Jerryd Bayless started 11 of his 31 games for Toronto last season. Photo by Spruce Derden-US PRESSWIRE

Former Arizona Wildcat combo guard Jerryd Bayless, who signed as a free agent with the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this month, is scheduled to play in Tucson Summer Pro League on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The league’s games are held at St. Gregory High School, 3231 N. Craycroft Road.

Bayless spent just one season at Arizona — the tumultuous 2007-08 campaign when coach Lute Olson was on a leave of absence and Kevin O’Neill was the interim coach — before being selected by Indiana with the 11th pick of the first round.

He was traded after the draft to Portland, where he spent two seasons. He also has spent time with New Orleans and Toronto, where he averaged career-highs with 11.4 points and 22.7 minutes last season, although injuries limited him to just 31 games. He shot 42.3 percent from 3-point range (44 of 104).

While Bayless is still finding his way in the NBA, having started just 36 of 229 career games, he is only 23, and last season’s averages are encouraging. He already has earned more than $9 million in career salary.

The Tucson Summer Pro League is in its ninth season, featuring high school, collegiate and post-college players.

Would you vote for Jerryd Bayless (Phoenix St. Mary's) as the best high basketball player in Arizona history?/Tucson Citizen photo

That is the question asked Saturday by the Arizona Republic’s Richard Obert, who makes the case that Corey Hawkins, a senior guard from Goodyear Estrella Foothills High school, deserves to be in the discussion.

Hawkins will play at Arizona State next season.

The poll at azcentral.com lists Hawkins, along with Mike Bibby, Sean Elliott, Fat Lever, Jerryd Bayless, Richard Jefferson and Mark Alarie (as well as a “someone else” option).

As of Saturday mid-afternoon, Hawkins was leading the voting. He recently passed Bibby’s career state scoring record.

I’m sticking with Bibby as my selection, although my sentimental pick is Alarie, if only because he was a senior at Phoenix Brophy in the early 1980s when I was a freshman. He had some epic prep battles against 7-footer Brad Lohaus from Phoenix Greenway (usually winning those head-to-head matchups), and then went on to help launch Mike Krzyzewski‘s program at Duke.

Anyway, with four ex-Arizona Wildcats on the list, as well as two local candidates in Elliott (Cholla High) and Lever (Pueblo), I thought the TucsonCitizen.com readership might want to have their say in the voting.

So … check it out at azcentral.com.

More on Hawkins from TucsonCitizen.com from January:
Unrated ASU recruit out to prove he is the best player in the state

I hope to make this a semi-regular feature, because, as a freelance writer and man of leisure, I’m spending too much time on the computer and always running across stories about current Arizona Wildcats, would-be Arizona Wildcats and former Arizona Wildcats.

The least I can do is share them all.

Jerryd Bayless at Arizona in the 2007-08 season/Citizen file photo

Here are five recent stories that might be of interest:

Slam Magazine: A very interesting in-depth article about putting the Portland Trailblazers’ Jerryd Bayless through extensive offseason dribbling routines.

Arizona Republic: Former UA running back Chuck Levy has some legal trouble in the Phoenix area. Levy, an assistant coach at Chandler Basha High School, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and possessing marijuana.

ESPN.com: Pac-10 blogger Ted Miller examines the difficulty of picking the best quarterback in the league. Could it be Arizona’s Nick Foles? There’s a lot of football to be played.

Washington Post: Gilbert Arenas is back from knee problems. Recapping his fine season debut with the Washington Wizards.

Houston Chronicle: There are now two UA alums managing in the major leagues, as Brad Mills leaves the bench of Boston’s Terry Francona and takes over the Houston Astros. Francona, as classy as they come, has lots of nice things to say about his former college roommate.