The basketball season is still nearly five months away, but it is not too early to take an early look at how the roster shapes up. We’ll start by looking at the point guard position.

Jordin Mayes (Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com)

So MoMo Jones is gone and the Wildcat may have more overall talent at the position than they did a year ago. Jones will not be easy to replace. He was a leader and one of the players who proved he could hit big shots, but he was not a pure point guard. Prior to the Pac-10 season he was struggling, so much so that during the Bethune Cookman game I said to the person next to me “I wonder which MAAC school he’ll play at next season?” Well, I said Manhattan, it turned out to be Iona. (I also said Long Island, but they are in the Northeast Conference.)

By season’s end, I had changed my tune. The Cal game made many believers and Jones was one of the Cats’ most visible players, but he still wasn’t a point guard.

In my opinion a sophomore Jordin Mayes and a freshman Josiah Turner are more talented than a sophomore Jones and a freshman Mayes. They will miss Jones, but the talent to be better is there. (more…)

The last 36 hours have been crazy for Arizona fans, administrators, players and even the coaches. People around the Arizona basketball program have been going crazy while trying to get the latest info on whether the reports of Sean Miller going to Maryland were true. As stressful as it has been for the fan base, imaging how stressful it was for the four signed recruits and the two verbally committed players.

To their credit, the Wildcat coaching staff was in constant, permissible contact with the recruits or those close to the recruits starting late Friday night.

The staff informed their recruits of their intentions to stay approximately 40 minutes before the Wildcat administration released the information to the public. This insured the players heard the confirmation from the staff and not from a press release or a news story.

Throughout the day on Saturday the staff was honest about what was going on and what their intentions were. While reports out of the East Coast were certain Miller was leaving, the Wildcat recruits knew nothing was 100% and most felt confident that Miller was going to remain at Arizona.

Both Angelo Chol’s high school coach Ollie Goulston and La Verne Lutheran Coach Eric Cooper Sr. felt “confident” early on that Miller was going to stay at Arizona as long as a few issues were addressed. One other coach told Wildcat Sports Report’s Gary Randazzo that both Arizona assistants, Book Richardson and James Whitford, indicated they wanted to remain in Tucson.

While most of the sources do agree that Miller addressed a fondness for the East Coast, he really wants to “build a legacy” and be a coach who is thought of like Lute Olson and Coach K. are.

WSR was told that Miller indicated he was trying to get some additional improvements to the program, including further compensation for the assistant coaches

“We will continue to work towards getting better in all areas as we move forward,” Miller said in his statement.

Or as one of the coaches told WSR “He told us he ‘got a lot of things accomplished’.”

In the end, Maryland’s courtship of Sean Miller will be a stressful couple of days for Wildcat fans and little more. I am sure Greg Byrne and his staff in the athletic department had a few heart palpitations as well, but in a few weeks all will be forgotten.

Had Miller left, or had Miller and his staff not been upfront and honest in their dealings with the players, their parents and the coaches, then there could have been backlash. Since Arizona coaches had been in contact with players and coaches and not mentioned Maryland as late as Friday morning, a lot of bridges would have been burned had Miller left or had they stayed and not followed up with full disclosure.

Now it becomes an uncomfortable weekend and little more.

For the latest on Arizona basketball and football, check out WildcatSportsReport.com

Although it is the offseason, Arizona point guard Jordin Mayes will be sidelined for at least 4-6 weeks after suffering a foot injury.

Jordin Mayes (Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com)

“Jordin was diagnosed with a stress fracture,” explained Sean Miller.

Mayes complained of foot pain after the Wildcats’ Elite Eight loss to UConn.

“He could have played had we gone to the Final Four, but we would have shut him down right after,” said Miller.

Miller indicated it was not an old injury, but that the pain “just started” and long term Mayes should be in “good shape.”

Miller explained that Mayes will have to miss the first rounds of off season conditioning and workouts.

Mayes was 6-6 from behind the arc in his first three games of the NCAA Tournament, but was 0-3 against UConn, though Miller dismissed the notion that the injury bothered him in that game.

For all your Wildcat basketball news check out WildcatSportsReport.com

Arizona coaches and players were back at the Honda Center on Friday for a shoot around and mandatory interviews. What did they have to say and what else is going on in Wildcat hoop land?

STAYING PUT
Sean Miller’s name keeps being attached to the vacant NC State job but you can put those rumors to bed. Arizona AD Greg Byrne said Miller is not going anywhere and Miller himself has essentially said the same thing. Well on Friday two more pieces of information came out indicating Miller’s commitment to Arizona. Miller’s father, John Miller, was quoted by the Raleigh News Observer that Sean was not even going to interview for the vacant Wolfpack job.

The elder Miller spoke with NC State AD Debbie Yow but said his son will not do the same.

The Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen indicated in an on-line chat that Miller has agreed with the school on an extension.

ALL-TIME GREAT?
Most of us feel that Derrick Williams is an all-time Wildcat great. Sean Miller has said so, but he went to the expert to find out just how good his sophomore forward is. (more…)

Arizona had two practices today. Earlier in the day Arizona practiced at La Mirada High School, the alma mater of Derrick Williams.

“Going back to my high school brought back a lot of memories,” Williams said. “My senior season we won the league championship and I think that was the best thing. That was the best thing my school has had basketball wise, first time since ’82 that we had a league championship, so that brought back good memories, CIF and finals.”

Later in the day the Wildcats had a public practice at the Honda Center.

The Wildcats have several players from the Los Angeles area and they will have some friend and family on hand, but not as many as you might think.

“Honestly, I don’t expect to have too many people there,” Williams said.  “The tickets are like $400. Not many people have that much money to have to spend on a 40-minute game, but a lot of people will be at a pizza place, someplace that has a lot of TVs, gather around and watch the game right there.”

Sean Miller’s sons turned down a chance to go to Disney Land so that they could go to watch the shootarounds at the Honda Center. At one point the Miller boys got to meet the CBS announce crew of Verne Lundquist, Bill Rafftery and Leslie Visser.

You may recall that Rafftery had the famous “send it in Jerome” call when Pitt’s Jerome Lane broke the backboard with a one-handed dunk in a nationally televised game against Providence College. The player making the pass? Sean Miller.

The Arizona coaches use a lot of mottos to motivate and keep their payers motivated. In his postgame speech after the Texas win Sean Miller stressed that “nastiness is a requirement.”  The Cats are also using the motto: “all in, do what we do, no excuses, no explanations.”

Former Wildcat great Channing Frye and his Phoenix Suns teammate, Duke alum Grant Hill have a friendly wager on the UA/Duke game. The loser has to wear the winner’s gear until Saturday’s Elite 8 game.