Even with four five-star talents already lined up, the Arizona Wildcats still only have 10 lined up on next seasons roster. So one of their biggest remaining recruiting issues has been simply finding capable bodies to fill out the scout team and allow for competitive 5-on-5 practices.
Arizona has addressed that issue in part by adding Henderson (Nev.) wing Jake DesJardins as a preferred walk-on.Β
Desjardins played for the Las Vegas Prospects travel team and had a strong senior season at Coronado High School that resulted in first-team all-Nevada honors by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, suggesting he'll be at least a quality scout-team player with an opportunity to grow.
Extremely blessed to announce that I have committed to play basketball at the University of Arizona next year. π»β¬οΈβ€οΈ pic.twitter.com/3bVPiMJcL3
β Jake DesJardins (@jakedesjardins) April 25, 2016
Former UNLV head coachΒ Dave Rice is heading to rival Nevada as an assistant to Eric Musselman. The well-liked Rice was a role player at UNLV under Jerry Tarkanian and a longtime assistant coach at UNLV before leaving and later becoming head coach of the Rebels.
Rice's friendship with Sean Miller helped result in the current four-year series with Arizona (that series has one game remaining in 2017-18 but will not be played next season at UNLV's request).
Can't be much of a surprise that Luke Walton's name is surfacing in connection with the Lakers' job.
The ever-transparent Damon Stoudamire is working with partners on a documentary about the "Jail Blazers" era in Portland.
Tom Tolbert is re-upping at San Francisco's KNBR.
Some other recent links, ICYMI...
-- Cash-strapped Cal will take in about $3 million a year more with its new Under Armour agreement.
-- Ivan Rabb proved again he doesn't always do what everyone expects -- returning to Cal when he was expected to leave for the NBA. Last spring, of course, he chose Cal over UA when it was widely assumed earlier in his recruitment that Arizona was his likely destination.
-- USC added Nick Rakocevic, a 6-10 forward from Illinois, to its 2016 class.
-- Former ASU forward Savon Goodman picked LaSalleΒ as his next stop.
-- OT, but our best wishes go toΒ longtime Cal beat writer Jeff Faraudo of the Oakland Tribune (now the Bay Area News Group), a true pro who has a terrific institutional knowledge of the Cal program.
