<![CDATA[Arizona Wildcats Basketball & Recruiting News]]> http://www.pointguardu.com/ Arizona Wildcats Basketball and Recruiting News en Fri, 18 May 2012 07:36:45 GMT vBulletin 1 http://www.pointguardu.com/images/misc/rss.png <![CDATA[Arizona Wildcats Basketball & Recruiting News]]> http://www.pointguardu.com/ <![CDATA[PGU's Top 25 Greatest Wildcat's of All Time]]> http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/pointguardus-top-25-greatest-wildcats-all-time-65065/ Fri, 18 May 2012 06:15:19 GMT Arizona Wildcats Basketball - Top 25 Greatest Wildcats of All Time (http://www.pointguardu.com/content/top-25-greatest-wildcats-all-time-1410/) Arizona Wildcats Basketball - Top 25 Greatest Wildcats of All Time ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball aaa http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/pointguardus-top-25-greatest-wildcats-all-time-65065/ Miller is AWESOME!!! http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/miller-awesome-65063/ Fri, 18 May 2012 05:37:21 GMT Miller, father to receive Pennsylvania honor : Welcome to StarNet - Tucson, Arizona... Miller, father to receive Pennsylvania honor : Welcome to StarNet - Tucson, Arizona ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball Dawgwarrior http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/miller-awesome-65063/ 5 Wildcats to Graduate. http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/5-wildcats-graduate-65061/ Fri, 18 May 2012 05:35:37 GMT Five Wildcats expected to graduate : Welcome to StarNet - Tucson, Arizona... Five Wildcats expected to graduate : Welcome to StarNet - Tucson, Arizona ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball Dawgwarrior http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/5-wildcats-graduate-65061/ NCAA Transfers http://www.pointguardu.com/f136/ncaa-transfers-65060/ Fri, 18 May 2012 05:19:00 GMT The NCAA is examining transfer rules after a spate of high-profile cases that has critics saying too much power is in the hands of athletic directors... The NCAA is examining transfer rules after a spate of high-profile cases that has critics saying too much power is in the hands of athletic directors and coaches.
The issue came to the forefront in men's basketball over the winter when 7-foot center Todd O'Brien went public with St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli's decision to block his transfer to UAB. Neither Martelli nor school officials have said why.
Elsewhere, Jarrod Uthoff said he had restrictions placed on where he could transfer by Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan before he was allowed to go anywhere outside the Big Ten. Florida International's Dominique Ferguson said he was flatly denied when he requested a scholarship release following the firing of coach Isiah Thomas, and he declared for the NBA draft rather than go back to FIU.
Forty percent of students who play men's Division I basketball transfer before they are juniors -- that's more than 400 a year, the highest rate of any sport, according to National Association of Basketball Coaches executive director Jim Haney.
“ I'll always have a grudge with St. Joseph's and the NCAA. I'm not actively out trying to do anything about it. I'm just worried about bettering my future. ... I hope they fix some of the transfer rules, and prevent any student from being held hostage like I was.
” -- 7-foot center Todd O'Brien, whose transfer from UAB was blocked by coach Phil Martelli
In all but a handful of cases, he said, releases are granted. Typically, athletes aren't allowed to transfer within the same conference or to a school that is a regular nonconference opponent because it could put the school he's leaving at a competitive disadvantage.
"I don't even like those kinds of restrictions," Jackson said, "but at least there is some rational basis to them."
Once a release is granted, a transferring student in football, basketball, men's ice hockey and baseball must sit out one year before becoming eligible at a new school. There is no one-year waiting period in other sports.
If a player is barred from transferring to a particular school, he can still go there without a scholarship. That's not practical, or possible, for many players. An athlete whose release is denied can appeal to a committee at his school that is outside the athletic department and to the NCAA itself.
NCAA president Mark Emmert has said something should be done to make transfer rules less onerous for athletes.
"My biggest concern though, frankly, isn't the optics of it but whether it's fair or not to the young men and young women," he said in February. "What's the rationale for constraining someone to move from school to school?"
NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn wrote in an email to The Associated Press that NCAA schools are "currently evaluating the rule structure with the goal of simplifying the rules. The transfer rules will be examined as a part of this process."
Sports attorney Don Jackson said it just might take an act of Congress to make it so athletes can move freely from one school to another. Fellow sports attorney Christian Dennie predicted that the issue "will be a topic of discussion for the next 10 years."
Jackson said he doubted NCAA members would rush to make meaningful changes to rules that tilt in their favor.
Transfer requests are scrutinized more by coaches now because of the possible effect they can have on a program's Academic Progress Rate, Haney said. A program is dinged a "retention point" under APR rules if the departing player does not have a grade-point average of at least 2.6. Low overall APR scores can jeopardize a program's postseason eligibility.
An advocacy group, the National College Players Association, has begun a push to get state legislatures to force the issue.
The most progress has been made in California, where the Senate Education Committee last month passed a so-called "Student-Athlete Bill of Rights." The bill, which addresses myriad issues, would require state colleges and universities to "approve without delay a student-athlete's request for transfer to another institution of higher education without imposing restrictions or conditions."
Dennie, a Fort Worth, Texas, attorney who regularly represents athletes and institutions on NCAA matters, said he doubted a state statute would stand up to a legal challenge by the NCAA. Short of NCAA members changing the rules, Jackson said his hope would be for Congress to pass a student-athlete welfare act that would force NCAA schools to apply transfer rules uniformly.
As it is, he said, a coach can deny a transfer out of vengeance or without giving any reason.
Jackson said he considered asking for an injunction against the NCAA that would have allowed O'Brien to play for UAB this past season. But Jackson decided against it because UAB's administration feared any wins in which O'Brien participated would have to be forfeited if the NCAA prevailed. Dennie said he's never taken a transfer case to court because the chances of winning are slim.
Coaches have argued that the time and financial resources they put into recruiting and developing players should give them the right to block certain transfers. They also say some schools tamper with players and that coaches can counter the hijinks by blocking a transfer.
Meanwhile, athletes on one-year renewable scholarships say they are liable to get run off if they underperform athletically. They point to regular students who are allowed to move from one school to the next and accept a scholarship from their new school.
O'Brien, the former St. Joseph's player, had hoped to take advantage of the NCAA transfer rule that allows an athlete to compete immediately if he goes to a school that offers a graduate program not available at his original school.
All he needed was a signed release from St. Joseph's and he would have been in uniform for UAB last season. He said he never got the signature or an explanation.
He said he's getting on with life. He paid his own way to UAB and started work on his master's degree in public administration. He practiced with the Blazers and sat on the bench in his warm-up suit at home games.
O'Brien has hired an agent and is working out this summer with old teammates from St. Joseph's with the hope of playing professional basketball overseas.
"I'll always have a grudge with St. Joseph's and the NCAA," he said from his home in New Holland, Pa. "I'm not actively out trying to do anything about it. I'm just worried about bettering my future."
Of course, he's a strong supporter of any measure that frees athletes to move from one school to another.
"I hope they fix some of the transfer rules," he said, "and prevent any student from being held hostage like I was." ]]> College Basketball Dawgwarrior http://www.pointguardu.com/f136/ncaa-transfers-65060/ NCAA penalties http://www.pointguardu.com/f136/ncaa-penalties-65059/ Fri, 18 May 2012 04:25:29 GMT The NCAA overhaul of its body of rules may call for the suspension of a head coach whose assistants commit violations, as well as a fine for a... The NCAA overhaul of its body of rules may call for the suspension of a head coach whose assistants commit violations, as well as a fine for a university up to five percent of its annual athletic budget, according to proposals discussed Monday at the Atlantic Coast Conference spring meetings.
An NCAA special committee, led by Clemson president James F. Barker, is attempting to streamline rules enforcement to provide "stronger, more predictable penalties" and greater accountability for university officials, from presidents to athletic directors to head coaches. The committee issued an interim report last month and is circulating some proposals among the membership for discussion.
The proposed changes include multiple levels of violations, rather than just the "major" and "secondary" levels now in force. This would allow the NCAA to be more nimble in how it adjudicates lesser violations.

The proposed changes include multiple levels of violations, rather than just the "major" and "secondary" levels now in force. This would allow the NCAA to be more nimble in how it adjudicates lesser violations.

It also includes fines, depending on the severity of the violation, of 0.25 percent to five percent of an annual athletic budget, or a sport's revenue, whichever is greater.

The penalty for scholarship reductions may be as high as 50 percent of a sport's allotment. A death penalty may be administered for one year -- for lesser offenses -- to as many as three-plus years.
It's difficult to find anyone in intercollegiate athletics who does not want the NCAA to move beyond outdated, nitpicking regulations and to handle cases in a more timely matter. But the discussion of greater accountability is meeting resistance from those who would be held accountable.
Under the current NCAA bylaw, a head coach is "presumed" to have knowledge of what is occurring in his program and "can be responsible" for the actions of his assistants.
The proposed change would do away with presumption. It would make the head coach responsible for his assistants' actions regardless of his knowledge of them. The penalties would range from 5 to 100 percent of competition in a season.
The NCAA included in the discussion material some examples of behavior for which a head coach would be held accountable, such as in-person, off-campus contacts with a recruit during a dead period, providing team gear to a recruit, or multiple phone calls or contacts when they are not allowed.
"I guess they expect us to become compliance officers," said Maryland football coach Randy Edsall, who added that the standard language of an assistant coaching contract already calls for dismissal if the assistant runs afoul of the NCAA manual.

Boston College football coach Frank Spaziani is concerned whether intent would be taken into account.
"There's a difference between cheating and breaking a rule," Spaziani said. "From the president to the athletic director to my staff, everybody knows what the rules are. We don't cheat. If somebody breaks a rule and 'Coach A' is suspended, people will say he's a cheater. The public perception is, he's cheating."
The committee hopes to issue its final report in August. The new body of rules isn't expected to go into effect before the 2013-14 academic year.
]]> College Basketball Dawgwarrior http://www.pointguardu.com/f136/ncaa-penalties-65059/ ESPN Insider http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/espn-insider-65057/ Fri, 18 May 2012 04:19:39 GMT Can someone with access to espn insider please show what it says for "The Grades are In"? Thanks. ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball Dawgwarrior http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/espn-insider-65057/ Jennie http://www.pointguardu.com/f231/jennie-65056/ Thu, 17 May 2012 23:36:47 GMT Anyone want them some Jennie?Featured Video - espnW (http://espn.go.com/espnw/inthegame/7937768/) Anyone want them some Jennie?Featured Video - espnW ]]> ALL Other Wildcat Sports Palpalife http://www.pointguardu.com/f231/jennie-65056/ Andrea Hudy http://www.pointguardu.com/f185/andrea-hudy-65055/ Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:06 GMT I'm not posting this because of the work she has done, although admirable. I'm posting this because as I began to read this I thought, wait, UA had a female strength coach, this isn't unique. Sure enough. near the bottom is the mention of Meg Stone.

Strength coach Andrea Hudy plays huge role in success of Kansas Jayhawks program -- men's college basketball - ESPN

Meg Stone claims NSCA lifetime achievement award - 8/7/2009 - East Tennessee State University ]]> General Discussion Palpalife http://www.pointguardu.com/f185/andrea-hudy-65055/ Caption This Pic http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/caption-pic-65053/ Thu, 17 May 2012 09:19:33 GMT Image: http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss189/PointguardUcom/1-89.jpg ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball Pras http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/caption-pic-65053/ Revised Top 25 http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/revised-top-25-a-65052/ Thu, 17 May 2012 05:45:56 GMT Andy Katz: Indiana Hoosiers still lead revised Top 25, but plenty of changes elsewhere - ESPN... Andy Katz: Indiana Hoosiers still lead revised Top 25, but plenty of changes elsewhere - ESPN ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball Dawgwarrior http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/revised-top-25-a-65052/ <![CDATA[Players' off-court woes hit Miller hard]]> http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/players-off-court-woes-hit-miller-hard-65041/ Wed, 16 May 2012 22:45:33 GMT
After signing 19 basketball players in just three years at Arizona, including the nation's top recruiting class last fall, coach Sean Miller says he's run into some good luck.
But he's also run into some rough patches recently, which he's aiming to reduce in the future with a careful recruiting approach.
In the past six months, freshman forward Sidiki Johnson was dismissed; freshman guard Josiah Turner was suspended twice, announced he was transferring last month, and was later arrested for extreme DUI; and senior forward Jesse Perry was charged with felony domestic violence.
While meeting with the local media Thursday for the first time in 62 days, since the Wildcats lost to Bucknell in the first round of the NIT, Miller said the key to avoiding trouble is learning as much as possible about players during the recruiting process before signing them.
"Nobody feels worse when one of their players makes a mistake or makes a bad decision than I do," Miller said. "And I'm not going to walk around and act like everything's OK when that happens. But young people do make mistakes, and we're constantly trying to educate them on the front end and make sure we have guys who know right from wrong.
"But I know myself, from (age) 18 and 22, you shake your head looking back at some things you do. And you learn from them and grow.…
"That's what this environment is about."
Miller noted how lucky he was as a recruiter in June 2009, when Derrick Williams agreed to come to Arizona and developed into the No. 2 pick in the 2011 NBA draft.
Then "sometimes it balances out by something you think is going to work out well but it doesn't," Miller said. "But we're working hard to make sure we bring in guys who love the game, who want to be able to get up every day and go to class and want to be a part of something that's bigger than themselves. … With our best research, every once in a while things don't work out. I think we're all part of that."
Miller said Turner ultimately made the decision to leave UA last month, even though the freshman had been suspended indefinitely at the end of the season.
The coach said he hoped Turner could make a "great turnaround" under new coach Larry Brown at SMU.
Unlikely reunion
While discussing his three spring signees for the first time Tuesday, Miller noted that the addition of former Xavier guard Mark Lyons comes with a touch of irony.
"Very seldom do you leave a player as a coach and then get a chance to coach him again," Miller said. "I'm excited to have his experience.
"He's one of the most competitive kids that I've been around and I look forward to him sharing that senior mantle with Kevin Parrom and Solomon Hill."
It was Miller who recruited Lyons out of high school to play at Xavier, where the guard sat out as a freshman in 2008-09 because of what Miller said was a transcript technicality that made Lyons a partial academic qualifier.
After Miller left for Arizona, Lyons wound up playing three years for the Musketeers before he took advantage of an NCAA rule allowing players to play elsewhere immediately if they have graduated.
With Turner gone, Lyons is expected to make his biggest impact as a point guard, but Miller said it wasn't a certainty that Lyons would start there.
Miller noted that Xavier played him off the ball in order to get its best five players on the court, and that Lyons was a "real talent defensively."
Redshirt contributions
The way Miller views it, the Wildcats will be helped behind the scenes next season with their other two spring signees: Former Duquesne guard T.J. McConnell, who will sit out the year normally required of transfers, and former Sabino High and Cochise College forward Matt Korcheck, who is voluntarily redshirting.
"One of the things I believe we have to do as a basketball program is become more seasoned, older and not just constantly dealing with the same age group of freshmen replacing the last class," Miller said.
McConnell's "age and his experience level is something we covet for down the road, and I do believe he'll have an impact on this year's team," Miller said.
Rim shots
• Miller said he expected his entire team to be eligible for its August exhibition swing to the Bahamas, although Lyons will not enroll until July while he finishes his Xavier degree.
• The coach said he intends to play Hill only at small forward and that Parrom's broken foot is fully healed.
• Former UA forward Jamelle Horne has returned to take two pre-session courses and will graduate afterward, Miller said.
• Former Wildcat guard Kyle Fogg is set to participate in the New Jersey Nets' combine this weekend, along with 43 other players, including Santa Rita grad and former Maryland guard Terrell Stoglin, according to Zagsblog.
• Arizona has been installed as a 25-1 shot to win next season's NCAA title, according to Bovada


Read more: Arizona basketball: Players' off-court woes hit Miller hard
]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball 520Cat http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/players-off-court-woes-hit-miller-hard-65041/ Team Forums http://www.pointguardu.com/f200/team-forums-65039/ Wed, 16 May 2012 21:43:23 GMT I have updated the team forum permissions so everything should be updated and everyone should be in the right place. Let me know if there are any... I have updated the team forum permissions so everything should be updated and everyone should be in the right place. Let me know if there are any concerns. ]]> 2011-2012 Arizona Basketball Pick Em League Applequest http://www.pointguardu.com/f200/team-forums-65039/ 5/16 - Sean Miller, Rich Rodriguez, and Greg Byrne will be on Xtra 910 AM (Phoenix) http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/5-16-sean-miller-rich-rodriguez-greg-byrne-will-xtra-910-am-phoenix-65038/ Wed, 16 May 2012 21:11:00 GMT Hi All,
I don't have the time confirmed ( I believe it will be at 3 PM), but Sean Miller, Rich Rodriguez, and Greg Byrne are supposed to be in studio with Bickley and MJ today.

Listen on-line here: Listen Live ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball Azwldctfan http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/5-16-sean-miller-rich-rodriguez-greg-byrne-will-xtra-910-am-phoenix-65038/ Solomon Hill to play ~32 mpg at small forward http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/solomon-hill-play-32-mpg-small-forward-65030/ Wed, 16 May 2012 04:16:36 GMT Just a brief snippet from Ezra's article on Miller's presser:

Quote:
(Whether Hill may still play the four)

I would like to think he won’t play one possession at the four. He is working towards being a true small forward. We should have a very experienced, strong player at that position. It is hard to see Hill playing less than 32 minutes, and that leaves eight at small forward.
Arizona Wildcats Basketball - Sean Miller Talks About Spring Additions and More ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball aaa http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/solomon-hill-play-32-mpg-small-forward-65030/ Sean Miller Talks About Spring Additions and More http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/sean-miller-talks-about-spring-additions-more-65029/ Wed, 16 May 2012 04:07:57 GMT Arizona Wildcats Basketball - Sean Miller Talks About Spring Additions and More... Arizona Wildcats Basketball - Sean Miller Talks About Spring Additions and More ]]> Arizona Wildcats Basketball aaa http://www.pointguardu.com/f2/sean-miller-talks-about-spring-additions-more-65029/