Arizona Basketball: Shareef O’Neal and Brandon Williams headline another potential Top 5 recruiting class
By Nick Matt
Arizona Basketball: Shareef O’Neal and Brandon Williams Headline Another Potential Top Recruiting Class, but who will follow them?
The Arizona Basketball program made some serious recruiting noise when they managed to reel in Shareef O’Neal, son of arguably the best centers to ever play Shaquille O’Neal. Shareef chose Arizona, while his mom preferred him to stay close to home at UCLA and the original Superman formally known as Shaq Diesel, preferred Kentucky or LSU. But in the end, Shareef chose the right school.
O’Neal’s father allowed him to make his own decision on where to play ball. Cats fans across the nation are pleased that Shareef chose to stay close to home in LA and we all look forward to watching him cut the nets down in March.
With that being said, Shareef is now seeking to bring some powerful recruits to join him as well as commit Brandon Williams from Los Angeles. Together they have already begun putting the word out to undecided players in HS, that the University of Arizona is the place to be.
According to SlamOnline, Shareef is pushing hard to get his EYBL teammate Bol Bol, son of former NBA center, Manute Bol. Together Shareef and Bol Bol can put on a dunking clinic. They have great chemistry on the court and love playing with each other. In fact, Bol Bol has recently hinted at following friend Shareef to Arizona as written by our very own David Rosen.
Bol Bol is the No. 9 ranked player in next year’s class and is a towering 7-foot-2 who is already a polished post-up center. A lot of players that size and that young it takes awhile to play with their back to the basket. However, Bol Bol has less of a learning curve because he is the son of NBA center Manute Bol and has been around the game his whole life learning and picking up great footwork from his dad. This would be a great player to follow Shareef to Arizona.
Arizona Wildcats Basketball
Marvin Bagley is anther name you need to get to know. He is also a major piece to Arizona’s recruitment for the 2018 class. Bagley is a 6-foot-10 power forward who plays for Sierra Canyon in Tempe, AZ. The fact he is playing in AZ, we already have the easiest path to lock him down. We are in competition with UCLA, Kentucky, Duke, and USC for Marvin Bagley.
Another major name to keep an eye on is Taeshon Cherry out of San Diego. Cherry is a 6-foot-8, 210 lb power forward who holds offers from Oregon, UCLA. Cherry, who had Florida State, and Gonzaga and many more offers, has recently narrowed his list down to six schools and Arizona is on the list. Cherry would blend in nicely with Brandon Williams at the point and possibly Bol Bol along with Shareef who is also 6-foot-8 but can play like a guard.
Some other names we hear about are Cassius Stanley out of Southern California who made a splash at the Pangos All-American Camp. As did Devon Dotson and Elijah Weaver who has an interest in Arizona and we have heard it may be mutual.
This year and next year can be a back to back exceptional class for Sean Miller. Even though, Miller has had a Top 5 class the past six seasons. Keep in mind the addition of Lorenzo Romar and his ability to get the best talent on the West Coast will only continue to grow.
Arizona basketball is in great hands for years to come while we have Sean Miller, Lorenzo Romar, and of course, Mark Phelps nationally and Book Richardson who is a recruiting guru on the east coast. Get excited Cats fans. Our next national championship is not too far away. We’ve been so close recently, but it does take a little luck when it comes to winning it all.
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The ball has to fall your way sometimes, and for the Cats, fans have experienced a lot of games go south in the final seconds. We need to stay the course and trust in our leader. Sean Miller will get be cutting down the nets very soon, just wait!