[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

So, as it says on one of the side articles of the site, Zona landed Josiah Turner, a 6’3 PG out of Sacramento. Josiah is considered one of the best PG’s in the class of 2011 and will pair up with Nick Johnson to give Zona a great, athletic backcourt. The worst part about the sites article though is that it said the Football game may have helped land him, lol. That was a huge win for Arizona, who, like all of the past few years, will be a huge thorn in the side of my beloved school. But why couldn’t Josiah come to see us play? We won 69-0! I mean, sure, Arizona was going up against a top 10 school in a major rival conference and won impressively, but did their running back rush for 227 yards and say it was his “worst game he ever played”? Well, no, I guess not. WHY? When will we finally get someone to make our basketball team competitive again? I never thought we had a chance at Josiah Turner, or Nick Johnson, not even at Sidiki Johnson (who we need desperately), but every prospect that signs with a different Pac-10 school is a punch in the gut. That being said, Arizona is turning in a fantastic recruiting class. Sean Miller is really killing it, Arizona hired a great coach to replace Lute. Zona was in kind of a slump ever since Jennings decided to spurn them (due to academics supposedly, but could have been a variety of other things *cough* Reggie Bush *cough* Enes Kanter *cough* Charles Barkley:), but this class has them looking potentially stacked come 2011-12. They already have a star in Derrick Williams, who might even jump to the NBA early with a big year and a good young backcourt in place, as well as some other intriguing younger players. I have also heard Sidiki Johnson being compared to Dwight Howard, and while he may not be Dwight, that is not a bad comparison, especially for a young guy coming into the Pac-10. I remember Jordan Hill as a freshman, he was averaging like 4 points per game, came to play the Ducks, killed it. Taj Gibson also was a proverbial Duck dominator. Well, happy for the Pac-10 that Arizona is getting a solid squad, now it is up to the rest of the league to pick it up with their recruiting. UW has done a great job, and UCLA should turn it around a bit. I am looking at you Dana Altman, bring back an NCAA championship to Eugene! Would be our first one since, well, the first one, ever, in 1939.

[Cardinal_FanParticipant]

Well i thought my Louisville Cardinals had a shot…..2 bad our football team sucks lol…..oh well crossing my fingers for Quincy Miller and Duece Bello now.

[OhCanada-Participant]

Pac-10 has a number of under the radar NBA prospects. For whatever reason they are a struggling D-1 conference yet they always have such good players. Wierd.

[UofAxWildcatsParticipant]

ZONNNNNA BAAAAAACK BABBBBBY !!! huge get for us ,, miller has built a solid foundation and now he is getting great players that he couldnt get at xavier i cant imagine what he will do with this type of talent..plus with nick johnson and josiah on board you have to think ZONA is a leader for Brandon Ashley(played with them on Oakland soldiers) a 2012 big man ranked 6th overall on rivals

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

They do definitely have NBA prospects, but it seems like it has kind of dropped off. In 2007-08, I thought we were one of the best, if not the best conference in the nation. The past two years, we have dropped off significantly, as the conference has struggled to add recruits and make up for lost talent. The 2008 draft had 3 Pac-10 guys go top 5 (3 Mayo, 4 Westbrook, 5 Love-albeit all from LA institutions), but that next year, the biggest recruit that would have hit the Pac-10, Brandon Jennings, did not end up playing for Arizona. DeMar DeRozan had an underwhelming one year, and than last year, our conference as a whole did not have a huge recruiting year. In 2009, only two recruits in the Rivals top 25 signed with Pac-10 schools, Abdul Gaddy (#10 ranking) and Tyler Honeycutt (#21). While Honeycutt looks like a possible mid to lottery selection in the making, he and Gaddy both had pretty medicore freshman years. Look further down the list, and you have Jamil Wilson (#30), Mike Moser (#39) and Kyryl Natyazhko (#49). Kyryl apparently had a very nice U20 Euro tournament, but did not put up big numbers as a freshman, and both Wilson and Moser had a hard time getting off of the bench and have since transferred. The year before, 2008, the Pac-10 had 3 top 6 players supposedly playing in the conference, but Jennings went to Europe and Demar/Jrue Holliday did not necessarily tear it up like many were expecting them too (ie. me). the next Pac-10 players on that years recruiting list, J’Mison Morgan (#23) and Michael Dunigan (#25), have since transferred and gone to play professionally in Israel respectively. They both did not live up to billing, though Morgan will be at Baylor this next year so we will see how he does in a conference that made Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley two of the top rebounders in the nation. Their are two draft prospects further down the list with Malcolm Lee and Klay Thompson, but while Malcolm has not lived up to billing, Klay has had a hard time carrying his team on his shoulders. Jerime Anderson has not lived up to expectations, Jeff Withey transferred to Kansas and Drew Gordon transferred somewhere as well.

I am not saying that these recruiting rankings mean everything, as clearly they do not, but they can be a good guage of players who are immediate or potential NBA prospects and lately, the Pac-10 ain’t getting them or are not getting them at the same school. While having NBA players is not a necessity for an NBA championship team, many of them certainly seem to have a few, as do teams that go late in the tourney. Butler had Gordon Heyward, while I am sure Matt Howard is on people’s radars as well, as of course is Shelvin Mack who is getting serious NBA attention. Duke had Jon Scheyer, who is definitely someone who should be able to cash a few NBA paychecks, as well as having bonafide first rounder Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith being another NBA prospect, and also Mason Plumlee. The key is getting the right recruits, and while not all of them are top recruits (ie, who the hell knew about Gordon Heyward going into his freshman year?) it certainly helps if they are. Kevin Love was Pac-10 player of the year and a first team All-American his only year at UCLA, OJ Mayo averaged over 20 per game at USC, Jerryd Bayless was a killer at Zona and James Harden led the resurgence of ASU. They were all highly rated recruits, and it just so happened they also got to play with guys who were blossoming into NBA prospects. It just has not happened for quite a while, well, two years to be exact. The current 2011 Mock has Honeycutt and Derrick Williams as first round picks out of the Pac-10. Truly, the conference has taken a big drop-off in two years. This last year was horrendous, and we as a conference were mentioned as being a mid major. I mean, wow, from being a power house to mid major in two years. Clearly that is a drop-off, and I think recruiting has been a big reason for the blame. You could point to all of the one and dones, but in college basketball rebuilding is a must, and if you need to take a guy for a year to help you out, than it is standard protocol. I just feel like the Pac-10 is losing out to other conferences, and if we need football to win people over, than so be it, because the Ducks will whup all of y’all :). Seriously though, I think Arizona has scored a major coup here in recruiting these three guys who could have easily gone to the Big 12, SEC or Big East. We need a team to come in and whip the conference into shape and set a bench mark, and with this class, Zona might be doing that.

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