With Carson and Johnson on display today, state has rarely had finer moment
Saturday, January 19th, 2013This is an example of what you will find at Javier Morales’ Web site: WILDABOUTAZCATS.net
The Class of 2011 recruiting year was unlike most in the Arizona-Arizona State basketball rivalry, dating all the way back to 1978 when Pueblo High School star Lafayette “Fat” Lever decided to attend ASU instead of going to Colorado or San Diego State.
Lafayette Lever signed with ASU out of Pueblo without much recruiting resistance from Arizona’s Fred Snowden
Nick Johnson and Jahii Carson, each top-flight recruits from the Phoenix area, were both recruited by Arizona. Carson, from Mesa High School, made that recruiting year unique by committing to ASU on Aug. 20, 2010. Since Lute Olson came to Tucson in 1983, the Wildcats generally have signed the top recruits from the Valley of the Sun.
Johnson, who attended Gilbert Highland for two years before transferring to Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep as a junior, verbally committed to Arizona two days before Carson announced his decision. The Wildcats recruited Carson during the 2010 AAU summer tournaments, but coach Sean Miller had his sights on Josiah Turner at point guard in that recruiting class.
Carson did not want to wait for Turner to decide (Turner eventually committed to Arizona on Sept. 18, 2010). Carson became Herb Sendek’s most substantial recruit from Arizona. Corey Hawkins, the state’s career leading scorer from Goodyear Estrella Foothills, is nowhere close in talent. He is now with UC-Davis after one season with the Sun Devils.
Carson is the Sun Devils’ most touted in-state recruit since Lever graduated from Pueblo in 1978 and played for Ned Wulk‘s talent-laden teams at ASU.
Former ASU forward Chad Prewitt, a Phoenix Greenway product, excelled with the Sun Devils, earning All-Pac-10 honors as a senior in 2001-02. When Prewitt graduated from Greenway in 1998, however, Olson picked up the top recruit in the state — Richard Jefferson from Phoenix Moon Valley.
When Lever signed with ASU in 1978, the Sun Devils’ program was more appealing than Arizona’s because Fred Snowden started to decline after coaching the Wildcats to the 1976 Elite Eight. Wulk’s teams featured the likes of Lever, Lionel Hollins, Byron Scott, Mark Landsberger, Alton Lister, Kurt Nimphius and Sam Williams in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s.
