True to his coaching philosophy of not limiting a player to a certain position, Arizona coach Sean Miller really is not focusing on one position as he tries to secure at least two recruits for the Class of 2010.

Throughout the summer evaluation period, and now in the thick of the fall recruiting season with visits on-campus by the players and in-home by the coaches, we have learned that Miller is targeting the best possible athlete regardless of position.

The argument can be made that Miller’s most obvious needs, when looking at the 2009-10 roster, include point guard, shooting guard and power forward. The point guard position is probably the one position where the recruit is potentially limited to only being the playmaker. The shooting guards Miller is targeting can also play the point, and if necessary, on the wing. The power forward prospects can post up but also extend to the perimeter, thereby causing matchup problems for opponents.

Here is a look at these positions with a breakdown of why they are the glaring needs for the Wildcats heading into the 2010-11 season.

POINT GUARD

Nic Wise will exhaust his eligibility at the end of the season. Sophomores Brandon Lavender and Garland Judkins will likely back up Wise, as will freshman Lamont “MoMo” Jones, who has been one of  the more impressive players in uncontrolled scrimmages between the players. Lavender and Judkins are holdovers  from the Lute Olson regime. Jones is a Miller recruit. Miller and assistant coach Book Richardson know more about Jones. Although Jones played mostly point guard for Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy, leading that team to a 46-game winning streak, recruiting analysts see him as being more of a shooting guard. So with the unknown of how Lavender and Judkins will play in an unfamiliar system and Jones’ skills more suited for the No. 2 (off-guard position) despite is his 6-foot height, Miller and his staff are looking for point-guard reinforcements.

The likely candidates: Detroit Country Day School phenom Ray McCallum, who is a four-star recruit, ranked No. 60 overall among Class of 2010 prospects by Rivals.com; and Henderson (NV) Findlay Prep sensation Cory Joseph (who is a five-star recruit and rated No. 7 overall). Other potential playmaker recruits include Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei’s Gary Franklin, a former summer-AAU teammate of current UA player Solomon Hill, and Madison (WI) Memorial’s Vander Blue. Franklin is rated the 72nd-best  prospect as a four-star player, while Blue is a five-star recruit and No. 6 overall.

Potential leader of the group: McCallum, who will officially visit the UA when the Wildcats play their annual Red-Blue game the weekend of Oct. 30-31. Miller and his brother Archie Miller watched Joseph workout for  the second time earlier this week in Las Vegas. Miller had an in-home visit with Franklin last Sunday. Blue is strongly considering the UA as well, but no word of an official visit has been reported as of yet.

SHOOTING GUARD

Arizona’s potential starter at shooting guard this season is sophomore Kyle Fogg, who played very well especially for a freshman the first two-thirds of the 2008-09 season. He looked like a certain Pac-10 All-Freshman team selection, but then he hit a snag, struggling with his shot and failing to score. Fogg’s defense was at least consistently sound. Fogg is not a shooter with a classic form from the perimeter, however. The other potential No. 2 players include Hill (although he’s more dynamic as an inside-outside threat at the wing position), Jones and either Lavender or Judkins. They all can shoot well from the outside, but they are not classic shooters, meaning they have the form and scoring ability of a Steve Kerr or Miles Simon.

The likely candidates: Oak Hill’s Doron Lamb, a five-star recruited rated No. 21 overall by Rivals.com, or Trey Zeigler, of Mount Pleasant (MI) High School. Zeigler is the No. 26 prospect and a four-star recruit. Both players can handle the point and shoot the ball from the outside. I have yet  to see Lamb in person, but what I saw of Zeigler during the summer evaluation period in Las Vegas made me very impressed. He’s a gamer, a guy who hates to lose and he will sacrifice his body for strong moves to the basket and dives after loose balls. Both are pure shooters. Lamb is so smooth with his jumper and quick enough to keep defenders off-balance, from what I’ve seen on film.

Potential leader of the group: Lamb, who has been visited twice at his Oak Hill residency by Miller and Richardson. Lamb nor Zeigler have announced their intention of taking an official visit to Arizona, however. Expect word of that by next week from Lamb. Zeigler is a good friend of McCallum, being that they are from Michigan, but he has not announced he will visit Tucson with his buddy.

POWER FORWARD (FRONTCOURT)

When the 2010-11 season rolls around the only true power forward on the team will be senior Jamelle Horne. Class of 2011 recruit Sidiki Johnson, who might be the best player of New York City for his class by the time he graduates, will join the Wildcats the following year. In order to bolster the froncourt at the No. 4 position, Miller is trying to land a high-quality player to not only push Horne but also Johnson. Strong competition makes the player and the team a whole lot better.

The likely candidates: Terrence Jones of Portland (OR) Jefferson, who is a five-star player rated No. 13 overall; Adreian Payne of Dayton (OH) Jefferson, who projects to be a center (5-star recruit, No. 20 overall) but can also play the power forward position; and Alex Kirk of Los Alamos (NM), who has taken an unofficial visit to the UA campus and will make an official trip this weekend. Kirk’s grandmother lives in Green Valley. Kirk (3-star  recruit, No. 109 overall) grew up an Arizona fan.

Potential leader of the group: Based on visits, Kirk, who is also being recruited by Texas, Minnesota, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, USC, Maryland, West Virginia and New Mexico. He already took an official trip to see what the Lobos had to offer and he did not commit afterward. Although Kirk does not project as highly as Jones and Payne, he is a coveted recruit (ASU, among others, has offered a scholarship). He certainly can challenge Horne, Kyryl Natyazhko and Alex Jacobson in practice and add more needed depth at the Nos. 4 and 5 positions. Jones would be a dream get — the Millers have an in-home visit set up for Thursday. Payne is officially visiting the UA campus the weekend of Oct. 9-10.

Arizona just completed an official visit with Concord (Mass.) Middlesex wing player Rod Odom, who will visit Harvard this week and Boston College the following week. Odom does not fall into any of these position categories, although he told me at WILDABOUTAZCATS.com that he could play shooting guard at Arizona. Odom, a four-star recruit and No. 88-rated player overall, is another example of a player Miller targets that is not limited to one position. He could play the power forward position as he grows (he currently is 6-8, 200 pounds).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Adreian Payne, Alex Kirk, Archie Miller, Book Richardson, Cory Joseph, Doron Lamb, Gary Franklin, Ray McCallum, Sean Miller, Terrence Jones, Trey Zeigler, Vander Blue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.