Freshman guard Daniel Bejarano will transfer from the Arizona Wildcats basketball team, the school announced Monday afternoon.

It was a move that was widely expected, as Bejarano barely played last season and Arizona appears to have a further logjam at guard next season with the addition of freshman signees Nick Johnson and Josiah Turner.

Here is the release from the university:

TUCSON, Ariz. – University of Arizona men’s basketball player Daniel Bejarano announced Monday that he will transfer to another school. He has not yet made a decision on which school he will attend.

Bejarano (Bay-har-ah-no), a 6-foot-4, 208-pound freshman guard from Phoenix, Ariz., averaged 0.8 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.1 steals per game in eight appearances (no starts) this season. He averaged 3.8 minutes per game.

““I would like to thank my coaches, my teammates and all of the U of A fans for all they did to make my year at Arizona a special one,” said Bejarano. “After a number of conversations with Coach Miller and my family I have decided to pursue my goals at another institution. This is a decision I made with careful thought and with much help. My desire to have a more prominent role on the court significantly impacted my decision.”

He connected on 12.5 percent (1-of-8) of his field goal attempts, all coming from three-point range, and connected on 3-of-4 (.750) attempts from the free throw line. Bejarano notched career highs of three points on Nov. 21 vs. Northern Colorado and three rebounds vs. Idaho State on Nov. 14.

“Daniel is a great kid and teammate,” said UA head coach Sean Miller. “He had a positive impact on this year’s team because of his consistent work ethic and winning attitude. All of us here at Arizona wish him the very best in his future endeavors. Daniel leaves our program in good academic standing and continues to work hard in our spring program of strength and conditioning and skill workouts.”

There will be no further comments from members of the UA program or Bejarano’s family on this matter.

The Sun Devils greet outfielder Annie Lockwood after she hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning to give ASU a 6-1 lead.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com.

As the Arizona State softball team huddled on the field for its postgame talk, a small group of Sun Devils fans began chanting from beyond the bullpen.

“Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!”

That’s what it was Saturday as Arizona State completed the three-game sweep over Arizona with an 8-3 victory at Hillenbrand Stadium against the strangest set of pitchers Wildcats coach Mike Candrea has ever used in 26 years at the school.

Second-ranked ASU took advantage of pitching-thin Arizona, getting three-run homers from Krista Donnenwirth and Annie Lockwood. Arizona State won the previous two games with the help of grand slams in the seventh inning.

“I tell you what, it was a great series,” said ASU coach Clint Myers. “You had two very good programs playing. … They have a great tradition and we have not been very successful here in the past.”

Which is a just a teeny, tiny understatement.

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Arizona third baseman Brigette Del Ponte said earlier this week she would be giving her teammates some advice on how to hit against her best friend, ASU freshman Dallas Escobedo.

Didn’t work.

Escobedo retired the first 16 batters and finished with a one-hitter, keeping the Wildcats at bay until the Sun Devils could break through against Arizona freshman Shelby Babcock. They finally did with two outs in the seventh as Katelyn Boyd hit a grand slam, powering ASU to a 4-0 victory in front of 2,704 at Hillenbrand Stadium.

“She was tough,” Del Ponte said of Escobedo, her childhood friend from the Phoenix area. “She hit her spots well.”

Babcock, filling in for Arizona ace Kenzie Fowler — who is still suffering from concussion symptoms after being stuck in the forehead Sunday by a foul ball — nearly matched Escobedo.

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That bandage on his right hand didn't limit Derrick Williams too much. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona coach Sean Miller said it all season — the Wildcats had no margin of error.

And now we know just how slim that margin really was.

A half inch.

File this one in the “now it can be told” file.

The finger injury that All-American sophomore forward Derrick Williams suffered against UCLA on Jan. 27 was worse than he or the coaches let on at the time — although it became clearer as the injury lingered and he continued to play with his hand wrapped that the official explanation of “sprained right pinky” was a nice bit of sugarcoating.

Williams admitted after the season that the finger was broken, and he said Wednesday at a press conference to talk about his decision to go to the NBA that the injury was thisclose to ending his season.

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Derrick Williams will be jamming in the NBA next season. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats sophomore forward Derrick Williams didn’t make a quick decision about his basketball future, mulling it over for a few weeks after the season.

But, really, it wasn’t complicated.

All the other stuff — the potential of an NBA lockout, the tantalizing thought of Arizona being a national championship contender next season if he stayed, the potential of injury — was just background noise.

“I’m supposed to be a top five pick,” Williams said Wednesday at a press conference, speaking publicly about his decision for the first time. “You can’t really turn that down.”

No, you can’t.

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Jake Fischer is taken off the field Saturday after suffering an injury to his right knee. Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

The Arizona athletic department confirmed Wednesday morning that starting linebacker Jake Fischer suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during Saturday’s spring game and will soon undergo surgery.

Fischer, a junior, will be out six to eight months, according to Arizona.

Fischer, from Ironwood Ridge High School, has a redshirt year available. He played as a backup and on special teams as a true freshman in 2009 before becoming a starter in 2010. He was fourth on the team last season with 58 tackles, including 7.5 for loss and two sacks.

This is the third ACL injury of the spring for Arizona. Backup running back Greg Nwoko and starting safety Adam Hall already have had surgery and have started rehab.

It’s also a blow to a thin linebacker corps, because top backups R.J. Young and Trevor Erno left the team in the offseason. Starters Paul Vassallo and Derek Earls return.

Coaches say a trio of incoming freshmen — Rob Hankins, Hank Hobson and Domonique Petties — will have to be ready to play. Bilal Muhammed, who walked-on last fall, had a solid spring, according to coaches.

Arizona freshman Shelby Babcock throws in the bullpen Tuesday.

Who was auditioning Tuesday to be the Arizona softball team’s No. 2 pitcher this week? Who wasn’t?

Sophomore third baseman Brigette Del Ponte took a look at the activity in both bullpens before practice and commented, “It looks like open tryouts.”

Arizona is scrambling for another arm or two because sophomore ace Kenzie Fowler is “day-to-day” after she suffered a concussion when hit in the forehead by a foul ball on Sunday.

Coach Mike Candrea said before practice that Fowler’s concussion symptoms had not cleared.

Once they do, then 48 hours have to pass before she can take the concussion test that could allow her to resume competition.

All of that makes it doubtful she will pitch in the three-game series against second-ranked Arizona State, which runs Thursday through Saturday at Hillenbrand Stadium.

“The clock is really not in our favor right now,” Candrea said.

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Jake Fischer is taken off the field Saturday after suffering an injury to his right knee. Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

Arizona is expected to release a statement Wednesday morning about the condition of starting linebacker Jake Fischer, who suffered an injury to his right knee in Saturday’s spring game.

Fischer suffered the injury near the end of the scrimmage, and it was feared that he he would be the third Wildcat player to suffer an ACL injury this spring.

Backup running back Greg Nwoko and starting safety Adam Hall already have undergone surgery and begun rehab.

Fischer, from Ironwood Ridge High School, has a redshirt year available. He played as a backup and on special teams as a true freshman in 2009 before becoming a starter in 2010. He was fourth on the team last season with 58 tackles, including 7.5 for loss and two sacks.

The Arizona State softball team won’t be ranked No. 1 when it visits Tucson for a three-game series with the Arizona Wildcats, starting on Thursday night.

The Sun Devils dropped from first to second in this week’s USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll released Tuesday morning.

ASU received 12 of 30 first-place votes but was edged out at No. 1 by Michigan. Arizona is ranked seventh. ASU also is No. 2, and UA seventh, in the ESPN/USA Softball poll.

The Thursday night and Friday night games at Hillenbrand Stadium will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday’s game is set to start at 1 p.m.

From Monday: No word yet on Kenzie Fowler’s return from a concussion

Seth Littrell watches over the offense during a spring practice.
Photo by Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic

From coaches, from quarterbacks, from running backs and receivers, there was one often-repeated word through spring practice.

Simplify.

Arizona tried to be too many things on offense last season. Using two coordinators, the Wildcats tried to marry a four-wide spread passing game with a “heavy” power running game featuring fullbacks, tight ends and H-backs.

Didn’t work.

“I think last year, we did a little bit too much,” said Seth Littrell, who is the lone coordinator after the departure of Bill Bedenbaugh to West Virginia.

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