Class of 2011 standout post player Angelo Chol has a difficult decision ahead with having to choose between traditionally strong programs in North Carolina, Kansas and Arizona (USA Basketball photo)

Some may argue the last time Arizona challenged Kansas and North Carolina for such a major prize the Wildcats took home the 1997 national championship.

That’s when the UA made history by beating consecutive No. 1 seeds Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky to win the title.

San Diego Hoover High School coach Ollie Goulston announced Tuesday night that his star player, post player Angelo Chol, eliminated Washington and Alabama from consideration and that Arizona, North Carolina and Kansas remain in contention for the Class of 2011 coveted recruit.

Should landing Chol — beating traditional powers North Carolina and Kansas in the process for his services — be mentioned in the same breath as what happened 14 years ago?

That’s debatable, but signing Chol would be a significant development for second-year coach Sean Miller to get Arizona thinking about another feat like what happened in 1997.

Chol, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound, athletic interior player from Sudan, would significantly enhance Arizona’s defensive presence inside heading into the 2011-12 season. He set the all-time national prep record for blocked shots in a season with 337 in 35 games as a sophomore at Hoover in 2008-09.

To go with that aggressive style of defense, Chol is making strides with his footwork on the blocks offensively. He scored 29 points Tuesday to lead Hoover to the San Diego Section Eastern League title (the school’s fourth consecutive league championship) by defeating San Diego High School 69-53. He now has 1,990 points in his Hoover career.

While Arizona and its fans can think of the many ways Chol can contribute to the Wildcats, so too are the Jayhawk and Tar Heel faithful.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams and Kansas coach Bill Self have pressing needs similar to Miller in terms of their interior presence heading into next season.

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Arizona's Class of 2011 signee Josiah Turner is a pass-first point guard, which is uncommon these days, according to Sean Miller (Turner photo)

Josiah Turner‘s new coach, Isaac Pitts, told the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal last week that the transfer of the Arizona signee from Sacramento High School is “not a basketball move.”

Turner, one of the higher rated Class of 2011 point guards by recruiting services, started classes at Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem on Jan. 24, less than a week after moving from Sacramento. He left that school following a reported rift with coach Derek Swafford. According to the Sacramento Bee, Turner tried to return to the Sacramento team but Swafford dismissed him for missing practices and games without permission.

Pitts, who instantly inherits a McDonald’s All-American candidate, told the Journal that Turner made the move for his schoolwork.

“He just wanted a change of atmosphere and to get to a place where he could concentrate academically,” Pitts said.

QEA (17-4) won two games over the weekend with Turner, a 6-foot-3-inch playmaker, in the lineup. He scored a team-high 17 in his debut last Friday with the Fighting Pharaohs in their 74-59 win over Upper Room Christian Academy on Friday.

Only one other QEA player is nominated to be a McDonald’s All-American — Sir’Dominic Pointer, a 6-5 wing player who has signed with St. John’s. The 2011 selections for the game, to be played March 30 in Chicago, should be announced by the end of next week.

Turner’s summer AAU teammate and fellow UA signee Nick Johnson of Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep is also a McDonald’s nominee, as is the Wildcats’ other Class of 2011 signee, Sidiki Johnson of Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy.

Joining them is Arizona Class of 2011 target Angelo Chol of San Diego Hoover High School. Chol, a 6-9 post player, completed an official visit to Arizona last weekend and will visit Washington next weekend before making a decision.

Arizona coach Sean Miller, who has told the Tucson media that Turner’s situation (transferring from Sacramento to QEA) will work itself out, commented about Turner’s skills during Tuesday’s Pac-10 media teleconference.

“There is a couple of striking things that really stand out when you watch Josiah,” Miller said. “No. 1 is his size. Physically, he’s 6-foot-3 and a guy who has not lifted a lot of weights. He’s a young person. He’s 190 pounds coming in.

“When you look at how big physically he is, he looks like some of those point guards who really not only do well in college but leave college and play beyond that. He really does have that going for him. I also think he has the making of a really good defender.”

Miller added that Turner is a throwback to the kind of point guard who tries to incorporate his teammates more than look for his shot.

“He’s a pass-first point guard,” Miller said. “That really is kind of a lost art. Sometimes when you look around the country at the way a lot of guys play, very few of them really think pass first and have that high-assist mentality. Josiah can be that guy for us.”

San Diego Hoover High School has a history of mentoring athletes and preparing them for the next level as a scout and coach over the last two decades (Photo courtesy of Hoover High School)

RELATED LINKS:
>> Distance not a factor in Chol’s recruitment, coach says
>> Check out a recent YouTube video of Chol that shows how far he’s progressed on the offensive end

San Diego Hoover High School coach Ollie Goulston is intelligent and thorough enough to guide a touted prospect the right way in the recruiting process, not because he is an Ivy League grad, but he knows of the different elements that permeate youth basketball these days.

“My rule is there are no hangers-on allowed on the Hoover campus,” Goulston told me, bluntly, Monday night. “If that happens, the player is not on my team.”

Goulston, who played baseball at Dartmouth and later served as the San Diego Padres’ assistant director of scouting and player development from 1992-94, has taken on the responsibility of guiding his star player, Class of 2011 post player Angelo Chol, during the recruiting process.

Goulston said Chol, nor his father, who works in the meat packing business in San Diego, required him to provide help in gathering information about his primary suitors — Arizona, Washington, Alabama, Kansas and North Carolina. Goulston said he stepped in because he has two decades of experience with the scouting and recruiting phase, with the Padres and as a youth basketball coach.

Angelo Chol, a Sudan native who became a U.S. citizen last June, represented Team USA in the Youth Olympic Games last year in Singapore (Team USA photo)

“For the last 19 years I’ve been around players who have advanced to college, some to the NBA, so I am familiar with what this process is all about,” said Goulston, who coached Arizona senior Jamelle Horne at Hoover during his first season as head coach there in 2004-05, when Horne was a sophomore.

A public high school coach taking an interest in his star player’s future is somewhat of a throwback these days. Traveling-club coaches are becoming more instrumental in a player’s recruitment. Summer-time AAU tournaments have more relevance in terms of college coaches scouting top-flight competition than a high school state tournament.

That puts more influence in the hands of traveling-club coaches and others associated with them (i.e. shoe and athletic apparel representatives).

“I am very close with Angelo,” said Goulston, who toured the Arizona campus with Chol (6-9, 215) during an official visit last weekend. “This is a very important time for him. We’re in the information-gathering process. That’s where I can help.

“The only way he could make the best decision for his future is to gather all that information about every school. Some players don’t take the time to think things through and that’s why you’re seeing a lot of transfers because players are committing too early.”

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