Can’t say that I’m surprised highly-touted point guard Cory Joseph did not include Arizona among his seven finalists.

Arizona got in on him late after Sean Miller was hired in April. One aspect that I’m discovering is these young players do not have a working knowledge of Miller at Xavier, other than what they saw on SportsCenter or what they read on the Internet. Like I wrote in a blog earlier this week here, that is one of the recruiting obstacles Miller faces at Arizona right now.

Of course, that will change when recruits out of the Class of 2011 and 2012 make their decision after watching Miller and his coaching staff in action this season with the Wildcats.

The bottom line is Joseph more than likely will wait until the spring signing period to make a decision, which means he was not a likely recruit for Arizona to begin with. Recruiting insiders believe Minnesota has the inside track. Joseph’s brother, Devoe Joseph, is a shooting guard with the Golden Gophers and their mother is enamored with Gophers coach Tubby Smith.

Cory Joseph was not available for comment Wednesday. His coach Mike Peck at Henderson, Nev., Findlay Prep has served as his consultant and he has been critical of how some teams have tried to push Joseph into making a decision. Peck has been protective of Joseph during the process so Joseph can concentrate on school and basketball.

His critical comment about some schools does not include Miller and his staff at Arizona. Miller is quite the opposite when it comes to recruiting and communicating with a prospect’s parents and coaches. Everybody I’ve talked to ranging from the players themselves to their parents, the consensus is Miller and his staff are upfront and understanding of these kids. Furthermore, Peck has been complimentary of how Miller presented his case about Arizona to Joseph.

Now that Joseph is apparently out of the picture, that leaves the only point guard possibilities for the UA being Ray McCallum of Detroit, Vander Blue of Madison (Wis.) and Gary Franklin of Santa Ana (Calif.).

McCallum is visiting the UA campus Oct. 30-31 and Franklin recently told Rivals.com that he wants to take an official visit to Arizona. Blue has not announced his official visits yet, but he has mentioned that Arizona is one of his five finalists.

The news about Arizona not making Joseph’s final list is a setback but plenty of recruiting is still ahead in the fall and spring periods.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 12:27 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Cory Joseph, Gary Franklin, Ray McCallum, UA recruiting Class of 2010, Vander Blue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.