The next time a recruit announces he will sign with Washington, rest assured coach Lorenzo Romar will see to it that the prospect actually brings along a national letter of intent.

Portland (Ore.) Jefferson forward Terrence Jones, a top-flight member of the Class of 2010, went back on his commitment to Washington last month by signing a financial-aid agreement Wednesday with Kentucky (as was reported to likely happen here Tuesday).

The agreement is non-binding, meaning that Jones can sign with Washington instead and his eligibility status will not be affected. However, as long as Kentucky coach John Calipari is in Lexington, Jones should be right there with him.

“I felt like they (Kentucky) played a better schedule and had a lot better team,” Jones told the Oregonian.

This is horrible news for the Pac-10, which needed an image boost after none of its teams were ranked in the AP Top 25 at the end of the season. It adds to other negative off-season developments, such as 20 scholarship players from a year ago leaving their respective Pac-10 institutions prematurely, and the embarrassing time-consuming replacement of fired Oregon coach Ernie Kent.

Calipari has now snagged two Five-Star recruits who announced they would attend Washington: Jones and forward Enes Kanter, a Turkey native who played last year in Pac-10 country at Stone Ridge Prep in Merced, Calif.

UA coach Sean Miller talked indirectly about Jones’ drawn-out decision during Tuesday’s spring-signing period wrapup press conference at McKale Center.

“That amazes me,” said Miller, who took part in an in-home visit with Jones early in the recruiting process. “That’s not healthy for college basketball. … There’s so much information out there to make a good decision.”

Jones’ likely departure from Pac-10 country for Lexington, along with Kanter, means two Five-Star recruits will leave the region in consecutive years. Last year, two of the top 10 rated players by Rivals.com from Pac-10 locales went elsewhere — Los Angeles Dominguez High School foward Jordan Hamilton (No. 6) with Texas and Moreno Valley (Calif.) Rancho Verde guard Michael Snaer (No. 7) with Florida State.

Kanter is rated No. 3 by Rivals.com, while Jones is ranked No. 13.

CLASS OF 2010 PAC-10 RECRUITS

Rivals.com’s Top 150 rankings listed

NO.	PLAYER	LOCATION	POS.	STARS	HT.	WT.	CHOICE
23	Josh Smith	Covington, Wash. Kentwood	C	*****	6-10	270	UCLA
25	Dwight Powell	Bradenton, Fla. IMG Academy	PF	*****	6-9	215	Stanford
27	Keala King	Compton, Calif. Mater Dei	G	*****	6-5	200	ASU
41	Tyler Lamb	Santa Ana, Calif. Mater Dei	G	****	6-3	195	UCLA
48	Terrence Ross	Portland, Ore. Jefferson	SG	****	6-5	180	Washington
65	Anthony Brown	Huntington Beach, Calif. Ocean View	SG	****	6-6	180	Stanford
69	Allen Crabbe	Los Angeles Price	SG	***	6-4	165	Cal
75	Daniel Bejarano	Phoenix North	SG	****	6-5	200	Arizona
78	Gary Franklin	Santa Ana, Calif. Mater Dei	PG	****	6-2	180	Cal
97	Bryce Jones	Woodland Hills, Calif. Taft	SG	***	6-4	175	USC
109	Richard Solomon	Torrance, Calif. Bishop Montgomery	F	****	6-8	210	Cal
113	Jordin Mayes	Los Angeles Westchester	PG	***	6-1	170	Arizona
143	Ahmad Starks	Chicago Whitney Young	PG	***	5-8	145	Oregon St.

THOSE WHO GOT AWAY

Rivals.com’s Top 150 players who left Pac-10 locales for other schools

NO.	PLAYER	LOCATION	POS.	STARS	HT.	WT.	CHOICE
3	Enes Kanter	Merced, Calif. Stone Ridge Prep	F	*****	6-9	240	Kentucky
13	Terrence Jones	Portland, Ore. Jefferson	F	*****	6-9	220	Kentucky
108	James Johnson	Wildomar, Calif. Elsinore	PF	****	6-9	220	Virginia
119	Joe Harris	Chelan, Wash. Chelan	SG	***	6-5	200	Virginia
120	Royce Woolridge	Phoenix Sunnyslope	SG	***	6-3	175	Kansas
125	Terrell Stoglin	Tucson Santa Rita	PG	***	6-1	160	Maryland
133	Kyle Fuller	Moreno Valley, Calif. Rancho Verde	PG	***	6-1	190	Vanderbilt

TWENTY OFFSEASON PAC-10 TRANSFERS

PLAYER	TEAM	CLASS	POS.	HT.	WT.	’09-’10 STATS
Drew Gordon**	UCLA	Soph.	PF	6-9	230	11.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg
Leonard Washington*	USC	Soph.	PF	6-7	230	6.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg
Elston Turner	Wash.	Soph.	SG	6-4	205	5.5 ppg, 1.9 rpg
Matt Humphrey	Oregon	Soph.	PG	6-5	185	5.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg
Amandi Omoke*	Cal	Soph.	PF	6-7	225	4.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg
Xavier Thames	WSU	Fr.	PG	6-3	186	4.6 ppg, 1.2 apg
Demetrius Walker	ASU	Fr.	SG	6-2	195	4.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg
Victor Rudd	ASU	Fr.	SF	6-7	207	2.5 ppg, 1.1 rpg
D.J. Seeley	Cal	Soph.	SG	6-4	195	2.4 ppg, 1.4 rpg
Taylor Rohde	ASU	Soph.	PF	6-8	235	2.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg
Drew Wiley	Oregon	Soph.	F	6-7	210	2.2 ppg, 0.7 rpg
J’mison Morgan*	UCLA	Soph.	C	6-10	245	1.9 ppg, 1.3 rpg
Clarence Trent	Wash.	Fr.	SF	6-5	225	1.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg
Michael Harthun	WSU	Soph.	SG	6-3	181	1.7 ppg, 0.9 rpg
Josh Crittle	Oregon	Soph.	PF	6-8	250	1.4 ppg, 1.1 rpg
Garland Judkins**	Arizona	Soph.	SG	6-3	200	1.2 ppg, 0.7 rpg
Brandon Thompson	ASU	Fr.	PG	6-0	180	0.7 ppg, 0.3 apg
Mike Moser	UCLA	Fr.	SF	6-8	195	0.6 ppg, 0.5 rpg
D.J. Shumpert	Arizona	Soph.	SF	6-7	190	0.2 ppg, 0.7 rpg
Anthony Brown	WSU	Fr.	SG	6-4	206	0.0 ppg, 0.7 rpg

* — Dismissed from team
** — Announced transfer before start of spring semester

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 3:15 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Class of 2010 recruits, John Calipari, Kentucky, Pac-10, Sean Miller, Terrence Jones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.