Carlino spurns Arizona
August 26th, 2008, 6:12 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Mark Heller
… At least for now.
Gilbert Highland sophomore-to-be Matt Carlino chose Indiana and coach Tom Crean last weekend, which, for the moment, is a punch in the gut to Arizona.
The state, yes, but especially the University.
(Remember, Carlino is about to be a high school sophomore. Sixteen-year-olds have been known to change their minds once or twice within three years, and that waffling is not necessarily limited to college of choice).
As the Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen writes, it’s one of a precious few coveted point guards Lute Olson couldn’t convince.
Hansen also references grumbling in Tempe because Arizona State’s Herb Sendek also couldn’t keep a “prized recruit” (and I hate writing that about 16-year-olds, even if Carlino is good), and that’s where I paused.
There’s no doubt the Sun Devils would have loved to have Carlino. They had his father, Mark, back in the day (though that relationship ultimately went sour), and Sendek loves smart point guards.
But ASU was already behind the 8-ball since Olson had followed Carlino since junior high school (that concept makes me shudder), a few years before Sendek came to ASU. Carlino ran with Russ Pennell, a Sun Devil assistant coach under Rob Evans. Pennell became ASU’s radio analyst before Arizona hired him to be an assistant this spring.
And, as Hansen notes, if the Indiana commitment holds up, UCLA will also have missed out on a top recruit, and how many “no thanks” replies has Ben Howland received in the past five years?
Whether Carlino sticks with the Hoosiers or backtracks and goes elsewhere, the Sun Devils will be fine with or without him, but given the time and effort involved, it would give the Wildcats a bigger black eye.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
sorry, bad news for ASU - UA didn’t offer the slow Carlino anything. He has to leave the PAC 10 in order to make an impact.
Black eye for ASU.
August 27th, 2008 at 7:46 am
The story is simple, “Why didn’t ASU get this guy?” Your blog contains nothing that helps us to understand why Sendek couldn’t get the time of day from this kid. You mention advantages that UA might have had but what did ASU do (or not do) to keep this kid local?
August 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
It totally explains why ASU didn’t get this guy. His dad played at ASU and said he hated it there. Olson was loitering in his junior high gym. He was pro-UofA, anti ASU for the past couple years (even if not for great reasons). By the time Sendek showed up, it seemed he was totally in Lute’s pocket. UofA even hired an ex-ASU assistant just because he was the kid’s AAU coach.
So, now he is going to Indiana. We’ll see if that sticks. We might just get him to come to Tempe yet. Sendek’s a different cat than Evans was. And, there’s some excitement in the valley behind this team. Wouldn’t be crazy for him to want to stay in Phoenix behind a great coach and play in front of friends/family. This could just be him deciding NOT to go to UofA.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Nice try, he also chose to ignore UCLA and USC.
EVERY program has kids turn them down.
The fact is he is too SLOW for the PAC 10 and he knew it.
This is bad news for ASU
August 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Does Mark Heller do his own research or simply re-write what other columnists have already written? This is why he is with the Tribune and not the Republic.
Some of the weakest jouranlism yet. Walter Cronkite School product I assume?
If Carlino spurns Arizona, what do you call what he has done or is doing to his hometown school - ASU?