I'm not expecting it, but if Sean Miller wins the Pac-12 with this team, he deserves another raise
Sidiki has a horrible attitude so I'm fine with that. He forced two horrible shots in the little time he saw the court and was whining about the refs the entire time. The good news on Parrom is that the team manager I know says he's completely out of the boot and is doing all non-contact drills. He should be cleared for contact within a week. He won't be back by the St. Johns game but will for sure be back by the Florida game.
Picture is becoming a bit clearer as to who the potential big transfer could be. One source says Sidiki back to NY by Christmas. If this is true, my guess is the NY-to-AZ connection is done. Miller has had "swag" problems with Momo, got burned by Rod Odom, and now Sidiki isn't letting Miller coach him up. Parrom's the only one fighting, and, he's brought his fair share of headaches as well (had baggage from a fight with his HS school coach, suffered some poor grades, getting shot, even if not his fault). Looking forward, I think the distant hotbed Miller will focus on is Chicago. He's in on multiple 2014 players from the area.
It's certainly not set in stone, and I would assume Belotti gets a solid offensive staff as well, but Belotti is an offensive coach, so it makes sense that he'd want to bring in stud defensive guys. I wouldn't worry about offense under Belotti, as he had mutliple 1st-round picks, and several other early rounders on offense from late 90s through mid 00s.
Hmmm I assumed the other coach would be an OC but Belotti w/ those two coming along would be fine by me (especially since Lupoi has experience recruiting in the Pac-12 if Wilcox isn't the same recruiter outside of the SEC). Hopefully Belotti doesn't plan on leaving too quickly after he comes here because, like I've said since the beginning of this season, this program is in just as bad of shape right now as it was when Stoops came in. There's at the very least a 4-6 year rebuilding project ahead of Belotti before an unproven assistant will be ready for the job. All the credit ESPN announcers like Craig James give Stoops for "rebuilding" Arizona and "leaving them in better shape than he got them" was premature because this team without Foles and Criner (who Stoops' replacement won't have) is no better than the 2-10 team Stoops inherited.
Everyone I know says Belotti is still the top candidate. Byrne doesn't want things out until it's all finalized, and two of the main components are still under contract for teams. The smoke got too heavy for nothing to be said, is all. It's one of the same reasons why Petersen isn't commenting on it, despite being linked by national pundits. And yes, Tennessee DC, Wilcox is one of the two, and the other is California Defensive Line Coach, Tosh Lupoi, who is known as a fantastic recruiter. Both are five, six seasons away from a head coach position like Arizona, minimum, so it's a succession plan, for sure. As for Petersen, he's still a top candidate, but it's now not as likely as it once could have been.
So now that Belotti has basically killed any chance of becoming the coach/denied there ever was a chance, is Leach the front runner w/ Petersen still being a possibility? I wasn't impressed with Belotti ever because he wouldn't be here very long, but if he brought two stud coordinators with him who can recruit (I know Tennessee's DC was one of them) then I would have been all for it.
Some serious speculation that Belotti is the guy with two of his staff already in place, each are recruiting dynamos, and each are considered legitimate head coaching candidates within 5-8 years. Nothing firm on Petersen, but the silence could mean he's either a strong candidate, or, out of friendship with Byrne, isn't publicly turning the job down to help its intrigue-factor. The longer he's even silently linked, the better it makes the job look.
Done. It's Official.
If Tarc isn't a wildcat by the day's end, I'd be shocked. The rumblings I heard Saturday and confirmed Sunday are now being discussed by national pundits, and Tarc is back on twitter and started befriending Arizona players, fans and a trainer. One of his friends wrote a cryptic "enjoy your Arizona Ice Tea" with a smiley face. I don't care about all this peripheral crap. Everyone I trust says Tarc to Arizona today, so...
