Class of 2012 forward Grant Jerrett is a significant addition for 2012-13 for Arizona but he will need help on the frontcourt (WildcatSportsReport.com photo)

Arizona’s recruiting effort among Class of 2012 talent started as well as anybody could imagine for a program still in reloading mode under second-year coach Sean Miller.

The Wildcats received a verbal commitment last Nov. 27 from LaVerne (Calif.) Lutheran power forward Grant Jerrett, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound player who plays much larger than that with a 7-foot-1-inch wingspan. He still has another season to grow and mature into an even more dominant player before he heads to Tucson.

His teammate Eric Cooper Jr. is a Class of 2013 guard who has also verbally committed to play with the Wildcats.

By the 2012-13 season, the UA should have at least three scholarship spots to fill. The Wildcats will lose three seniors (possibly four) before that season: Kyle Fogg, Brendon Lavender and Jesse Perry are the three players who should exhaust their eligibility after the 2011-12 season.

Current four-year junior Alex Jacobson has not played much this season because he is outside the UA’s 10-player rotation. It’s not certain whether Jacobson will return next season.

Miller has recruited particularly strong at the guard position in the Class of 2011 with Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep’s Nick Johnson and Winston-Salem (N.C.) Quality Education Academy’s Josiah Turner signed and ready to arrive in Tucson by July.

The Class of 2011 also includes Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy power forward Sidiki Johnson, and potentially San Diego Hoover power forward Angelo Chol, who will officially visit the UA campus on Saturday and Sunday.

Chol, 6-9, 220, will also visit Washington the weekend of Feb. 12-13 before making a decision on Feb. 17. His finalists are Arizona, Washington, Alabama, North Carolina and Kansas.

Not yet including Chol, Arizona’s 2012-13 roster composition looks like this in terms of positions (with players currently under scholarship, except for Jacobson and Derrick Williams, who might head to the NBA before his senior season):

Point guards: Turner and Jordin Mayes

Shooting guards: Nick Johnson, LaMont “MoMo” Jones and Daniel Bejarano

Small forwards: Solomon Hill and Kevin Parrom

Power forwards: Sidiki Johnson and Jerrett

Post players: Kyryl Natyazhko

Parrom — a projected senior that season along with Hill, Jones and Natyazhko — could evolve into a power forward. The position breakdown makes it obvious that Arizona is loaded on the perimeter and wing with players like Nick Johnson, Bejarano and Jones able to switch between the guard positions.

The void is on the frontcourt where Jerrett will be raw and so likely will Sidiki Johnson, who might need a year to become accustomed to the college game after missing most of this season at Oak Hill with a hairline stress fracture in his left foot.

At the post, the Wildcats will need more than Natyazhko, who could mature into a more productive player, but at the moment his playing time is dwindling. Chol’s inclusion would be very significant in making Miller’s frontcourt much more potent. Without question, Chol can have a similar impact with the Wildcats in 2012-13 as Williams is now having as a sophomore.

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Former Marana Mountain View post player Demetris Morant is working on his footwork around the basket and his jump hook as a junior at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. (Photo courtesy of AAU team Dream Vision)

This is an excerpt of a “Nothing but the Notes” package reported by Javier Morales and Anthony Gimino and published at WildcatSportsReport.com

Also: To engage in a poll and to view where Arizona and The Citadel players rate in terms of pro scouts, visit our partner site WILDABOUTAZCATS.com

LAS VEGAS — In the last two to three years, former Marana Mountain View basketball player Demetris Morant has moved from Miami to Tallahassee to Tucson and now to Las Vegas.

“Hopefully, I will be here until I graduate,” Morant, a junior forward at Bishop Gorman High School, said with a laugh Thursday after an individual workout.

Morant, a 6-foot-8-inch, 190-pound, lanky forward with a 7-foot wingspan, worked on his footwork and jump hook with a trainer away from his Gorman teammates. Morant, whose transfer papers from Mountain View recently cleared, cannot join Gorman’s team for workouts until he takes a physical next week. He moved to Las Vegas with his parents, who relocated to the area because of a job transfer.

The Gaels engaged in drills and a scrimmage together in front of college recruiters, including Memphis coach Josh Pastner, the former UA basketball and assistant coach. Pastner has extended a scholarship offer to Morant. San Diego State has also offered a scholarship. Arizona, ASU, Washington State and Utah are among others giving Morant a look.

His training session with former UNLV player Warren Rosegreen on Thursday night made it obvious that Morant’s focus is working on his post moves. After playing youth football for most of his childhood, Morant did not play organized basketball until he was a freshman in Florida.

“It’s kind of hard not staying with one team and getting to know my teammates,” he said. “My freshman year, it was my first year playing basketball, so I didn’t know what I was doing. I hardly played. Last year in Tucson I got better and became one of the best ones on the team. They depended on me.

“This year, with Gorman, I will have a lot of help.”

Most of that help will come from the UA-targeted Class of 2012 recruits Shabazz Muhammad, Rosco Allen and Ben Carter, all of whom are destined to be major college basketball players.

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Rosco Allen

LAS VEGAS — Rosco Allen received a pass on the wing during a workout session Thursday night at Bishop Gorman High School and aggressively attacked the basket past a defender like a guard, not a 6-foot-8-inch forward.

UCLA coach Ben Howland, in attendance to watch Allen and fellow Class of 2012 standout Shabazz Muhammad, is accustomed to watching Allen belie his height and handle the ball without difficulty.

What Allen did next after driving past the defender is an uncommon sight for any coach watching this generation of recruits: He laid the ball in rather than attempt a highlight-reel dunk. His father, Daniel Allen, credits that style of play to his son’s basketball development in Hungary, where the family lived regularly until moving to Las Vegas five years ago. They still own a house in Budapest and travel there often.

“The game is a little bit different there in Europe,” Daniel Allen told me. “It’s a little more physical, a little more fundamental. That’s why you’ll hardly ever see him dunk the ball. He’d rather make a three-pointer. He tells me that he’ll take three points over two any day.”

The name Dirk Nowitzki does not conjure images of a 7-foot dunking machine, although he is among the taller basketball players in the NBA. The German-born player is known for his perimeter play, including the three-point shot, because of his European background.

Rosco Allen, a Hungarian-American, who is likely to grow to at least 6-10 by the time he graduates from Gorman in two years, embodies some of the same characteristics as Nowitzki on the court.

“Working from the wing, I feel most comfortable,” the younger Allen said. “I know I can post up if I have to, or if there is a smaller player on me. Being able to play inside and out has helped me become a better basketball player.

“Growing up in Hungary helped me because all I did there was play point guard.”

Since he was a freshman at Gorman, Allen said he has grown seven inches. The growth spurt has not hindered his coordination.

“I think he is still growing,” the elder Allen said. “You look at him, and he’s still just a kid. The weight will come (he is listed at 205 pounds). He’ll find it somehow, especially with colleges like Arizona that have a great weight-training facility.

“The Arizona coaches have told us that they have kids come in and they put 15 to 20 pounds on them. That’s something that will definitely be good for Rosco’s stature.”

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