IF Rich Rodriguez is going to build Arizona into a consistent winner, then he is going to have to keep top talent in state. Over the past few years Arizona, particularly Phoenix, has seen a boom in elite football prospects.

Of late, neither Arizona nor ASU has done a great job keeping the top talent home. For every Ka’Deem Carey or D.J. Foster, there have been numerous Priest Willises, Cole Lukes and Connor Brewers.

Last season there were six 4-star products in state and only one (Chans Cox – ASU) stayed home. In 2012 there were also six, and just two, Foster and Zack Hemmila, remained home. Since 2010 there have been a total of 21 four or five star players in Arizona and just four of them chose an in-state school.

In 2011 not a single in-state 4 or 5 star signed with Arizona or ASU and only Marquis Flowers (Arizona) stayed home in 2010.

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On Friday when most of the college basketball world was scrambling to host “Midnight Madness” events, the Arizona basketball team was done for the day. The Cats have chosen to bypass the pomp of the first day of official basketball practice and focus on another event entirely.

Kentucky spent $100,000 on lighting alone for their Midnight Madness, while Sean Miller was likely having dinner at the same time. Teams scrambled to bring their top recruits for their events, while Arizona bided their time.

There was no Midnight at McKale. No Friday Night with Sean Miller. Arizona simply had a normal day of practice and will instead spend their time and energy this weekend with the annual Red/Blue game.

Arizona will have over 14,000 fans in the stands on Saturday, creating a great environment for recruits. Instead of competing with 20 other programs, Arizona carves out their own weekend and can bring in most, if not all of their top recruits for official and unofficial visits.

“With that type of atmosphere on that weekend that we have here in Tucson, we really target some of the best prospects in the country, future players who can help us do great things,” Miller explained. “To have them here during that weekend and experience that, that says it all.”

Last year the event was very successful, helping to land Kaleb Tarczewski and introducing the program to many other younger prospects.

“If you talk about Kaleb a year ago, Kaleb was the one who was uncommitted at this time,” Miller explained. “Having him at the Red-Blue Game helped us secure him, no question about it. No matter what we talked about on the telephone, or how much you think this atmosphere is special, until you’re actually here you don’t feel it. It helps the future. It’s something that I believe continues to be as crucial today as it was the day I came here.”

Among the prospects expected to be on hand include Aaron Gordon, Rondae Jefferson, Elliott Pitts, Stanley Johnson, Justis Winslow and Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

The second added bonus of bringing in recruits to the Red/Blue game is they (and the fans) will get to see a more polished team on the floor. They will be far from a finished product, but they will get a better idea of what Arizona basketball is really like a week plus into full practices.

The recruits and fans will also get a chance to see the 1988 team reunited. Last year the team hosted a number of locked out NBA players, this year they honor the school’s first Final Four squad.

“To be able to bring them back in front of our group where our own team can be around them and the future of Arizona recruiting and to see their reaction, to me it is a really important weekend,” Miller said.

On Wednesday afternoon the Wildcat football team piled into busses and trekked across the Southern Arizona desert for a military base. 24 hours or so later the Wildcat basketball team boarded an airplane and flew to a resort in the Caribbean.

The football team will stay in military barracks, the view outside their window likely to be more barracks.

The basketball team will stay at the Atlantis resort, the view outside their windows is majestic blue seas and the luxurious resort with all of its greens and blues.
In the end both trips will hope to accomplish the same thing, build better teams.

For Rich Rodriguez the goals of the trip are to build the team concept, continue to work on the new schemes and teach some life lessons in the backdrop of a sobering reality.
Sean Miller is trying to mesh seven new players, take advantage of additional practices and give his guys a bit of a vacation, all in the backdrop of a fantasy location.

The football team will rub elbows with military personnel making real sacrifices, while the basketball team will rub elbows with vacationers who are trying to forget the real world for a few days.

For the football team getting off of campus is good for several reasons. In years past the team would move into the dorms for fall camp, but this year the players stayed at home. The trip to Ft. Huachuca will force them to spend some time together.

“It brings the guys together,” said quarterback Matt Scott. “We are up in the barracks, everybody is in one place. It kinds of builds our team. It makes our bonding a little better. Coach Rod says when we come back we should be a complete team and I think that’s true.”

Moving to the base for a few days also isolates the team from distractions. With so much left to learn, some players really like the isolation and forced focus on football.

“Its fun to get away, to be with the team,” said Dan Buckner. “To get all the distractions out and get better as a team. You just get away, that’s all you have is football.”

Spending time with the soldiers is also a great experience for the team. Being on a college football team can be a step back from the realities of the real world. Although college athletes make sacrifices, rubbing elbows with the military puts it all in perspective.

“No fight is like their fight,” said Buckner. “Everyone praises what we do, but they are over there fighting for our freedom every day.”

Scott echoed those sentiments.

“We respect those guys so much,” the senior quarterback added. “They do so much for us and its just nice being around them.”

While the football team is slogging through two-a-days and being treated to a taste of the military lifestyle, the basketball team will be soaking up a bit of paradise and taking to the hardwood with a revamped roster.

The Wildcats not only welcome seven new players to the team, but the five remaining scholarship players are all in an adjustment phase. Kevin Parrom and Jordin Mayes both battled injury issues a year ago, while Nick Johnson and Angelo Chol hope to improve on up and down freshman seasons. Even All-Pac-12 performer Solomon Hill is moving back to the wing after spending last season at the power forward spot.

“You forget how much time last year combined they both missed,” Miller said of Mayes and Parrom.

“It’s great for them to practice, and be healthy and play,” Miller added. “In a sense get that head start where they feel healthy and get the feel for a game.”

Although the games and the trips in the Bahamas are nice, the real reward was the 10 extra practices the Wildcats received. The NCAA allows teams making an overseas trop to practice a few weeks before they leave and those practices could be invaluable in trying to get the four freshmen and Xavier transfer Mark Lyons integrated with the team.

The integration will not be only on the court, but off the court as well. Much like their football brethren, the Wildcat basketball team will use the Bahamas trip as a chance to bond.

“Although its about basketball its also about other things,” Miller said. “Players learn each other, they know each other. The difference between a newcomer and someone like Solomon Hill, who’s a senior, it’s really closed.”

In 1986 I listened to Arizona win the College World Series on the radio. On Monday night I did the same…inadvertently.

Back in 1986 I was a 13-year old middle school student just starting to enjoy his summer vacation. I remember few details from that game or that run. About all I remember is listening to it in the living room on the house’s intercom system that could broadcast radio to any room in the house. I cannot even remember why I was in the living room, that was the room reserved for entertaining (and indoor baseball when my parents left me in charge of my little brother.)

In 1986 Arizona baseball was king. The 1986 title was the third in 10 years. In 1986 Larry Smith was still football coach, just getting the team off of probation. In six months they would beat North Carolina in the Aloha Bowl and the Cats would trade Smith for Dick Tomey.

In 1986 a first year coach named Mike Candrea guided Arizona to a 5-6-1 Pac-10 record and missed the postseason. It was the last time the Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament. In 1986 Lute Olson had yet to win an NCAA tournament game, much less lead Arizona to a Final Four.

That 1986 team was led by the likes of Gar Millay, Kevin Long, Gary Alexander and Tommy Hinzo.

This year’s team was led by a group that defied the odds, not only this year, but in life.

At 2 ½ months of age Robert Refsnyder, the CWS MVP, was living in South Korea, waiting to be adopted. Less than a month later he was in the loving arms of his American family. A family that was baseball crazy.

Three years ago Seth Mejias-Brean made the difficult decision to turn down a football scholarship to I-AA San Diego to pursue baseball at Pima College. Two weeks before the start of school Andy Lopez lost his freshman third base signee to the MLB and scrambled to sign a quality player. At the suggestion of one of his sons, Lopez turned to Cienega product Mejias-Brean. Sine then the local products has played over 180 games and hit nearly .330.

Alex Mejia got on Lopez’s radar screen because he shared the last name of a high school opponent that Lopez respected. Turned out that player was Alex’s father. Three years later Mejia was the Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

Joseph Maggi was an ASU legacy, but scored the first run of the championship clinching game. So much for doubting the loyalties of a guy that Lopez has joked was a “spy” for the Sun Devils.

Brandon Dixon, who drove in the game-winning run, was not supposed to hit in the ninth. After going 0-7 in the CWS, including a weak fly out in the 7^th with a runner in scoring position. Lopez was going to lift the defensive specialist, but assistant Matt Siegel talked him out of it.

Siegel, a former Lopez player at Florida, would not have been on the Wildcat bench had longtime Lopez assistant Mark Wasikowski not left for Oregon.

Lopez turned to a pitching staff that was thought to be a weakness. The maligned bullpen, the few times they were used, failed to surrender a run in Omaha.

Sure Heyer was a well regarded prospect, but Konner Wade, who looked like Randy Johnson in the CWS, was just 9-7 his final two years in high school with an ERA over 4.00. Lopez saw something he liked (and to be fair Wade was a 35^th round draft pick of the Diamondbacks in 2010) and Wade has gone 14-3 at Arizona.

If Heyer looked like “The Big Unit”, then James Farris was Curt Schilling. Farris, who had not pitched in nearly three weeks, shutdown the Gamecocks. He limited them to just two hits and a single run. Not bad for a guy who pitched in just two games as a freshman and had an ERA hovering around four.

Even Andy Lopez was a somewhat unlikely character in this drama. Frustrated with the NCAA’s near castration of college baseball and an administration that could not or would not deliver him a regional, Lopez considered other jobs or just walking away. Instead he came back, he rallied around the recruiting class that are now juniors. He also received a blessing when Jim Livengood was not retained and Greg Byrne assumed the role of Director of Athletics.

Instead of throwing more money at a sub par facility, Byrne angered many old school Wildcat fans by moving the baseball team off campus. While Hi Corbett Field was inadequate for the spoiled players on the Colorado Rockies, it was a godsend to the Wildcats.

It was a bigger park, with an actual clubhouse. It’s dimensions called on the Wildcats to be more aggressive and they responded. Fans thrilled with easier parking and beer, especially beer, showed up in droves.

Arizona hosted a Regional and a Super Regional. Teams that host have a 78% chance of advancing. The Wildcats advanced.

The Wildcats dominated these playoffs. They made the teams they faced in the regional look foolish. Other than one bad inning against St. John’s, the Wildcats were awesome.

In Omaha, where they did not have enough arms or enough talent, they shined. Arizona never trailed in Nebraska. Their pitchers gave up eight runs total, never more than three in a game. Offensively they scored 27. Not the gaudy numbers they put up in Hi Corbett, but not bad at all.

Freshman Matt Troupe stood on the mound in the ninth, wearing his trademark glasses and sweat stained camp. He allowed three of the first four batters on base. With the bases loaded and the winning run at the plate, he did not panic. Mejia trotted out to the mound, to play therapist for one of his pitchers for the 10,000^th time this season. At that time Troupe was not thinking about how he almost took the pro dollars when he found out that Lopez may leave. He was not thinking of his challenge to his coach to stay and win with him. He was not thinking about his inconsistencies this season.

Troupe lived the Arizona motto, as cliché as it might have sounded at that point. Troupe did indeed Bear Down with the help of his defense. Trent Gilbert snagged a rocket line drive and came within a breath of a double play.

For a split second Gilbert almost lost his cool, but Mejia was there to calm him down. Mejia, whose mom and dad made two separate trips to Omaha.

A 10^th of a second more and Arizona would have been celebrating. Instead the freshman took Button Salmon’s creed to heart, got a fly ball fittingly hit to Refsnyder and the Wildcats were celebrating.

It may have been an unlikely team to win a title, but they deserved it. For three weeks they played better than anyone. They hit the ball, they fielded the ball and they pitched the ball. They forgot about the MLB draft, their personal issues and the doubters.

They donned great No. 1 hats and national championships shirts. They came together. They won.

I listened to it on the radio, but watched it again at home. I saved the TiVo recording and will probably watch it again. It was a special moment with a special team.

The shirts said Wildcats Own Omaha, but could have said Wildcats Own College Baseball.

Tommy Woodson a quarterback from Monroeville, PA/Gateway High School has committed to Arizona.

“I’m committing to the University of Arizona,” Woodson tweeted Sunday night.

Woodson was first offered by Arizona back in May but has been recruited by Arizona assistant Tony Gibson for years.

“Their staff was interested in me my freshmen year when they were up at Michigan and my team won their passing tournament,” explained Woodson who accounted for over 1,700 yards of total offense and 16 scores.

Arizona was the first BCS school to offer Woodson and he is a player who has flown under the radar. 247Sports has Woodson rated as a 2-star prospect and has given him a player rating of 79.

Although he is a sleeper prospect at this time, Woodson feels he can bring something special to a team.

“I’m a player that brings excitement,” Woodson said. “A person that can use their arm just as well as their legs.”

It is Arizona’s 11th commitment and second from a quarterback. Las Vegas’ Anu Solomon committed earlier this spring.