LAS VEGAS – Bol Bol took the court at Bishop Gorman High School with his Mater Dei teammates at 9:20 p.m. Friday, which could have made a long day under any circumstances.
Except for the 7-foot-2 five-star center, it was even longer. He spent the day finishing up summer-school labwork back in Orange County, then crammed his extraordinarily long body into an airplane, flew to Las Vegas and played in the late-night game against C2K Elite.
“It was for make-up science from my freshman year,” said Bol, the son of former NBA giant Manute Bol.
As it turned out, the time away from the court might have been a good thing. Asked if he felt any rust out there working in with his high-school teammates – after spending the rest of the month with the Cal Supreme club and UA commit Shareef O’Neal -- Bol shrugged.
“Actually,” he said, “it felt pretty good.”
Bol will finish up the weekend with Mater Dei’s alter ego, “Big Red 17U,” and says he’ll shortly begin planning visits.
Arizona hopes to be among those visits, of course.
“Actually, I hear from them a lot," Bol said. "Of course, Shareef is going there so I hear from him also.”
Bol said O’Neal has probably been recruiting him even harder than the UA coaches.
“He’s just like, we did good this summer for Cal Supreme so he’s saying it would be the same thing” at Arizona.
The UA staff has made Charlotte point guard Devon Dotson among their highest priorities this month, and that paid off already: Dotson will take his first official visit to Arizona next week, starting on Aug. 1.
Dotson said UA has been recruiting him for about a year, and he has returned the interest.
“They’re a good program that runs up and down and I like them,” Dotson said.
Dotson will arrive just as UA’s second summer session winds down, but all the players are around and he says he’s curious to “step on campus and see how the environment is.”
Dotson has already visited Kansas unofficially and also has Florida and Maryland among his top choices so far.
Since his Team Charlotte wasn’t going to play in Las Vegas this week, Dotson joined SC Select – which meant he would be a teammate of mega-recruit Zion Williamson and have to face LaVar Ball’s team in front of a well-over-capacity crowd on Wednesday. A Facebook Live feed of the game also drew nearly a million views within several hours.
“It was very different,” Dotson said. “Just a lot of commotion and craziness but we settled down so that was good.”
Arizona also can expect to get a official visit sometime from Texas combo guard Quintin Grimes, who helped Basketball University beat the Utah Prospects on Thursday in front of Sean Miller, Larry Krystkowiak and many other high-profile coaches.
“They say I’m the top priority for them right now,” Grimes said of Arizona. “They’ve been on me heavy. Coach Miller calls me almost every day. Coach (Mark) Phelps is on me almost every day… I’m definitely going to take an official visit for sure.”
Grimes has already visited UA unofficially for the Red-Blue Game last October. He says Kansas and Arizona are the only two schools he’s certain to visit as of now, with more possible.
