Miller once again does it again!

[TJ]

The thing with Rabb is his mom wants him to go to Cal so he can be close to his younger brother. That's really who UA is recruiting against, the mom.

Apparently UA is going to get a verbal from Michael Cage Jr in the near future. Interesting kid not nearly as cut up as the dad was, a bit more athletic, very long arms. Was a real awkward player when younger, seems to be catching up now looks much more coordinated. He's kind of like Comanche a kid who 10 years ago you would have asked to redshirt but now you can't or you'll never get the kid so he'll arrive on campus very skinny and need a year or two to bulk up.

Rabb is skinny too but he's so athletic and skilled it won't matter, Rabb could be the conference POY as a freshman wherever he goes but it appears it's going to be Cal unless something changes with the mom.

Cal is the prohibitive favorites at the moment, but when you get a kid on campus who has legit interest, along with a very persuasive recruiter in Sean Miller, anything is possible.

 

[Russ Smith]

Cal is the prohibitive favorites at the moment, but when you get a kid on campus who has legit interest, along with a very persuasive recruiter in Sean Miller, anything is possible.

Oh agreed, I'm just saying the problem they have is that the mom has made it quite clear she wants him near the younger brother. There's an interview done recently by his HS coach, Lou Richie(ex UCLA walkon and Clemson player) and Richie is wearing a Cal jersey during the interview, couldn't have made it much more obvious(Jason Kidd jersey) where he wants the kid to go.

Cal is a big threat to Miller's pipeline to the Soldiers, they got Bird as a legacy, they had made late runs at Ashley and Gordon but with the coaching situation at the time neither kid would commit not knowing who would be the coach. They have an early commit from Oscar Frayer(skywalker a year behind Rabb) and they are probably going to get Damari Milstead(year behind Frayer). That would if it happens make 4 Soldier commits to Cal in 5 years. Rabb would be of course the big one top 10 national player star of the Soldiers program.

Unless Miller can convince the mom to do what Tarc's mom did and move to Arizona for a year and bring the younger son, he's got an uphill battle to get him.

Anything is possible but the mom is the huge key in this recruitment.

 

[Russ Smith]

Got to LOVE the UCLA world view. Wake me up when UCLA pulls a guy that Arizona wants

Surprised nobody here is talking about Leaf decommitting?

Arizona sites are all blaming UCLA for poaching him. AAU coach says Kentucky was the first team to call and now they're all calling him.

That's the recruiting game. Technically UCLA doesn't have a scholarship for him although they could certainly take Bryce off scholarship if they had to for 2016. I'm sure they will recruit him but with UK and Duke heavily involved and the kid already saying he's probably going to visit Indiana, it's apparently wide open.

Jaylen Hands visits UA unofficially today, supposed to be a UCLA vs UA battle. Most UA and UCLA sites reporting they think UCLA has a lead but not a done deal. Hands is supposed to be transferring to Leaf's HS this year so the timing is intriguing.

Interesting how 2 years in a row shortly after Adidas Nations, Leaf's recruitment takes a huge turn.

 

[overseascardfan]

Surprised nobody here is talking about Leaf decommitting?

Arizona sites are all blaming UCLA for poaching him. AAU coach says Kentucky was the first team to call and now they're all calling him.

That's the recruiting game. Technically UCLA doesn't have a scholarship for him although they could certainly take Bryce off scholarship if they had to for 2016. I'm sure they will recruit him but with UK and Duke heavily involved and the kid already saying he's probably going to visit Indiana, it's apparently wide open.

Jaylen Hands visits UA unofficially today, supposed to be a UCLA vs UA battle. Most UA and UCLA sites reporting they think UCLA has a lead but not a done deal. Hands is supposed to be transferring to Leaf's HS this year so the timing is intriguing.

Interesting how 2 years in a row shortly after Adidas Nations, Leaf's recruitment takes a huge turn.

I just saw this on Rivals this morning. No one knows for sure what happened. Some people say Miller quietly back off him (I doubt it, what other 2016 post is out there that UA is in on that is better than Leaf) other speculate that maybe he is thinking about playing in Israel for a year then entering the draft. He would have started Day 1 at UA, there would be no one on the roster to include Anderson that would force Leaf to come off the bench. I guess UA is banking on De'Ron Davis and / or Mitch Lightfoot coming in but Leaf is way better than both of them. Could Miller be losing some of his recruiting mojo?

 

[Russ Smith]

I just saw this on Rivals this morning. No one knows for sure what happened. Some people say Miller quietly back off him (I doubt it, what other 2016 post is out there that UA is in on that is better than Leaf) other speculate that maybe he is thinking about playing in Israel for a year then entering the draft. He would have started Day 1 at UA, there would be no one on the roster to include Anderson that would force Leaf to come off the bench. I guess UA is banking on De'Ron Davis and / or Mitch Lightfoot coming in but Leaf is way better than both of them. Could Miller be losing some of his recruiting mojo?

If you believe Jason Sheer and Ace, Miller backing off is not what happened. both have reported the coaches were stunned and not happy at all when Leaf notified them.

He has been back from Israel for a bit now, he apparently played in Adidas Uprising, his AAU coach was quoted as saying he talked to him at length there and he was still all in for Arizona. My guess is whatever happened, happened at Adidas Nations. Which is why everyone is speculating about UCLA being involved.

As I posted a year ago, at the last Adidas Nations his dad had a fallout with Don Maclean over how his son was being used and that MacLean was apparently yelling at him too much. They pulled TJ out of the event, and shortly after rumors of a rift with Adidas surfaced. The kid of course eventually committed to Arizona which seemed to reinforce those rumors.

So people are speculating at Adidas Nations, the dad and MacLean must have buried the hatchet. But nobody seems to really know.

Scheer is hysterical, he's blasting UCLA for recruiting a verballed kid, same guy who openly admitted Arizona was going to get TJ McConnell to transfer during the middle of his soph year at Duquesne when he was under scholarship. When people pointed out that might be tampering, Scheer said it's completely ok for a kid to want to move up to a better program and completely ok for Arizona to communicate to the kid they're interested if he wants to transfer.

 

[Phrazbit]

Its a bummer but not the end of the world. Miller is hauling in one monster class after another. Something specific happened with this kid. With this crap it seems like 95% of the time some meddling parents are involved.

 

[Russ Smith]

Its a bummer but not the end of the world. Miller is hauling in one monster class after another. Something specific happened with this kid. With this crap it seems like 95% of the time some meddling parents are involved.

Speculation all over from he's mad he didn't make the U19 team Miller coached, to he attended the tryouts for that team and realized playing for Miller was different than being recruited by him and he didn't feel it was a good fit for him.

He wasn't actually at Adidas Nations and it turns out neither was MacLean.

 

[GatorAZ]

I guess Comanche & Ristic is the FCOTF although Leaf's spacing would've been nice.

 

[overseascardfan]

Maybe Miller plans on going after 3 - 4 year players going forward. Mitch Lightfoot & De'Ron Davis are viewed as multi-year guys. Comanche barring rapid development in terms of body composition and game is also considered a non one and done player, Ristic should stick around unless he gets a huge offer to play overseas.

 

[Russ Smith]

FWIW Gershon and others seem to think UCLA leads for Leaf. He released a list of 8 teams and UA is not on it.

UA is apparently now all in on Lauri Markkanen, from Finland, the dad played at UNC. He's apparently in the US now, 6'10" and while most scouting services have not seen him, someone on 247 actually has him rated slightly ahead of Leaf. Apparently did quite well in the Euro U18 event.

The downside is the primary competition for UA is UNC and Utah. UNC is where the dad played, Utah has an assistant coach on staff, Andy Hill who apparently has either known the dad or the coach in Finland for years. Same guy that found Poeltl and convinced him to go to Utah over Arizona.

 

[GatorAZ]

1. To watch the R&B game do you just record 15 hours straight on the P12 Network and hope to catch it between football games?

1. Any big name recruits gonna be at McKale?

 

[TJ]

Brandon McCoy - C 2017
Troy Brown - PG 2017
Jarred Vanderbilt - PF 2016
Lauri Markkanean - PF 2016 (very high priority)
Marvin Bagley - PF 2018(very, very, very, very, very high priority)

 

[TJ]

Speaking of Lauri:

https://twitter.com/evandaniels/status/655415211206164480


The loss of TJ Leaf made this possible. Many feel Lauri is the better prospect at PF, so this could end up as a net gain.

 

[GatorAZ]

Nice! PF is what they needed... Hopefully Ristic is a 3 year guy so we have a legit center to team him up with.

 

[overseascardfan]

I watched some YouTube clips of Markkanen yesterday, he looks EXTREMELY TALENTED with an all around game. For whatever reasons Leaf de-committed, maybe it was for the best. A lot has been made about whether Miller has lost his recruiting mojo but he makes a big statement getting Markkanen over UNC & Utah whom supposedly had the inside track.

There are still a couple of guys out there that UA is in the mix for. Mitch Lightfoot is scheduled to make a decision next week, Andrew Jones and De'Ron Davis are also still out there. The big fish that is still out there that is Josh Jackson who is the #1 player in the 2016 class that will really help a team's NC hopes next year.

 

[GatorAZ]

Don't most ppl in "the know" think he's headed to MSU? As great as it'd be to get Josh Jackson Arizona is stacked will be stacked on the wing regardless.

 

[Russ Smith]

Speaking of Lauri:

https://twitter.com/evandaniels/status/655415211206164480


The loss of TJ Leaf made this possible. Many feel Lauri is the better prospect at PF, so this could end up as a net gain.

or you could have gotten both of them like not all that long ago with Ashley and Jerrett at the same position in the same class.

I haven't seen more than video on Markkanen, very skilled, skinnier than Leaf. He's in the US now so we should get a good idea how good he is. Internet says Markkanen put up 18 and 6 for Finland in the U18's in Europe, Leaf put up 16 and 8. Markkanen played in Group A, Leaf in Group B.

They look pretty similar, from what I've read, Leaf is a better shooter, Markkanen better around the basket.

 

[Russ Smith]

Don't most ppl in "the know" think he's headed to MSU? As great as it'd be to get Josh Jackson Arizona is stacked will be stacked on the wing regardless.

The claim is his mom wants him at MSU now but the kid is still leaning towards ARizona. I think when 247's founder changed his pick to MSU that started stronger the rumors he's going there. I haven't been able to confirm but allegedly Prolific Prep(what a dumb name) hired someone on their staff that has strong Arizona ties, but that was a few months ago the MSU rumors started after that.

His recruitment is pretty interesting at one point he had UA(Nike), Kansas(Adidas) and Maryland (Under Armour) among his visits and presumed leaders so not the norm these days where kids seem to have almost their entire list with the same shoe company,

Jackson is a stud, I don't care what the rankings say he's the best prospect in the class, Giles is really good but Josh is unreal.

His mom insists they fully intend now to play a year of college.

 

[GatorAZ]

Didn't take too much away from the game but some thoughts...

Anderson and Tollefson were huge pickups. RA can score in many ways and Tollefson is so long and active that he'll make significant impact

Both York and Pitts will each get more PT than Trier, Simon or Smith this year

Allen should start at PG because of physicality alone. Is PJC allergic to the weight room?

Arizona has one of the best and deepest frontcourts in the nation. If Ristic comes back for a third year after Tarc leaves he'll be a 1st rounder

Arizona will win the P12 the next two seasons unless there's a mass exodus

 

[Russ Smith]

Didn't take too much away from the game but some thoughts...

Anderson and Tollefson were huge pickups. RA can score in many ways and Tollefson is so long and active that he'll make significant impact

Both York and Pitts will each get more PT than Trier, Simon or Smith this year

Allen should start at PG because of physicality alone. Is PJC allergic to the weight room?

Arizona has one of the best and deepest frontcourts in the nation. If Ristic comes back for a third year after Tarc leaves he'll be a 1st rounder

Arizona will win the P12 the next two seasons unless there's a mass exodus

I think UA has a great chance to win it this year, Cal has a chance if the pieces mesh and they get any PG play. next year UCLA is going to be awfully good unless they too have a mass exodus. UA only brings back Ristic, Comanche and Smith up front they're going to need more than Markannen up front.

I've been saying it for months UA's biggest strength this year is experience, they could easily start 4 seniors, their biggest question mark is PG. Allen can guard the position but not clear he's really a PG, PJC can play the position offensively, he can guard 30 feet from the bucket, but it's not clear to me he is strong enough to guard teams that post him up and run him off picks. Luckily for him this year UA is pretty long up front, especially Tarc and Tollefsen when teams take PJC inside.

Was nice to see Ray Smith get up and dunk like that the knee looks strong but he's nowhere near as good as Tollefsen right now. Simon is what I've been saying all along, great athlete, no true position offensively. Surprised at how poor Trier looked he's a better player than he showed, I expect he'll look much better in a month.

 

[overseascardfan]

The claim is his mom wants him at MSU now but the kid is still leaning towards ARizona. I think when 247's founder changed his pick to MSU that started stronger the rumors he's going there. I haven't been able to confirm but allegedly Prolific Prep(what a dumb name) hired someone on their staff that has strong Arizona ties, but that was a few months ago the MSU rumors started after that.

His recruitment is pretty interesting at one point he had UA(Nike), Kansas(Adidas) and Maryland (Under Armour) among his visits and presumed leaders so not the norm these days where kids seem to have almost their entire list with the same shoe company,

Jackson is a stud, I don't care what the rankings say he's the best prospect in the class, Giles is really good but Josh is unreal.

His mom insists they fully intend now to play a year of college.

Mom's are Miller's kryptonite.

 

[Russ Smith]

Mom's are Miller's kryptonite.

They're everyone's kryptonite but for ages it was assumed Jackson was going pro and the mom has now very clearly stated that's not the plan and never has been.

It's because there were rumors the reason he transferred was poor academics, then they submitted the transcript to the Clearinghouse before his junior year started and everyone found out he was the rare kid whose GPA was HIGHER than everyone thought, much higher. Everyone thought he was going pro and didn't have great grades, in reality he had like a 3.6 overall and 3.3 or something in core classes. Completely changed his recruitment.

The exact opposite of say Josiah Turner where a large number of teams just totally backed off when his grades were first seen as a junior.

 

[overseascardfan]

They're everyone's kryptonite but for ages it was assumed Jackson was going pro and the mom has now very clearly stated that's not the plan and never has been.

It's because there were rumors the reason he transferred was poor academics, then they submitted the transcript to the Clearinghouse before his junior year started and everyone found out he was the rare kid whose GPA was HIGHER than everyone thought, much higher. Everyone thought he was going pro and didn't have great grades, in reality he had like a 3.6 overall and 3.3 or something in core classes. Completely changed his recruitment.

The exact opposite of say Josiah Turner where a large number of teams just totally backed off when his grades were first seen as a junior.

Russ, what do you think about UA's chances of landing Deandre Ayton who just transferred to Hillcrest to play with Marvin Bagley III? Ayton is a 2017 recruit so it wouldn't exactly be a package deal but one would think this helps UA although Miller seems to be focusing on Brandon McCoy.

 

[Russ Smith]

Russ, what do you think about UA's chances of landing Deandre Ayton who just transferred to Hillcrest to play with Marvin Bagley III? Ayton is a 2017 recruit so it wouldn't exactly be a package deal but one would think this helps UA although Miller seems to be focusing on Brandon McCoy.

Virtually nobody thinks Ayton is going to play college ball. From what you hear he probably couldn't if he wanted to but then that's what everyone says about Skal Labisserie and the NCAA hasn't ruled him ineligible yet.

 

[overseascardfan]

Virtually nobody thinks Ayton is going to play college ball. From what you hear he probably couldn't if he wanted to but then that's what everyone says about Skal Labisserie and the NCAA hasn't ruled him ineligible yet.

I don't see why he just doesn't go overseas instead of a prep school so he can get paid legally.