Most of us knew it would not be easy, but the past few weeks have shown us that Sean Miller has some work cut out for him in re-establishing Arizona basketball among the elite. The Cats have been dealt a few minor recruiting blows that shows the biggest obstacle in returning Arizona to the greatness of the Lute Olson era my be Lute Olson himself.

Just a few weeks ago the Wildcat faithful thought there was a chance that they could land both Kadeem Jack and Eloy Vargas and at the very least one of the two big men. Now it looks like both will head elsewhere and there is a very good chance Kentucky and North Carolina could swoop in and land the players.

It was not too long ago that Arizona could recruit head to head with those two schools, and any school in the country. That is not the case right now. Sean Miller has to overcome two things: 1. Five years of mediocrity. 2. That Arizona was a “one coach” program.

If you are a 17-year old recruit, you were 12 when Arizona fielded its last elite team. You were eight when they last went to a Final Four and you were in preschool when Arizona won the national championship. Conversely, they were 15 when North Carolina won their last national championship.

While we remember 1997 fondly, most high school basketball recruits can’t tell you much about that time. Mike Bibby is an aging point guard on the Atlanta Hawks, Miles Simon is a television announcer and they don’t know who Bennett Davison or Michael Dickerson are.

The fact is, the last five years have been less than awe inspiring for Wildcat basketball. While young recruits know the legacy, they may also go 12 (or more) years without Arizona putting a point guard in the NBA. Most recruits I talk to know Arizona’s reputation. They know of all the players in the NBA, but they have not witnessed most of the greatness.

I think the bigger challenge is proving that Arizona can once again be great under a new coach. Lute Olson was an established brand. Kids, parents and coaches knew Olson, knew his reputation and knew his ability to develop talent. They knew Olson would keep Arizona relevant and elite.

They don’t know that for sure about Miller. Sure Miller has a great reputation, but can Arizona be a contender with a coach other than Olson? Seton Hall did nothing after P.J. Carlisimo left. Stanford has not been the same without Mike Montgomery. Lon Kruger has been nice at UNLV, but he’s yet to come close to the heights of Jerry Tarkanian. Heck, Tom Crean has yet to step out of the Shadow of Bobby Knight, and Knight was three coaches ago.

The fact is, Arizona has only had real success under Olson, so getting recruits to automatically believe the program will remain elite under Miller has not been an easy sell.

That is not to say they can’t, or won’t, but right now the Josh Selby and Doron Lamb’s of the world feel that schools like Kansas and Kentucky are safer bets. Perhaps Jack and Vargas also feel safer with programs that have won regardless of who the coach is. If so, Kentucky and/or North Carolina may find themselves a couple of big men.

Good players believe in Miller already, but he needs to land a few more great ones and to do that he’ll have to win a few more games with the players he has.

Miller can win in Tucson and should win in Tucson. It just might be a little bit tougher than he originally thought.

He may not be a top-100 player, but Arizona did not "settle" for MoMo Jones.

After the Wildcats lost out on three McDonald’s All-Americans in the past two weeks, many Arizona Wildcat basketball fans were stressing. Many felt that this meant that Sean Miller could not attract big time recruits and would have to settle for “projects”.

Fans on message boards, call-in shows and even my e-mail in-box felt that the Cats were reaching for lesser players. This just isn’t the case.

While it is true the Cats have failed to land a big time, game-ready, elite prospect, they certainly are not settling for players who are not solid prospects. In fact, Lute Olson’s last few teams “settled” far more than Miller has.

Miller’s first recruiting class featured four players in ESPN’s top-100. The only player who was not an ESPN top-100 player was MoMo Jones. Jones was a Rivals top-100 player and was recruited by the likes of Louisville, Florida, Memphis and USC among many others.

The rest of the class were all top-100 according to ESPN:

Kyryl Natyazhko #39

Solomon Hill #54

Derrick Williams #72 

Kevin Parrom #86

All of these players were recruited by elite programs. While none of them were top-25 players, or as highly ranked as Doron Lamb, Josh Selby or Ray McCallum, they were hardly borderline prospects headed to low majors had Arizona not swooped in and offered them a scholarship.

This year’s class is not quite as highly rated, but again, not full of slouches. Daniel Bejarano is a top 100 player, albeit rated #92 by ESPN. Jordin Mayes just missed the top-100, but Rivals tabbed him as #106. Mayes had offers from BC, Cal and Oklahoma among others.

JUCO transfer Jesse Perry was not eligible for the top-100 but had offers from a host of Big 12 and SEC schools.

Compare these two classes to the last few Lute Olson classes and you’ll see that Lute attracted a few more “elite” players but a lot more “reaches”. The 2008 class is a strange one. The school originally signed four players, three of whom were top-100 but when the smoke cleared, only two of those players arrived on campus and only the non-top-100 player (Brendan Lavender) every played a game for Arizona.

Because of the defections of Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Negedu, the Cats had to scramble and took in Kyle Fogg, Garland Judkins and D.J. Shumpert. Of those only Fogg is still on the roster.

Some of the other reaches in the Olson era include Alex Jacobson, Kirk Walters, Daniel Dillon and Chris Dunn. The Cats also signed non top-100 players who did little in an Arizona uniform such as Zane Johnson, Jesus Verdejo and Laval-Lucas Perry.

It must be noted that standouts Nic Wise and Jordan Hill were not top-100 players, while guys like Chris Rodgers, Fendi Onobun and Jamelle Horne were all top-75 prospects who had less than illustrious Arizona careers.

Miller has yet to land a top-25 prospect, and to truly return Arizona to the national elite he will have to land some of these players, but he is still landing quality recruits. Five of his seven prep signees have been top-100 players, and the two who weren’t still had their share of top-notch suitors.