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…)

The Red/Blue Scrimmage did not reveal a whole lot about the Wildcats basketball team, but we did get a glimpse at the players in the first public appearance of the year. Here are some of my initial thoughts.

PLAYER EVALS

Jamelle Horne – Horne did some good things and some bad things. He was really hitting the glass, fighting for rebounds, which will be critical for his attempts to retain a starting spot, but not doing much offensively. Offensively, he still had his issues. He was settling for outside shots, but did not make one until the second half. He did not get a ton of touches on the offensive end, especially in the first half. The second half was better, he hit a big three and ended up with nine points over the two halves.

Jordin Mayes – Very quick and the outside shot may be as good as advertised. He buried first two three pointers, but air balled his next shot, a tough runner. He scored less in the second half, but was smart in distributing the ball. He only had one second half assist, but did a very nice job running the offense.

Daniel Bejarano – Buries first three, but did not hit again. Players have really been praising Bejarano, especially his shot and his conditioning.

Solomon Hill – All around players. Was solid on the defensive end, was willing to work on the glass and dished the ball. Biggest knock was four turnovers, two coming when he tried to do too much.

Derrick Williams – Slow start, but came on strong towards end of the second 4:00 “war” and took over a bit. Had 10 points in about a 5:00 stretch. Really gave Natyazhko fits down low on both ends.

Jesse Perry – Moves very well, fights every play but struggled to finish at times.

Kyryl Natyahzko – Struggling against Williams, Had two shots blocked. Started showing off his baseline jumpers. Also rebounded very well and hit three perimeter shots in the second half, including a three.

MoMo Jones, Derrick Williams and Brendon Lavender spoke to the media after the game:

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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.

Arizona had three players committed for the 2009 recruiting class when Lute Olson retired and all three de-committed. Two of the three signed at other Pac-10 programs, while a third, Solomon Hill, committed to USC but eventually found his way back to Tucson.

Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com

Interestingly enough, although all three had great prep credentials, not all of the players had great freshmen seasons.

Here is a look at how they did.

Abdul Gaddy – Washington

Gaddy did not have a great freshman season. He played in every game, but averaged just 3.9 points and 2.3 assists per game. He played more than 20 minutes just three times in the final 15 games, but the Huskies went 12-3 in that stretch.

While it is too early to write off Gaddy, he was in double figures in scoring just four times and never after January 26^th. Even worse he had four or more assists just eight times, and more than four just four times.

Mike Moser – UCLA

Moser just announced that he was leaving UCLA and he did not have a successful freshman season. Moser played in just 15 games, averaging 0.6 points a game, essentially a wasted season. He played in just two of the final six games and only five of the final23 games. That is particularly bad considering how talent depleted the Bruins were this season.

Solomon Hill – Arizona

Hill had the best season of the three, playing in every game this season for the Wildcats. He averaged 6.7 ppg and 4.4 rpg. Hill was a starter for much of the season when fellow freshman Kevin Parrom was hurt and was the team’s fifth leading scorer, as well as finishing third on the team in assists, behind only Nic Wise and Kyle Fogg.

The Cats were really close to landing two other players in the class, but concerns for Lute Olson’s health had them commit elsewhere. Both Anthony Stover and Andy Brown liked Arizona a lot. Stover was especially close to committing, but chose the stability of UCLA. Neither played this season. Stover redshirted in Westwood, while Brown was forced to sit out that year at Stanford due to a knee injury.

I am not a college basketball coach, though I do play one frequently on radio and on the Internet. I have never built a program and was really pretty young when I witnessed Lute Olson build Arizona.

Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com

From the outside looking in it seeems to me that Sean Miller has two options play for today or prepare for tomorrow.

While making the NCAA Tournament is tough, it is not an impossibility. The Cats would need to win 10 or 11 down the stretch to get into the tournament and it appears that the only way that is going to happen is if Sean Miller shortens his bench.

The Wildcats played with just eight players against UCLA and played their best game of the season. For the final 25 minutes against USC the Cats also played with an eight-man rotation and nearly came back against the Trojans.

It seems to me that the Wildcats’ best chance at getting those wins and making a push at the tourney is to shorten the bench.

The Cats’ starting line-up of Jamelle Horne, Derrick Williams, Solomon Hill, Kyle Fogg and Nic Wise may lack height but is a strong group. It seems as if it can fare favorably with most in the Pac-10 as the players are talented and versatile, if inconsistent.

The bench is even more inconsistent. If Miller wants to really make a push for No. 26 he should go to the bench a lot less. He’s been going with rotations that have gone nine, 10 and even 11 players deep.

As of now the best combination seems to be Kevin Parrom as the wing off the bench, with whoever is practicing better between Kyryl Natyazhko and Alex Jacobson in the post and the Brendan Lavender and MoMo Jones splitting minutes as the third guard.

While that line-up may be best for making a push this season, it does not bode well for the future. The Cats need to get guys minutes and in-game work. Odds are the Cats will need significant contributions from Natyazhko, Jones and the other next season, but right now they are struggling. Do you trim minutes form more solid performers in hopes of getting some wins or do you keep making sure guys like Jones and Natyazhko get in-game action, even if they struggle?

Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com

It’s not an easy decision and one reason Miller makes upwards of a million dollars a year.

If it was me I’d use the next three or four games as a litmus test for the shortened bench. If the Cats can rattle off some wins and get into a position to make a push at the tournament then I think you have to do it. However, if a shortened bench does not produce right away, then I think Miller has to go all out and prepare for next year. This means seeing if Jones and Fogg are capable of playing to point, possibly sliding Wise to the off guard so he can still showcase his scoring for the pros. This means seeing just what Lavender, Jacobson and DJ Shumpert are capable of and whether  they have a chance to be rotation players in the future or whether they are destined to be role players.

They have to get Natyazhko minutes and hope that at some point things start to click.

It’s a delicate time for Wildcat basketball. No one wants to play for next season, but at the same time no one mortgage the future for current success that may or may not happen.