When we posted last week about Arizona landing a verbal commitment from Brandon Ashley, a top-5 overall prospect in the Class of 2012, people went bananas. The 6-8, 215-pound power forward transferred this summer to Findlay Prep in Nevada following his time at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, but stayed home to dominate the circuit playing with the Oakland Soldiers. See what all the fuss was about…

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Sean Miller is rolling through the recruiting circuit heading into only his third season at Arizona. On Monday, the Wildcats’ head coach pulled in his biggest recruit yet, landing a top-5 overall prospect in the Class of 2012, Brandon Ashley, to a verbal commitment.

The 6-8, 215-pound power forward transferred this summer to Findlay Prep in Nevada following his time at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, and chose the Arizona over Oregon, UCLA and Kentucky. Scooping Nike U and the country’s best recruiter in Kentucky’s John Calipari is surely a sign of things to come for Miller at Arizona. Read More »

Elite college basketball programs all have unique identities carved by their head coaches’ visions of what championship basketball leans upon. Defense wins championships, but offense has a more delicate balance of what’s right and what’s wrong. Does the system have restrictive bounds? Or is freedom important to a certain extent?

The answer lies within a thin grey-area of allowing players to utilize their own strengths and talents within an organized playbook. Balancing those two schemes defines winners. Who’s job description fits that? The point guard. Read More »

Fans thought Lamont “MoMo” Jones had it all at Arizona: An Elite Eight under his belt, a coach in Sean Miller who could teach Jones everything about being the floor general and a starting point guard spot at the school dubbed Point Guard U. But that was only Jones on his hardwood surface.

So a month ago when Jones suddenly transferred to Iona, a small MAAC school in New Rochelle, N.Y., it raised the obvious question: Why leave the success? Read More »

The NBA Draft is simply the most important time of the year for rebuilding franchises. Just ask the Portland Trail Blazers. Whether it is the next Michael Jordan or Kevin Durant or the next Sam Bowie or Greg Oden, we are out to identify the legitimate prospects from the phony ones. Every week, we will deliver a profile of a top prospect and break down their game. We will give you player comparisons, ratings (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being NBA Rookie of the Year caliber and 1 being overseas caliber), outsider opinions on the prospects, and much more. Last we had BYU’s Jimmer Fredette, and next up is Arizona forward Derrick Williams. Read More »

With 14 teams hoping for the ping-pong balls to bounce their way at tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery, everyone’s vying for a chance to draft Arizona’s Derrick Williams. Following the departure of this year’s Pac-10 Player of the Year and the Wildcats’ leading scorer, the weight was going to presumably transfer over to the shoulders of rising junior point guard Lamont “MoMo” Jones. Instead, Jones announced Monday that he will transfer to another school. Read More »

Do not get Kobe Bryant fired up to the point where he wants to steal your soul. Just don’t do it. In an intense, physical game in L.A. last night, the Portland Trail Blazers awoke the sleeping giant that has been Kobe over the last few games and paid dearly for it. Portland was in control until the last seven or eight minutes of the game, when the tide started to turn. Kobe was the best he’s looked since hurting his ankle a few games ago and was more emotional than we’ve seen him in a long time, fist-pumping after shots and stops, extra animated when jawing with the refs, and he had a serious scowl going for the entire fourth quarter. The Lakers eventually took the lead and Bryant hit his patented right baseline, pullup fadeway over Brandon Roy to put them up six and essentially end the game. Bryant went nuts after the shot fell, high-fiving fans, fist-pumping, yelling, and almost ripped his off own jersey. Lakers color guy Stu Lantz screamed, “The best finisher in the game comes through in the clutch!” … Immediately after the game, a Lakers sideline reporter asked a still visibly agitated Kobe what he was thinking before that jumper. Read More »

Everything about this shot by Washington’s Isaiah Thomas is awesome. The moment, the swagger, the confidence, the step-back, the jumper, the Sam Cassell Elephantitis after the bucket – just incredible. And the whole thing is elevated by the priceless Gus Johnson soundtrack. Maybe the most incredible thing about the shot is that after the game, Thomas told us that he couldn’t even see the hoop when he shot it – he just knew it felt good when it left his hand.

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Right after last night’s thrilling win over Arizona in the Pac-10 Tournament, we caught up with Washington’s Isaiah Thomas (who won tourney MOP) and C.J. Wilcox. Check out what they had to say.

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Have you heard of Derrick Williams? Maybe you have. Better yet, have you seen him play ball?

Maybe not, because it’s likely the forward from Arizona plays past your bedtime — I’m talking to you on the East Coast. To be fair, that’s if he’s on TV at all, because to watch the Wildcat forward even in the state of Arizona is chancy given the limited TV contracts. Okay, that’s an issue for another day, so I digress. Read More »