Wild About AZ Cats

RELATED LINK: After watching this video on Deonte Burton, you can tell what Van Coleman is writing about, comparing him to Nate Robinson.

Another indication that Josh Pastner is one of the hardest working recruiters in the business — if not the hardest worker, period — he started recruiting Class of 2012 standout forward Perry Ellis of Wichita Heights High School while he was at Arizona.

Ellis, rated the No. 3 prospect in his class by Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com, has already been offered a scholarship by Pastner at Memphis. Kansas and Kentucky have reportedly offered a scholarship as well. Arizona is in the mix without Pastner considering UA director of basketball of operations Jamall Walker is from Wichita and communicates with Heights coach Joe Auer.

The Tigers and Pastner have the benefit of Ellis’ sister attending Memphis and playing for the Tigers’ women’s program. However, Savannah Ellis is a junior center with Memphis and will not be at the school by the time her younger brother is eligible.

Compton guard emerging as strong Class of 2010 recruit

Keep this name in mind: Deonte Burton of Compton (Calif.) Centennial, who is a Class of 2010 combo guard recruit who is a hot commodity all of a sudden. Coleman recently offered this analysis of Burton, who stands at 6-1 and had 40 and 38 points on consecutive nights at the recent Los Angeles Westchester Invitational:

“Burton has a lot of Nate Robinson in his style, He can flat out attack the hoop with either hand and has spring to finish in traffic at the rim. He is at his best in transition, where he can create pass as well as score. He has range to NBA arc, but tends to be a little streaky from deep, but the threat of it, lets him blow by defenders.”

He currently has been hearing from Utah, Marquette, and Long Beach State, but UCLA showed it is interested after the Westchester performances. Also, a number of other Pac-10 schools saw him at Westchester, including Arizona’s coaches.

If UA coach Sean Miller is indeed looking for an explosive talent at point guard, why not give Burton a look? The UA needs to shore up its backcourt with Wise leaving, MoMo Jones likely to play mostly off-guard and Brendon Lavender and Garland Judkins still trying to find their way in Miller’s system. UCLA has a similar need and its showing action on Burton. Arizona might be doing the same. Stay tuned.

Before I begin, did you notice that former UA player and assistant Josh Pastner has the No. 2-ranked recruiting class for the Class of 2010 at Memphis, according to Rivals.com? …

I realize this is like making a plan to win the lottery, but I thought I would put together a list of possible recruits UA coach Sean Miller and his staff will be targeting two years from now.

These players are sophomores in high school, but you can never start too early. Just ask Lute Olson, who according to Sports Illustrated offered scholarships to two different prospects before they started the eighth grade. You might recall that Nic Wise, now a senior point guard with the Wildcats, verbally committed to Olson and Pastner when he was an eighth-grader in Houston.

At least these kids are a little older, in the 10th grade, but most of them are only 15 and capable of changing their minds a zillion times. UA freshman guard Lamont “MoMo” Jones verbally committed to Louisville and Virginia Tech before signing a national letter of intent with USC. He then left the Trojans to sign with Arizona when former USC coach Tim Floyd resigned.

The Class of 2012 is extremely important to Miller and his staff as it completely transitions to his personnel. Most of the Olson holdovers will be gone after the 2011-2012 season, including Kyle Fogg, Alex Jacobson, Garland Judkins, Brendon Lavender, and D.J. Shumpert.

The Class of 2012 players are separated by region with information provided by Hoopmasters.com and Scout.com (Rivals.com does not yet list the Class of 2012 recruits and Scout.com does not have these prospects ranked as of now).

WEST
Shabazz Muhammad, SG, 6-3, 165, Las Vegas (NV). Rated the No. 1 prospect in the class by Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com.
Xavier Johnson, SF, 6-6, 175, Temecula (CA).
Winston Shepard, PF, 6-7, 190, Henderson (NV)
Gabe York, PG, 6-0, 165, Orange (CA)

EAST
Alex Murphy, SF, 6-8, 180, Southborough (MA)
Khem Birch, PF, 6-9, 180, Winchendon (MA). His teammate and potential Class of 2011 recruit Angel Nunez is trying to bring Birch along for an unofficial visit this month.

SOUTH
Winston Sheppard, SF, 6-6, 180, Sugar Land (TX)
Isaiah Austin, C, 7-0, 215, Arlington (TX)
J-Mychal Reese, PG, 6-0, 160, Brian (TX). He’s one of the eighth graders Olson offered a scholarship to as documented in the SI article.

MIDWEST
Perry Ellis, PF, 6-8, 215, Wichita (KS)

STATE OF ARIZONA 2012 PROSPECTS
Demetrius Balark, SG, 6-1, 160, Glendale Kellis
Larry Lews, SG, 6-1, 160, Phoenix Arcadia. He visited the UA unofficially during last week’s Red-Blue game.

CLASS OF 2013 IN-STATE PROSPECTS
Torren Jones, SF, 6-7, 200, Chandler Basha. The UA has offered a scholarship along with USC and Oregon State.
Maurice Kirby, C, 6-8, 215, Flagstaff. He and Jones also visited the UA last weekend unofficially.

PLEASE VISIT WILDABOUTAZCATS.com for additional information regarding Wildcat athletics. Javier can be reached at wildaboutazcats@gmail.com.