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Arizona basketball recruits left off McDonald’s All-American team

Nick Johnson. ESPN3 screenshot

None of Arizona’s basketball recruits was selected to the prestigious McDonald’s All-American team, released Thursday.

Nick Johnson, an athletic guard from Findlay Prep in Las Vegas, was considered a strong possibility to become the first Arizona signee since 2007 (see list below) to be selected to the 24-player team.

(Dave Telep, a senior recruiting analyst for ESPN.com, tweeted that Johnson was among his top four omissions from the team.)

(Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News tweeted: “McDonald’s All-America team is a joke. Arizona-bound Nick Johnson was one of the 3 best players in 3 different events I saw last summer.”)

Asked Wednesday if he thought any of his recruits had a chance to make the team, Arizona coach Sean Miller said, “I don’t know. I’ll tell you this, if they don’t make it, there are going to be some real unheralded guys play well at Arizona.”

Johnson is part of a three-player recruiting class that includes point guard Josiah Turner and post player Sidiki Johnson.

Turner, who is rated the 10th-best prospect in the country by Rivals.com, might have otherwise made the McDonald’s All-American team if not for a tumultuous senior season in which he transferred last month from Sacramento (Calif.) High School to Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sidiki Johnson missed the first 16 games with Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy because of a hairline stress fracture in his foot.

The Wildcats are still pursuing post player Angelo Chol from San Diego’s Hoover High School. He is expected to announce his decision next Thursday.

The last Arizona recruit to honored as a McDonald’s All-American is guard Jerryd Bayless in 2007.

Here is the list of McDonald’s All-Americans to sign with Arizona, including four transfers:

2007 — Jerryd Bayless
2006 — Chase Budinger
2004 — Jawann McClellan
2003 — Mustafa Shakur
2003 — Ndudi Ebi (never enrolled at Arizona)
2002 — Hassan Adams
1999 — Jason Gardner
1998 — Richard Jefferson
1996 — Mike Bibby
1996 — Loren Woods (transferred from Wake Forest)
1991 — Ben Davis (transferred from Florida)
1990 — Khalid Reeves
1988 — Chris Mills (transferred from Kentucky)
1987 — Brian Williams (transferred from Maryland)
1985 — Sean Elliott
1984 — Craig McMillan

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