or inconsistent like Scott Drew? It sure looks like he's taking Arizona to another level on the recruiting trail.

tommy
08-07-2014, 02:44 PM
Since this thread was started, Arizona has lost Tyler Dorsey (no surprise there, really) but recently added two more big commitments from the class of 2015. One was Las Vegas SF Ray Smith, who unfortunately tore his ACL in July, but he is major athlete and big time player, and then last week pure scorer Allonzo Trier committed to Sean Miller's program. Trier averaged 30 ppg at the Peach Jam, which is amazing. And as mentioned in my earlier post, Arizona is very much in the mix for both Zimmerman and Rabb. Pretty impressive.

BD80
08-07-2014, 02:50 PM
Since this thread was started, Arizona has lost Tyler Dorsey (no surprise there, really) but recently added two more big commitments from the class of 2015. One was Las Vegas SF Ray Smith, who unfortunately tore his ACL in July, but he is major athlete and big time player, and then last week pure scorer Allonzo Trier committed to Sean Miller's program. Trier averaged 30 ppg at the Peach Jam, which is amazing. And as mentioned in my earlier post, Arizona is very much in the mix for both Zimmerman and Rabb. Pretty impressive.

Over the last 5 years or so, UK, KU, Duke and Az have been several steps above the rest of college basketball in recruiting. I would imagine that under nearly any criteria (except total #) those 4 combined would be ranked above all of the rest combined.

tommy
08-07-2014, 03:00 PM
In case anyone is interested, while I primarily focused on the Duke recruits at the AdidasNations event last weekend, I did see a number of very, very good ballplayers who in my mind are going to be outstanding college players.

To me, the best of the bunch was 2015 swingman Jaylen Brown out of Georgia. He's about 6'7" and has a strong body. He's very aggressive in taking the ball to the hole, absorbs contact very well, and shoots it well. He and Chase Jeter were on the same team, and while Chase played really well all weekend, the team wasn't the same when Brown missed some of the action. His body and his game remind me of Stanley Johnson of the Class of 2014. Physically strong, very aggressive at both ends, relentless worker. Brown is supposedly going to be committing pretty soon here, and has offers from many elite programs.

Two others from the Class of 2015 stood out for me, and it so happens they played on the same team, a team which also had Brandon Ingram on it (as well as Tyler Dorsey and Elijah Thomas.) I don't know how they lost a game in the tournament, but they did. In any event, both Carlton Bragg and Charles Matthews looked very good. Bragg is a 6'9" prototypical college PF who has put on some solid weight since I saw him last and who has diversified his game as well. He's a guy with little ego, a great teammate and great kid. Hits the midrange shot, bangs the boards, plays hard on D. Like him a lot. He's from Ohio, from a difficult background but has emerged from it with the help of a special guy who is his mentor. Needless to say, Ohio State really really wants him to stay home. We'll see.

Charles Matthews is a kid that committed very early to Kentucky. He's a 6'4" or 6'5" shooting guard, again with a solid body and well-rounded game. He's a very quiet, reserved kid. Plays a team game, again with little ego. Kentucky got a good one here.

Speaking of Elijah Thomas, I was impressed when it had looked awhile back like he had lost some weight and gotten serious about his body and his game. But this weekend it looked like he maybe put some back on. He has a good low post game, but he's not a leaper, and plays beneath the rim. He has the round shoulders and with his left handed moves reminds a bit of a young Zach Randolph, but not as skilled. I'd be a little concerned with his conditioning and what that says about his commitment and desire, but he's a good player. He's from Texas and thankfully has left Prime Prep to go back to his local high school, and I won't be surprised if he ends up at one of the Texas or Oklahoma schools when it's all said and done, but who knows?

Post is getting long so I'll do the 2016's in another post in a little while.

Henderson
08-07-2014, 09:13 PM
Another big guy on the 2015 board, Stephen Zimmerman (HS team mate of Chase Jeter) has lined up his officials:

UNC -- Oct. 3
Kansas -- Oct. 10
Kentucky -- Oct. 17
UCLA -- Oct. 24
Arizona -- Nov. 7

He's supposedly still got Indiana and UNLV on his list, but they seem like outsiders looking in.

This would be a big get for UNC-CH. Inside Carolina is all atwitter, confident that they have the inside track. Of the 5 officials he has lined up, I'd say Arizona is the least likely despite the geographic proximity. Sean "Cast a Wide Net to Catch Some Fish" Miller has already landed 6'11" Dusan Ristic for 2014, and Ristic is not likely to be OAD. It would be unfortunate if the holes got Zimmerman. He's pretty good.

tommy
08-07-2014, 11:07 PM
Another big guy on the 2015 board, Stephen Zimmerman (HS team mate of Chase Jeter) has lined up his officials:

UNC -- Oct. 3
Kansas -- Oct. 10
Kentucky -- Oct. 17
UCLA -- Oct. 24
Arizona -- Nov. 7

He's supposedly still got Indiana and UNLV on his list, but they seem like outsiders looking in.

This would be a big get for UNC-CH. Inside Carolina is all atwitter, confident that they have the inside track. Of the 5 officials he has lined up, I'd say Arizona is the least likely despite the geographic proximity. Sean "Cast a Wide Net to Catch Some Fish" Miller has already landed 6'11" Dusan Ristic for 2014, and Ristic is not likely to be OAD. It would be unfortunate if the holes got Zimmerman. He's pretty good.

I actually think UNC is the longest shot of the five to land Zimmerman.