It was a strange night as the NBA Draft occurred and no Wildcats even sniffed the affair in New York. There were a number of players the Wildcats recruited who heard their name called.

This is part of a larger story on WildcatSportsReport.com.

The first was Luke Babbitt. At one point the Cats seemed to lead for the forward from Reno, but he eventually drifted to Ohio State before changing his mind and settling on hometown Nevada.

At one point the Cats looked seriously at Avery Bradley and high school teammate Abdul Gaddy. Gaddy chose the Wildcats, twice, but Bradley’s interest waned before his junior season.

The Cats made a run at Damion James, twice. James initially committed to Oklahoma, but de-committed after Kelvin Sampson bolted for Indiana. The Cats tried to get him when he went back on the market, but James stayed home in Texas.

Quincy Pondexter long favored the Wildcats, but Lute Olson held him off in pursuit of Chase Budinger.

Speaking of Budinger, a player who made an official visit the same weekend as Chase was Landry Fields. Olson made a huge push for the shooter, but he chose Stanford instead.

One pick after Fields was the first player who was recruited by Sean Miller. At one point Arizona seemed like the destination for Lance Stephenson, but in the end the Cats backed off the talented, but troubled wing.

The Cats were really in on Keith Gallon at one point, but he dropped the Cats completely after Lute Olson’s retirement. When Magnum Rolle first hit the recruiting scene, the Wildcats were his top team. Of course, they were the only team who had contacted Bahamian big man at that point.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 12:25 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Arizona basketball, Arizona Wildcats, Lute Olson, NBA Draft, Nic Wise, Sean Miller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.