UA’s lone Class of 2010 recruit to date, Daniel Bejarano of Phoenix North, knows what’s in store from ASU fans this week as Arizona prepares for Saturday’s game at Tempe.

“I know I’ll be hearing a bunch of nonsense, but I’m ready for it,” Bejarano said. “I’m actually going to try to make it. This game is pretty big to me. It’s very big to our team (Arizona) and I think we will come out on top.”

Bejarano, a shooting guard who should enhance Arizona’s three-point production as early as next year, said he does not hate ASU, but he carries hard feelings after the way the Sun Devils’ coaching staff pulled a scholarship offer from him during his recruitment.

ASU coach Herb Sendek and his staff reportedly did not like how Bejarano questioned their style of coaching on offense. They wanted to pull the scholarship before Bejarano had a chance to reject them after officially visiting Arizona that week.

“What they did to me toward the end was wrong,” Bejarano said. “My mom cried. She cried because she thought I deserved better than that. The same goes for what happened at Texas. She cried then, too. I deserved better than that.”

Bejarano committed to Texas last year, but reneged on that commitment after Longhorns coach Rick Barnes continued to recruit players at his position for the Class of 2010. Bejarano opened his recruitment to ASU and Arizona because he wanted to stay in-state to allow his mother to attend games.

UA coach Sean Miller was in Bejarano’s house the day after the guard announced he de-committed from Texas. Freshman center Kyryl Natyazhko was also recruited by ASU but decided on Arizona because of his recruitment by Miller and assistant James Whitford when they were at Xavier.

“Everything worked out in the end because I will be playing for Coach Miller in a program that will be on the rise again,” Bejarano said. “I know that when I hit Arizona, I’ll get even more of a sense of hating ASU, more than I do now. I know their people are talking nonsense about me right now, but that’s all a part of it (the rivalry).

“It’s funny how I went from being this great player according to them when I was being recruited by ASU, to all of sudden being this bad player. I was this great guy when I was on their side, but now they talk about me like I can’t play the game.”

Unfortunately for him, Bejarano can not play in the game Saturday. But he believes the Wildcats will do just fine, despite their five-game losing streak to their arch-rivals.

“I’ve watched as much of our games as possible, and I’ve also watched some of ASU’s games before changing the channel after a couple of minutes,” Bejarano said. “From what I can tell, our inside game can beat their inside game. I mean, how is (Eric) Boateng going to hang with Derrick Williams?

“The teams have opposite strengths. ASU might shoot better from the outside, but if we can attack the basket and pound it inside, good things can happen.”

Bejarano should help to balance those strengths in future years with his shooting ability. He is making 42 percent (46 for 109) of his three-pointers with North and is averaging 19.7 points per game. Symbolic of his teamwork, Bejarano averages 4.8 assists a game. He also averages 6.5 rebounds per game.

He becomes frustrated watching the Cats shoot from the perimeter, particularly his good friend Brendon Lavender, who hails from Mesa and will play in his hometown Saturday. Lavender was labeled by Miller as the UA’s best perimeter shooter entering the season, but Lavender is shooting 26.3 percent from three-point range (10 of 38).

“The biggest thing with me is what’s going on with B-Lav,” Bejarano said. “He lacks confidence in his shot it looks like. Shooting is an art, and it’s all about confidence. I know he can shoot. I haven’t called him or talked to him because I don’t want to interfere. I’m probably going down there for the next game, definitely the Cal game (Jan. 31) and I will talk to him at that time. If he starts shooting like he can, that would make that team more dangerous.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 1:02 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Class 2010 recruiting, Daniel Bejarano, Sean Miller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.