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.

While many debate whether Arizona and ASU are really rivals in basketball due to the one-sided nature of the rivalry, the players do not. Nick Johnson, Solomon Hill and Jesse Perry talked about the game, the rivalry and even threw a little gasoline on the fire.

Sean Miller then spoke to the media about the win over ASU.

Arizona got the win over Clemson after the game Sean Miller and Wildcat players Solomon Hill, Angelo Chol and Nick Johnson discuss the game. (more…)

On Monday afternoon it became official. Shortly after 5:00 Tucson time the fax machine in the Arizona basketball office roared to life and the Letter of Intent from Grant Jerrett slowly emerged from the world of interstate fiber optics. With that the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation became official.

Although Jerrett was the first player in the class to commit, he was the last to sign. Monday was the first day the 6-9 big man could sign in front of all his family and his high school principal. He signed the documents at a formal event at his school, La Verne Lutheran. (more…)

The Wildcat players claimed that Sean Miller did not yell and scream after their 69-68 loss to Seattle Pacific, but it did take them nearly 30 minutes to get to the media room after the game. Solomon Hill and Jesse Perry addressed the media.

Wildcat coach Sean Miller came in next and was mostly calm about the night’s game. Here are his opening remarks and the first few questions.