Arizona Wildcats notes: On the new coaches' contracts, recruiting updates, Maui tickets

Assistants Justin Gainey, Danny Peters both working on 2-year contracts

Following a season of off-court uncertainty, Arizona gave new assistant coaches Justin Gainey and Danny Peters the unusual security of two-year contracts.

Gainey will be paid $290,000 annually and Peters $275,000 through the end of the 2019-20 season, according to contracts obtained by the Star through public records requests. The contracts are fully guaranteed, unless the assistants are fired for cause. Gainey and Peters must pay $50,000 buyouts if they leave voluntarily before April 2020. 

The multi-year terms are believed to be a first for basketball assistants, though the football program's coordinators have had similar deals in recent years.

Arizona's assistant basketball coaches have typically run on year-to-year offer letters, such as the one returning assistant coach Mark Phelps is still operating under. Phelps received a raise from $257,000 to $275,000 for the 2018-19 school year. His deal is set to expire June 30, the end of the UA's fiscal year.

Coach Sean Miller's three assistants will make a combined $840,000 per year, less than the $907,000 budgeted last season.

Lorenzo Romar earned $400,000 in one season before leaving to become Pepperdine's head coach, while Phelps earned $257,000 and Book Richardson was contracted for $250,000. Richardson was arrested in September on federal bribery and fraud charges, and the UA fired him in January. As a result, Richardson ended up earning only about half of his $250,000 annual salary. Austin Carroll, UA’s assistant director of basketball operations, filled in as an acting assistant coach last season.

A former player at North Carolina State, when Herb Sendek was head coach and Miller an assistant, Gainey left Sendek’s Santa Clara staff to join Arizona in May. He also coached at Marquette, where he joined Phelps on the 2014-15 staff, and at Appalachian State and Elon.

Peters rejoins the UA staff after spending four seasons with the Wildcats from 2010-14. He was a graduate assistant during the 2010-11 season, then spent three seasons as the Wildcats’ assistant director of basketball operations. Peters left in 2014 to become an assistant coach at Ball State, where former UA associate head coach James Whitford had become head coach a year earlier.

In statements issued this spring, Miller said he was impressed with Gainey’s “incredible work ethic and unselfish nature” as a player and coach, while also complimenting Peters on his communication ability, coaching acumen and his “relentless nature as a recruiter.”

“He also has a love for Tucson and Arizona basketball,” Miller said of Peters. “I am elated to have Danny rejoin our coaching staff. We all look forward to working with him again.”

Four-star guard Dayten Holman takes unofficial visit

Dayten Holman, a four-star prospect in the class of 2020 from Oklahoma, took an unofficial visit to Arizona over the weekend.

Holman, a 6-foot-5-inch combo guard, built up his reputation over the spring and summer, gaining offers from Tulsa, Oklahoma State, Houston and Mississippi, according to the Norman Transcript, while jumping into the top 100 in his class.

“I really can't explain it,” Holman told the Transcript last month. “I guess they just finally watched me play, and they can see how I can play at the next level.”

Four-star forward Patrick Williams puts UA in top 10

pic.twitter.com/JB7YoWkLB3

— Patrick Williams (@patricklw4) August 6, 2018

Four-star 2019 forward Patrick Williams of Charlotte, North Carolina, included Arizona as the only school West of the Rockies in a top 10 list he tweeted Monday.

Arizona offered a scholarship to the 6-7, 190-pound small forward in June. Williams put six ACC schools on his list, in addition to Maryland, Ohio State, Texas and the UA.

NCAA vote could change July recruiting period

The NCAA is expected to consider a proposal Wednesday that could effectively eliminate the final two weeks of travel ball tournaments in July.

Under the proposal, coaches might still be allowed to watch the Nike-sponsored Peach Jam and other events during the first weekend of July, but would not be allowed to watch any travel ball events the rest of the month.

Instead, camps to be organized by the NCAA and USA Basketball are being proposed as replacements for the other two weeks. Travel ball tournament organizers have said they might still run their events anyway, while streaming games for coaches to view, and some have threatened class-action lawsuits.

The proposals stem from recommendations made by the commission for college basketball that was established in the wake of the federal investigation into the game that became public last September.

Maui Invitational tickets on sale

Three-game package tickets for the Maui Invitational will go on sale Wednesday at 1 p.m. via Mauiinvitationa.com or by calling 800-325-SEAT.

Priced at $469, the packages are for general admission seats behind the Wildcats’ bench for three games. Single-game tickets will go on sale Nov. 16 for the Nov. 19-21 event.

Arizona will open with Iowa State on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. Tucson time, and face either Gonzaga or Illinois on Nov. 20. Auburn, Xavier, Duke and San Diego State are on the other side of the bracket, meaning one of them will face UA on Nov. 21.