Emmanuel Negadu

I'm disappointed but not shocked.  Haven't seen Negadu play, just read the clippings and assumed he'd have a Horne-like freshman year, getting limited but quality minutes and providing us with much needed depth.  But if he wants to pull an Ndudi Ebi and bail out on the U of A before playing a minute, so be it.  Good riddance.  For my money we've had way too many highly touted players the past three or four years who come to campus with an already well developed sense of entitlement and one foot out the door (and an eye on the draft) as soon as they arrive.  We could benefit greatly from a couple more unknowns/JC transfers/under recruited kids who will just be happy to be playing for a major program and will bust their tails off for four years - and who might even listen to their coaches (whoever those coaches might be).  Less blue chip, more blue collar.

Not suggesting we return to the mid-80s era when Lute had to work with whatever he could scrounge up - obviously the Pac10 is much stronger and we still need to recruit and keep top talent.  But whether it was Craig McMillan or Joe McLean or Joe Turner or Gene Edgerson or Jason Terry or Luke Walton or Nic Wise, we always used to have a couple of those guys who put team before self.  And we've always seemed to do really well the more involved they've been.  Bye bye Emmanuel, we hardly knew ya.

Hosh,

I don't know that holding Emmanuel Negedu to his letter of intent is a bad thing for the program with future recruits. The head coach did not change. He signed to play for Lute and Lute is still there. Once a recruit signs his letter of intent, he is committed to the school. No one should sign and LOI unless they actually plan to attend. Backing out of that commitment is not fair to the school that held that scholarship for you and passed on giving it to someone else who DID want to play for you.

At this point, letting him out of his LOI only helps another program while guaranteeing a hole in your lineup. I would hope that Emmanuel would take a few moments to sit back and recognize that Arizona is STILL the best place for him, show up and join a strong team in making a run at a championship.

If he would rather back out of his word, then accept the consequences of that decision, which are to sit out a year or stay for an extra year of High School ball.

Negedu said the four schools he's considering are Tennessee, Indiana, Memphis and Georgia Tech.

negedu has been released. Is anybody shocked to see Memphis suddenly on his list after it was previously just Tennessee and Indiana?

arizona gave memphis permission to talk to him and pastner has said that he at first tried to get him to stay but now he and calipari are recruiting him