Ncaa Basketball Playoffs

Arizona basketball: UA coaches set up camp in Las Vegas

When the Drew Gooden Soldiers travel team coasted to the title of the inaugural Las Vegas Fab 48 event last July in Las Vegas, Arizona basketball coaches didn't fail to catch a minute of it.

You could say their attention paid off. The Wildcats landed the Soldiers' backcourt duo of Nick Johnson and Josiah Turner within two months of the event, and they'll likely try to pull off a similar feat starting this weekend at the see-and-be-seen recruiting showcase.

The NCAA's second July "evaluation" period begins today, but the Wildcat coaches hardly need to evaluate the Soldiers' players as much as they need to show up and smother their targets with non-verbal interest.

Arizona has been recruiting Soldiers players such as 2012 forward Brandon Ashley as well as forward Aaron Gordon and guard Jabari Bird, top 2013 targets.

The Soldiers and Southern California-based Belmont Shore, which has UA commits Grant Jerrett and Eric Cooper, will be playing again at the Fab 48 event, which is run by Belmont Shore director Dinos Trigonis.

Across town at the Adidas Super 64, UA coaches will get a chance to see center Kaleb Tarczewski with the New England Playerz, as well as new UA commit Gabe York play for the Compton Magic Elite, among others.

The dueling tournaments will house many of the nation's top prospects between them, and the new Las Vegas Live event has some younger players that will draw some coaches.

It'll be busy for coaches, of course, but at least it won't mean the coaches will have to fly to far-flung events all over the country, as they did during the first evaluation period last month.

"It certainly helps that they're all in the same city, but the fact that there's so many gyms makes it difficult," said associate head coach James Whitford, who heads UA's recruiting.

"We felt we had a good game plan in the first period, and we have a good plan in the second part that we're trying to execute."

Only three coaches per staff are allowed to recruit at a time under NCAA rules, but the fourth does not have to return home. Therefore, Whitford said, UA will usually have one of the assistants take an off day while staying in Las Vegas, while head coach Sean Miller recruits nonstop.

And even with those limitations in effect, it wouldn't be a surprise if two or even three UA coaches spend their time watching the Soldiers.

Answers For Your Questions About Ncaa Basketball Tournament | Make ...

Who is tired and bored with NCAA basketball tournament?

I used to get excited about the NCAA tournament , but not any more.

There are so many teams in the tournament and it lasts sooo long!

There are only 8 or so teams who have the chance of winning it all anyways.

Why don’t they trim down the team to four or maybe eight. Have a playoff then week later have a championship game.

Then I would probably watch it and be interested.

Anyone else who is a sports fan think like me?

When Uconn destroyed Chattanooga by a spread of 58 points, yahoo boasted that this is the 3rd largest point spread in NCAA tournament history. But they failed to mention the other 2 teams. Brownie points if you can find the top 2, but i am just curious as to who is number 1 and who the other team was that took such a smashing.

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