Things just keep getting better and better

Released from USC, point guard commits to play for Miller, Cats

NEW YORK — Lamont "Momo" Jones on Wednesday became the second straight Oak Hill Academy starting point guard to commit to Arizona.

Only this time, ironically on the eve of Brandon Jennings' ascension into the NBA draft, Jones says he's coming for sure.

Whereas Jennings opted to go straight from Oak Hill to Italian pro ball last season, rather than enroll at UA, Jones said he decided to become a Wildcat guard after taking an impressive visit to Tucson last weekend and meeting with new coach Sean Miller. Jones originally planned a Monday news conference but said Wednesday he did not need to wait.

"Sean Miller is a great coach," Jones said. "I watched him at Xavier and, with what he did there, I have no doubt he will do the same at Arizona. Me and my mother sat down with him and listened to him talk, and we believe this is the best place for us."

Jones signed with USC in April but was released from his letter of intent after USC coach Tim Floyd resigned this month.

This is absolutely great news. Arizona seemed like it was MoMo's #1 school after he left USC, so this isn't surprising. I'm really happy to see him coming to Tucson and he'll definitely be a big asset to us. Interestingly enough, he has a family connection to Arizona's staff: Emanuel 'Book' Richardson, one of our assistants, is Jones' godfather.

What makes this so good is next year. If Miller can put this good of a recruiting class together in this short of a time as our coach, imagine what he'll be able to do for our 2010 class when he's got a full recruiting period to work with. I'm extremely happy about this and I can't wait to get back to McKale Center next year.

One other thing from the article that really stood out to me:

Miller "getting (the UA) job proves how much of a great coach he is," Jones said. "You don't just give anybody the University of Arizona coaching job. You have to be some type of special coach."

Although Miller has not yet coached a game at Arizona, he is drawing praise for his recruiting. Since being hired in April, Miller has lined up four Top100 freshmen, including Parrom, Solomon Hill and big man Kyryl Natyazhko. Arizona could get a fifth after Southern California wing Derrick Williams visits the UA this weekend.

Williams said via text message Tuesday, during a visit to Memphis, that he will visit Tucson this weekend and probably make a decision early next month.

Clark Francis of HoopScoop recruiting service said Jones' addition already gives the UA a 2009 recruiting class tied for 24th.

"This shows Sean Miller can recruit good players, and (Jones) is as good as it's going to get right now," Francis said. "If I were an Arizona fan, I'd be very excited."

Huzzah!

USC basketball is up a creek with neither a paddle nor a canoe

USC is seriously screwed.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4252866

USC continues to suffer the fallout of the investigation into possible NCAA violations and coach Tim Floyd's subsequent resignation.

The Trojans' recruiting class, once viewed as one of the best in the country, is down to one.

Lamont Jones of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy has been released from his national letter of intent, USC announced Thursday night. Fellow recruit Derrick Williams of La Mirada (Calif.) High also asked for his release, The Los Angeles Times reported. USC wouldn't confirm Williams' departure.

The Trojans already gave Noel Johnson, of Georgia, his release.

Evan Smith, of Calabasas (Calif.) High, is the lone recruit remaining for 2009-10.

...

Point guard Gary Franklin Jr., of Mater Dei (Calif.) High, has committed for 2010. A source told ESPN.com he may also back out.

Because of the added cloud of the alleged violations, this could turn out to be even worse than what happened to Arizona last year, especially since we didn't lose the core of our offense last summer. This looks really bad, but I can't say I'm sad about it. The University of Spoiled Children deserves whatever's coming to it. The air of corruption that seems to come with any private school seems particularly worse for them because athletics is so much more visible, and if this combined investigation (remember that the Reggie Bush investigation is still ongoing and combined with the basketball investigation) really pans out, it could hurt the football program. I hope the football program gets wrapped up in this as well. I'm not the only one who's sick of the situation in Pac-10 football. Every year, it's guessing who's going to take 2nd place, because everyone knows who's going to take first. The Trojans are the Yankees of the Pac-10, and the Yankees are the Evil Empire. Therefore, is USC the Pernicious Principality?

I'm going to be watching this situation especially closely. The really good thing that could come out of this for Arizona is that we were recruiting both MoMo Jones and Gary Franklin, and if they jump, we're going to be in consideration yet again. We've already got a good recruiting class and adding one more player, in addition to getting a recruit for next year, would just make things even better.

Solomon Hill "bleeds ... red and blue"

Yes!

Daily Star:

Solomon Hill is back in Arizona’s recruiting class, and this time he’s expected to stay.

Hill, a Top 75 wing forward from Los Angeles Fairfax High School, confirmed via text message this morning that he is committing to Arizona after he de-[committed] to the Wildcats in the wake of Lute Olson’s retirement last October and instead chose USC.

Hill was not immediately available for additional comment but his father, Solomon Crawford, said his son would sign a binding letter-of-intent after the spring signing period begins Wednesday now that he has spoken several times with new UA coach Sean Miller.

...

Hill “committed to Lute but Lute retired and I didn’t want him to go there not knowing who the coach was going to be,” Crawford said. “He always loved the school. He bleeds more red and blue than (USC’s) crimson and gold.”

This is absolutely great news. If Miller is working this fast, he'll definitely get a lot done by the time the recruiting period is over, even if he's got the clock working against him, and just think about how great he'll be when recruiting next year.

Solomon Hill update

The Arizona Daily Star now reports that Hill sent them a text message last night stating that he had not committed yet. I'd definitely prefer him to have committed, but there's no use in rushing something like this. At least he's not a definite commit to USC.

More basketball news

Logo changes at McKale Center:

The unique cactus-and-sunset logos, which for 22 years immediately identified UA basketball to television viewers, will be eliminated. The center circle, which read "Lute and Bobbi Olson Court" will also be redone. The school's block A will be inserted at center court.

I don't mind the cactus/sunset logo being removed, but I definitely disagree with moving the Lute and Bobbi Olson Court logo. That's just not right. I don't care if the logo isn't being completely removed like the cactus/sunset are. Lute and Bobbi gave so much to this program. They deserve to be front and center.

In recruiting news, Solomon Hill, who was originally going to come to Arizona but left for USC after Lute left the team, has come back to Arizona after never having officially signed with USC. Unfortunately, I can't find a good link for a story (Rivals.com requires a subscription) but it's all over the internet. However, they all link back to Rivals.com, thus I'm screwed.

I've heard good things about Hill, so I'm glad he's coming back. The fact that Miller is recruiting this quickly is a really good sign for us. Three weeks ago, we had no recruiting class whatsoever for next year. Things are looking up.

Arizona no longer recruiting class-less

Via Bleacher Report:

Sean Miller has [wasted] no time in making an impact at Arizona.

Miller and Whitford had been going after 6'11" center Kyryl Natyazhko from IMG Academy while at Xavier.

In less than a week they convinced the talented big man to join them in Tucson, Ariz.

Natyazhko is the sixth-ranked center, and the number 39-ranked player overall.

Natyazhko is a versatile inside-outside player who will immediately become a starter for Miller.

Natyazhko is a good corner for Miller to build around. He has the big shoes of Jordan Hill to step into.

Miller and his staff are still in play for small forward Solomon Hill, who originally committed to Arizona. He withdrew his commitment when Lute Olson retired, and re-opened his commitment when Miller was named head coach.

Hill appears to prefer Miller's up-tempo system to Tim Floyd's deliberate system.

Victor Rudd, a 6'8" small forward from Las Vegas, is also considering the Wildcats.

Stealing Hill from USC would be great. I'm really happy to see that Miller's getting this program back to stability so quickly. A lot of people are talking about this program not being back on its feet until the 2010-2011 season, but I think that at the pace Miller's going, we could easy be ready to go this coming season. I don't see anything standing in the way of Miller and the program. Plus, what with the Scum Devils losing Pendergraph and Harden, I think that their "streak" of beating us is over.

USC 15 - Arizona 14

Arizona (13-13, 2-6 Pac-10) lost to USC (12-14, 3-5 Pac-10) 15-14. All in all, a good result after we gave up 10 runs in the first inning. We managed to come so close thanks to a pair of five-run innings, one of which came thanks to Hunter Pace's first career home run being a grand slam.

I'm disgusted by the actions of several USC fans, though. Near the end of the game, in response to some of the stuff us Arizona fans were saying, they came over and attempted to intimidate us. Several of them tried to surround me in the seats and one even threatened to fight one of my fellow fans. They probably would have tried to fight us if security hadn't intervened. Truly thuggish behavior, but then again, I'd expect that from a bunch of stuck-up private school kids.

Arizona 7 - USC 6

Arizona Athletics has the full report. Here are my thoughts.

Arizona (13-12, 2-5 Pac-10) was down 6-2 going into the 8th. We scored 3 runs and then Jason Stoffel shut down USC's (11-14, 2-5 Pac-10) offense in the top of the ninth. Bottom of the 9th, with two outs and bases loaded, Brad Glenn hit a line drive to left field and Arizona won 7-6. A great game.

Half the fun at that game came from being in the Hot Corner, which is the student section at Sancet Stadium. It's truly a great experience. The trash-talking is epic, but clean and non-vulgar. Near the end, in the last two innings as Arizona was coming back, I kept yelling about how quiet the USC fans were. It was a nice contrast to the lone USC fan who tried, at the beginning of the game, to get us to shut up by yelling something along the lines of "Shut up, you idiot" at one of the more vocal fans, only to be booed in response.

There were several older USC fans (think 40s/50s) and we had a good back-and-forth with them at one point. There were jokes made about midlife crises and I even got a good one in.

"You're like the guy from Lethal Weapon: you're getting too old for this!"

Game two of the series is tomorrow at 6PM PST.

The search continues

Tim Floyd has confirmed that he's staying at USC.

Crap.

Tim Floyd to take over as coach at Arizona - 4/2 UPDATE

ESPN:

Tim Floyd will be named basketball coach at Arizona, Mark Asher of Sports 620 KTAR, ESPN's radio affiliate in Phoenix, is reporting according to multiple sources.

Floyd is meeting tonight with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood to work out the final details of the deal and an announcement is expected Thursday, according to sources.

Floyd, 55, has spent the last four seasons at USC with an 85-50 record. He led the Trojans to three NCAA tournament appearances -- including the Sweet 16 in 2007.

Floyd is not exactly who I expected, but to be honest, he's a good coach. 85-50 is a great record for four years and 3 tournament appearances in that time frame is really good. I wish him the best and I'll be in the Zona Zoo cheering him and the Wildcats on next year for sure.

UPDATE: So as you can probably see, the ESPN report has been changed because the speculation hasn't actually been confirmed. I repeat: Tim Floyd has not been confirmed as Arizona's coach. It's highly likely, but I'm still crossing my fingers just in case.