If Terrence Jones of Portland (Ore.) Jefferson actually plays at Kentucky, it would be a significant downer for the Pac-10

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

THOSE WHO GOT AWAY

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

TWENTY OFFSEASON PAC-10 TRANSFERS

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

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar thought he had Portland Jefferson (Ore.) forward Terrence Jones signed and delivered Friday but he must continue to wait to see if Jones goes to Kentucky instead (Photo by US Presswire/Joe Nicholson)

Arizona and Washington have experienced unsettling recruiting developments in the last week and I am certain head coaches — directly involved or not — are outraged and dumbfounded.

Imagine how many times Washington coach Lorenzo Romar has tossed and turned the last few days thinking about what Kentucky coach John Calipari will do next in the recruitment of Portland (Ore.) Jefferson superstar Terrence Jones.

Arizona coach Sean Miller and UConn coach Jim Calhoun are faced with the reality that a promising recruit chose to attend a prep school instead of join their storied programs. If that’s not a slap to the face of what they have accomplished in their careers, it is at least a turn of a cold shoulder.

It is not as though Manhattan (N.Y.) Rice High School forward Kadeem Jack only had the option of playing for Robert Morris or William & Mary. If that was the case, spending a year in prep school to develop further and become noticed by higher profile programs is understandable. However, passing up Arizona, UConn, Miami and Arkansas for South Kent (Conn.) Prep School?

Give the kid credit for doing what he wants and wish him the best of luck — after all, it’s his life — but nothing is wrong with questioning the move. Why not redshirt at a Division I program to develop further with four years of eligibility remaining afterward instead of attending a prep school, with less competition in practice and games, and then have only three years of eligibility?

Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist Frank Burlison, who has covered recruiting longer than these recruits have been alive, wrote yesterday that he has now seen everything with the bizarre Jones development.

What’s next? The recruit gathering the press, family and friends at a gym and noting that if he makes a 25-foot jump shot he’ll play for Kansas, or if he misses he’s bound for Kentucky? Don’t laugh. Anything is possible these days. ESPN might televise it with the College Gameday crew on hand.

Why hold a press conference to announce your college decision, as Jones did Friday, only to hedge a few minutes later after a reported conversation over the phone with Calipari? What purpose did Jones taking part in the press conference serve?

The preceding announcements of his Jefferson teammates that they were bound to play football at Texas Southern or basketball at Idaho were far more enriching than Jones sitting behind six college caps, not sure why he had to pick one while wearing a suit.

His teammate Terrence Ross, a Top 50 recruit according to Rivals.com, showed up wearing Washington garb with his Husky cap on sideways. That’s a 17 year old being a 17 year old. How refreshing.

Calipari says he does not put pressure on recruits who have committed elsewhere. He was quoted in the Lexington Herald-Leader as saying, “If he’s made a verbal commitment, we just lay off until the kid publicly de-commits, which has happened before. If he’s committed to a school, then I would not (contact the recruit). There’s no rule against it, there’s no law against it. I just don’t do it.”

Read between the lines: He lays off until the recruit publicly de-commits. What if the kid has not publicly de-committed, then he is fair game? Why not? There’s no rule against it. There’s no law against it.

You can bet the terms of Calipari’s rich contract that he has not given up on Jones, despite the fact that the 6-8 forward placed that Washington cap on his head and said he has wanted to be Ross’ teammate since they were in the eighth grade.

The argument can be made that Calipari is doing what he feels is best for his program. If you were in his position, would losing a 5-star, surefire prospect, sit well with you without putting up a fight first? Kentucky should expect Calipari to behave in this manner because he was hired to win national championships. You don’t win by being passive.

But a line must be drawn when a recruit has clearly made his choice in front of almost 30,000 Internet viewers, not to mention while sitting next to his mother and father, who have endured the recruiting process as much as their son. With his indecision now, the agony continues and the development becomes more of a circus. Nobody has anything to gain from that.

By all indications, Miller has a track record of not meddling with recruits who have announced they are headed elsewhere. After his hire at Arizona, Miller steered clear of Kevin Parrom, who signed a national letter of intent with Xavier. He allowed Parrom to make up his mind about gaining a release from his letter after meeting with new Xavier coach Chris Mack.

“There will never be any of that (recruiting players he left at Xavier), and it’s just a matter of us moving forward,” Miller said at his introductory press conference at Arizona last April. “We’re a long way from Cincinnati now, so I’m looking forward to moving on to that next chapter.”

Miller reportedly contacted the coaches and mentors of Phoenix North guard Daniel Bejarano and Santa Rita guard Terrell Stoglin upon his arrival in Tucson, but the conversation was along the lines of, “If your guy decides to re-open his recruitment, keep us in mind.” Bejarano was committed to Texas and Stoglin to Maryland. Nobody has indicated that Miller actively pursued these players before the prospect publicly de-committed.

As it turned out, Bejarano de-committed and Miller instantly recruited him after Bejarano reached out to him, not vice-versa. Stoglin stuck to his commitment and signed with the Terrapins despite being the hometown kid. If Calipari was the coach at Arizona, would Stoglin have similarly been left alone? That’s debatable. Coaches are different and recruit in different manners.

Which style is preferable? The kind that lets things be out of respect to the university that gained the commitment from the prospect? Or the kind that won’t give up until the prospect signs on the dotted line?

Jack essentially has committed to attend South Kent next year. If you were Miller, do you back off out of respect for the youngster and his mother? Would Calipari handle the matter the same way?

Ethically and morally, there is no doubt which approach is more correct, but these days that might not matter.

RELATED TOPIC: Check out a poll at WILDABOUTAZCATS.com that asks, “Is Terrence Jones’ signing with Washington a good thing for the Pac-10?”

Portland Jefferson forward Terrence Jones became the eighth Top 50 recruit from the Pac-10 region to announce he would sign with Washington since 2003 (Terrence Jones photo)

Another top-notch recruit from Oregon — Portland Jefferson High School forward Terrence Jones — is going somewhere other than Arizona, which makes UA followers long for the days of Damon Stoudamire, Salim Stoudamire, and, yes, even Chris Rodgers leaving the Pacific northwest for Tucson.

At least Jones, rated the No. 13 prospect by Rivals.com, is staying in the Pac-10 region. He announced this afternoon that he will be headed for Washington, joining high school teammate Terrence Ross, who is rated No. 48 by Rivals.com.

Since Sean Miller and assistant coach Book Richardson arrived in Arizona last April, the Wildcats’ recruiting success includes New York more than Oregon or Washington.

Miller has signed two New Yorkers (because of Richardson’s AAU background there): Kevin Parrom and Lamont “MoMo” Jones, with more potentially on the way in 2011 with Sidiki Johnson and Angel Nunez. Because of this, the general misnomer is Miller is going after East coast players more than West coast talent.

In his almost 13 months on the job at Arizona, Miller has signed eight players, three of whom are from southern California — Derrick Williams, Solomon Hill and Jordin Mayes — and another from Arizona (Daniel Bejarano). The West coast presence is still there. UA loyalists, however, recall the days when Lute Olson made the Wildcats a regional power by attracting talent from Oregon and Washington in addition to the Los Angeles area.

Some of Olson’s best players came from Washington (Jason Terry and Michael Dickerson) and Oregon (the Stoudamires). Rodgers had his struggles at Arizona, but he was named the Portland Interscholastic League Player of the Year in 2002 and he played in the Jordan Brand Capital Classic in Washington, D.C., along with fellow UA teammates Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala.

Marcus Willliams, a standout from Seattle Roosevelt High School, also attended Arizona, although he left prematurely to the NBA after averaging 16.6 points and 6.7 rebounds a game as a sophomore in 2006-07.

Before his leave of absence and retirement rocked the program, Olson was set to sign Tacoma 5-Star prospect Abdul Gaddy and Portland prospect Mike Moser, but they went elsewhere with Olson no longer around.

Miller and his brother, assistant coach Archie Miller, recruited Jones after they arrived in Tucson last year. One of their first in-home visits in September was with Jones and his mother Linda Mashia-Jones.

Shortly after Concord (Mass.) Middlesex player Rod Odom, who also plays forward, verbally committed to Arizona in October, Jones and his mother backed away from Arizona. “I guess you could say their focus has shifted and their needs have changed in regards to Terrence,” Mashia-Jones told me at the time.

After the jump: More information about West coast prospects and Pac-10 schools, plus a chart detailing where the regional prospects have gone since 2003:

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