Class of 2011 recruit Angel Nunez will keep his recruiting options open despite thoroughly enjoying his first trip to Tucson (Angel Nunez photo)

It is still too early for Winchendon (Mass.) Prep wing player Angel Nunez to rank Arizona as his favorite suitor even though he enjoyed his unofficial trip to Tucson on Thursday and Friday.

When told that his mentor Eric Martinez has mentioned that Arizona is the leader in his recruitment, Nunez did not agree.

“Oh no, that’s not the case,” Nunez told me late Saturday night. “I mean, I really liked my visit. I had a great time there. But I have more visits to take. I want to take some official visits after the summer and make my decision in the fall. After the summer, I should narrow my choices to the five schools (he will officially visit).”

Those reportedly recruiting Nunez include Connecticut, Syracuse, West Virginia and Louisville, among many others.

Nunez. a 6-foot-8-inch Class of 2011 wing player from Winchendon (Mass.) Prep by way of the Bronx returned home Saturday after touring the UA campus with Martinez. The trip is everything Arizona could have planned for: Perfect weather, top-notch preparation in terms of game film for Nunez to watch and a budding friendship with UA freshmen and fellow New Yorkers Lamont “MoMo” Jones and Kevin Parrom.

Moreover, UA coach Sean Miller, his assistants and some players watched the thrilling Xavier-Kansas State Sweet 16 game with Nunez on Thursday night. Miller’s imprint on the Xavier program impressed Nunez.

“Watching the game with them was a good experience,” Nunez said. “I would say it means something that Xavier went that far. It tells me the coaches know how to develop players and build a winning team.”

Nunez returned to 40-degree temperatures in Massachusetts after experiencing sunny skies in Tucson with pleasant temperatures in the 70s. He saw UA students wear t-shirts and shorts in March, a strange sight for somebody used to the seasonal weather in New York.

“The weather was real nice,” Nunez said. “I wouldn’t say it’s important, but it was nice to experience that.”

The atmosphere indoors at McKale Center was also pleasant for Nunez, especially the film session with Miller. UA assistant Book Richardson, who is also from New York, was also prevalent during Nunez’s visit. Nunez plays for the New York Gauchos AAU team, which Richardson once directed. Nunez has told me before Richardson “is like an uncle to me because he knows where I come from.”

“This is the second time I met Coach Miller in person, and I was impressed with him and the other coaches,” Nunez said. “He’s a good coach. He talked about how I can fit in with his system with my versatility. I can tell that he cares a lot about his players and that he will work hard to make that a good program.”

Scholarships might be hard to come by when Nunez will be a freshman in 2011-12. The UA’s scholarship total might be reduced one to 12 overall if the NCAA approves the school’s self-imposed sanctions for a letter signed by former coach Lute Olson requesting financial support from boosters for an elite-level tournament on the UA campus.

Jamelle Horne will be the only senior who will exhaust his eligibility before that season. Arizona already has a verbal commitment from Class of 2011 power forward prospect Sidiki Johnson of Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s Prep. Scholarships could become available, however, if a player such as Derrick Williams opts to go pro early, or if a player transfers or becomes ineligible.

Arizona’s coaches did not show concern about the scholarship total when hosting Nunez.

“They want me to come in and play,” Nunez said. “It would be a good program to play for. But I’m gonna take my time after the summer, break everything down, pick my five schools and go from there.”

Former Gilbert Highlands guard Matt Carlino, who transferred to a Bloomington, Ind., high school last year, has de-committed from Indiana (Arizona Republic photo)

Bloomington High School South junior Matt Carlino, who committed to play basketball for Indiana two years ago, reopen his recruitment Thursday, according to a report at InsideTheHall.com.

“I reopened my recruitment today,” Carlino, 6-2, wrote in a text message. “(Indiana) Coach (Tom) Crean and his staff have been great to me. However, I feel I committed too early, and although I like Indiana, I felt it would be good to explore other options.”

Carlino, an Arizona native, had offers from Arizona and Arizona State before he committed to the Hoosiers. However, that was before former UA coach Lute Olson retired and Sean Miller took over. Miller and his staff have yet to scout Carlino. Olson attempted to land the shooting guard by hiring his Arizona Premier AAU coach — Russ Pennell — in 2008.

That was about the same time that Carlino announced his verbal commitment to Indiana. He and his father, former ASU player Mark Carlino, moved to Bloomington, Ind., before this school year so the younger Carlino could play in a state that is know for its high school hoops.

Matt Carlino will be a senior next season. The Carlinos have not announced yet whether they will move back to Arizona. The Wildcats are entertaining another Class of 2011 recruit — Winchendon (Mass.) wing player Angel Nunez — in an unofficial visit through Saturday.

Kevin Porter, left, represented his good friend and former client Bison Dele at last year's Lute Olson retirement ceremony. Former UA player Joe Turner is on the right. (Kevin Porter photo)

The Discovery Channel’s investigative piece this week concerning the 2002 disappearance of former Arizona basketball player Bison Dele adds more background to the dysfunctional relationship he had with his older brother Miles Dabord.

The hour-long show also offers insight about Dele’s love interest, Serena Karlan, who perhaps at the time of the tragedy became lost behind the news of a former NBA player missing at sea since July 2002. The Discovery Channel’s production of “Dark Waters”, as part of its “Disappeared” series, is refreshing because it features as much information about Karlan’s life as it does about Dele’s existence.

Not much is reported on the life of the catamaran’s skipper, Betrand Saldo, who is presumed to have been murdered by Dabord on the boat along with Dele and Karlan. Viewers learn more of the budding relationship between Dele and Karlan, and about Dabord’s supposed jealousy of his brother and how that may have forced him into such an act. Dabord later committed suicide by taking an overdose of insulin.

The show’s producer Chris Gidez knows this story transcends basketball and his team reported it that way. Informative interviews are conducted with Dele’s manager Kevin Porter, friend Patrick Byrne, and Karlan’s best friend and mother.

People who did not know of Dele’s basketball background in the NBA or Arizona (where he was known as Brian Williams) will still be interested to watch how this story unfolds.

Look for a motion picture to be produced, Porter indicated to me Wednesday.

“My business partners and I are fielding offers from prominent movie industry investors to produce a motion picture,” said Porter, a 1988 UA grad who presently is managing director of Hollywood Lip Factory, a beauty products company based in La Jolla, Calif., and Atlanta.

Porter, who also represented former UA basketball player Khalid Reeves when Reeves signed with the Pistons in 1999, is candid in the Discovery Channel interview about his disappointment with Dabord (also known as Kevin Williams).

A Sept. 5, 2002, sting that included 19 Phoenix police officers led to Dabord’s arrest after he assumed his brother’s identity to pick up $152,000 worth of gold from a gold-coin dealer. Dabord claimed to the police that Dele and Karlan were kidnapped at sea and he was sent to retrieve the coins as ransom. He claimed that Porter knew of this, but Porter said he had no clue.

Bison Dele, known as Brian Williams during his UA career, was presumed to be dead July 7, 2002, at only 33 years old (Dele family photo)

The district attorney’s office determined that Dabord’s story was believable enough to not press charges against him at that time. They released him, much to the disgust of Porter, who followed Dabord from the police station to the airport. Porter said in the Discovery Channel interview that he approached Dabord and tried to choke him because Dabord was not forthcoming about information related to the disappearance of Dele and Karlan.

“I knew (Dabord) and Bison’s entire family while he attended the University of Arizona,” Porter told me. “I knew Miles and Bison had an off and on relationship as brothers. This was prevalent with Bison’s entire family — on a while, and then off a while longer, but always finite.

“I never in my wildest dreams would think Miles would be capable of murder. Killing four people, including himself … never. It still jolts me to this day.”

Dabord flew to Palo Alto, Calif., and convinced his girlfriend to drive him to Tijuana. During that trip, Dabord told his girlfriend that he and Dele got into a fight, which led to the tragic killings. He said that Dele accidentally punched Karlan (mistaking her for Saldo) when she tried to separate the two. Dabord said Dele’s blow killed her when she fell and her head hit a sharp object on the boat. Saldo wanted to report the death, but Dele prevented that by killing him with a wrench, according to Dabord.

In an attempt to save his life, Dabord claims he rushed inside the boat to grab a gun and he shot his brother to death. He told his girlfriend that he then tied weights to their feet and threw all three overboard.

Dabord’s girlfriend informed the FBI about his story, which was different from what he told Phoenix police. Dele’s friend, Byrne, became involved, working along with the FBI to do another sting operation in Mexico. Byrne phoned Dabord and offered to give him the ransom money in Mexico for the alleged kidnappings. All the while, the mother of Dele and Dabord knew of the proposed FBI sting. She broke down and alerted Dabord, telling people that nobody knows for sure whether her son was telling the truth or not.

After receiving the tip from his mom, Dabord left a message on her phone sobbing and saying, “I didn’t do this, mom.” A few days later, he took the overdose of insulin and slipped into a coma. He died shortly thereafter. What actually happened to Dele, Karlan and Saldo remains a mystery. Hollywood will likely try to offer its theory.

“Although ultimately the story about Bison is tragic, the need to make a movie about him and how he lived his life would be interesting for those who either didn’t really know him outside of playing the game of basketball, or simply did not fully understand why this tragedy happened,” Porter said.

One of the more interesting comments in the Discovery Channel’s documentary is Byrne saying that he was surprised that the eccentric Dele played basketball as long as he did. After he was selected as the No. 10 overall in the 1991 draft, he played eight seasons in the NBA.

After his first season in 1992, Dele passed out while driving to a workout in Orlando. He collided with a concrete support column but was not injured. He underwent neurological and cardiac tests for three days and was determined to be healthy.

Dele retired before the start of the 1999-2000 season at age 30, when he still had a few years left in him. He was the Pistons’ highest-paid player, but had strained relationships with the organization and decided to walk away from the remaining five years and $36.45 million on his contract rather than be traded.

This is a line in ESPN magazine, written by Tim Keown in 2002, three months after Dele was not heard from again:

“Since his retirement, Dele … spent several months in Beirut, where he owned a piece of a friend’s water-purification plant. He went to Europe with just a backpack. He ran with the bulls in Pamplona. He traveled extensively, and alone, in Indonesia and India. He dated Madonna. He once said the Earth was his home, and he its king. He was an adventurer, a huge man with startling green eyes, no fixed home and few obligations.”

Porter told me that Dele was “almost too smart.”

“Bison was just more than an athlete,” he said. “He was extremely intelligent and wise beyond his years. He knew that there were other ways to learn then just inside a classroom. He had an innate ability to understand anything and anyone that came his way.

“For those who knew B, he gave. He gave on every level and every level imaginable. He wanted to live and to be free. There is so many things about him that I can go on and on about but I want people to know that he was my brother and my friend. I love him deeply and I miss him even deeper.”

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